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 :-)

 He’s the matching commander of the Olarra, which is the pre-requisite ship of choice for the Delta Quadrant because it allows holograms to report on board, his special download lets you have any of the holograms work together or capture your opponent’s holograms, he’s Iden and he’s a great guy to have around.  If it’s a Hologram-based deck, that is.

 His Bajoran mode offers very little to the Bajoran people, considering the expense it would take for him to report to the Alpha Quadrant – the acquiring of a Holodeck on their ships which don’t have one, then the downloading via a Holodeck Door; it’s just not worth the trouble for him.  His Hirogen mode, however, is quite different.  He gets to use the neato Hirogen Talon and Hirogen Disruptor Rifle, along with the Rituals of the Hunt and Relics of the Hunt (once you Disengage Safety Protocols), plus the Olarra is a Non-Aligned/Hirogen ship, he’ll give you the matching affiliation to move the ship (just because everyone can work together doesn’t mean that the Holograms can work with ships and outposts as easily)

 His skill set isn’t exactly common in the Holographic community, namely in Anthropology and Diplomacy (3 personnel each) but the fact that he can potentially gain more skills with Rituals of the Hunt makes him a much more appealing choice, helping to augment the skills which your Holograms lack.  He’s a much more helpful backup personnel, supplying a lot of skills that you might need but wouldn’t be someone that would supply them all.

 His special download, however makes him a roving threat to your opponent’s holograms as the Children of the Light can capture all of their holograms and all it requires is Iden on the same planet or, if in space, a damaged ship.  It’s also, however, a fundamental component to the hologram deck if you want to use other affiliations besides Hirogen holograms as they can now work together.  After all, wouldn’t it be nice to have Crell Moset or perhaps holographic mission specialists with your holographic crew?  And since he can be downloaded directly to the Olarra with Ready Room Door, you could get him into play pretty easily, potentially saving yourself a seed slot in the ever-decreasing seed deck.  The fact that, because he can be downloaded in multiple ways (just like all Holograms, he can be downloaded by Holodeck Door), and can be Scissioned (one of 10 such Scissionable holograms), makes it kinda hard to not justify the use of the leader of the Children.

Combos – Iden + Olarra + Make it So – You have the ship where all the holograms know your name (much like Cheers), Iden is the Sam Malone of the place and if you want to recruit more customers, the best way is enhance the place with Captain’s Orders.

Combos – Iden + Hirogen Talon + Rituals of the Hunt + Relics of the Chase + Disengage Safety Protocols –Iden can’t deny where he came from, so use it to your advantage: Dispatch non-Holograms, earn points and skills, and capture them and your “Children”