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 :-)

45) Study Protonebula – Space Mission – Astrophysics + Biology + Navigation x2.  Span – 4.  30 Points – (Owner’s end) Once per game, you may download One to your ship here. – (Opponent’s End) Once per game, you may download a (Borg Only) objective – Any Away Team may attempt mission.

 This mission, plus Assist Cooperative, is definitely welcomed in the Lost Borg deck design, downloading one of their welcomed members.  Only problem is, it can help bring those Lost Borg back into the fold.

 It used to be that you could only download people from missions in the Alpha Quadrant from solving Establish Relations and there, it was any Non-Aligned personnel.  Of course, it was universal so it was a constant theft risk, plus the mission was only 25 points.  The next evolution is Study Protonebula, which will let you download a specific person, just for coming by.  While there aren't any Lost Borg who have Navigation, the fact that one of the most essential components (One) can be downloaded into play here makes it relatively worthwhile if you can take advantage of his skills.

 While the non-Borg player is gypped by the mission benefits, the Borg get a freebie with this mission, letting them download any Borg-only objective that they want.  One would suggest that you could sock away in the Tent the Reassimilate Lost Drone objective, since after all if they have the mission, they’re going to probably get One and therefore earn you a relatively easy 30 points.  But if you think about it, it’d work just about any objective, including Harness Particle 010.  Another aspect about this is the fact that, unlike your opponent, you don’t even have to be there to download the objective.  Don’t like the growing armada that’s building up a little ways from you?  Download Eliminate Starship and between the ship and the Multiplexor, destroy or damage all the ships at that location.  See that your opponent has seeded a planet worth 35 points or more?  Download Assimilate Planet and take it away from them.

 Skill-wise, it’s a Tom Paris mission (he can solve it all by his lonesome), the second along with Answer Distress Signal but like so many of the Delta Quadrant missions, this one isn’t difficult for any affiliation to come up with the requirements.  Anyone can solve it and each affiliation has a two person combination who can solve it – Hirogen have Gann + Anyone with Navigation, Kazon have Karden and any Astrophysics, Vidiians have Danara Pel and Thaden and even the Non-Aligned have the odd pair of Paxim and Chell (the Delta Quadrant Mot ;-)

 Anyone can attempt this mission, anyone can solve this mission, but not everyone will stock the mission.  Stock the mission if you’re going to take advantage of One, otherwise you’re only giving your potential Borg opponent too much of an advantage.

Combos – Mezoti + Rebi and Azan + Icheb + Study Protonebula + self-seeded Ooby Dooby – Get that Lost Borg-Ooby Dooby drawing mechanism started right.

Combos – Opponent’s Study Protonebula + Opponent’s Array-seeded Voyager + Playing Borg – Staff the Tactical Cube, fly over and download Eliminate Starship. Buh-bye!