After running Michael McGlen with this card for 6 scenarios I have a lot of positive things to say.

It's a Lv. 0 Rogue card with the same vibe as "You handle this one!", as in you can hold it in your hand like Lucky! and be smug about tests you are going to perform.

Actually I like this even more because if resources are available it can appear like you just spend some resources to "cancel" the treachery, it is not going to anyone else. Now look at Counterespionage with 1 XP, 2 play cost, that you even have to draw a new one if you choose not to pay more! Now Rogue can just happily eat up the fixed 2 horror kind of treachery. For the fail by kind, maybe you actually passed and not having to play, maybe you get fail by something for just 1 and not play this card.

Michael I'm testing this with comes with 3 and 3 which goes well with this card. A lot of time I'm so ready to play this card then draws a 0 or -1 which gets him minor punishment, then I can decide to keep it! Compared with Mystic using Ward of Protection in fear of getting maximum fail-by (and have to take 1 horror anyway), this is much better, you can do this with your nearby friends. Now imagine Wendy Adams with 4 and 4 holding this card, and Lucky!, with her token redraw ability.

It felt Guardian-ish with its area effect. It can cancel out location entry hazards if your friend just went ahead from where you are, back-of-agenda flipping effects, any personal issues on signature weakness, and even horror on deck resets. Compared with similar Deny Existence, that ironically felt more Rogue-ish because the cancellation is self-centered. This card can also cancel both damage and horror in one go. For references, the actual Guardian cards that guards their friends like Heroic Rescue, "Let me handle this!", Bestow Resolve, First Watch, "Fool me once..." are more proactive and aren't working with the test's result (reactive) like this one. The resource they have to spend is a bit tricky if you are playing closed information in your table, though sometimes they caught on this card is in my hand when I simply ask them to have some spare resources and not moving away too far from me. Late game Seeker usually is overflowing with resources.

As cherry on top, it gives that you can add on top of Manual Dexterity for high impact tests, make your 3 friends able to evade on their own, and even one that maybe useful for cases when this card can't cover like getting up from Frozen in Fear. It looks unusually generous, looking at other reactive hoard-in-hand card like Lucky! with no icons, or Ward of Protection / Deny Existence with a single icon.

Lastly this is likely be included the 2026 Current Environment, it'll be a staple for new generation player's Rogue for years to come. If Revised Core Set is unchanged, great for both Skids and Wendy. Good card!

This card is revolutionary in Patrice, especially in 3-4 player.

If you’re playing flex, that means that certain people are only OK at some things they need to do (like fight, evade, or investigate). For those turns where someone just needs to sit on a location and parley, or grab clues, or punch. You’re bringing a whole bag of Lucky‘s for the team. It’s especially fun for rogues who have a lot of actions. And with Patrice, this is gonna hit 5+ turns a game for 2xp.

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!!