Oppo Research

Oppo Research 2[credit]

Operation: Terminal - Gray Ops
Influence: 2

Play only if the Runner stole or trashed a Corp card during their last turn.

After you resolve this operation, your action phase ends.

Give the Runner 2 tags.

Threat 3 → You may pay 5[credit] to give the Runner 2 tags. (This ability is active if any player has 3 or more agenda points.)

Illustrated by Ferenc Patkós
Decklists with this card

The Automata Initiative (tai)

#55 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Rulings
  • Updated 2023-10-04

    Does Oppo Research’s threat ability allow the Corp to give the Runner a total of 4 tags?

    Yes.

  • Updated 2023-10-04

    When resolving Oppo Research, if the Corp chooses to pay 5 to give the runner 2 more tags, can the Runner use No One Home to attempt to avoid all 4 tags?

    No. No One Home will trigger after taking the first 2 tags, before the Corp pays to give the Runner 2 more tags

  • Updated 2023-10-04

    If NBN: Reality Plus plays Oppo Research, can the Corp gain credits from their identity before paying 5 for the threat ability?

    Yes.

  • Updated 2023-10-04

    If the Corp plays Oppo Research when the threat level is 4 or higher, does playing Oppo Research still end the action phase?

    Yes, the threat abilities are active in addition to any other abilities on the card. Threat abilities do not replace any other abilities.

Reviews

NBN: Reality Plus can use this card's second ablity with only 5 credits(Give the runner 2 tags triggers R+, then a window to pay 5credit to give the runner another two tags open). Useful to know when you're running Bladderwort asset spam.

(The Automata Initiative era)

Oppo Research is a “pseudo-reprisalterminal multi-tagger.

It has two modes:

  • a cheaper/earlier-game, but weaker, mode: 2 tags for $2; and
  • a stronger, but pricier/later-game, mode: 4 tags for $7 (and threat level 3).

For example, if they steal a single 5/3 on even their first turn, then you can quadruple-tag them on your second turn, because both the play-requirement and the threat-gate get satisfied (unless they forfeited it, or bankrupted you, or so on).

The play-requirement is looser than “they stole” (eg. Distributed Tracing) or “they trashed” (eg. Threat Assessment), but tighter than “they succeeded” (eg. Public Trail) or “they ran” (ie. HNN).

Compare:


Flavor: Opposition research is an organization (the Corp) collecting "biographical, legal, criminal, medical, educational, or financial" information on an individual (the Runner) to discredit them.

en.wikipedia.org

(The Automata Initiative era)

The coordinates on the card point to a corner building on the Praça do Patriarca (Patriarca Square) in São Paolo: geohack.toolforge.org

Watch out Loup, they got you tracked! That double- or even quadruple-tag can really hurt.

(Rebellion Without Rehearsal era)

I've never used this card before but it's clearly broken. Here's why:

Hard-Hitting News was an extremely broken card. This card was notorious for breaking the game. This card is not much different, except for the fact that it's better, because you don't need to win a trace anymore. Now the runner either uses their whole turn removing tags or they'll die to End of the Line or get slammed with Hypoxia. (Compare this concept with BOOM!) Also NBN: Reality Plus is crazy enough.

(Rebellion Without Rehearsal era)
44

Well, in the case of HHN the condition was doing a successful run. Here the runner needs to either trash or steal. Also HHN could land in turn 2 full 4 tags. Here to land the 4 tags you need to wait until thread 3 so the runner (may) have some tools do defend themself