This card makes SO MUCH MONEY. It's 3 better than Daily Casts, it's the profit of 2 Sure Gambles for one click, it's like clicking Kati Jones 6.5 times, it out-earns Armitage Codebustingeven if you only value the clicks at a credit each.
Yet I'm skeptical that it's worthwhile unless you have a LOT of synergy going. It's pretty likely that playing this ends up forcing a little inefficiency into your play pattern. Even if it doesn't outright make you discard some good cards, it may lead you to spend clicks inefficiently, such as holding draw events until your hand size comes up, clicking for one credit when you'd rather draw, and generally moving more slowly through your deck. It doesn't take much of that to wipe out the financial difference between this and a normal economy card. If running this over Daily Casts means I'm one turn slower to bring out a Datasucker, Parasite, or Ice Carver, that could easily cost me 2-3 more in ice breaks and wipe out extra profit.
Nor is this a particularly fast tempo card. You have to wait 5 turns to get the full payoff here. It takes 3 turns to catch up with Sure Gamble and it doesn't get significantly better than Daily Casts until that 5th turn payout. It's really hard to use this with Stimhacks, one of the best cards to get you up and running quickly. So while you might think "I'm fine discarding some stuff that couldn't had late game payoff because I need to get going now," it actually takes a while for this come through for you, and if it's denying you other late-game tools and setup, you're not necessarily that far ahead.
Worse, reducing your hand size plays directly into the game plans of many strong and/or popular corp decks. Lab Rat tends to give you several turns of vulnerability to single Scorched Earth, and perhaps even to double Neural EMP. It means several turns of needing to draw up before running so you won't die to Snare! or Fetal AI. Several turns of extreme vulnerability to Mushin No Shin Project Junebug or Cerebral Overwriter, and of highly profitable Microtransactions. It allows Echo Memvaults: Reality Reimagined to FA Mindmap Optimization. Oh yeah, Cybernetics Division: Humanity Upgraded generally makes it unplayable.
That said, if you can play this and Guinea Pig same turn then you get a gratifying combo of money up front and over time. Respirocytes for value is also solid, letting you dump 1 card from your hand now and then draw 2 after discarding to zero. If you install this during the corp turn off a Street Peddler, then you never have to discard down to zero. Or, host it on The Supplier for a start of turn install that leaves you with 4 clicks to play your other stuff or host it on the same guy. Stash stuff on a Personal Workshop or more Street Peddlers to keep a pseudo-hand full of options with an empty grip, then pawn him turn 4 to accelerate the payoff. Use Multitasking to plop this along with something else to drop three cards in one click.
