Kate got a good suite inside just Hemlock Vale cards to make a very playable deck just like Alessandra Zorzi with her Parley cards. (See: No Fine Clothes, No Problem) Her ability is about trying to get +2 on different Science/Tool assets, then try to spend clues out of them so you can do it again.

The key that stretch hand limit (which will quickly be taken by Magnifying Glass) is Dr. Charles West III. He himself is a Science Ally so you can get +2 on him too! More over there are Ravenous Myconid and Chemistry Set which are Science that's not taking the hot slots.

The deck focus on utilizing the expensive Microscope (4) which we double up quite early in the XP plan, and mitigating Failed Experiment when it comes. (Don't forget to bring to play due to Esoteric Method.)

► About "2 Packs Deck Guide"
　A series of decks made with the new distribution model in mind, requiring a Revised Core Set box + just 1 more Investigator Expansion box. ✂ character on the deck's name means the additional box it uses is The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion.
　It maximizes the chance of newcomers being able to build and learn to play the game, enjoying the story on Standard difficulty ASAP. They can then get into deck-building later if they wished to do so. See other decks in the "2 Packs Deck Guide" series here.

• Wilson Richards: Holy Shotgun Deck
• Kate Winthrop: Charles West Microscope Deck
• Alessandra Zorzi: No Fine Clothes, No Problem
• Kōhaku Narukami: Solomon Spell Event Deck
• Hank Samson: Distraction Event Hank Deck
• Zoey Samaras: Zoey from the Hemlock Vale

Accolade : Finished 4P Midwinter Gala at 19 XP as a main clue finder in the team. (26 Points)

(View at arkham-starter.com)

In my test run, Mouse Mask, Testing Sprint, Thorough Inquiry, and Chemistry Set all felt right having just 1 copy in the deck. Following this plan eventually does that.

Microscope (4) Techniques

This is where 8 XP goes to so you should master it.

• If you could hold both copies, you can and get evidences on both copies at the same time. (Same trick as 2x Research Notes both hands)

• The extra hand slot from Dr. Charles West III to hold this is good, as you can still have Flashlight and Magnifying Glass to help a single action Investigate.

• When succeeding on evasion helper cards like Transmogrify and Confound, don't forget to put an evidence on it.

• Because the Lv. 4 version removes the exhaust, this Kate can pump up evidence faster in high player count! Even in lower player count, if for example a flex fighter is evading in order to Sneak Attack to defeat it, you get 2 evidence back to back.

• Keep Hand-Eye Coordination for a crunch time that you really must move twice and to perform a high accuracy investigation with high compression. The usual problem of this thing is that you have 1 action left and you must wait to the next round.

• 2x Manual Dexterity aren't removed ever so you have a chance to evade 4 enemies, and transition to use the evidence gained to scoop up the clues. This kind of play fits her stat line exactly.

• Massive from Transmogrify grants evader an advantage to not having to be the one engaged to do it. Now you can even get 1 clue each round from Transmogrify's while getting evidences.

The damage from Dr. Charles West III

The expanded slot and he himself is a Science to put a clue on is good. But his need some attention.

The problem is to have an enemy at your location while you investigate. That means it must be either engaged with someone else or exhausted, or Aloof. The situation is not easy to create even with high player count. As the fighter would prefer just killing it off rather than relying on your very dubious succeed by 1 or 3 criteria to finish it.

• Steady-Handed can of course adjust for exactly 1 or 3. If you get exactly 1 or 3 in the first place, you can choose between not adjusting and deal damage, or adjust and heal horror.

• When you are evading on your own on the first action to get enough evidence on Microscope and then using to investigate, this is a natural situation that Dr. Charles West III can deal 1 damage to that exhausted enemy.

• Confound comes with long exhaust effect. So you can stay with the enemy exhausted from the get go on the next round. This is huge as you have 3 tries to get succeed by exactly 1 or 3 in the next round to deal damage and work on the remaining clues.

• When using Testing Sprint, you get tests with different difficulty values to land exactly 1 or 3 over-succeed in one of them. But be aware that the sprint uses 2 actions, so you have just 1 extra action to perhaps evade the enemy first.

How to deal with Failed Experiment

If you put clues on asset to boost +2, the test difficulty also increases by 1. So it is better that you have other cards to help with this than performing the experiment boost.

• Mouse Mask : +2 . This is harder to refill on higher player count as it gets harder to arrange turn order such that you are always the one revealing locations.
• Esoteric Method • : Huge so you can get to 6 . (Likely still fail by a bit, as the difficulty is often more than 3.)
• Well-Funded : at its best. Don't forget to count Flux Stabilizer!
• Dr. Charles West III : Put horrors on this guy, but beware of stuff dropping because of hand slot disappearing. If Magnifying Glass (1), you might be able to pick up right before Failed Experiment test you are expecting to kill Charles.
• Steady-Handed • : Heal out horror later, and to reduce obtained on Esoteric Method.
• Magnifying Glass • : If it has a clue and you can pick it up, you can drop the clue and reduce Failed Experiment difficulty.
• Ravenous Myconid •••• : Deal with other / horror treacheries with this thing instead of all the commits you have. Save the commits for Failed Experiment which the plant can't cancel.
• Thorough Inquiry : Draw all 5 cards yourself and hope to get it early when you don't have many clues on assets yet. Drawing multiple cards is simultaneous, so you can commit any card you just draw (Well-Funded / Esoteric Method ) to Failed Experiment among them.