Biased Reporting

Biased Reporting 2[credit]

Operation
Influence: 3

Choose resource, hardware, or program. The Runner may trash any of their installed cards of the chosen type and gain 1[credit] for each card trashed this way. Gain 2[credit] for each card of the chosen type that is still installed.

Illustrated by Ed Mattinian
Decklists with this card

Free Mars (fm)

#96 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Free Mars
Rulings
  • Updated 2024-02-02

    ANCUR UFAQ [Michael Boggs]

    When the Runner trashes cards during Biased Reporting, which player gains the credits?

    The Runner.

    Does the Corp gain credits before or after the Runner trashes cards to Biased Reporting?

    Resolve card effects in the order printed. The Runner trashes any number of installed cards of the chosen type, then the Corp gains 2 for each remaining installed card of the chosen type.

Reviews

On the corp side, the economics here are pretty clear. Let's assume, for now, that the runner doesn't want to trash their stuff.

  • If the runner has 1 card of a given type installed, there's no point in playing this, since it costs you +2 and you only get back 2.

  • If they have 2 cards of a given type, you are spending +2 and getting back 4. That means, you're spending a card and a click to get 2 credits. That's worse than a Beanstalk Royalties.

  • If they have 3 cards of a given type, now it looks okay. You're gaining a net +4, which is the same as a Hedge Fund, with only a two credit investment instead of five.

Anything above that, and this card starts to look really good, offering a significant amount of burst economy for a very low investment.

But, there are two catches. The first is that the runner has to have at least 3 cards of the same type installed for this to be worth playing, and realistically you're hoping for 4. In the late game, this is easy--most runner have at least a killer, a fracter, and a decoder, and unless they're running hardcore event econ they probably have a handful of resources as well. But this means that Biased Reporting can't fire until the late game, which is a disaster if you get it in an early hand and have to patiently wait.

The second catch is the option for the runner to trash their stuff. Now, most of the time, the runner isn't going to want to trash a card for 1. That's a pretty bad deal, especially if the cards in question are their key breakers or economy cards. But, trashing a card to gain AND deny the corp 2? Suddenly, that's a 3-credit swing, and more importantly, it keeps the corp poor. In the extreme case, the runner could clear their entire board, making this card a 2% loss for the corp instead of a gain.

This means that Biased Reporting is never going to be the card that enables a last-ditch effort. If you are sitting on 2 credits and just need a couple more to win, then unless you can bluff the runner out super hard, it's game over.

Overall, not a bad card, and against decks that go all-in on a particular type of gear (Off-Campus Apartment decks, or basically any Hayley deck) it can be an insane value. But it seems like a card you run as a 1-of or 2-of, to reduce the risk of drawing it at a bad time or in a bad matchup.

(Revised Core Set era)

Biased Reporting is a good economy option. It only costs 2 to fire, doesn't have any extra costs like paying extra clicks and can potentially give you a lot of money.

The elephant in the room is that the runner first gets to trash cards to deny you money. I don't think that will be a problem in practice. Cards that have little value to the runner should be obvious so you can take those into account when choosing a type. Cards that have substantial value to the runner are generally worth you getting 2 to the runner, unless they really feel that they have to cut off their nose to spite their face.

Depending on the kind of deck you play against the gain of Biased Reporting can be big. Against a runner with just a fracter, killer and decoder a Biased Reporting gives you a 4 net gain for a 2 activation cost. That's better than Hedge Fund due to the lower activation cost.

If there are four cards left the gain is 6. That's better than IPO. The chance of pulling this off sooner or later in a game is pretty high.

I think Biased Reporting is designed to be a replacement for Sweeps Week and it's a good replacement. However Sweeps Week is often used on turn 1 and Biased Reporting is useless on turn 1. So decks that run Biased Reporting need some alternative early game economy option.

(Free Mars era)
398
I think this card is more than just good, it's extremely powerful. Late game, the runner will want to at least keep theri full breaker suite + main support program (Medium or Mopus), so gaining 8c from programs should be common. But against some builds, gaining even 10 or 20 creds should be totally possible. Especially when choosing Resource. Oh, and this would be SO good turn 1 against Adam - like 6 Hedge Funds in the deck! —
Definitely powerful, but only potentially so. I think I'd only include one or two in a deck, not three. Sucks getting flooded at the beginning of a round with a great card that does nothing at the moment. —
In that respect it is similar to peak efficiency, diversified portfolio, and Mass commercialization. —
This against DLR MaxX? :D —