Stella Clark - Bustercon (2023) Ironman

This is my final Stella deck for the 2023 (Mythos Busters) Bustercon (Innsmouth Conspiracy) Ironman.  Stella was set up to be a cluever.  This deck had two focuses.  One is to get cards into my hand.  No matter how good the cards in your deck are, they don't do you any good sitting in your deck.  The other focus was to lower the shroud value.  Stella's two intellect are not going to get many clues unless you are contributing lots of symbols for every investigation.  If the shroud value is zero, pulling the auto fail token is the only way you can not succeed. 

The cards to get other cards from my deck are Rabbit's Foot, Backpack, Drawing Thin, and Take Heart.  Scavenging, Scrounge for Supplies, True Survivor, and Resourceful to get cards out of the discard pile.

The cards to reduce the shroud are Flashlight, Lantern, Old Keyring, Quick Learner, Winging It and Gumption. 

The card upgrades: I started with In the Thick of It.  I wanted to start with an upgraded Old Keyring. Old Keyring - You discover two clues if the shroud is zero plus gives you an additional key over the level zero old keyring.

2x Quick Learner - These are two of the main cards.  

Backpack - Being able to search the top 12 cards of your deck is twice as nice as searching the top 6 cards.

Old Keyring - This is the second upgraded Old Keyring.

Rabbit's Foot - You still only get to draw one card but you get to get to choose the card and don't accidentally draw a weakness.

True Survivor - This allows you to pull three innate skill cards from the discard pile so you can use them again.  All of the skill cards in this deck are innate.  This card replaced a Take Heart.

Gumption - This can be used to reduce a 5 or 6 shroud location to zero for a 3rd or 4th action test.  This card replaced Fine Clothes.

True Survivor - This is the second True Survivor.  This card replaced a Lucky!.

Gumption - This is the second Gumption.  This card replaced the Unexpected Courage.

Rabbit's Foot - This is the second upgraded Rabbit's Foot.

2x Will to Survive - Can't pull the auto fail if you don't have to pull a token.  These replaced Scavenging and the last Lucky!.

Katja Eastbank - This card will let you draw an additional card plus store cards you don't currently need for later.  This card replaced a Winging It.

The Quick Learner/Track Shoes/Drawing Thin/Rabbit's Foot combination is what you are looking for.  Your first action is to move, you then test your track shoes.  There doesn't have to be an enemy in your new location to make this test.  You exhaust your drawing thin(s) to get resources and/or cards.  This would be a good time to contribute a Take Heart.  With the plus 3-6 difficulty (two Quick Learners and two Drawing Thins) you can't win.  Since you weren't trying to win it doesn't matter.  Stella's ability activates and you now get another action because you failed a skill test.  One that didn't even use up an action.  You can then use your Rabbit's Foot to draw another card.  You can then take your second action at regular difficulty.  Your third and fourth actions will be at - 2 difficulty.  With both Quick Learners and Flashlight or Old Keyring 1-4 shroud locations are now zero shrouds.  With the Lantern and Winging It 1-3 shroud locations are now zero.  You can only lose if you pull the auto fail.  If you use the upgraded Old Keyring you discover two clues.

I did not have any assets that increased Stella's intellect.  This meant that her book value after pulling a token was going to be zero and she was only going to succeed if the shroud was zero.  Here is my preference for clue tools (the shroud value is before the Quick Learner and card deductions):

Old Keyring - When there are two clues to be discovered  Flashlight - When there is only one clue to be discovered on 4 shroud locations Winging It - From the discard on three shroud locations with two clues  Lantern - Three shroud locations 

This deck doesn't have many allies.  The group did not want to have multiple players with the same unique ally.  The player using Silas wanted to use Madame Labranche and Peter Sylvester.  Madame Labranche would be good in this deck for the resource every round.  Peter would be good for the horror soak that doesn't compete for the accessory slot.  Granny Orne is good for this deck to increase the loss so you can look at one more card with the upgraded Rabbit's Foot.  I included Katja Eastbank because I was drawing a lot of cards looking for my clue cards that I didn't want to have to discard because of the hand limit.

Recap: The goal with this deck is to get  cards that reduce the shroud to zero to be able to successfully investigate for clues.  This deck includes lots of cards to get those cards into your hand either from your deck or your discard pile.

This deck has a potential to be broken.  You can perform a test and use both Drawing Thins.  Get four resources from them and use those resources to put an upgraded Will to Survive in play.  You still lose but you don't have to draw a token which could bring a punishment for losing.  You could even add a Take Heart to get more resources.  The next round you do the same thing with your other upgraded Will to Survive.  Then in a later test you contribute a Resourceful to pull your first Will to Survive out of your discard pile.  You use a True Survivor to get three of your innate skill cards out of your discard pile (all of your skill cards are innate).  You can keep doing this using the Resoucefuls to get your Will to Survives and True Survivors out of your discard pile and the True Survivors and Scrounge for Supplies to get your Resourcefuls out of your discard pile.  If you get this going you will only have to draw a token for a mythos phase test.  You save a Neither Rain Nor Snow for your mythos phase tests.  It won't matter if you fail because you don't suffer the negative effects.  Plus you can get your Neither Rains out of your discard pile so you can use them again. You could even add a Try and Try Again to get your Take Hearts out automatically as well as your Neither Rains if you fail.