Want to get all those juicy agendas you know must be in archives, but you know that the second you -look- in that direction your good friend The Toy Boy will appear and stop you? Do you need to get into that four iced ETF server to stop the corp from winning the game, but you just know there's a mean robot and psychic detective right at the bottom, and you've only got one Political Operative? Do you still hate Museum of History, and will always hate it, and god why does that card even exist, I mean se-

Enter Rumor Mill. For one credit, just one, all those problems go away. Jackson can't protect those agendas anymore. Ash and Caprice can't stop all your hard work running into a server with a couple of credits. And Museums of History won't even get rezzed, unless the corp enjoys the idea of painting a big ol' target on one of their most valuable cards. Let's get into specifics:

-It's an event, and more importantly, a current. So unless you use this card at a really inopportune time, you're most likely getting multiple turns out of it. This is absolutely disastrous for the corp. As soon as you put this down, they need to either immediately score or play a current of their own, because if they get agenda flooded, they're screwed. It's something that can easily happen to every corp, and the one card they have (at the time of writing this), cannot help them. Plus, even if they immediately dispel it next turn, since there's no way for a corp to play their own operations on your turn, at least you can go hog wild during the one you put this down, and that's probably enough to do something game-changing.

-It's 2 influence, so you may not see it in every runner deck, but you'll still see it in a lot of them. If you're a Shaper, what would you rather have? One influence spent on a single use PolOp that can kill one thing once (and cost you more money to do so), or spending one more influence to have a card that might theoretically be around for the rest of the game, and will stop many cards from ruining your day? Influence can be tight, it's true, but people will definitely find ways to make it work, because this effect is worth it.

-Let's just cut to the chase and list all the cards Rumor Mill blanks, shall we? Jackson Howard, Museum of History, Caprice Nisei, Ash 2X3ZB9CY, Jeeves Model Bioroids, Sandburg, Marcus Batty, Georgia Emelyov, Bernice Mai, Mark Yale, Elizabeth Mills, Chairman Hiro, Director Haas, Victoria Jenkins, The Board, Genetics Pavilion, Eliza's Toybox, The Root, Alix T4LB07, Broadcast Square, Cybernetics Court, Hyoubu Research Facility, Ibrahim Salem, Isabel McGuire, Levy University, Lily Lockwell, Raman Rai, Ronald Five, Shannon Claire, Thomas Haas, Toshiyuki Sakai, Worlds Plaza, Akitaro Watanabe, Keegan Lane, Midori, Ryon Knight, Simone Diego, The Twins, Tori Hanzō. That is a lot of cards. Many of them don't see use, but that doesn't matter. Rumor Mill could specifically say "blanks Jackson Howard, Caprice Nisei, and Ash 2X3ZB9CY only" and it'd still be really attractive, to Anarchs at least.

Just a few quick things to note. First, because of the plethora of powerful currents out there on the runner side, corps seem to be more consistently packing at least a current or two of their own, for if nothing else to kill runner currents. So while Rumor Mill could indeed come out on Runner turn one and and stick around until the game is done, that's becoming less and less likely as time goes on. Use it when you need it, not all willy-nilly. Secondly, there is a card coming, and coming soon, called Preemptive Action. It's not exactly the same as Jackson Howard, but it's close enough, and Rumor Mill does nothing to it. I suspect it'll gain widespread usage because of Rumor Mill's existence alone.

I love both this card and The Black File, because they provide new and interesting ways of halting a win from the corp. While cards like these can be good against any kind of deck, they feel like specific answers to everyones' most and least favorite kind of decks, fast advance decks.

It's easy to feel like the shapers got the raw end of the deal, at least at first glance. Sure, the effect is powerful, but it doesn't make a win by scoring impossible, unlike The Black File. There's any number of shenanigans that a corp could pull to get advancement tokens on an agenda (or asset (or ice))) without technically advancing it. And though it may not cost any creds, it's a click and an installed connection being trashed to boot, which is another click and some creds. So this card costs two clicks, and usually somewhere around 1-3 creds for for its cost. Still not all that bad imo, but it's not foolproof, and it'd be a shame to use this before a turn they weren't planning on advancing anyway.

Still, I don't think the card is unusable. If you had a deck that had a large hand size and good drawing power (things Shapers are great at), you could pull off a power play where three turns in a row you could keep the corp from advancing cards. One turn may not have any impact at all, but three in a row? That could be stifling. Especially if you mitigate some of the cost. Use Akshara Sareen as your sacrifice every time (which is both thematically appropriate and horrifying) and now the cost of this card is a single click. Street Peddler is another sacrifice that isn't too bad either, if there's only redundant or unplayable cards on it. Unfortunately this does make The Price of Freedom costs two clicks. Since they're likely to be holding agendas in their hand after all this punishment a Utopia Shard, or Legwork, or both could work very well to punish the corp after your onslaught.

And hey, worst case scenario, they use some of those myriad ways of advancing previously mentioned and score on the turn this card's active anyway. At least you got them to use those resources up now instead of when they're about to win.

In the end, I still don't think it's as good as the file, but it's fun, and I don't think it's bad. I hope someone surprises me and uses it well.

Incredibly powerful effect for a pretty steep cost. Combos well with Salem's Hospitality: rez this when your turn starts, see the problematic pieces they hold, then show 'em a little kindness and ruin the runner's best laid plans.

It's downside, like all assets that require agenda forfeiting, is, well, that thing I just said. It's an asset that requires a pretty steep buy-in, and while 5 creds is a substantial demand to trash from (almost) any runner, as soon as this thing is rezzed, it's the runner's priority 1 target. If this thing is in your deck, absolutely make sure you have some ice or an identity that keeps it around as long as possible.

Or you could just put this and Corporate Town into a Custom Biotics: Engineered for Success deck, use Eliza's Toybox (maybe throw in some Domestic Sleepers for good measure), and go hog wild. Probably won't work too well, but the look on the runner's face as their world comes crumbling down will be beautiful.

Ever wanted to play three Scorched Earths on the same turn that you tag the runner with SEA Source? Now you can, and without having to spend a ridiculous amount of influence/money on a Biotic Labor or Jeeves Model Bioroids (Yes, I'm aware that the latter can be free influence-wise, but gotta remember all the other cards you're Haas cards you're slotting to make it free.)! Two Scorches is usually enough to make sure the runner bites the dust, but three? They're either dead, or out of protection.

That's all there is to say for this card really, and most of what it'll be used for too, I imagine. That being said, that is most certainly enough to guarantee this card will be finding its way into plenty of Weyland, and perhaps even NBN decks. One thing to note though, is that if you are using this card, you better include a way to make your hand size huge, draw a lot of cards on a turn (and without using clicks to do it, preferably), or be able to tutor specific cards from R&D, because no matter how you're using Subcontract, that's three of the cards in your hand.

What an interesting card! "Interesting" does not necessarily mean "good," so let's take an in-depth look at the card and see where our opinion lands.

If we reduce the card down to its barest interaction, devoid of context, you're essentially paying one click and one card to bring the corp's agenda score down by -1, since most of the time the corp doesn't ice up archives. Unless, of course, you're Noise, or they're Industrial Genomics, or the cards Keyhole/Security Testing/Sneakdoor Beta are on the field.

That's not too bad, all things considered. But how useful is it really? Time to actually add some context and see. Here's the interactions and strategies you'll need to keep in mind when considering this card:

-For Anarchs with MU issues, this may be one of the best ways of dragging out the game... In other words, halting Fast Advance decks. Best case scenario, they'll purge and destroy your graffiti when they're at 4 or 5 points, signalling that they more than likely have an agenda in hand. Worst case, they score all the points they need and then purge after, which buys you a single turn at most. Thankfully, this is FA we're talking about here. That single turn could very easily mean the difference between a win or loss.

-Playing a second (or third) of these when one is already in the corp scoring area is probably a waste. Since a single purge is all it takes to get rid of all copies of Graffiti, unless -1 point isn't going to stop the win by itself, two or three of these is a overkill. Still, you using two or three clicks to make them use a whole turn isn't that bad of a trade, really. But definitely not a great one when you consider that you also used two or three cards on top of that. And even worse if they don't even use their whole turn and just whip out CVS.

-On the note of CVS, this card doesn't seem all that good in an already virus heavy deck. For example, if you're Noise, or any other Anarch who'll obviously be using a ton of viruses (ahem), the corp is already waiting to bust that CVS out at the earliest opportunity to ruin your day and set you back. So since they're already counting on purging viruses, perhaps multiple times over the course of the game, you could almost argue you're wasting clicks and cards to encourage them to do something they were going to do anyway! However, if this was in, say, a MaxX deck, where the only interaction CVS had was with Political Graffiti itself, the corp is probably likely to toss out such a card, thinking it to be useless. Thus ensuring three clicks will be devoted to getting rid of it. Nice.

-It's an event. Not a program, or a resource, like Clot or The Source. This means you can use Same Old Thing to put it right back in the corp's scoring area as soon as they purge it. This also means that unlike Clot or Source, it has hardly any ways to tutor it, while those other two have so many, such as SMC or Hostage. It also misses out on the instant speed interaction that Clot has with SMC and Clone Chip.

-This card has anti-synergy with Iain Stirling, depending on the board state. Which is funny enough in itself, but definitely begs the question: why on earth are you spending his precious few influence on this?

-Finally, and most importantly/unfortunately, the corp can very easily not care about this card, even if all three are in their scoring area. This card doesn't close scoring windows or make them harder to open. It doesn't actually take away points they've amassed either really. It just makes it take a little longer for them to activate. Heck, if the corp's main plan is flatline, they'll just see this and laugh. This card hardly even exists until game point, and then at most it just makes the game take one turn longer than it would have. Which it might not even do, if in that last desperate glory run to score you hit a CVS, allowing them to win on your turn. Talk about painful.

So far be it from me to render judgment over whether or not this card is "good," but from where I'm sitting, it ain't. In an Anarch deck it barely slows things down, and not even as reliably as their other in faction card, Clot. Outside of Anarch, you're barely slowing things down for a whopping three influence (or more)! I don't expect this card will see a lot of play. Perhaps some, but not a lot.