Could you elaborate a little on that a little?
Well, best case scenario for Crim is that you have Desperado and Security Testing out and the corp has an unprotected server. In that case, you can click for 3 creds.
So let’s say you:
Desperado + Sec Test
Draw (draw sports hopper)
Install Sports Hopper and use it
That’s the same number of clicks as just drawing 3 times.
The only time it would be better than drawing 3 times would be in games when you have 50 creds and are never going to use them all. But you don’t want to include a card with a marginal efficiency gain specifically for matches that you’re probably going to win anyway, do you?
There are also plenty of other advantages to clicking for draw:
It’s more efficient with Symmetrical Visage out
You can’t always click for 3 credits
You may get the card you were looking for on the first draw, saving you the second and third click
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I don’t think you can count the drawing of the hopper like that in your analysis (unless its’ card no. is > 45). Effectively it is +1 card for a cost of three credits, which can be situationally good, especially as it’s instant speed and there’s a lot of synergy.
Why wouldn’t you count the cost of drawing the card? If you had left hopper out of your deck, you would’ve drawn the next card, which would’ve been the first of the 3 click-for-draws needed to match sports hopper.
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Earthrise is so much better than Hopper. Especially with Career Fair in faction.
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I suppose your right. I wasn’t counting the click to draw Hopper. That makes it a lot less good
hopper isnt a draw engine card. it is plascrete with some additional utility so it isnt a dead card (link and/or exchanging credits for cards at 1:1). its not ive had worse, but its seems ok
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I thought sports hopper was meant to be plascrete 2.0. And then I decided it’s really only that in anarch, who already have wyldside, and IHW. I was going to run sports hopper instead of plascrete in my Andy deck, but decided that it wasn’t worth it. Holding onto 5 cards at the end of your turn instead of 4+ is pretty hard nowadays, and just a single loss through sports hopper from double scorch would have me flip tables. So yeah, defs not worth it except for decks with IHW imo
But does your Plascrete enable Underworld Contacts and cloud breakers? 
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well, if we count the click spent drawing a card, and playing a card, then even Diesel is only coming out 1 card ahead. I think your analysis is a little too harsh on the sports hopper.
That said, I don’t think the card is particularly good on its own as a means of drawing cards. Unless you are benefiting from the +link, or are using it as a Plascrete with additional utility, or some other synergy (e.g. Geist or Technical Writer) I don’t think it’s a great addition.
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I’m always surprised people’s go-to comparison for Sports Hopper isn’t Bookmark.
Card’s not all bad though. If you didn’t fight the trace on Midseasons, it’s the best “Icebreaker” for Resistor in faction, right? Access to Globalsec just gets trashed.
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Yes, Diesel only comes out 1 click ahead, but gaining a click is pretty amazing. If Diesel’s text said ‘when you draw this, gain a click and draw another card’ then every deck would have 3 copies, no?
I’m only being hard on sports hopper being played primarily as a draw engine… If you’re using it as a plascrete replacement that you occasionally use for card draw when you have a ton of creds and are sure your opponent doesn’t run damage, it might be okay. However, as firesa pointed out the tricky thing is always staying at 5 cards at the end of your turn. Time will tell how many decks it replaces plascrete in.
Sports hopper is only a “draw engine” card if you can offset the install cost somehow. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother with it at all.
Also, you know mini faction runners.
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At the risk of sounding obvious, with Geist and any amount of Tech Traders and Technical Writers, Sports Hopper becomes rather cost effective.
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Link is quite good these days, i would definetly run this over plascrete.
Agreed. Also I’m seeing much more net damage than meat damage these days. Plascrete won’t save you from Ronin, or help you recover after Snare.
Work compression is often much more important than raw efficiency. With Hopper, you’re effectively paying 3 credits and a click to give yourself clickless draw later.
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Having the Supplier in your list makes Sports Hopper more appealing, and the Supplier already shows up in the lists that want to combo the thing with Underworld Contacts.
A deck that Hostages for Supplier and runs 3 Underworld Contacts, 3 of these, other useful Hardware, and perhaps and Inside Man or two? Seems like an interesting archetype if future cards enable it. Not right now though, I think optimized Geist builds are moving too fast for it and there’s not enough useful hardware filling in the gaps yet.
I’d also venture that The Supplier might be pretty solid with Sports Hoppers as well. I think nordrunner had a cool Andromeda build that used Data Folding, Underworld Contact, and The Supplier for economy. Sports Hopper might be a nice cheap way to keep using that engine but make drawing for more cards a little less painful.
edit: woops, gotta finish reading the thread first, yes very good idea @popsofctown totally didn’t steal that 
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Supplier is at its best with effects you don’t need to get right this second. If you use it to install Underworld Contacts, for instance, it only really reduces the install cost by 1 since you missed out on the credit that Underworld Contacts would have given you if you paid more to install it faster. Which means that particular use of Supplier made Supplier only as good as Underworld Contacts HIMSELF, gaining you one credit for that turn.
But when you use him with effects where you can truly not need the benefit of the installed thing until a later turn, he’s a Daily Casts that never dies, which is pretty cool.