A Holo(deck)

by Peter H. Møller, Holoaddict

27th April 2010

"I awaken into this world fully programed, yet completely innocent, unaware of the hardships I will endure or the great potential I will one day for fill"
- "Photons, Be Free", created by "The Doctor"

Some of my favorite characters from Star Trek have always been holograms... mainly The Doctor and Vic Fontaine (of course), but supporting characters like James Moriarty intrigued me as well. I also enjoy most of the holodeck episodes (with a few exceptions). There is something almost magical about the whole idea of a holodeck.

So ever since Strange New Worlds hit the streets with the two golden cards Cluttering Irrelevancies and Holodeck Grid, and later To Boldly Go's Not Easily Destroyed, I've been dreaming of making a deck with Holograms as the main theme.
The problem was those darn staffing icons. Holograms can't really fly ships (a certain Emergency Command Hologram excepted). So you had include a lot of "real" personnel, or run the dangerous risk of destaffing. Luckily, Infinite Diversity has the solution for this.  The Olarra is a pretty decent Range 8 ship that Holograms can staff. On top of that, you actually get a little extra boost if you're behind. So now my dream of a Hologram-themed deck can become a reality (as much of a reality that a hologram can become that is).

As of Infinite Diversity, there are now twelve Holograms, seven of which are non-unique:
Automated Server, Doran, Garren, K'wov, Sumek and the older, but still incredible Calisthenics Opponent and Aikido. So, there are no excuses for not including photonic lifeforms in your deck anymore.

But it's one thing to throw a few stray photons into a deck, and a whole other thing to actually build a whole deck around Holograms. The cards above should be in any decent holo(deck), but those cards alone won't make a very good deck. So let's look at the available headquarters and what they have to offer that can add to holo-perfection:

Earth (Cradle of the Federation)

You get to play two extra Holograms: Dr. Leah Brahms (Holographic Representation) and the non-unique E.M.H. Program. Combine these two Holograms with the and the "standard" tricks and you could make a workable deck. You all probably know there is a certain hated blue guy that goes well with a certain "Vegas Crooner".

Voyager

This is where you get access to the most Holograms, but (unfortunately) not the good ship Olarra. Most noteworthy is the bunch of "Revised" Holograms (eight in all from In A Mirror, Darkly), that when combined together can do some really nice things. Worth paying extra attention to is Revised Kim (Interrogator) that (unlike his other "Revised" counterparts) can discard any Hologram to gain its skills until the end of the turn. This really is incredible in a deck with lots and lots of Holograms. Another very useful Hologram is Revised Tuvok (Evil Instrument of Destruction). Combine three of him with three copies of his "real" counterpart and you have the ability to get the right Revised Hologram at the right time.
The biggest drawback here is that you'll have a hard time staffing your ships if you include to many Holograms (and let's be honest, you want to include lots of Holograms, don't you?)

Athos IV (Maquis Base)

 The last option (and the one I've designed a deck around) is the Maquis headquarters. Here you can still play the Revised Holograms with Treachery and have access to the good ship Olarra. Combine this with the other easy-to-staff Maquis ships, and a few "real" personnel, and you actually have the start of a pretty good deck. If you're really sneaky, you could throw in a couple of personnel and Tuvok (Coldly Logical Soldier), to really spice up the ability of Revised Tuvok and go download crazy.  

My Holo(deck)

"Ask the operator to run program Forty-Seven Beta."
"Why? What is it?"
"It's called Photons Be Free. It's quite provocative."
- EMH Mark I telling another EMH Mark I in the dilithium mines about The Doctor's novel

So with a headquarters selected, a big pile of personnel, and some good support cards, I was ready to build the deck. People have very different ways of building decks, but I tend to start out with an idea (and you guessed it, this time it's Holograms) and build from there. Even though there are lots of possibilities for disruption with the Maquis headquarters, I opted not to include those and keep the deck as a solver.

The main concern was getting a back-up ship and some personnel to staff it. Relying only on Olarra was not a chance I wanted to take. My gaze soon fell upon Xhosa, an easy-to-staff ship with a good Range. Staffing this ship was easily done with a couple of personnel. Another good reason to include a back-up ship is the scary card called A Few Minor Difficulties (that can really mess up Olarra, and strand you in space).

A little event protection/destruction is never a bad thing, so a couple of Grav-Plating Traps were added.  And since Not Easily Destroyed does a good job of kill protection, I thought that I might as well be a little annoying with everyone's favorite bolts: Self-Sealing Stem Bolts. The deck was getting big fast, so I opted to add some cycling. A couple of These Are The Voyages later and the deck was just about finished.

Mission selection was the last thing to be done, and really not so hard since the Holograms have a good skill mix.  (Actually, they have access to every skill in the game except Telepathy, Archaeology and Law). Completing Integrity missions really wasn't an option, with the often misunderstood future Holograms in the mix.  Then, of course, lots of the Holograms have crappy Strength. So, Cunning missions it was.


And there you have it, a run through of the many possibilities of these photonic life forms. I hope it is of some use to someone. At the very least, I've spread my love for the holograms to all of you biological entities.

"Computer, End program"

-djl-

This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:

• Unbroken I
• How About a New Mission, Admiral? I

Decklist

Print Decklist • Print Checklist • Copy Deck • Download Into DeckPADD

Missions Headquarters 2 U 96 •Athos IV, Maquis Base Planet 14 U 56 •Ceti Alpha V, Find Lifeless World 3 U 100 •Farius Prime, Political Intrigue Space 1 U 151 •Hromi Cluster, Amnesty Talks 1 U 182 •Investigate Sighting

Draw Deck (55) Equipment 17 V 20 2x Self-Sealing Stem Bolts Event 7 U 21 3x Holodeck Grid 8 C 36 3x Not Easily Destroyed 13 C 37 3x These Are The Voyages Interrupt 7 U 39 3x Cluttering Irrelevancies 12 R 37 2x Grav-Plating Trap Personnel Federation 1 R 275 1x •Luther Sloan, Man of Secrets 13 U 73 3x •Revised Doctor, Mass Murderer 13 U 74 1x •Revised Janeway, Cold-Blooded Killer 13 U 75 2x •Revised Kim, Interrogator 13 U 76 2x •Revised Neelix, Hedgehog Ops Officer 13 U 77 1x •Revised Paris, Female Ensign Chaser 13 U 79 3x •Revised Tuvok, Evil Instrument of Destruction Non-Aligned 7 C 97 1x Aikido 18 V 35 2x •Anastasia Komananov, Russian Seductress 21 V 15 1x Automated Server 7 U 99 3x Calisthenics Opponent 21 V 16 1x Doran 13 C 92 1x •Ezri Tigan, Soldier of Fortune 21 V 17 1x Garren 13 C 94 2x •Julian Bashir, Rebel Captain 21 V 18 2x K'wov 7 C 103 1x •Minuet, Jazz Lover 7 C 107 1x •Sigmund Freud, Father of Psychoanalysis 21 V 19 2x Sumek 13 R 97 3x •Tuvok, Coldly Logical Soldier Ship Non-Aligned 21 V 20 3x •Olarra 3 R 207 2x •Xhosa

Dilemma Pile (33) Dual 10 R 2 2x An Issue of Trust 4 C 6 1x Back Room Dealings 14 U 4 2x Chula: The Chandra 17 V 5 2x Full Complement 4 C 15 1x Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? 21 V 3 1x In Development 14 C 7 1x Moral Choice 14 C 10 2x Old Differences 18 V 5 2x Polywater Intoxication 3 U 26 2x Secret Identity 3 U 28 2x Skeleton Crew 13 R 20 1x The Dal'Rok 2 C 25 2x Timescape Planet 0 VP 9 3x Hard Time 17 V 8 1x Miner Revolt 10 C 12 1x Necessary Execution 3 U 25 1x Rogue Borg Ambush 1 C 57 1x Triage Space 3 R 12 2x Gomtuu Shock Wave 8 C 19 1x Warp Bubble Mishap 7 R 15 2x Where No One Has Gone Before

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