This card is disappointing. You are spending an additional 3 XP, and you are getting nothing but -1 cost and a difficult to use limited special ability.

First, fighting more than one enemy at once is something that happens, but it is a lot less common than fighting one opponent. Two, even if you are fighting two opponents, you probably have to hit by quite a lot to activate the power, it isn't that easy to do, you’d better be pretty great at fighting. Three, even when you get into the magic situation and it works, it still costs ammo, so all you are saving is an action. And other cards which give “two actions for the price of one” have the advantage that you only have to spend your boost cards on one action instead of two. but in this case, you have to hit by so much to trigger the special power, that it probably would require fewer boost cards to hit twice normally then to make the one really good hit that activates the power, so really, you aren't gaining much other than saving an action.

Now, it is true that saving an action in combat is a particularly good time to save an action, but this card just places too many limitations on that saved action. As an upgrade, compare it to .41 Derringer (2), which has a much easier to activate general purpose way to give you an extra action, and gives you an increased hit bonus. This upgrade costs more XP and does a lot less.

As an upgrade to the regular Arcane Studies, this is a rather impressive and really cool upgrade, turning a card that occasionally gives a bonus when you have extra money, to a card which gives bonuses all the time. It is impressive enough to consider whether you would want to take it primarily for its free bonuses, even if you would not put the basic version of the card in your deck. For that purpose, the closest other Mystic card to compare it to would seem to be Recall the Future, so here is a comparison:

1. The +2 bonus from Arcane Studies is a much stronger bonus than +2 on only a single named token. The comparison depends very much on the bag and the circumstances, but I'd estimate it is roughly twice as strong as the bonus from Recall the Future, or perhaps a teensy bit less.
2. The full free +2 bonus can only be used once per turn, while the bonus from Recall the Future can usually be used on every test during a turn, since you won't often be forced to exhaust it.
3. Recall the Future can be used on any kind of skill test, Arcane Studies cannot be used on combat and agility checks.
4. Arcane Studies also has the ability of the original Arcane Studies to let you spend extra money to increase the bonus or use it more times.
5. Arcane Studies costs two more experience points.

In general, since it is fairly common for characters not to make many skill checks during a turn, and one of those checks may be more important than the others, I tend to think that (1) outweighs (2) and is a small net advantage for arcane studies. But the difference is not enough to outweigh (5), so it comes down to (3) and (4). Standard spellcasting Mystics don't use combat or agility very much at all, but if you are making a character who does routinely fight with combat or evade with agility, you will want Recall the Future. And if you are tight with money and don't ever expect to use (4), you will also prefer Recall the Future. But otherwise, this is a good solid card, and is worth putting in a deck if you would have been interested in the original version of arcane studies but felt it was not efficient enough to be worthwhile.

This card has a really cool effect, and other reviews describe ways to use this cool effect, but I would like to very clearly point out that this card also has a major disadvantage, which is that it is really expensive. What this card really does is to take one card in your hand, and convert it to three identical cards. Which means that, ultimately, you are spending 4 resources, 3 XP, a card, and an action, merely to draw two extra cards, which is an outrageously expensive way to draw extra cards. In return, you get the advantage of drawing a specific card (albeit one you must already have in your hand) rather than a random card.

What this means is that in order for this ally to be worthwhile, the card you place on it can't just be a nice card, it has to be a really, really super great card, so great that it is still a great card to play even if you increase the cost by a huge amount.

Now, to be fair, this isn’t the only thing you get for playing Dayana, as an ally she does have the advantage of soaking up damage for you. But then, she also has the disadvantage of eating up a very valuable ally slot, so this doesn't change the net calculation all that much, she still is mega-expensive for each "virtual card draw" she gives you.

Best card for Tommy. The cost of most absorber is "health + sanith - 1". Thus, Tommy's ability actually gives net 0~1 resources. In this reason, Tommy needs another money sources, or cheap absorbers such as Cherished Keepsake, Leather Coat, Madame Labranche. However, The Star • XVII gives +1 health/sanity. It means that your absorber gives 2 more resources. Whenever you defeats your absorber, you can earn 3~4 resources. This is almost Emergency Cache. How is wonderful?

However, here is another problem. It's more hard to defeat your asset. It means the resource payback is delayed, and signature weakness is more critical. How to take damage/horror?

• Spirit of Humanity: 1 damage/horror + 2 .
• Solemn Vow: heal 1 damage or horror of another investigator's any controlled card.
• Purifying Corruption: draw encounter -> (if non-surge treachery) cancel + 1 damage/horror + place 1 corruption -> remove 1 corruption [NET] 1 damage/horror only.

Don't forget Purifying Corruption don't require exhaust cost; this help you to take damage and horror what you want in one turn, due to The Red-Gloved Man.

After actual play with this weapon, I think it's safe to say that it simply doesn't get enough ammo for main or flex fighters to justify use. Sure, if it misses, it gets another ammo. However, this means that missing only avoids wasting in ammo. In practice, it's rare that weapons are fired with intent to miss. Sure, Live and Learn can effectively give 1 free shot, and sure, Stella Clark gets an extra action. However, there's no guarantee that those particular combats are where a failure will trigger, and with that +2 , dedicated characters are unlikely to miss unless things are going wrong. It's rare to making an attack with the intent or expectation of failure. Most times, when someone attacks, they want to hit.

And that means, most of the time, it costs 3 resources, a card, and a play action, for what's effectively +2 damage. Before XP comes online and resources are often tight, that doesn't feel like it's enough to justify the cost. I think the only time this gives enough is when also using Act of Desperation in order to recoup the costs involved. If a character doesn't have that, they're likely better off with Meat Cleaver, or even Baseball Bat.

Note that this only applies for the 0-XP version. Once upgraded, the 2-cost, 3-shot version of the weapon looks like a much more reliable weapon.