This is an obvious card for Mayor Kane. Since he can pick his classes, motivational speech (0) was a strong argument to go guardian. With this being neutral, it frees up deck builders to go for another color. I would argue a better and more surprising user is Patrice. It has good symbols, and it’s a free action and up to (seven, thanks Su!) saved dollars for a teammate. Plus, you’re more likely than other performers or civic individuals to draw it multiple times a game.

The drowned city investigator box doesn’t have a lot of allies with -> actions, so that effect will be minor unless you bring out Robert Castaigne or Dakota Gruffalo. Since it’s a parlay, that combination could let an ally play Dakota from their hand and engage an enemy on you, letting you have your turn unimpeded.

If you play an Ally "at no cost", you don't pay the additional costs, right ?

I think a fun use for Motivational Speech is to play Summoned Hound: as you don't pay costs, you don't have to add Unbound Beast in your deck, and therefore you have only the advantages of the ally.

It allows you to simply play the Hound instead of trying a way to get it in play without playing it (for example discarding the Hound and then playing A Chance Encounter).

For Charlie Kane, you can even use the Hound twice:

• exhaust the Hound to start a Fight / Investigate action,
• exhaust Bonnie Walsh to get a +3 (so you have a skill value of 8),
• ready the Hound (with the on Bonnie),
• exhaust the Hound to use it a 2nd time.