While this is a Seeker card and Seekers mainly have access to it, it is actually not really good for Seekers. And that is mainly because of the existance of Higher Education, but let's see it into it.

So, what kind of tests does a Seeker care about? A Seeker cares about 3 kinds of tests: An Intellect test, a Willpower test and an Agility test. Trying to pass an Intellect test means that you 're probably investigating, so buffing your stat with Quick Study is not helpful as you 're dropping a clue to get a clue. That doesn't make sense. Now, there are those cases where you 're trying to do something else on an Intellect test, like trying to beat this guy, or this ever-hateful thing, or trying to find the solution. In these cases popping Quick Study is good, but Higher Education does the same job just as good, if not better. On a Willpower and Agility test, Quick Study is also good, but the Willpower part is also covered by Higher Education.

That means, that, assuming you 're getting Higher Education, your only stat that is not covered is Agility. Are you going to spend 2-4 XP to get 1 or 2 copies of Quick Study to cover it? I don't think so, it's not worth it. If you care so much about evading an enemy, there are things that can cover this less costly, or more efficiently (not to mention that Ursula Downs doesn't need any of this) and Agility tests on treachery cards that happen every now and then can usually be covered by throwing a skill card or by cancelling them (if you 're Daisy Walker).

So, if Quick Study is not good for Seekers, whom is it actually good for?? The answer is that Quick Study is good for someone whose main job is to do something else, other than getting clues, and the only investigator whose main job is to do "something else" and has access to this card is Roland Banks.

And this is actually a great card for Roland! It opens up a whole new line of possibilities for him! First of all, it's a great way to deal with his signature weakness. Roland has a lot of difficulty dealing with Cover Up, when clues are not in accessible spots, or when he has to investigate a high-shroud location in order to deal with it. With this card, suddenly Cover Up becomes a lot less of a threat, as he can deal with it by picking a low-shroud location and popping Quick Study to place a clue on it and do his work. So, with this card, regardless of whether there clues on low-shroud locations or not, you can always deal with Cover Up by investigating those locations!!

Then, there are also other things to account for when Roland runs this card. Roland's .38 Special is a card that cares about having a clue on your location, and, with Quick Study, this card becomes a lot more than merely an upgraded .45 Automatic, as you can hit that +3 a lot more consistently (when you pop Quick Study it goes to +6!!) and other than, that there are also some Seeker cards that care about having a clue on your location. With Quick Study, Inquiring Mind becomes a great addition in a Roland deck and you might even consider Preposterous Sketches (i wouldn't suggest it though)!! Then, Shotgun becomes a viable choice as a late-game upgrade for him, as having tools like Quick Study and Inquiring Mind to buff it further can be pretty viable. Add in a Well Prepareds and Physical Trainings and there you have it: A Shotgun build for Roland!!

Another thing to note is that this card has a beautiful interaction with his special ability. When fighting an enemy and there are no clues on your location, or when you don't care as much about gathering clues, you can always pop Quick Study, drop a clue, then get the clue back after you kill the enemy, effectively netting a free +3 on an attack!!

So, to conclude, Quick Study is a card just for Roland so far. Hopefully, we will see more investigators in the future who can make good use of this card, but as of now, I don't think this card will be seeing a lot of play in non-Roland Banks decks.

A strong build-around economy combo card for Ashcan Pete, who can use his unique power to activate him 2/turn for extra payoff (or sometimes more if you also splash Inspiring Presence, which works well with Duke anyway). Going T1: 2 doom (net +1 resources after his cost), T2: double-use up to 3 doom (6 more resources), T3: up to 5 doom (9 more resources) before killing him off via attacks of opportunity / bouncing him with calling in favors is quite an economic boost (on a 6 doom agenda) for one action and a few discards. If someone in the party has a golden pocket watch at the right time (e.g. Ursula with backpacks/Dr. Elli), you can double-tick up for two final turns instead of one for a massive payout (29R instead of 16R in the example above). Calling in Favors is more or less essential with him, as it does double duty to find him and to safely reset him.

This card is great in rogue because you can give your bonus actions to someone else who can actually make good use out of them.

I built a teamwork/guidance based Jenny deck based around this concept, haven't tried it out yet but hopefully it works out alright. You could also use this out of Finn I guess.

It takes the right kind of deck to get this old gal going but when you do she is a POWERHOUSE.

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What is the right kind of deck?

A: A deck that eats cash for lunch, dinner, breakfast and every other meal, but likes to stay slim. Fire Axe+Dark Horse actually likes the cash but doesn't want to stockpile it, therefore Madame Labranche will keep you covered by kicking you up from 0 straight to 2 credits at the end of a round or even juices you up mid-battle while you swing your axe.

B: A deck that depletes cards quickly, this is generally a bit less common bot certain types of Wendy Adams or "Ashcan" Pete really do go through cards quickly and having the Madame Labranche around to jump start you when you hit rock-bottom can be a lifesaver.

If you're the -A- kind of investigator then seriously consider this chick in your deck. Heck even consider Charisma rather then swapping her out for some XP ally like Yaotl or Peter Sylvestre later. If you're the -B- kind then pass this girl by unless you think you can trigger her for the cash part every now and then too, if you plan to sit on a payload of cash, for the sake of playing something expensive down the line, then this gal probably wouldnt be much help at all.

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Some tricks to consider/Remember:

The icon means that triggering it is optional whenever you feel like, this means that you can simmer a bit at 0 resources or cards if you feel like it for some reason, for example during a combat check with a Fire Axe and Dark Horse.

When you're committing cards to a skill test, there is a player window between the cards being committed and the result known, this means that if a card like Guts is the last card in your hand, and you play it on a check, you can trigger Madame Labranche before the skill becomes successfuly and Guts triggers the draw effect.

Not a review, more of a question.

How does Improvised Weapon interact with this card while it is in your discard pile? Will it be forced to remain in your discard pile after completion of the attack, or it cannot even be played because you cannot fully resolve its effect??

I suspect you can still play it and it will be forced to remain in your discard pile after the attack resolves, but I'd like to see some opinions. If that would be the case, it would be a very interesting interaction.

This question, by the way, came up while trying to build a Yorrick deck using the upcoming Cornered card, in which Improvised Weapon would be a good addition as it would be great discard fodder for Cornered. I believe Cornered is going to be a great addition in William Yorick's arsenal and Improvised Weapon can find a slot or two in his deck. Looking forward to the release of the pack!!