How does Feint interact with Guard? Do I still bypass a second piece of ICE if I break the subroutine on Guard when encountering it first?

I don't see why you wouldn't. Could be worth sending for an answer to be sure.

Yeah, the bypass effect would fail on the first ice, you'd either break it or not, then the second ice would still be part of "the first two pieces of ice," so I say it would still work.

The only reason I could see it fizzling is it could be an 'all or nothing' effect like False Lead. I can't say for sure but I'm inclined to believe that you can bypass the second ICE as long as you break Guard.

I'm curious how the rulings will suss out on this one. I can see both answers being correct, currently lean toward the "False Lead" mechanic - if you can't bypass both, you can't bypass either.

Which then raises the follow up - what if there's only one piece of ice, can you just bypass one if two aren't present.

False lead has the text "if able". Apples and Oranges.

False lead has the text "if able". Apples and Oranges.

I agree but at the same time Feint does not say "up to 2" it simply says 2. I could see it going either way.

Generally speaking, if a card says 'do a thing' you do as much of the thing as you are able (unless the card says otherwise, as in the case of False Lead).

Some examples:

Diesel - if you only have 2 cards left in stack, you still draw them both.

Eureka! - if the card you look at costs less than 9, you still install it (if it can be installed).

HQ Interface - if the Corp only has one card in hand, you still access it (ok, bad example as the additional access is conditional upon the first; but you get the idea).

I'd lean toward Guard ending the bypass all together; if you cannot bypass the first one, there should be no more bypassing... but who knows what the final ruling on this one will be.

I'd lean toward Guard ending the bypass all together; if you cannot bypass the first one, there should be no more bypassing... but who knows what the final ruling on this one will be.

The first person to ask Lukas gets to know first.