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 #38: I’ve Been Waiting For You

Ick. I mean, ick. It’s kind of sad that they put beautiful pictures (like the Trullux) on worthless cards, but they put images one can barely stand to look at (take for instance, say, I dunno, this card) and make them useful. Yup, it’s a sad fact: I’ve Been Waiting For You is a very useful card. It’s versatility, which is never a bad thing with a card. It enhances Holograms, a “sub-affiliation” with a handful of other support cards, and it’s got two key words on it: suspends play.

Looking at the first two facts first, I’ve Been Waiting For You’s versatility lies in the fact that it’s personnel management. A lot of personnel in the game have limited uses, but their skills as a whole aren’t used. Think of them like living events, and the Holograms especially have a lot of those themselves. If you run into an opponent using repetition in their dilemma combos (SCIENCE denial, Diplomacy denial, etc…), Vic Fontaine won’t be useful for long. Same thing with Cyrus Redblock, if you yourself are running a denial deck relying on repetition of on or two dilemmas and run into a Borg player. Crell Moset may be a great MEDICAL source, but if he’s paired with a six CUNNING personnel when you hit Spatial Rift, that Iden or The E.C.H. in your hand may look a bit more tempting.  The versatility of I’ve Been Waiting For You is summed up in the fact that you really sacrifice nothing to use it: the personnel goes back to your hand and, if you weren’t done using them, can easily be re-reported on your next turn. Stocking two or three I’ve Been Waiting For You in deck a does almost absolutely no harm to it (assuming you were already using a decent number of Holograms).

I’ve Been Waiting For You’s other major function is that it suspends play. The above example with Iden, Crell Moset, and Spatial Rift is really only the dip of the iceberg. Iden isn’t too useful if you just drew him the turn before your opponent is going to send the Olarra (and all of it’s Holographic crew) to the discard pile. Suspend play as soon as the battle begins and get him out (hopefully your Captain’s Log is out already). About to be overwhelmed by intruders? See how useful Duchamps is in a pinch. Your could also use Anastasia to flat out stop the battle with Smoke Bombs. In the above scenario on the Olarra, see if your opponent is going to be as gung-ho to attack you with Leonardo DaVinci suddenly popping up to replace one of your support personnel.

Simply put it, I’ve Been Waiting For You is nearly as useful as a Holodeck Door to a Hologram deck: its extreme versatility and helps make up for a Hologram deck's almost complete lack of free reports. Instead of getting an early game boost, you can have personnel advantage in the mid-game. Yes, realistically, all the above examples won’t always hold true simply because you have to have the personnel in hand that you're going to swap with (if it was a download, THAT’D be awesome), but it still is a very powerful card. Too bad it’s uncommon (see: Data, Keep Dealing, All Threes, and Holodeck Door for other examples of Holodeck Adventure power cards being uncommon).

Combo(s):

I’ve Been Waiting For You + Leonardo DaVinci = Lot of skills useful for a lot of dilemmas in a pinch, plus, a way to keep those battlers at bay.