I think this is a very strong Guardian upgrade. Most people think the level 0 Beat Cop is already a pretty decent card. For 2 XP, you add the ability to do 2 additional automatic, action-free points of damage whenever you want.

This is simply amazing. You can pretty much always find situations where it lets you kill enemies in one fewer action than would otherwise be possible. And you're really saving even more than than that, because otherwise you would have had to take a fight action--which might have failed or at least required boosts to succeed. This guy, in contrast, is automatic.

And there are lots of further little benefits Beat Cop can deliver. He saves you at least two actions if he guns down a Whippoorwill (since you don't have to spend an action engaging.) He can finish off an enemy that would otherwise have survived into the enemy phase, thus saving you a lot of damage. Or maybe there's an enemy who absolutely must die this turn (an Acolyte with about-to-go-off doom, for example), and then it's wonderful to have a card that can get that done absolutely guaranteed.

He combines wonderfully with Zoey's Cross to let you gun down a 2-health enemy in zero actions. Awesome.

Compare all this to other upgrades like Lucky! or Emergency Cache, which also cost 2 XP. Those give you 1 extra card. The Beat Cop gives you 2 extra automatically successful actions. An action is stronger than a card, and an automatically successful action even moreso. The Beat Cop gives you far more bang for your buck.

This card will be even more crazy efficient for the upcoming Mark Harrigan (so much so that he probably wants to run Emergency Aid to recharge it), but it's the in-class ally of choice for Zoey and Roland, too.

Do you like Jank? Yes? Then sit down and let me whisper these two cards to you. Expose Weakness. Double or Nothing.

Did you get goosebumps? Nuff said.

(Obviously you'll need lots of other combo pieces, how about a Vicious Blow? Backstab? "I've got a plan!")

This card needs two reviews, so I'll keep them short.

You know that skill test you really want to succeed on, so you throw at +2 card and some resources at it until it becomes an auto-success, smugly pop out a token only to have your smile wiped from your face as you glimpse that all-red of an auto-fail. This is a pretty good description of how easy/standard games might spiral out of control, but it is still a rare enough occurrence that the inclusion of this card is almost definitely not worth the XP. The benefit of this card in standard is mostly that you can throw cards at problems where spending cards wouldn't normally be worth it, for example to try an Investigate check at a net + of only 1 or even 0. And then on those checks where you do your best to eliminate the failure chance but the bag just wont play nice.

The other review is for hard and Expert, where your experience using this card will become starkly different. The token bag at this difficulty is far less forgiving at this difficulty and you will find that sustained skill attempts just wont work like they do at an easier difficulty, throwing a character's unmodified 3 at a difficulty 1 or 2 problem is drastically less likely to succeed, this card re-enables that strategy to an extent. I don't think it needs any further explanation that a card that rewards failed checks becomes dramatically better in game modes where failed skills are more common.

Edit: Updated for the times.

TL:DR. Slotting Prepared for the Worst is worse then slotting another weapon if your goal is to have "any good weapon". Slot Prepared for the Worst only when you want to consistently field a particular weapon (Lightning Gun for example).

Prepared for the Worst, pretty good card, but only required in some pretty specific builds.

So, "tutor a weapon", really great for those times where you want a weapon in your hand, yeah? In deckbuilding Prepared for the Worst is largely interchangeable with weapons, card for card.

Here's the thing, if you want a gun in your hand. And fill your deck with guns, why bother with this thing? On one hand you play with so and so many guns and have this thing in your deck, spend an action and a resource (and card!) to fish for the gun, and THEN play the gun. Why not just, skip this damn thing, put 2 more guns in your deck, draw the gun straight from the start rather then bothering with this middle man?

So. For the explicit purpose of having a weapon, Prepared for the Worst is a hoop you just dont need to jump through anymore. There's a literal plethora of viable weapons now! .45 Automatic and .45 Thompson and Machete and Enchanted Blade and all the out of class stuff too! You can easily have a deck that's 50% weapons!

That said, Prepared for the Worst is still a great card, it just has a more defined purpose these days. The real point of Prepared for the Worst is not to ensure you have a weapon in your hand. The purpose of Prepared for the Worst is to have THAT weapon in your hand, you know. KNIFE!!! I kid, I'm of course talking about that investigator strength gun like Jenny's Twin .45s or Detective's Colt 1911s or a really big XP device like Lightning Gun or Flamethrower.

Bonus: It doesn't hurt that when Prepared for the Worst isn't needed for it's explicit purpose, you can chuck it at an investigate or fight action.

Honestly, I've not used Guard Dog a lot, but it seems to me that it's the Guardian ally for non-guardians. It can efficiently do 3 damage over time, for a reasonble cost, and it's quite nifty being able to invoke an attack of opportunity, soak it up and kill off an enemy.

However, let's face it, if you're a guardian, you probably just want to beat things - so Beat Cop is a more natural fit. And if you've got access to guardian level 1 cards, you could upgrade to Brother Xavier, who offers more, and still does 2 damage. He's better in every way.

So this leaves the place that Guard Dog shines as being with investigators with poor/moderate strength, and access to guardian level zero only. That's pretty much Jim, Rex, and Pete, and the latter two have better allies to take priority.

With Jim, though, Guard dog is pretty good, and it's health/sanity balance nicely compliments Jim's, and gives Jim a good way to do a little damage when he needs to.