A lot of initial responses to this card have been "This enables the Blackmail recursion deck that I've been wanting to show off in front of an opponent to instead of playing games!"

Instead, consider the significant upside to a runner whose ability reads "Whenever you make a run, gain 1 credit".

Valencia packs a powerful ability, powerful enough that she is the first Runner to have the downside of a larger minimum deck size, 50 instead of the usual 45.

Cards that give the Corp BP are usually difficult to use; Frame Job requires you forfeit an agenda, Tallie Perrault only works when the Corp plays specific cards and Activist Support is easily trashed. Valencia's ability to give the Corp a BP at the start of the game enables a number of powerful effects without the need to use these cards, and will save you a ton of credits over the course of the game.

Pros

• One free credit each and every time you run. This is a huge boost to your economy on par with (or even better than) Kate.
• Makes one of the most popular agendas, NAPD Contract, worse for the Corp. Not only does the advancement requirement increase but the BP saves you one of the 4 needed to steal it.

Cons

• If the Corp has some way of removing BP in the early game (e.g. Elizabeth Mills or Clone Retirement) then your ability (and many of the cards in your deck) become useless. Investigative Journalism helps to deal with this, though it is rarely useful in the mid-late game.
• Minimum deck size of 50. Makes your deck less consistent - for example, as Valencia you draw 10% of your deck for your opening hand, while as Andromeda you draw 20%. Anarchs have few tutors in-faction so you will need to splash for them or have some way of getting through your deck quickly, such as Inject, Earthrise Hotel or Duggar's.

Combos

• Enables Blackmail to be used without any setup. This is a very powerful card that Corps will have trouble dealing with unless they run cards like Executive Boot Camp or Caprice Nisei.
• Enables Itinerant Protesters, arguably the best Runner current in the game at the moment, to be used without any setup.
• Many Valencia decks splash for Self-modifying Code, Clone Chip or Personal Workshop to use BP credits to install cards. These cards are useful regardless - SMC helps deal with the lack of general tutors in Anarch, while CC lets you get Injected programs out or throw Parasites on ice mid-run.
• Can easily pile on more BP with Investigative Journalism. Spending your whole turn doing this is a big investment, but applying extra BP has a few benefits:
  • Gives you even more credits during runs.
  • Makes Itinerant Protesters even better, and with Vigil you are almost guaranteed a free card every turn.
  • Makes Raymond Flint playable.

I absolutely despise playing against a runner that unless you have things that can effectively counter her, you lose the game. I haven't played a game against Valencia where I didn't have an executive boot camp, or amazon grid, or some sort of way to rez ice early against her, and won. Now with smc being a popular choice of card for her, because of her BARELY LARGER THAN NORMAL DECK SIZE and paige piper being around, you now need to have 2 pieces of ice, a formidable economic lead, and some way to stop the inevitable blackmail runs. It's like she came from a bizarro world where everyone lost 3 influence running executive boot camp and elizabeth mills, gave up on her dimension, and decided to mess things up for everyone here. I am not a fan of her, but it is incredibly effective to play a deck with 3 blackmails, 3 same old thing, and 3 deja vus, if only to stop the corp that trys to play other runners from doing anything. Horrible.