I really want to like this card. It has the potential to be a huge economic swing. It's possible to turn off a Tollbooth or something that costs even more with this. It's possible to use it in combination with something like Inside Job or Feint to get in once and then get back in again later when they can't re-rez because they don't have the money.

It must be admitted, though, that this is a win-more card. It sucks when you can't get in already. You will have a hard time in any come back from behind situation when using this card. If you draw it in a situation where you are already behind the curve, it could possibly leave you worse off since literally any other card in your deck would be better.

On the other hand, if you are already dominating and they rez some 8 coster hoping to stabilize, then you can just shut it down for 0 and be even farther ahead.

Cards like that tend to be bad usages of deck space. You want to be using cards that are good regardless of the game state. Sure Gamble is pretty good if you are ahead or behind, for instance. That makes Sure Gamble a better card than this.

It should also be pointed out that many times you want to use this, you might be forced into using something else instead. That possibility really hurts this card. If you use Same Old Thing to pull out an Account Siphon at the start of the turn, you will likely end with 2 tags and 2 clicks. Do you use Emergency Shutdown? If you do, you might get hit with Scorched Earth and lose. Maybe it's safer to just clear the tags and miss your golden opportunity to turn off that Curtain Wall. Just another thing that makes it that much harder for this card to shine.

Ultimately, the deck is stacked against this card being dominant. Cards like Sneakdoor Beta can really help it, but there is something to be said for having to devote credits, clicks, and such to get rid of the downsides of a card that's already not the best thing since sliced bread in some large percentage of game states.

A card that works well with many criminal directions, and a card that helps illustrate the strategy criminal’s sometimes follow: A successful criminal doesn’t need breakers. Emergency shutdown can be a brutal economic hit to a corp, especially when following Account Siphon. In combination with a lot of the other HQ focused cards that Criminal possess, it is not hard to make use of it.

It is always going to cost the corp something when this card is used, but the problem may become that it may only cost a few credits. Some corp archetypes have very cheap ICE and that is possibly why Emergency Shutdown hasn’t seen a solid spotlight. Not that it hasn’t been seen - It certainly works well, especially with ICE like Tollbooth being extremely popular.

After Diversion of Funds, this is an iconic card to wage economic warfare on the corp. It combo best with Sneakdoor Beta and it become useful from the midgame to the late game. At an early stage of the game, there is usually few ices that are rezzed, which probably would not give you good targets to unrez.

This card can be compared best with Tranquilizer and "Baklan" Bochkin.

The advantage over Tranquilizer is that Emergency Shutdown does not require any , cannot be trashed by getting tagged and cost 0 to play. But it need a run specifically on HQ to get enabled. While you can play Tranquilizer on the first click on any ice.

The advantage over "Baklan" Bochkin is that it does not give you a tag and does not require multiple runs to accumulate enough value to be used. Also, unlike "Baklan" Bochkin, it cannot be used mid-run to derez an ice that is encountered.

Finally, at 2 influences, it is easier to splash in another faction the its two counterparts (both of which cost 3 influences).

You should use this if you want to do economic warfare on the corp. Because forcing the corp to rez a second time an expensive ice is usually not worth it. Any ice that cost 5 and more is a great target for this event. But I would play Diversion of Funds before Emergency Shutdown for economic warfare, if a choice had to be made, unless you have Sneakdoor Beta in your deck (and then again, I would think hard before I favor it over Diversion of Funds).

You should look at Tread Lightly to combo with Emergency Shutdown for greater effect.

Nice art, funny quote, still good after so many years being in the card pool.