recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Purple Emperor

## Ability

### Ability

**Purple Reign****(Return)** If you lost the turn, this card gains +100 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

This truly beautiful and magnificent butterfly flies high in the tree-tops of well-wooded landscapes in central-southern England, fluttering along and feeding on aphid honeydew and tree sap.

You will be extremely lucky to catch a glimpse of this beautifully elusive butterfly; adult **Purple Emperors** are extremely rare and occur at low densities over large areas.

The males, who are known as 'His Imperial Majesty', occasionally descend to the ground, usually in mid-morning, where they probe for salts either from road surfaces or from animal dung. Nutritious!

In the UK, the Purple Emperor is quite distinctive. It's large for a butterfly, often the size of a small bird or bat and is a powerful flyer, tending to glide and soar high up around medium-sized trees. If you want to try and see one then forget looking at the flowers, look up!

The Purple Emperors has black wings, but when caught at the right angle, the males’ upper wings have a rich blue-purple colouration.

The good news is that this beauty is now also being discovered in suburbia, with colonies on Hampstead Heath and in Richmond Park, so off you go with your bag of animal dung to go find them...
Pyroraptor

## Ability

### Ability

**Fire Thieves****(Play)** If played next to Prometheus, this card gains +40 Power and your Prometheus card in hand gains +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Is it a bird? Is it a dinosaur? Is it a deadly combination of both?! It’s the **Pyroraptor!** This feathered fire thief (which is what its name translates to) is part of the dromaeosaurid and was first dug up in the south of France in 1992. It gets its name from the fact that it was only found after a forest fire ravaged the area where it was later found and it probably wouldn’t have been discovered if that fire hadn’t happened! Never thought we’d say yay for forest fires, but here we are.

Amazingly, we only know this dino exists thanks to a handful of bones, which has caused a bit of controversy in the world of paleontology as some people wonder if this is actually a species in its own right, seeing as there might not be enough bones to be sure. However, pop culture has embraced the beast and you may have seen these feathered fiends in *Jurassic World: Dominion.* And we all know, if it turned up in a *Jurassic Park* movie, it’s definitely historically accurate. \*wink\*
Ptolemy

## Ability

### Ability

**Mapping the Stars****(Return)** Gain +3 Energy. **(Play)** Your Constellations cards, wherever they are, gain +30 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

The most influential Greek astronomer of his time, **Ptolemy** deduced that since half the stars were above the horizon and half were below, they were all at some modest distance from the centre of the universe, which he believed to be Earth.

To be fair, he didn’t have the high-tech telescopes we have today. Even though his theory was incorrect, Ptolemy was able to combine the movements of the stars with mathematics to predict the movements of the planets.
Paolo Uccello

## Ability

### Ability

**Vanishing Point****(Play)** If played in the middle slot, this card loses -20 Power permanently and your cards adjacent to this gain +10 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

His work inspired the likes of Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo, but Italian painter **Paolo Uccello** was more than just a talented artist. As if being a leading figure in the Renaissance movement wasn’t impressive enough, Uccello was also a skilled mathematician. By applying his logical thinking to his painting, he was able to add visual perspective to create depth in his art.

Being a well-reputed painter of his time (the early 1400s), Paolo Uccello was commissioned to paint the cloisters of the church of San Miniato. But when the abbot served only cheese pies and cheese soup for lunch every day, Paolo protested against the bland diet and ran away. He only returned to complete the work after the abbot promised him a more varied diet.
Pygmy Octopus

## Did You Know?

If you happen to be in Florida, in the Caribbean or around the stunning shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and you spot a pen shell or giant cockle shell in the warm waters, then definitely open it. Why? Because if you’re lucky enough, you might find the Atlantic **Pygmy Octopus** nestling inside! Ta-da!

These little guys love to hide inside shells and rocks, crevices and holes in reefs. They enjoy their own company and are pretty solitary creatures, although they do form hierarchies based on their size.

Like most octopus species, they are pros at camouflage, blending in with the surrounding rocks by changing their colour.

These guys have a nifty and messy little tactic if threatened; their primary form of defence involves distracting and blinding their predators with ink... not something to try at home.
Red River of the South

## Ability

### Ability

**Red-Bed Redemption****(Play)** If played next to any Arts and Culture card, your Raging Rivers cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Cross the **Red River of the South** from the territory of Texas and you’re officially on Oklahoma soil (and vice versa, obviously). Named for the reddish hue it gets from the soil below, this body of water boasts the second largest river basin in the Southern Great Plains, covering an area of 169,890 square kilometres.

During the American Civil War, the Red River of the South saw the largest combined army-navy operation of the war - the Red River Campaign. It was the last Confederate victory of the war. At the time, it would have been a tributary of the Mississippi river, but after the construction of the flood control system on the Old River, the Red River became a tributary of the equally difficult to spell Atchafalaya River.

'Aerial View of Red River' by Henley Quadling (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Paul I of Russia

## Ability

### Ability

**Inside Job****(Return)** If your deck has 8 or more Arts & Culture cards, your Espionage cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

Son of Catherine the Great and [insert your preferred conspiracy-theory-dad here], **Paul I** was not afraid of ruffling a few feathers within his court. He absolutely *should* have been afraid though, as he ended up assassinated (via the arguably underused method of trampling) by a group of conspiring nobles.

But that’s not what we’re here to discuss. We're not interested in his war on France, his leadership of the Knights Hospitaller, or his difficult relationship with his mother from whom he was taken immediately after birth.

We’re here to talk fashion.

Paul I became Emperor soon after the French Revolution. With Revolutions being generally anti-Emperor, Paul wanted to suppress any revolutionary thinking back in Russia. As a result, he not only banned travel from France but also banned any fashion that hinted at a French influence. Secret police patrolled the streets and if anyone was caught wearing, say, a round hat or a high cravat, it would be seized and shredded on the spot.

It was worse for the military: not only did Paul I instigate a brutal regime of drills, but he also insisted on an uncomfortably tight Prussian uniform along with a ‘soldier’s braid’ hairstyle that was widely disliked.

So did Paul’s fashion dictates lead to his death? Well, not directly - but without a doubt, they contributed.
Reindeer

## Did You Know?

The 'rein' in Reindeer is nothing to do with the reins of Santa's sleigh, but instead comes from the Norse word for deer ('hreinn'). So yes, we are basically calling them 'deer deer'.

Whether or not you believe they can fly, they are certainly ideal guides. Their knees can make a clicking sound to ensure other Reindeer know where they are, whatever the weather.

## Trivia

* This card is available on Christmas specials.
Planisphere

## Ability

### Ability

**Charting the Stars****(Play)** If your deck contains only Space cards, your cards, wherever they are, gain +15 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Back in 27 B.C, we didn’t have all this new-fangled tech to study the stars. But what we did have, according to architect and engineer Vitrivuys, was a star map engraved on a solid plate and a horizon mask that rotated over it to show the risings and settings of celestial bodies. A water clock turned the mask once a day to keep up with the sky.

You must crawl before you can walk, and thus, the Romans devised the basic idea behind the **Planisphere**. Today, this star chart comes in the form of two circles of card riveted together at their centres. You don’t need any detailed knowledge or a wifi signal to use them, but you do need to get one that’s specific to your latitude.
Payara

## Ability

### Ability

**I Vant To Eat Your Feesh!****(Draw)** Your opponent's Feisty Fish and Fabulous Fish cards, wherever they are, cost +1 Energy until played and lose -10 Power/Turn until this is returned to your deck. **(Start)** This card gains +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If the term ‘hangry’ were to have a mascot, the **Payara** fish would be it. Found in the Amazon Basin in tropical South America, these fish are hunters that live to eat and get aggressive when something stands between them and their next meal.

This fish was first discovered in 1918 by Georges Cuvier, who gave it the name *Hydrolycus scomberoide* (“hydro” meaning water and “lykos” meaning wolf”).

However, the group collectively known as ‘payara’ actually contains several species – the largest of the squad being *Hydrolycus armatus*, which can grow to more than 3 feet in length.

Unfortunately, its size makes it a target for hangry fishermen fishing in the waters of northern South America – specifically the Rio Orinoco drainage and the winding rivers of the Guyanas.
Piet Pieterszoon Hein

## Ability

### Ability

**Captured Treasure****(Play)** If you have played 5 or more Lost Treasures cards this game, this card gains +50 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

**Piet Pieterzoon Hein**, 12 times winner of the Best Pirate Name Award (or so we must assume), was a Dutch privateer during the Eighty Year’s War, an ultimately successful revolt for Dutch independence against Philip II, ruler of the Spanish Netherlands.

Despite suffering from sea sickness as a child, as the son of a sea captain he became a sailor at a very young age, becoming a captain himself a couple of decades later.

In 1628, as an Admiral, Hein captured 16 Spanish ships from a treasure fleet, taking over 11.5 million guilders of booty, without taking a single prisoner. For those not well-versed in the Dutch economy of the 17th Century, this could equate to anywhere between 100 million and 100 billion Euros today, and the loot was so massive that the price of silver rose worldwide.

Hein was not so impressed when he was hailed a hero upon his return to the Netherlands, remarking "Now they praise me because I gained riches without the least danger; but earlier when I risked my life in full combat they didn't even know I existed…”
Rapunzel

## Ability

### Ability

**Let Your Hair Down****(Play)** If your deck contains a card from every album, your cards in hand gain +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Anyone who’s been locked indoors with no access to the hairdressers (hello 2020) will know the struggles of **Rapunzel**, the story of a girl imprisoned in a tower by an evil witch. After attempted rescues by a prince go awry, she is banished, but the two find each other and live - you guessed it - happily ever after. Now, at no point does Rapunzel think to cut her own hair and use it to escape, but that’s Stockholm Syndrome for you.

In the original version published by the Grimm Brothers in 1812, Rapunzel and the prince start up a romance and Rapunzel gets pregnant. The witch finds out soon enough and calls her godless - apparently, it’s fine to imprison a person, but having a child out of wedlock seriously crosses the line.
Platform Shoe

## Ability

### Ability

**Disco Inferno****(Return)** An opponent's random card in hand **Burn**s (12) for 2 turns and two random cards in either player's hand **Burn** (12) for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

Although a staple of the 1970s and fashion favourite of Ziggy Stardust, **Platform Shoes** have been in style since ancient times, usually worn for more practical uses such as avoiding the general muck that coated the grounds of the 14th to 17th centuries, but also in Greek theatre, for literally raising the height of more important characters.

Throughout modern times, platforms shoes have made many attempts at a resurgence, although never managing to capture the same popularity of the early 1970s. In this writer’s hopeful opinion, it’s only a matter of time.
Queen of Cups

## Ability

### Ability

**Show Some Compassion****(Play)** If you are leading by 100 Power or more, your opponent gains +50 Power/Turn this turn and if you are trailing by 100 Power or more, gain +50 Power/Turn this turn.

## Did You Know?

Ah, the **Queen of Cups**, sitting on her throne at the edge of the sea. Incredibly chill and going with the flow.

If you draw the Queen of Cups card in a Tarot reading, you may be a nurturing person. The kind who’s always looking after everyone and who always knows the right thing to say. This is in part due to you being a born communicator and the person who’s best at reading other people’s vibes. You’ve also got a good judge of what feels right for you, whether that’s in creative endeavours or relationships. If the card is drawn upright, you’re being encouraged to trust your judgement and lead with your heart over your head.

However, if the Queen of Cups is drawn reversed, maybe you need to get in touch with your emotions better and maybe you’ve been letting your imagination run away with you a little too much. Maybe you need to stop and take a breath so that you can listen to your gut.

Or maybe you need to stop spending all of your time with fortune tellers and just go out there and live your life? Upright or not, if you’re a trust your gut person, then go with that!
Pygmy Three-Toed Sloth

## Ability

### Ability

**Hang in There!****(Start)** If your deck has 3 or more Life on Land cards, your Life on Land cards in hand gain +3 Power until played. **(Play)** If played between any two Life on Land cards, this card gains +33 Power. **(Return)** Your Life on Land cards, wherever they are, gain +3 Power for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

On a tiny, remote Caribbean island known as ​Isla Escudo de Veraguas is a population of tiny sloths that have had no contact with the outside world for 10,000 years. The smallest of the three-toed sloth, Bradypus pygmaeus was officially recognised as a distinct species in 2001.

Like all sloths, its movements on land are veeeerrrrryyyyyyy sloooooow. But get this <link="https:>lil' guy in the water</link> and you’ll see the **Pygmy Three-toed Sloth** is a surprisingly strong swimmer. They’re also very chilled out compared to their mainland cousins, who will either try to run or fight when faced with human contact. Having no prior knowledge of the threat that humans can pose, this 50-centimetre sloth is pretty laid back.
Rafflesia

## Ability

### Ability

**Scratch & Sniff****(Play)** Your Corpse Flower card in hand gains +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Five enormous red petals covered in spots. One gigantic centre chamber. A smell that is unforgettably bad. Deep in the jungles of Sumatra, Indonesia, lives a flower that gets its nutrients and water from other plants. Word on the grapevine is that it’s host of choice is… well… a grapevine.

Pokemon lovers may recognise the flower from Vileplume, a Gen 1 grass Pokemon who has a **Rafflesia** on its head. The note-as-cute Demogorgon from Stranger Things was also inspired by this parasitic plant – specifically, the Rafflesia arnoldii, which has the largest flower on planet Earth. But don’t worry, Rafflesia are NOT carnivorous plants – they simply use their foul odour to attract pollinators. Hey, each to their own, right?
Remipedes

## Ability

### Ability

**Backstroke****(Return)** Lose -1:energy/turn: and gain +35 Power/Turn this round.

## Did You Know?

What the **Remipedes** lack in eyesight, they make up for in stealth. Since there’s virtually no light in the underwater caves of the Caribbean and Canary Islands where they live, they can float on by virtually undetected. Sure, they don’t have armour like shrimps or crabs, but Remipedes have evolved to have a weapon that no other crustacean has: venom. Just a small bite from their piercing fangs is enough to kill a small fish.

'Photograph of a living specimen (Crustacea, Remipedia, Speleonectidae) from the Exuma Cays, Bahamas.' by Joris van der Ham - Neiber, M. T., Hartke, T. R., Stemme, T., Bergmann, A., Rust, J., Iliffe, T. M., Koenemann, S. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 2.5 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Psychedelia

## Ability

### Ability

**Awaken the Mind****(Draw)** A random Science , a random Space and a random Paleontology card in your hand cost -3 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Hey dude, **Psychedelia** is far out. It’s like looking at pop art through a kaleidoscope – the colours are vibrant; the lines are wavy and there’s a tonne of trippy spirals. Although it was inspired by the experiences brought on by hallucinogenic drugs in the 1960s, the term ‘psychedelic’ simply means “mind-manifesting” – in other words, you don’t have to do drugs to depict the inner workings of the mind – but, according to hippies, it certainly helps.
Ragnar Lodbrok

## Ability

### Ability

**Certain Ancient Kings****(Play)** Your Unruly Rulers cards, wherever they are, gain +25 Power until played. **(Return)** Your opponent's The Roman Empire cards, wherever they are, lose -20 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

He may not have been the first to invade the nations of France and England, but legendary Viking warrior **Ragnar Lodbrok** may have been the first to leave settlements in an attempt to truly conquer land. Legend has it that Lodbrok raided the coasts of France and England, and was duly given land by Charles the Bald - but quickly betrayed him and besieged Paris anyway. That’s pretty badass for someone with a last name that means “hairy trousers”.

A self-proclaimed descendant of Odin, Ragnar Lodbrok had no fear of death. After he was captured by the King of Northumbria and thrown into a pit of snakes, he sang: “Gladly shall I drink ale in the high-seat with the Æsir. The days of my life are ended. I laugh as I die.”
Parkour

## Ability

### Ability

**Ignore Boundaries****(Draw)** Your cards in hand gain +10 Power this turn and your Super Structures cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

*One member of the Avid Games team does **Parkour** in their spare time and politely interjected with their expertise to help out with the description. And look, there they are doing Parkour on the front of the card from all the way back in 2015!*

If you’re ever in a situation where you need to run from a mob, an aptitude in **Parkour** will come in extremely handy. First established by a guy called David Belle in France in 1988, Parkour skills help you to use the barriers and obstacles to fluidly traverse rural and urban areas. Originally, it was designed as a military exercise. Today, Parkour is a fun sport that effectively turns your surroundings into an assault course. The United Kingdom is the first country to officially recognize Parkour as a sport.

You may have heard of Parkour described as “freerunning”, and there is a debate in the community as to whether they are the same thing or not. Parkour is considered to be about creating challenges for yourself in your environment to overcome and develop through, testing your power, precision and flow. Freerunning on the other hand is more performative - integrating flips and flair to your movements. A lot of Traceurs (the name for people who participate in Parkour) dabble in both.
Peteinosaurus

## Ability

### Ability

**Small Fly****(Return)** Gain +1:energy/turn: this round. **(Play)** Your Thick-headed Fly card in hand gains +20 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

One of the smallest of our Fearsome Flyers, the **Peteinosaurus** had a wingspan of only 40-60 centimetres. It had very sharp teeth that were perfect adapted for its diet of larger insects, such as dragonflies.

**Peteinosaurus** could be found around the beaches and shallows of the Late Triassic period, and as such it's one of the earliest pterosaurs that we are aware of (it wasn't until the Jurassic Period that flying dinos became more common). Three fossils have been found to date, all of them in Italy. Fantastico!
Petit Fours

## Ability

### Ability

**Small Oven****(Draw)** Your Curious Cuisine cards, wherever they are, with 25 or less Base Power gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In a fiery complaint to a fine-dining restaurant, a customer raged about being short-changed on their dessert. The problem, they said, was that the waiter brought only three small pastries, although the menu stated **‘Petit Four.’** Clearly, they missed the memo. Because petit four has nothing to do with the number.

Back in the 1800s in France, ovens were more like stone cabinets only two settings: scorching hot or slightly less hot. The blazing hot mode, or "grand four" (big oven), was for meats. When the fire died down and the oven started cooling, it was referred to as "petit four" (small oven) - perfect for baking small, individual pastries.

Today, these sweet treats come in many different forms - from baked meringues and macarons to small eclairs and tiny tartlets.
Pigeon Photography

## Ability

### Ability

**Aerial Shots****(Return)** Your Birds, Sea Birds and Awesome Aviation cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

You’ve got to hand it to Dr. Julius Neubronner. In 1907, long before drones existed, this German apothecary submitted a patent application for a new invention: the pigeon camera. The idea was exactly as it sounds: a tiny camera strapped to a pigeon with the objective of photographing the Earth from above. And why not, after all? Neubronner was already using homing pigeons to deliver prescriptions. The camera was the logical upgrade in bird technology.

In the years that followed, Neubronner showed off his **Pigeon Photography** at international expositions and sold postcards taken by the birds in flight. It was flawed, but it was ground-breaking at the time, allowing for levels of surveillance with speed and range that was previously impossible.

'Pigeon with German miniature camera' by Hans Adler (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Påskekrim

## Ability

### Ability

**Season of the Snitch****(Draw)** For every History card in your opponent's deck, this card gains +5 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Easter: a time to celebrate the coming of new life, the lighter days, the baby animals, the flowers in bloom, the bodies piling up, the murder weapon, the chalk outlines - wait, what? It sounds grizzly, but something about Easter brings out an appetite for murder among the Norwegians.

During this period, the bookstores clear their shelves and TV stations change their programmes to make space for one genre only: true crime. Known as <b<påskekrim<>, this Easter tradition has its roots in a crime novel that was promoted on the frontpage of a newspaper during Easter 1923 and was mistaken for a real news story.

Ever since, the tradition of hunkering down in a cabin for the long Easter break and flicking through crime fiction has been a staple in Norwegian culture.
Ratatouille

## Ability

### Ability

**Stop and Savour****(Draw)** An opponent's random Curious Cuisine card in hand **Burn**s (35) until played and this card costs -1 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

We’d love to tell you the origin of this dish began with a talented rat hiding under the chef hat of a cook in a French restaurant, but sadly, that’s not the case. However, the story of how this plentiful dish made it to the mainstream is just as humble. You see, **Ratatouille** comes from Nice, in the South of France.

Originally considered “peasant food”, ratatouille was created by Provencal farmers as a filling summer dish that took advantage of the fresh vegetables available. Typically, these vegetables were aubergines, courgettes, onions, tomatoes and garlic. The word ‘ratatouille’ is thought to come from the French word ‘touiller’, which means to “stir up”, which makes sense because a good ratatouille needs regular stirring!
Ramesses II

## Ability

### Ability

**Look Upon My Works****(Play)** Your Ancient Egypt and Egyptian Mythology cards in hand gain +10 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

If you ever get asked to spell Ramesses in a quiz or something, you can pretty much wing it - acceptable spellings of the Pharaoh's name include Rameses or Ramses. He was also known as Ozymandias in Greek sources.

Ramesses II casts a colossal shadow over the ancient world. He became Pharaoh in 1279 BC, in his late teens, and went on to rule Egypt for 66 years that are considered to be the height of Egypt's power and glory.

The Hittites, a tribe from modern-day Turkey, decided they had a chance to take Egypt from the young Pharaoh early in his reign. It didn't work, and after many years of fighting Ramesses negotiated a peace treaty - the oldest accord the text of which survives to this day. He married the daughter of the Hittite king and began an era of prosperity in Egypt.

He undertook a large building campaign, erecting monuments to his greatness all across Egypt. Karnak, Abu Simbel and the Ramesseum are just some of the wonders built in his name.

Such was his importance to Egypt that after his death nine subsequent Pharaohs took on the name Ramesses when they ascended the throne. The reverence for him in modern times is best exemplified by the passport the Egyptian government issued to him when his mummy was to be transported to France for restoration work in 1974. The passport lists his occupation as "KING (DECEASED)" and expired in 1981.
Quark

## Ability

### Ability

**Color Confinement****(Draw)** If you have played **Quark** this game, this card gains +80 Power and costs -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Take a deep breath. Congratulations: you’ve just inhaled 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms of oxygen. Within those atoms are protons, neutrons and electrons. If we zoom in even closer, those protons and neutrons are made up of smaller building blocks called **Quarks**. These teensy tiny particles of fast moving energy appeared about 10^minus 12 seconds after the universe was formed.

First, the plasma that consisted of quarks and gluons was separated by the hot expansion of the universe. Then, the pieces of quark reformed into subatomic particles called hadrons. The name 'quark' was given by Murray Gell-Mann when he was working on elementary particles in the 1960s. He took the name from a passage in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake: "Three quarks for Muster Mark!”.
Ray Bradbury

## Ability

### Ability

**Fahrenheit 451****(Draw)** All Arts & Culture cards in both player's hands **Burn** (20) until played. **(Play)** If it's Round 5, your Arts & Culture cards, wherever they are, gain +30 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

**Ray Bradbury** was just 14 when he scored his first writing gig. It wasn’t paid, but while kids his age were doing paper rounds, he was writing for George Burns and Gracie Allen’s radio show. Still, those other kids were also busy getting life experience. Meanwhile, poor old Ray didn’t have the courage to ask a girl out until age 25.

Besides writing for radio shows and dating a bookstore clerk named Maggie, Bradbury went on to become one of the most celebrated American writers; his works spanned fantasy, sci-fi, horror and mystery. So it’s fitting that he wanted his ashes to be sent to Mars in a tomato soup can. But, in the end, he opted for something more down-to-earth: a headstone with his name and “Author of Fahrenheit 451.”
Raphael

## Ability

### Ability

**Roasting Rivals****(Draw)** Your opponent's cards in hand **Burn** (14) until played and if they have played Michelangelo this game, give it, wherever it is, -30 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Yes, of *course* we’ll be making references to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at some point. But not yet - so be patient and put your learning hat back on.

One of the three master painters of the Renaissance (you can probably guess the other two…), **Raphael** set the tone for European painting for the next 300 years - until the Pre-Raphaelites (Post-Raphaelites, surely?) came along. He was a favourite of Pope Julius and was commissioned to paint the Pope’s private library at the same time as Michelangelo (eight years his senior) was working on the ceiling in the chapel next door…

There was some rivalry between the two artists, and Michelangelo claimed that Raphael plagiarised the style of his work in the Sistine Chapel. Raphael, in turn, painted Michelangelo as a sulking Heraclitus in what is considered his masterpiece, *The School of Athens*.

Raphael’s cartoons are also especially celebrated - and these can be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum if you ever visit London. Don’t expect Scooby Doo or the Far Side though - in this context ‘cartoons’ means a full-scale preparatory drawing for a tapestry.

'Pinacoteca di Brera' by Raphael (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Pfeffer's Flamboyant Cuttlefish

## Ability

### Ability

**Flaunt it!****(Return)** If you won the turn, Steal 3 Energy from your opponent.

## Did You Know?

OK, we'll give you a second to snigger about the frankly ridiculous name before we begin. Got that out of your system?

**Pfeffer’s Flamboyant Cuttlefish** is one of the smallest cuttlefish, growing up to 8cm in length. It's probably the most stunning of the species, making it a favourite subject for scuba divers and underwater photographers. These beautiful cuttlefish make flamboyant pink, yellow and black ripples with their bodies when they're alarmed.

They carry a unique toxin in their muscles and are the only species of cuttlefish known to have any poisons. Researchers reckon that the toxin is as lethal as that of fellow cephalopod the blue-ringed octopus. Beautiful, but deadly.

The flamboyant cuttlefish may have the looks, but you won't find them hanging out with all the glitterati and beautiful people - these fish are muck dwellers, preferring to hang around in muddy substrates and rubble.

Don't expect to see them swimming either as they have buoyancy issues. Their cuttlebone is extra small, meaning they struggle to swim and float and don't seem to get very far without sinking to the bottom of the ocean floor.

Styling it out pretty well, they use the sea bed as their catwalk, strutting along and displaying their stunning changing colours and patterns, possibly distracting other marine life from the fact that if you're a fish that can't swim, even good looks can't get you everywhere.

There's an even bigger tragedy, as this species sadly dies after mating. The female retreats deep within a crevice or rock ledge where she lays her eggs. She coats them with a protective sheath and cements them to the roof or crevice. She then leaves the eggs to hatch and dies shortly after...

We're not crying - *you're* crying.

## Trivia

* This card, along with Cheetah, Augustus, Hatzegopteryx and MRI Scanner are considered as players' favourite cards and one of the either copy is included in the Awards Pack.
Pythagoras of Samos

## Ability

### Ability

**Hypotenuse Hypothesis****(Play)** Your Pythagoras' Theorem and cards in hand with 3 or less Base Energy gain +33 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

**Pythagoras of Samos** - I assume we need ‘of Samos’ so we don’t confuse him with, say, Pythagoras of Bethnal Green - was big on trigonometry, as we all know. The Square of the Hypotenuse, Pythagorean Triplets… this is stuff you can get from any high school maths book.

Pointing out that the Babylonians knew most of this 1000 years before him feels uncharitable, and we’ll likely cover the Pythagorean Society (among whose edicts was ‘never urinate towards the sun’) elsewhere. So let’s just focus on…

*Music*. If you’ve ever played scales on an instrument, you’re likely familiar with intervals. Although music obviously pre-dated Pythagoras, he is credited with using mathematics (specifically, ratios) to explain musical intervals. He also went on to formalise the chromatic scale - the basis of almost all Western music.

Weird to think that without Pythagoras, Nickelback might sound *somehow even worse*.

'Raphael' by The School of Athens (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Rat King

## Ability

### Ability

**Intertwined****(Draw)** Your cards in hand gain +13 Power permanently and this card loses -13 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

If you were to choose one cryptid to actually be real, you might choose the Yeti, Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. There’s no way you’d pick **Rat King**, but unfortunately, there’s physical evidence to suggest that Rat King is very much real.

The mythology behind the creature tells of a rat leader that sits atop a throne of entangled rats, representing the evil nature of a king ruling over a grotesque nest of suffering peasants. It’s a story from 16th century Germany, but the inspiration for the tale comes from a phenomenon in which rats' tails become knotted together either naturally through blood, food and faeces or by real oddballs who go around tying rats together to keep the story alive and make a quick buck from a weird picture.
Prospero Satellite

## Ability

### Ability

**Live Long and Prosper****(Draw)** If your deck contains William Shakespeare, this card gains +50 Power for 2 turns and your Epic Space cards in hand gain +25 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

In 1971, Britain officially joined the space race with the launch of the **Prospero Satellite** aboard the Black Arrow carrier rocket. Also known as the X-3, the Prospero Satellite was designed to carry out experiments to help us understand the effects of the space environment on communications satellites. It also carried detectors to measure the density of high-speed micrometeoroid particles of space dust in the Earth's upper atmosphere.

Prospero remained operational until 1973 when it became defunct, but the satellite (now “space junk”) has been circling the globe on an elliptical orbit some 1,000km up since its launch. Now, Edinburgh-based rocket company Skyrora is issuing a challenge to find a way to retrieve the 66kg-Prospero satellite and bring her home (likely not in one piece.)

'Prospero X-3 model 2012' by Geni (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Paper

## Did You Know?

This one's a challenge for sure as in all probability you will know a fair bit about Paper already. But let's kick off with a bit of history. Amazingly the creation of Paper can be tracked down to an individual called Cai Lun, an inventor who lived in 2nd century China. To be clear Paper had existed before this point, but he did significantly improve the formula, production and standardization of the finished material.

Incredibly, the techniques took more than five centuries to leave China before migrating their way gradually across the continents finally ending up in Europe around 1100 AD.

Since then Paper has been used almost everywhere from hot air balloons to artillery to the bathroom. Incidentally, It takes almost 10 million trees a year to keep the worlds backsides clean and it wasn't until 1935 that a splinter-free derrière was guaranteed. Ouch!

## Buffing Paper

Paper starts with 0 power and costs 6 energy to play, so why would you put it in a deck? The key is in the description of the card's ability, it receives buffs from several cards. Those buffs are mostly permanent and Paper can become a big card over the course of the game. Of course, you need to build your deck carefully to also win rounds while building up Paper.

 Da Vinci's Flying Vehicle
 Latin
 Mary Fields
 Orpheus
 Postman Butterfly
 Printing Press
 The Alphabet
Pistol Nebula

## Ability

### Ability

**Bigger and Brighter****(Return)** This card gains +30 Power and costs -1 Energy permanently. **(Draw)** Your Legends of the Old West cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

A mere 25k light years from Earth lies the **Pistol Nebula**. it was named in the 1980s based on its shape - or rather based on what was *thought* to be its shape, as discerned from a particularly poor image.

The Pistol Star, which takes its name from the **Pistol Nebula**, is… big.

Imagine the Sun.

Now imagine traveling out from the Sun, past Mercury, Venus, and the Earth.

If the Sun was the Pistol Star, *you’d still be inside the star*.

So it’s not surprising to know that it’s also one of the brightest stars in the whole of the Milky Way. Sadly, a cloud of interstellar dust shrouds it, otherwise it would be visible to the naked eye.

'Pistol star and nebula' by Don F. Figer (UCLA) and NASA (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Pygmalion

## Ability

### Ability

**For the Love of Art****(Play)** If you have played Aphrodite this game and if your deck has 4 or fewer Greek Mythology cards, your Prominent Painters cards, wherever they are, gain +16 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Can’t find a match on dating apps? Don’t worry, you don’t have to settle for someone who doesn’t float your boat. Just sculpt your ideal person from ivory, then have a Greek goddess bring them to life. That’s what **Pygmalion** did in the story that features in the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book X.

Uninterested in the women in his era, Pygmalion - the king of Cyprus - decided to live a life of solitude. As a sculptor, he created a beautiful statue more perfect than any living woman. He named her Galatea, and pretty soon, he had fallen deeply in love with her. Lovesick, Pygmalion prayed to the goddess Aphrodite, who granted his wish and brought Galatea to life. The two were married and even had a daughter.
Purussaurus

## Ability

### Ability

**Ancient Alligator****(Play)** Your Ocean Reptiles cards, wherever they are, gain +21 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Meet the predator more terrifying than the T-Rex: the **Purussaurus**, a colossal caiman that lived in South America during the Miocene epoch. Named for the Purus River where its fossils were first found, Purussaurus is estimated to be among the largest crocodilians to have been found, and one of the biggest reptiles to exist after the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Coming in at 12.5 metres, Purussaurus was several metres longer than a London bus, and about double the length of a giraffe lying down. Given the Purussaurus’ diverse diet (crocodilians, birds, mammals, dolphins and ancestors of the capybara) and the species’ need to eat around 40 kilograms of food every day, this beast would have been the perfect buddy to bring to an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Puli

## Ability

### Ability

**Dreadlocked****(Draw)** An opponent's random card in hand **Lock**s this turn.

## Did You Know?

A Hungarian breed, the **Puli** looks like a whole species of dog that's been meticulously and entirely dreadlocked - but you may be surprised to learn that those curls are entirely natural. Despite their appearance, they are an intelligent and agile species.

One notable **Puli** was The Auditor - a feral dog that roamed around the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana between 1986 and 2003. The local miners gave him that nickname because he would show up when he was least expected, and he lived a long life despite treacherous and toxic conditions.

No one quite knows how he survived for nearly two decades. One theory suggests that his locks blocked out harmful toxins, which is the grossest way to survive. Get that pup some shampoo!
Red-lipped Batfish

## Ability

### Ability

**Pucker Up****(Play)** Your Passerelle des Arts, The Skull of St. Valentine and Casa di Giulietta cards in hand gain +15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Not to be confused with the Rosy-lipped Batfish, which is a whole different species (presumably Revlon now sponsor marine biologists) - the **Red-lipped Batfish** generally foregoes swimming in favour of... walking.

"BUT HOW DOES IT WALK IF IT'S A FISH?" you ask.

Well, with the aid of its highly-developed *pelvic and anal fins*, of course.

No further comment.
Poodle

## Did You Know?

The name 'Poodle' derives from 'Pudel' - the German word for 'puddle'. This is because the Poodle is a strong swimmer, and was often used to retrieve hunted game (such as ducks) from the water.

Unlike many dogs, much of a Poodle's fur keeps growing without being shed. This has led to the misconception that Poodle's have 'hair, not fur' - but the truth is, hair and fur are the same thing.
Pug

## Did You Know?

A breed dating back over 2000 years, Pugs have been the preferred breed of Chinese Emperors, Dutch Princes and British Queens, so they've had a front row seat for much of history.

But it's not all good news for Pugs. Because they are a short-nosed breed ('brachycephalic', since you ask), they are susceptible to proptosis. This means that their eyeballs are prone to popping out.

In other news, a group of Pugs is - rather adorably - called a Grumble.
Pier Gerlofs Donia

## Ability

### Ability

**Big Pier****(Draw)** Your Plundering Pirates cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy until played. **(Play)** If played next to two Riding the Waves! cards, your Common Plundering Pirates cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

“Butter, rye-bread, and young cheese: whoever cannot say that is not a true Frisian.” If you did manage to say it (in Frisian, that is), congratulations - legendary warrior **Pier Gerlofs Donia** would have treated you kindly. Then again, he was a fearsome 7-foot fighter who legend holds could crush a coin between his forefinger and thumb. So, you couldn’t be too sure.

Pier - who is best known by his nickname Grutte Pier (Big Pier) - started his life as a farmer. But after his village was raided by Saxon mercenaries and his farm destroyed, Pier set his sights on revenge and Friesian independence. Realising his army was no match for Saxons on land, he took to the waters and became a pirate, capturing many enemy ships in his time. I am Grutte!
Red-Tailed Black Shark

## Ability

### Ability

**Give Chase****(Play)** Your non-Limited Sharks! cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power until played. **(Return)** If your deck has 9 or more Sharks! cards, your non- Sharks! cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

It’s hard to be aggressive when you’re only 6 inches long but the **Red-Tailed Black Shark** is doing a damn fine job of it. This scrappy fish looks like a miniature shark and has a long black body with a flash of a red tail. If that’s not a blatant red flag, we don’t know what is.

These fish are incredibly territorial and have been known to become aggressive to not only other fish intruding on their space but even other Red-Tailed Black Sharks. However, these little guys are all bark and no bite. They will chase other fish away from their territory but very seldom physically harm them. That’s a relief!Red-Tailed Black Sharks are extinct in the wild of their native Thailand but are still bred in captivity today and are fairly common in the aquarium trade. Just be sure to give them lots of space in your aquarium!
Poltergeist

## Ability

### Ability

**It's a Toss-Up****(Draw)** Four random cards from either player's hand gain +22 Power until played and four random cards from either player's hand lose -22 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

A glass suspended in mid-air. A strange noise in the night. Keys going missing. If you’ve been experiencing any of these phenomena, it might be time to call the Ghostbusters, for this could be a classic case of a **Poltergeist**.

The term comes from a combination of two German words: poltern (crash) and geist (spirit or ghost). According to some ghost hunters, poltergeists (AKA Crash Ghosts) aren’t spirits at all, but the emotions of troubled people.

Stay with us on this one: their theory states that, through something called Spontaneous Recurring Psychokinesis, built-up stress can be projected outwards in the form of energy which affects the physical environment and produces the phenomena attributed to poltergeists. Either that or you’ve just got a prankster ghoul hell-bent on trolling you.
Rabbit's Foot

## Ability

### Ability

**Keep it for Luck****(Start)** This card loses -12 Power permanently and a random card in your hand gains +12 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

When humans started associating rabbit’s feet with good luck, this innocent prey animal was forced to add “mystic weirdos” to their list of predators. It all started with the Celts, way back in 600 B.C.

Since rabbits lived underground, the Celts believed they could communicate with spirits of the underworld. Over the centuries, the myth evolved to specify the **Rabbit’s Foot** as the lucky bit. And, according to the legends, it has to be the left hind foot.

Also, you need to capture the rabbit in a cemetery, preferably in the light of the full moon. Oh, and apparently, the power of the rabbit’s foot is even more potent if the creature is killed on an actual grave. Still, if you do all those things, you’ll have karma to contend with.
Revenant

## Ability

### Ability

**Not Great For Hugs****(Draw)** Your opponent's cards in hand lose -20 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Some folk just won’t stay dead. Take the **Revenant** for example. No, not the film where Leonardo di Caprio has an unfortunate tussle with a bear. Rather, these unfortunate souls are ones who died and came back to life. From the French, meaning “returning”, these people really did return - from a place that was only supposed to be a one-way trip.

Sometimes the word “Revenant” has been used to mean ghosts or vampires or generally any kind of undead creature. But there are some particularly horrible stories about people who were dead and buried, appearing only a few days later, having dug their way out of their graves and gone back to their homes.

This is straight up the stuff of nightmares and if someone could check about 400 times that we’re definitely dead before we’re buried, that would be absolutely fabulous. Thanks.
Polar Bear

## Ability

### Ability

**Bite Force****(Play)** If you are winning the round, this card gains +34 Power.

## Did You Know?

It would be more helpful to call these magnificent creatures 'North Polar Bears' as they are only found in the Arctic (meaning that contrary to any cartoons you may have seen, you won't find **Polar Bears** and Penguins hanging out together.) Polar Bears are related to Brown Bears.
Ragnarök

## Ability

### Ability

**Twilight of the Gods****(Draw)** Your opponent's cards in hand cost +2 Energy this turn and your cards in hand cost +1 Energy this turn.

## Did You Know?

In Norse mythology, **Ragnarök** isn’t good for anyone – even the Gods. This cataclysmic event would bring about the destruction of the cosmos and everything in it. While Ragnarök hasn’t actually happened yet (unless 2020 was Ragnarök, which is believable), Norse mythology says it’s already been set in motion by the series of events that surround the death of Odin’s son Baldr.

'Battle of the Doomed Gods' by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)