Did they forget to make this fast? It might have been worth considering if it was. As it stands, if this card isn't in your opening hand then most of the time you are effectively paying three resources to get +2 in a skill test, the equivalent of Unexpected Courage. Comparing it to the other neutral skill cards like Perception or Overpower is even more unfavorable because those allow you to draw a card if you succeed and are completely free. There are a handful of situations where the Ace of Rods will give you +4 in a test, but even then it is still too pricey to seriously consider.

One positive is that because it gets removed after use, putting two in your deck doesn't result in a dead draw. Preston Fairmont can use it as a means of flexing on other investigators to show how little he cares for efficiency.

The other review is underselling this card. At least on standard difficulty I think this is one of the top 5 best level 0 Seeker cards ever printed and a card that I shove into most of the decks that have full access to level 0 seeker cards. Comparing this to No Stone Unturned this card only digs 3 deep instead of 6 but doesn't require an action or 2 resources to use. This card is very easy to just throw onto any test that you're all but guaranteed to pass anyway (such as investigating a low shroud location) and then use it to have Eureka be replaced by whatever's the best card in the top 3 of your deck. The icons it has are fantastic, it's basically the only 3 skills you're likely to ever use so it can be committed to almost every test you take. On top of that, there's a lot of tests you might take where you're +3 above the test for example and passing it is important, but you don't want to spend any of your valuable cards to boost yourself up to +4. Eureka is great in those situations because you can insure that you are protected while also having the card cycle into something you need.

The card is just super versatile and is always useful, It's not necessarily a card that'll win you the game but it'll help you find those cards and is never a bad draw.

I've just recently started a 2 gator playthrough of Cirle Undone with Jim. I'll have a deck list to come soon but at the moment it has gone well using the sealing cards as well as Defiance to mitigate the bag in Jim's favor. Most every test so far as long as I can at least match the test value has gone my way. I feel like sealing mechanic may have jumped up Jim's power level by quite a bit.

The question being: Is Grisly Totem, the missing link with Take Heart and Drawing Thin to the Survivor economy engine? Looks like so, and that's great for Survivors! All you need is now a survivor who's not afraid to fail a check once in a while. The safest checks to fail being investigate check (barring the BS tokens), this combo is very potent for investigators with low like William Yorick, "Ashcan" Pete or Calvin Wright for exemple and reaching the 200 characters threashold.

Must say I don't think they got this one right as an upgrade. You're spending 3xp for one additional secret and a willpower pip. The seeker version is vastly superior since it allows you to search three cards at a time and do something to all of them. That's a card that has legitimate utility to a number of investigators. This ? Not so much. I honestly can't see why anybody would ever buy this card. It's only marginally better than the Lvl 0 version. If it was a Lvl 1 card then it might be worth adding to a deck. 1xp for an extra secret seems about right, a small investment for a small bonus. At 3xp it's just prohibitively expensive.

This would have been much better if it was a free action trigger. That way you'd have two different upgrade paths, both of which were valid. Seekers would get the greater range of cards they could influence, mystics would get the much more limited scope but without having to spend any actions to use it. As it is though, I'd be amazed if anybody ever uses this card in their decks.