This is part of the 'exact success' suite like Antikythera or Chemistry Set, but has a lot of utility in any deck that has enough card draw to sustain it.

Anything that can boost a test result after revealing tokens is extremely useful. Discarding cards for only a +1 isn't a great rate of return, but neither is committing a card to every test just in case you get unlucky. You can shoot for pretty good odds on a test and fix it after the fact if you're unlucky, rather than overspending to make it a sure thing every time.

An easy to miss little addition is that the bonus is skill agnostic. Need a boost to willpower but only have agility in your hand? This will convert that agility to a wild bonus, at the cost of only getting a +1 out of it.

The one caveat to remember is that you don't have a player window to trigger the fast effect after chaos tokens are revealed, meaning you have to discard to refill it before initiating the test. You can't wait to see if you'll need it before you spend the card.

As for synergies, it's especially good for George who wants to pitch cards from his hand, and goes wonderfully with survivor cards like Improvised Shield or Moonstone that have no symbols but need to hit your discard somehow. However, it's uniquely bad for seeker-survivor Minh, who gets way less mileage out of it than any skill card she would otherwise commit. The Dream Diaries give you a free card every round, and while you're probably going to want to spend your Essence elsewhere, it's a painless way to keep it topped up for emergencies.

Regarding the line "Your deck cannot include more than 1 copy of your branded spell." I have two questions.

A.) Does this mean that when I buy this if I brand Sixth Sense (4) I have to also pay to replace any other copies of Sixth Sense as well. Or do we get to replace that card with a level 0 card of choice?

B.) Does the Eldrotch Brand stop same card by title. If I branded Shrivelling (3) for instance could I also have Shrivelling (5) in my deck?

In addition to being a theming failure (@fistofyogsothoth covered this nicely already), this card was already too strong when abused alongside recursion effects like Scavenging or Library Docent, or with any of the other obnoxious combos people have already reviewed nicely.

With the Drowned City gator cards being released, the possible combos for this card have gotten even more disgusting: enter Library Pass. Combo this with Scroll of Secrets and now you can, with ZERO REQUIRED, do the following:

• Put Necronomicon on Library Pass
• Use all 6 charges (often just grabbing 2 clues for free, or doing 3 free damage and drawing 2 cards)
• Don't pay the 1 resource and let the book go to the bottom of your deck
• Use Scroll of Secrets(3) during any window between now and the start of your next turn to put Necronomicon back in your hand (and maybe throw away a weakness while you're at it)

3 rotations of Necronomicon not enough to break the scenario? No problem, recur your Scroll with Library Docent, or put more secrets on it with Eldritch Sophist (or any other secret-adding card), or use Ariadne's Twine.

This card needs to be taboo'd differently; until then I will not be playing it unless I'm in the mood for a free campaign win.

There are a few interesting ways this could be balanced. Perhaps something like

Cost: 10r This card costs 1 less resource for each horror on your investigator FORCED - When you play this card, take 2 horror

I'm also partial to the suggestion that you add a Madness to your deck when playing this. Dark secrets have dark prices!!

Yikes. Shuffles back in if it doesn't hit. Can set you back a billion actions. Can make your dedicated killer helpless in the most critical of times. This card totally screws Mikey's engine of many guns out, pew pewing with each one of them. A weakness that can hit 3+ cards, totally 10+ resources, 3 play actions, 3 card draws worth for a total of 16ish "points" is beyond bad (granted some of those may be partially used up).

Even defending this weakness by calling it a free reload is not compelling. You are always drawing to find new guns. This just increases the chances to find those guns again in your undrawn cards. You're better off arguing that it proc's ETB (and LTB) effects.

This card is atrocious. Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder Placeholder