This clue-focused deck uses Norman's astronomy tricks to fuel a near-infinite number of triple clue Divination investigations. Every time you commit Ghastly Possession to a successful Divination check you add three charges to Divination and thanks to some Norman shenanigans you can recur Ghastly Possession repeatedly for potentially astronomical amounts (pun intended) of clue acceleration. The best part about Norman's Astronomy Engine is that once it's set up you don't even have to spend any actions to keep it running.

The Astronomy Engine: Key Upgrades

Our first key upgrade is the Astronomical Atlas. Since we're using Research Librarian to ensure we get set up quickly we'll only need one copy of it. I prefer to take In the Thick of It (2 mental trauma) to start with the Atlas, but if you're averse to taking trauma feel free to play another tome at level 0 and buy this as your first upgrade. Since the astronomy engine only requires 13xp to build you should still have all the core cards after 3ish scenarios.

The next critical upgrade is 2x Divination. Replace Working a Hunch. This allows our crazy amounts of clue acceleration once we get around Divination's limited number of charges.

The last critical upgrade is 2x Ghastly Possession. Replace Perception or Inquiring Mind, whichever you prefer. We will use this to add 3 charges to Divination every time we commit it, and we plan to commit it a lot.

I prefer to spend 5xp on 1 copy of each Divination and Ghastly Possession, then spend another 5xp on the second copy of each, rather than buying each card as a pair. This gets all of the pieces of the engine into your deck a bit sooner.

That covers all of our key upgrades, so after we reach 13 total xp Norman's Astronomy Engine is ready for blast off. Every other card slot either facilitates getting the engine online or protects Norman while he turboscoops clues.

Deck Basics

Most of this is Norman 101, so experienced Norman players may already know most of this tech. For those who don't know the delights of Norman shenanigans, the central mechanic relies on getting both his tomes (Astronomical Atlas and Livre d'Eibon) in play and using them to repeatedly recur skill cards. Here's how it works:

-Hard mulligan for the Astronomical Atlas, Livre d'Eibon, Research Librarian (assuming you didn't get both of the tomes already) and Divination, in that order. We need both tomes and a copy of Divination in play to set up the astronomy engine. After that a single copy of Ghastly Possession (in hand or on top of our deck) causes our cluegathering pace to blast off.

-Astronomical Atlas can, as a free trigger, store a skill card from on top of your deck (up to 5 total, although we really only need 1) and commit that card to a future skill test. Importantly, the card you commit this way goes to your hand if the test succeeds.

-Livre d'Eibon lets you swap the top card of your deck with a card in your hand. This enables a few Norman tricks, but for our purposes it allows us to reuse skill cards repeatedly by putting the skill card we just got in hand from the Astronomical Atlas back on top of our deck and then immediately back onto the Atlas. Both of our tomes exhaust during this process, so this loop is only usable once per turn, but every turn we can activate this combo it enables us to replay a skill card without needing to spend any actions to do it.

-At level 0, use this to replay Deduction repeatedly. This can already be pretty decent clue acceleration, but we can do even better.

-Once we have all our key upgrades (13 total xp) we will be using our engine to repeatedly commit Ghastly Possession to our Divination tests. Assuming we pass the Divination test (and it's not hard to get a 5 Seeker to pass a Divination check), Ghastly Possession adds 3 charges to Divination and we spend up to three charges to pick up clues, breaking even if not even profiting a charge or two occasionally. When we commit Ghastly Possession from the Astronomical Atlas the card goes to our hand and we can use our astronomy engine to put it right back on the Atlas to start the loop over again. Do this every turn and our Divination skyrockets from providing only 2 triple clue actions to providing a whole bunch of them.

-Once you've played down the Livre d'Eibon and Astronomical Atlas, the only action you need to spend is the investigate on Divination. Since Ghastly Possession is a skill card it doesn't take up any actions to generate charges and both our tomes are free triggers to activate so the astronomy engine is very action efficient.

Potential Challenges

If one of your tomes or Divination gets discarded the engine stops. Also if you fail your Divination test then Ghastly Possession goes to your discard pile rather than your hand. Remember, you're still a 5 Seeker even if you can't get the astronomy engine online, so it's not like you're helpless or unable to function, you're just not generating huge numbers of charges anymore. We're running a few protection cards to keep the astronomy engine safe, but thanks to Norman's fast cycling (and the two Research Librarians) even if it gets disrupted you can often set up again after your deck reshuffles. I run a 1x Quantum Flux in case I need to force a reshuffle early but I have only once actually done this. If you draw into a second copy of either Divination or Ghastly Possession you should be sure to hold them in hand for safety.

To protect against asset discard effects you have Ward of Protection and to protect critical cards in your hand you have Deny Existence. As for passing tests, you'll be taking Divination tests at 8 with Ghastly Possession (9 with Dr Christopher in play) and you only need to pass one test per turn to keep the astronomy engine running. The deck has plenty of Intellect and Wild icons for boosting higher, and two copies of Analysis for protection against the on critical tests. Every now and again an autofail or other bad pull will cause you to discard Ghastly Possession but you have a second copy as backup and even two copies of Deduction to fall back on.

Level 0 Cards and General Strategy

Other than our key upgrades (listed above) most of the other card slots can be retooled as you prefer.

While you should always prioritize Ghastly Possession, remember that you can stack up to 5 skill cards on the Astronomical Atlas. Skills committed from the Atlas return to your hand if the test is successful, so potentially any skill card can be recurred multiple times if you don't have (or don't need) Ghastly Possession. If you want to lean into this as much as possible you can add Eureka! and Promise of Power, although personally I find the skill cards already included to be plenty.

After both of our tomes are in play the Research Librarian is useless, but the two card slots are more than worth it to ensure the astronomy engine gets online quickly and reliably.

Since my goal is to run the astronomy engine as early and as often as possible I prefer to take my safety cards starting at level 0. Some players don't like using level 0 Mystic slots on cards they are going to upgrade later, if you prefer to build this way feel free to sub out Ward of Protection and/or Deny Existence for other level 0 cards. I've had good luck with Holy Rosary as a starting card for a little extra and sanity soak.

Mind over Matter is our only protection against enemies, so be sure to hold one in hand for emergencies.

Since we start with two mental trauma, have 2x Ward of Protection, and expect our deck to cycle often I recommend keeping in Logical Reasoning or packing some other horror protection.

A Few Suggestions For Further Upgrades

After you have the key pieces of the astronomy engine you can really take the deck in any direction you like. I usually upgrade Ward of Protection and Deny Existence, and like to buy Fearless to replace Logical Reasoning for even more action efficiency. A 1x Arcane Studies can help keep your skill values high in the later campaign as well as leverage your excess Milan money. I usually run out of cards to buy before I run out of xp so I've even bought Seal of the Elder Sign to guarantee a couple of critical Divinations.

Conclusion

This is one of the most efficient clue gathering decks I have played in a while. The astronomy engine takes only a few cards slots to set up, costs only 13 total xp, requires no actions to maintain, and asks only that you regularly pass investigate checks. Each loop of the engine provides another triple clue investigate to an investigator who is already effective at gathering clues. This deck certainly doesn't reach the lofty heights of pre-taboo Rex or 30 Card Mandy, but with the current taboo list and cardpool there aren't many other decks that generate and sustain the cluegathering pace that Norman's Astronomy Engine does. When the engine is firing on all cylinders Norman's ability to scoop up large amounts of clues is truly out of this world.