What I like: It doesn’t take up a slot, which is nice. I think the skill icon combination is pretty nice. A lot of people don’t like the will pip, seeing as will isn’t tied to major action unless you are a mystic, but having will on the same card as fight means that if that treachery comes up that calls for will you can throw it that way but if not you’ll be fighting a lot too regardless. Being able to boost your fight and will with resources is nice for both Roland and Skids at the moment, seeing as both need that will boost and Skids doesn’t mind the access to the fight (even though he has hard knocks for that).

What I don’t like: I don’t like these types of cards right now. That is to say, I don’t like these cards in most of my builds. Resources tend to be limited, and I can’t justify putting too much into this so I never feel like I get value out of it. It almost feels like you have to build around being able to use it, otherwise it gets tossed to a skill check more often than not. If you build a deck with a specific resource curve to where you always spend your resources on events and other assets, there is just not a whole lot of room for this. Also, it scales so poorly.

What it needs: Investigators that love making money (I’d rather use resources on Skids ability, but Jenny is looking great for these types of cards). Investigators and items that care about how much you win a test by (derringer, switchblade). More ways to make resources easily.

Scaling: I give the skill boosting talents some credit in that on standard an easy, they get a pass in the right build. When you only need a +1 or +2 to your skill to almost guarantee your success, being able to pick and choose when you get that boost is pretty nice. However, when the chaos bag decides on expert that you get an average of -3 to your skill, you can’t really afford to pump all of those resources into this. The demand for the card increases as difficulty goes up, but your resources do not, so if you think it’s hard to use consistently now, it only gets worse. 

You're greatly misapplying this card. (Aslo: "It almost feels like you have to build around being able to use it". Really? In a deck construction game? Do tell.)

You're going to need help passing key checks in any scenario. It might be combat, it might be not dropping all your clues at a bad time due to a False Lead, it might be just not dying from claws reaching out of the floor. You can boost your odds either with cards spent on commitment, passive boosts (like the Beat Cop helping on Combat), or these Skill Talents.

Obviously the persistent boosts of the Beat Cop or Dr. Milan Christopher are the best; they're always on. Cards spent on commitment, including Skill cards, give a great, free boost one time to a test, but that's situational, and you can't control what's coming to the top of your deck. In fact, unless you're using Scrying on yourself, you won't even know what's coming next. Packing 2 Guts and 2 Unexpected Courages is great for Skids, who is always worried about his shaky Willpower, but you can't guarantee you're going to grab one off the top of your deck if you need to get rid of a poorly timed Frozen in Fear.

That leaves these Skill Talents. And what you're paying for is reliability and consistency. You don't know what commitment icons the top of your deck will give you, but you do know that you're getting one resource a turn, and you know exactly what that one resource will get you with Physical Training.

There's also the misapprehension that you have to crush the Chaos Bag in odds to get any expected value (EV) out of Skill Talents. Even that's not the case. While each Chaos Bag is different, let's look at Standard Difficulty for Night of the Zealot. The odds there show that if your skill = target, you have about a 25% chance of success (varying on number of ghouls in play, doom on cultists, and etc.). Raising that to just +1 over target basically doubles your chance of success. Going to +2 over target adds another +30% or so to your success rate (to around 80%). Going to +3 or higher than your target obviously still raises the success rate (at least until only the autofail is left to ruin you), but the amount gained for resources (or cards) committed starts suffering from diminishing returns after +2, so it's probably not worth it unless you're swimming in resources or cards.

So the point of studying the odds of the Chaos Bag is that you can considerably increase your odds of finishing the scenario in a way you like by raising your skill number to +1 or +2 over the target for key tests. The Skill Talents give you a reusable, reliable, and non-asset-slot-using way of doing that again and again. That's excellent EV for their cost, and a big relief on the cards in your hand, which will (unless they're Skills) now be able to be used for their main purpose, instead of commitment.

Even if you just drop 1 resource into Physical Training now and then to increase your odds to hit a cultists from even to +1, you're doubling your success on that pull. That's a good deal for one resource. And you can keep doing that each turn...plus having something on board where, if you really need to, you can spam resource spending to try to pull off a clutch last-ditch effort for whatever's needed.

Yes, you have to build around them -- you should be building around all your cards. No, you don't need a build that requires a lot of resource generation to use them. Sure, you can think of a build that doesn't need them. Good job! But they're efficient, reliable, and reusable ways to crank out that EV of raising your tests to the vital +1 or +2 above target, and that's not something you should just dismiss casually. Even if you love Skills (and they're great cards), don't forget that you don't know what Skill is coming next off the top of your deck. Guts or Overpower? With Physical Training on the field, you can get both. And you always know how many resources you have and how many you can get before a key check.

And I hinted at those points in the small scaling section. I understand that beating the test by about two in standard gives you a huge chance of success, but I don't play this game it seems in the same way you do. I deck build to maximize my resource usage with my cards. I want the permanent boosts when I can get them, and those boosts are expensive and resources are scarce. I tend not to play this game where there are critical skill checks to pass, because I firmly believe that being able to pass more checks constantly results in a smoother game where you don't need to worry about those huge game changing checks later. Roland is usually constantly burning through his resources because he has so many good things to play. Skids has an ability worth using often, and I don't burgle often because I often play the game trying to constantly be moving forward with each action I take.

In my eyes, I take something like the gathering and see I have 20 turns to win. Probably less because there are plenty of ways the doom moves faster. that's a base of 24 resources I have to spend without using an action on gathering a resource. I have usually 8-11 resources of assets I want to play opening hand, I want to make sure I have enough for dynamite blast at some point, perhaps the ending, so there's another 5, and that's without events that I want to play that I have to have the resources on hand for, and it only gets more difficult as new cards are released.

You've got 14 turns in the second scenario (usually way way less) and at best 24 in the last, but at best is really pushing it. So for a character that doesn't generate resources fairly easily, it's not as easy to justify running it.

Another thing to take in consideration is multiplayer vs solo. I see this as a fine card in multiplayer, because you're not spending all your resources on making sure you can do everything. I do, however, build decks as if I'm always playing solo, so that in multiplayer I can split from the group to cover more ground and not have to worry as much about needing someone to come pull me out. 

I am looking forward to the skill booster talents that are permanent however. 

I'm not saying it's a bad card, but if you build with a resource curve in mind in your deck, it will skew the results pretty hard, which is what I mean build around it. I didn't appreciate the snark with the deck building game comment you made, mostly because the concept I'm talking about is catering the deck around a card. You shouldn't be building your deck around every card you have, your deck is an engine. 

I firmly believe every card has its use, I'm just giving my own perspective. 

Yeah I have to agree with Doma0997 here. In my experience with Rolland/Skids/Agnes, these kind of cards end up staying in your hand doing nothing or being committed for skill tests. It's too expensive IMO, it should have a cost of 0 and fast. This card is specially bad when you have Paranoia as basic-weakness.