The Dimensions Collide mythos card is a rumor card that says "As an encounter, an investigator on space 11 may attempt.... If he passes, he puts an end to their rituals; he may spend Clues equal to half the number of investigators to solve this Rumor"
If I have no clues, can I do this encounter (strategically as a means to avoid any ill effect should I fail the test), and then simply to do nothing if I succeed?
Because order of operations is important and there is an option in the description, the above situation would be a possible way of avoiding a potentially 'bad' encounter. Since the card is written in a way to say "First, attempt a check. Then, you may spend clues to remove this rumor.", that means that you can always attempt the check as an encounter, regardless of your clue token total. The card would need to be written differently if it wanted to use clue tokens as a prerequisite. Something like "If the investegator has number of clue tokens, they may attempt to remove this rumor as an encounter." So, yes, you can use this instead of doing another encounter on the space.
