Always Have a Backup Plan

Always Have a Backup Plan 2[credit]

Event: Run
Influence: 3

Run any server. When that run ends, if it was unsuccessful, you may run the attacked server again, ignoring any additional costs to run. During the second run, whenever you encounter the last piece of ice you encountered during the first run, bypass it.

“Everyone told me she was reliable in a pinch.”
—Az McCaffrey
Illustrated by Olie Boldador
Decklists with this card

Downfall (df)

#11 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Downfall
Rulings
  • Updated 2019-04-27

    NISEI Downfall Release Notes [NISEI Rules Team]

    If the last ice you encountered during the first run of Always Have a Backup Plan is swapped to a different server, uninstalled, or derezzed, what happens during the second run?

    In either case, the Runner does not encounter that piece of ice, and thus no ice is bypassed.

    If the first run with Always Have a Backup Plan is deflected to a new server, which server does the Runner run the second time?

    The second run is made against the server that is being attacked when the first run ends.

Reviews

(System core 2019 perspective)

When I first looked at this card, I thought to myself "wow, this looks like a worse version of Inside Job or Spear Phishing". But then I thought about it a bit harder and realized that this card actually takes care of the one annoying case spear phishing and inside job fail at: what if the big ice is in the middle of the server?

Quite often, when playing against criminal, the Corp will sandwich their big ice between two lower cost ice to ensure the big ice is not bypassed by the spear phishing/inside job suite. But that's where this card comes in. You can pay through the first ice, hit an "end the run" subroutine of that middle ice, and use the second run from this card to bypass that big annoying ice and move on to the tiny innermost ice.

Since jacking out is considered an unsuccessful run, this card has great synergy with Flip Switch. If you see a scary sentry or any other big ice whose "end the run" subroutine is non-existent or after scary subroutines, you can use flip switch to jack out while encountering the scary ice (assuming the ice does not have a scary "when encountered" effect) and then bypass that ice during the second run part of this card

A bit of a jank but interesting effect: if there is a semi annoying 2+ strength ice in the outer side of the server which you can go through without the aid of this card, you can use this card in conjunction with Chisel to lower the strength of that ice by two within a single click, making it much softer and easier to destroy. Similarly, this card can create a lot of problems for Sandstone due to this exact reasoning

This is my first ever card review. Please let me know if there is a way I can improve myself. I would like to write reviews for more downfall cards from a system core perspective, but would like people's go ahead before I continue to do so.

(System Core 2019 era)
It also saves clicks when faced with "End the run" effects like Border Control and combos with The Turning Wheel for extra tokens. —
You have my go ahead! —
Thanks Whitemage7, I will make you proud :p —
@NOR5E thanks for the input. You got my jank engines all fired up —