As you may have heard, The Ninja Scot and Dr. Telek R'Mor have decided to do a one-page review of every card in Holodeck Adventures.  That's right, all 131 cards!  Better set aside lots of reading time for this…  (DTRM is doing evens and TNS is doing odds)  The opinions, of course, are those of the authors :-)

Card #26: Holoprogram: 221B Baker Street

The only Holoprogram which has both a seed or play on ship or facility or seed or play on table, 221B Baker Street provides downloads of three different type of personnel: card draws (Sherlock Holmes and Watson), free reports (Professor Moriarty and Regina Bartholomew), and points (Madam Pulaski).

Despite downloading speed up cards, 221B Baker Street is not a speed card in and out of itself. It takes time to pull the personnel out for it. While each card it downloads has its own individual review (go read those, too), Sherlock Holmes and Watson’s card drawing abilities fit into most decks. I’m not here to testify that Holmes and Watson are the best card drawing mechanics in the game (they’re not), but their power is definitely lackluster if you can’t them out early, which the Holoprogram allows you to do.

However, the very card drawing ability which provides the downloads of Holmes and Watson, also provides a powerful free reporting mechanic: Regina Bartholomew and Professor Moriarty. When combined together, you can place two personnel under this Holoprogram, adding the Hologram icon to them, and then proceed to report any other copies of them for free. Like Delta Quadrant Spatial Scission, this provides a method of dropping personnel with impunity. However, how much of a weakness is the addition of the Hologram icon? While it makes doing planets much harder, it allows any personnel you’ve been placed under 221B Baker Street to pop back the turn after their demise.  The danger with this is over abuse: if you run too many personnel under 221B Baker Street, a well timed Big Picture will be a detrimental blow.

The speed of 221B Baker Street is another concern. To run it correctly (read: have a continuing supply of personnel to place under it and to play) requires at least card plays (downloads): Sherlock Holmes (card draws), Regina Bartholomew, and Moriarty. While In The Zone will slow down the game enough to the point where taking this much time won’t be as harmful as it was just but a month ago, in the three turns it takes you to place personnel to set up your two free reports a turn (which isn’t that much) will pale in comparison to three turns your opponent took to actually get personnel into play via other methods (and not to mention the fact to run 221B Baker Street’s free reports takes at least two seed slots).

In conclusion, a card which will be used by many to download Holmes and Watson, simply because their inclusion harms almost no deck. However, the use of Moriarty and Bartholomew will be less seen and more of a variable on the playing environment as yet another interesting (yet untested) deck introduced by Holodeck Adventures.

Combo(s):
Holoprogram: 221B Baker Street + Madam Pulaski = She’s one of the best cards in the entire set, if you ask me. Seeing as her best place to be is the Delta Quadrant, 221B is the way to get her there.
 

27) Holoprogram: Deadwood
Incident – Seeds or plays on your ship with a Holodeck.  Sheriff Worf and Deputy Rozhenko may report aboard.  If both aboard: location here is span + X for opponent (where X = number of your SECURITY personnel aboard, maximum 4), opponent must have more SECURITY here than you to initiate battle here, and, once each turn, Sheriff Worf may nullify any dilemma requiring SECURITY he just encountered here.

        The dynamic twosome is the only thing that makes this Holoprogram work.  While either one can be downloaded easily via Defend Homeworld, the other one will have to use something such as a Q-Tent or something similar. This would suggest that you have both in the draw deck and one in the Tent, that way it’s more reliable to get them both out.  But is it worth it?

        Well let’s look at the first option – Span + X for opponent.  While this is nice as a preventative way to avoid the traditional group gang-up of weapons, it doesn’t do anything to stop a Wormhole'd Kazon Warship, laden with ships, which is a far more efficient and effective means to blow up your opponent’s ship.

        Second option, however, is much more effective.  Once they’re both onboard, they have to have more Security than you to attack your ship.  If you figure on a Defend Homeworld for either Sheriff Worf or Deputy Rozhenko, card play for the other, ASP for Security and two AMS personnel that have Security and you have 5 Security for your opponent to overcome in order to blow you up.  If you keep enough Security on board, it won’t matter what kind of Weapons your opponent has for he can’t attack you.  Outside of having more Security, the only way that you could nullify this is with Frank Hollander, who can cause this program to be suspended.

        The last option is much like Dr. McCoy’s special skill; Sheriff Worf can nullify any Security-based dilemma he just encountered once each turn.  That can be anything from Friendly Fire to Hanonian Land Eel to Kazon Bomb and many more.  That in itself is quite nice but the drawback is that you need both the Deputy and the Sheriff in play, which can make all of these things go bye-bye if either die.

        Deadwood, if you make a deck around it, is probably one of the best anti-armada cards in the game, provided that you can 1) Get Sheriff Worf and his son out on turn 1 and 2) Have a ship which you can seed or play it on, whether it’s seeded or downloaded with Holodeck Door.

Combos – Sheriff Worf + Deputy Rozhenko + assorted other start up cards + Husnock Ship + Husnock OP + Holoprogram- Deadwood + Empok Nor – Have Worf nullify Ferengi Infestation, have your other start-up cards resolve Friendly Fire and Oops.

Combos – Sheriff Worf + Deputy Rozhenko + Opponent’s ship under Cytherians + Holoprogram: Deadwood + 2 other Security + in-between the far end of the spaceline + large span mission – Your Cytherian trip just got a whole lot longer, perhaps permanently stuck behind the Holoprogram'd ship.
 

Card #28: Holoprogram: Noah’s Mountain Retreat

Gotta love those Holoprograms. While not always the most powerful card type (well, more like sub-type), they’re always interesting, at the very least. Noah’s Mountain Retreat is no exception: at first it seems fairly mundane and somewhat weak, but digging deeper will reveal that there is some definite potential there.

Looking on the surface, the Retreat offers downloads of a wide variety of characters. The most useful is probably Secret Agent Julian Bashir, who provides a decent special skill along with the nice OFFICER (I hate Maglock), MEDICAL, and a decent special download. Mr. Garak has some interesting uses and most of the Holograms have skills that can be put to good use (except possibly Falcon). Check out the separate reviews on those personnel for more details. (Michael and I put a lot of effort into this, so, read those!)

The other function is a bit more interesting. Lets face it: despite some interesting uses, personnel like Dr. Noah, Falcon, Duchamps, Anastasia, and Honey Bare have personas who possess something more than intriguing special skills or questionable in usefulness downloads: skills. All you need is a Support Personnel (for the Bajorans, that’d be Anara) or the mission specialist Hogan, and you’re in business. Might as well look at The List ™:

Dr. Noah: The basic Benjamin Sisko is very nice, simply because he commands a bunch of ships. Draw one, download Noah, replace him at start of turn, and drop his ship for a good, sold vessel. The Emissary is very nice for Bajorans, however, his special download could potentially save a Dominion deck a seed slot. Lt. Sisko isn’t the best personnel to download, though, since he merely copies the skills of his predecessor.

Falcon: Either “basic” Miles O’Brien persona is sold. One provides some decent facility defense and double ENGINEER, however the other has the much more needed SECURITY. Ensign O’Brien’s download is interesting for an Original Series deck, though duplicated on several others. (Do note, though, that the Mountain Retreat as a whole is a definite bonus to Original Series decks, with all personnel that can be swapped having Original Series personas, many of which special downloads.)

Duchamps: Personally, I think that this Holographic persona is very nice, but if you insist on switching him out, don’t really go with any version of the “basic” Worf persona, who supplies mediocre skills, a matching commander status taken by Sisko, or a bad special skill to combat a rarely used deck (and badly combat at that).  Worf, Son of Mogh has a bit more potential, mainly because of his matching commander status of a powerful K’Vort. Sheriff Worf, though is great, thanks to his easy set up for Deadwood.

Anastasia: Her “basic” persona provides a powerful Orb Icon, coupled with a way to guarantee the second Resistance for Bajoran Resistance Cell (after downloading Shakaar with Defend Homeworld). Her second persona, Kira, is really nothing, more or less same skills and a tri-affiliation useful for little.

Honey Bare: One of the best ones to use. Jadzia Dax has a solid skill base, no doubt, useful for mission attempts. Same (to a lesser extent) for Ezri Dax. Her Bajoran person has an even better skill selection (SCIENCE/ENGINNER) and an Orb Icon. Where she really shines, though, is as a Klingon. This is about the only way to guarantee out a second personnel for Blood Oath on turn two, without having to draw anything. This should be an interesting jump start for various deck designs.

So, an ability that benefits the Federation, Bajorans, and Klingons. However, there is one more hidden aspect on it: it seeds or plays on any ship or facility. While it’s very hard to pull off (Reactor Overload and Intruder Alert!/Intruder Force Field will put some damper in the process), it’s got to be worth it to try it and see the look on your opponent’s face when you draw cards for a few turns and then download the Holoprogram with Holodeck Door and proceed to use it to get Secret Agent Julian Bashir and his ‘45 Dom Perignon to stun a personnel and hopefully stun another. It’s worth a shot…

Combo(s):
Holoprogram: Noah’s Mountain Retreat + Professor Honey Bare + swapped out for Jadzia Dax (Blaze of Glory persona) = Best download that this card offers, making a powerful Klingon archtype even better.
 

29) Holoprogram: The Fortress of Doom
Incident – Seeds or plays on your ship with a Holodeck.  Once each turn, you may download Chaotica (or any card with his name in lore) aboard.  While Chaotica is aboard (and Captain Proton is not at same location), opponent may not attempt mission at this location unless they have a (HOLO) personnel participating in the attempt.

        First, the striking part about this program is that you can download any of the following personnel – Lonzak, Chaotica and Archania as well as the equipment Satan’s Robot without any expenditure of cards at all. Granted, it’s only four cards, with various uses but personnel are personnel, with skills and attributes.  Nonetheless, it can download the main person who makes the Holoprogram work out to its fullest potential without sacrificing your card play.

        The second function is intent on making you use Holograms when you attempt any mission as long as Chaotica is there.  Of course, you can use Captain Proton to get around that as well as blowing up the ship that it’s on but barring that, you’re going to have to use Holograms.  This can be good against people who don’t have easy access to Holograms (basically everyone except the Hirogen, Federation and the Ferengi) although anyone can with either Non-Aligned ships or Holodeck Door.  Unfortunately, since it only prevents attempting missions, it does nothing against the Borg.

        Chaotica’s skill of returning a hologram to hand is where the Fortress gains a little bit more strength, essentially requiring you to use at least two Holograms just to attempt a mission.  Again, if you aren’t planning on using Holograms, this could be a problem but with all the holographic mechanics, it’s likely that they’ll use at least a couple (Vic Fontaine comes to mind immediately)

        Frankly, there isn’t a great deal of use out of the card itself, which is why the download for free function was, in my opinion, on the card to begin with.  There really aren’t many great overall functions with this card and it’s a card that can be
easily meta-gamed around.  I mean, look at Baker Street, which can make people Holograms.  How many more do you really need?

        Probably the only redeeming factor is how easy it is to use DQSS with this program.  Since you can download whomever you want, all you have to do is download a copy of a card that you have in hand for free, then Scission that person.  Instant DQSS fun for the whole family.

Combos – Defend Homeworld + Holodeck-enabled ship + Holoprogram: The Fortress of Doom – Instant War Council without needing a card play.  Download any Treachery x2 from Defend Homeworld and then download Chaotica for your 4 Treachery requirements.

Combos – Prepare the Prisoner + Holoprogram: The Fortress of Doom – Download Satan’s Robot, then recycle it with Prepare the Prisoner for essentially a free card draw each turn.  It’s especially good for Hirogen to convert the card draw with Hirogen Hunt.
 
 

Card #30: Holoprogram: The Office Of Dixon Hill

One thing Holoprograms certainly don’t lack is creativity. From battling counter to various downloads of unique and different personnel, they can all almost fit somewhere in some deck.

The Office of Dixon Hill (TOODH) provides something that all decks want: free plays and/or points. To begin with, it is totally a ship bound Holoprogram, meaning that for most players it’ll be seeded on the ship you choose to seed at the Caretaker’s Array. It can be downloaded by the Holodeck Door, but because most Hologram decks will be based in the Delta Quadrant as is, it’s a good choice to seed, if you're using the Array.

Downloading Feelix Leech in place of a card draw will give you easy access to an extremely specialized personnel. His ability to prevent your opponent from utilizing their skills where present could be sort of interesting: play a bunch of Kivas Fajos, load your ship up with him and move him over to your opponent’s location. Target Coordinates or even a basic Dominion deck will let you beam his multiples copies onto opponent’s ship (making it near impossible to kill them all) with a Holodeck and then… you can watch as they erase them all with Reactor Overload.

Lets face it, Feelix Leech’s best use is to get the Big Bad into play: Cyrus Redblock. All you need to do is be battled at least once in the game and, while this isn’t that easy to accomplish (especially since Rouge Borg and Borg Ship dilemmas won’t count as an attack), in a primary Holodeck based deck, you can always just play a Holodeck Door to download Cyrus out. Once Cyrus is out, despite having the huge ability to make powerful dilemmas even better, you can begin to “request the item”.

The first thing to realize about “requesting the item” is that it’s basically a Parallax Arguers, but for more then just Events. I’d say on a card-to-card basis, you're almost always gong to run into an opponent who will choose to give you the five points instead of facing the possibility of a free, well, anything (card advantage over bonus points always seems to be more powerful) and an additional card draw to go with it. Regardless, five free points a turn is nothing to ignore. Don’t rely on it for ten straight turns, though, for an Intermix Ratio will likely be hiding in someone’s Tent. The other disadvantage here is they’re going to force you place a card out of play. If they start to catch out that your just wagering cards to get out of your hand, they may give you the free card plays. Is it then worth risking a valuable personnel, hoping/thinking that they’ll fall for that ruse? Ah, the many guesses that are inherit to this card are fairly interesting, but the risk attached to it can sometimes to be too great.

In conclusion, the possibilities are not as endless as the card appears to be: I’d put a pretty safe guarantee on the fact that the majority of players will simply give you free points until they can hit you with an Intermix Ratio. The real power in this Holoprogram is that most players will probably be running Cyrus Redblock, a very powerful personnel. If using him, why not utilize him to the fullest and add in his Holoprogram, too?

Combo(s):

Holoprogram: The Office of Dixon Hill + Parallax Arguers = Free plays and/or points. Never can go wrong with that.