This seems like a great combat spell for a lot of characters, mostly of the mystic-guardian typing.

Works well in...
-willpower focused Sister Mary.
-Diana Stanley before she gets her willpower up.
-secondary weapon/dragon pole/willpower focused Lily Chen
-works with Boxing Gloves and Nathaniel Cho.

It's slightly less good for straight mystics since it can't take as much advantage of Arcane Research and Down the Rabbit Hole (but no worse the Armageddon and Eye of Chaos which also only have 1 upgrade step). For this reason Norman Withers might be interested in this he has less Incentive to take arcane research.

Sefina Rousseau, Patrice Hathaway and to a lesser extent Daisy Walker and Carolyn Fern can use the lower level one for a bit of offense (since there is no level 2 attack spell aside from the awful Song of the Dead

Edit: someone pointed out this spell is somewhat similar to the M1918 BAR. This costs way less, does more total damage (by 1), spends no ammo on fail, is safer when attacking enemies engaged to other investigators, and doesn't use your hand slots.

To compensate, Brand doesn't synergize well with ammo stuff, has less potential accuracy (i.e. if you spend 4 ammo at once you can get +4 strength) and less damage per shot (can do 5 damage in a shot vs only 3 on brand).

I think both are good, but brand is slightly better in most combat decks. You have to build around the m1918 bar a bit more.

I wrote on Reddit that this card is a new staple and ZeroGrim asked why. Many reasons are mentioned here already, but let me summarise:

1. You get resources just when you need them (and cards if you have Glory), to buy Extra Ammunition, or replace an empty Gun, or finance a Team Effort or a Teleport (taking the spawned enemy with you, before Blasting them all). If it was 2xp without the resource gain, it'd be still worth it, but getting 3 resources for your favourite task? Shut up and take my XP!

2. You avoid spending 2-3 turns yawning between 2 enemies because you're too good. Make your own little side story while your Seeker is doing the job. Especially true in 1-2 players.

3. You do not draw a Frozen in Fear this turn or any other annoying Treachery Card.

4. You can fish a Victory Point enemy when you decided to, and not when you already have 3 other enemies on you, or on the opposite helps you trigger "Let God sort them out...". You can also fish a Vengeance enemy if you like a challenge.

5. Lets you choose a 5 shroud location before you trigger Grete Wagner, Scene of the Crime and Evidence!.

6. Attaches to Stick to the Plan: Turn 1: Find your weapon with Prepared for the Worst, Play it with Ever Vigilant. Turn 2, during the first Mythos you play On the Hunt, kill a small enemy to replenish your resource pool and play Beat Cop (2). Congrats, you're fully set up.

7. Ignores the Spawn requirement saving you potentially 2-3 move actions with these annoying Acolyte, Priest of Dagon and their friends.

8. It makes you sound cool when you pretend to follow a Chicken that went a wee bit over the limit with steroids. Pretend at least that you're also helping, even if we all know that your is the one doing all the work.

On the Downside, because of course every drug comes with a hangover, the Icons are a bit useless (but tbh, who would commit such a good card??), and the 3xp makes it unavailable to William Yorick and a 2nd priority after your weapon upgrade.

I desperately want to love this card. The Artwork, the Flavour text, the Name... It's all I want to be, and especially Wini.

But to be fair, it is terribly underpowered, especially compared to Practice Makes Perfect or Astronomical Atlas.

I would buy this card if it said: "If you succeed by 2-3 or more, add the skill to your hand."

But now, the way it is, it actually makes your Deck worse on many occasions. What if I want to succeed a test and I play Daredevil hoping for Anything You Can Do, Better, only to find out Quick Thinking and waste it? Or even worse for Wini, you pull your Opportunist (2) and it goes to the trash immediately.

What if I have only card to commit to an test and I want to draw another one to proc my and end up finding Anything You Can Do, Better...

It becomes even worse when you take Three Aces into consideration, these cards simply can't cohabit. Which is a shame because Winifred Habbamock Desperately needs an Auto-success for tests.

As is, unfortunately, this card is just a pretty wallpaper in my Binder, but damn I wish it was more... much more.

So this is one action to play, 2 resources for 4 card commits over 4+ tests.

It seems somewhat comparable to something like. Hyperawareness or Arcane Studies.

Talents
-cost 1 exp more.
-only for 2 skills.
+are unlimited use (but only 2 icons per turn).
+guaranteed to work.
+have a side benefit of letting you spend your resources.

If it's for items, you also have survivors also have Jury-Rig which also boosts by 2 three times at 0 cost and 0 exp.

It might be ok as a late game addition once you have your high exp skill cards (or at least cards with high number of icons). Maybe a case can be made for survivor seekers that want to search for valuable cards like The Necronomicon, commiting it to a test then getting it back from the discard with recursion.

Seems a bit similar to Astronomical Atlas which is better since it's unlimited use and lets you draw the commited card but that costs 1 more and uses a hand slot.

Has obvious synergy with Mandy Thompson and Minh Thi Phan. Possibly good for Amanda Sharpe since she runs lots of icons/skills as well.

Edit: Just realized this is also very similar to Ancestral Knowledge. It's essentially the non permanent version.

Pros
-3 less exp.
-secrets synergy, search synergy.

Cons.
-2 cost.
-have to draw it then spend an action to play it.
-sometimes fails to draw.
-only 4 uses instead of 5 (good exchange for half the exp).

If possible I'd go for ancestral Knowledge first. The Permanent trait is just too good, you always get it every scenario so it's like a free draw at the start. (Studious alone costs 3 exp).

Seems like it would be good in...

Mark Harrigan who gets cards for his cards taking damage

Tommy Muldoon which gives him 2 free rerolls at the cost of an action to play the fur in the first place

Diana Stanley counts as an ignore for her ability. 2 rerolls for net cost of 1 action and 1 resource. Not bad compared to Grotesque Statue which costs 2 exp.

Dexter Drake it's an asset that he can cycle in for only 1r but can only use it once if he wants to replace it with something else.

Minh Thi Phan and Patrice Hathaway might want it to deal with their signature weaknessess.