My first thought was that this card was broken as all hell. It's like a Magnum Opus for the corp, except less than half the cost and without the MU restriction. How is that even remotely fair?

But I thought about it, and realized that the actual point of comparison is Melange Mining Corp., because they are both cheap economy assets with low trash costs that give a good return on time investment.

The typical Melange play goes something like this: Install 3rd click. Runner leaves it alone. You spend 1 to rez, click three times and get 7 credits. The runner then immediately runs that server, and pays the 1 credit to trash it. So, the net result is: Corp spends 4 clicks, gains a net 6 credits, runner spends 1 click, and 1 credit plus whatever it costs to break the ice protecting MMC.

If instead of Melange, the corp had rezzed Capital Investors and clicked it 3 times, the result would be: Corp spends 4 clicks, gains a net 4 credits, runner spends 1 click and 2 credits plus cost to break the ice. Essentially the same play, with the corp getting 2 less and the runner spending 1 more.

Generally, that's not a favorable exchange, especially outside of Weyland if you dropped influence on Capital Investors, when you could have had Melange or Private Contracts for free instead. So, for Capital Investors to be a good choice, you need it to stay up for at least one turn after rezzing and using it. Even then, if all you will be doing is clicking it three times every turn, then Melange still offers a better return per click. You need to be taking advantage of the flexibility in clicking it, which means you can't be desperate for money, which in turn means you either need a very safe server to protect this asset or need some other supplemental source of income.

So perhaps the best comparison isn't Melange after all. It's Sundew, another 2-cost, 2-to-trash long-term economy asset. Runners will immediately see the dangers of both Sundew and Melange and will trash them at the first available opportunity, and until they do the corp will be rolling in cash.

Capital Investors is a solid tool in the corp economic kit, one that will surely find a home somewhere, but is far from the only or best option out there.

The key advantage of this card over something like Melange is flexibility. Melange forces you to give up your entire turn doing nothing but getting credits. Capital Investors allows you to get some credits and then do something else.

This is particularly useful when you've got 6 cards in hand and would like to play or install one/some of them rather than toss them away. If you've got influence to spare in ETF or NEH, it also allows you to get 4 credits AND trigger your ID ability each turn.

That being said, you have to carefully weigh up the influence cost of splashing this outside of Weyland. Still, it's not unheard of for people to run GRNDL Refineries out of faction, and this is a strong alternative as a credit-making machine that allows you flexibility.

This falls into the category of fair things to get the runner to run. In Weyland putting the runner into the spot of "run and die, don't run, and fall behind irreparably" is right in the game plan. We're in the age of assets and this is something fair, in faction, and very easy to not have a down side. Runner clicks are worth about 2cr, so even just installing this is a good 'net swing' if the runner runs it. 1 click for the corp to get the runner to spend 1 click running it, and probably trashing it for fear of gain 4cr next turn and possibly more if iced. Probably a fair 1 of in most decks that aren't blue-sun.