recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Giant Panda

## Ability

### Ability

**Eats, Shoots and Leaves****(Draw)** Your opponent's cards in hand lose -3 Power this turn and this card gains +15 Power this turn. **(Return)** Your opponent loses -15 Power/Turn next turn.

## Did You Know?

So cute, winsome and clumsily charismatic, there's a reason why the WWF founder Peter Scott selected them as the face of world conservation, something I understand the Naked Mole Rat and Blobfish are still a bit snarky about to this day.

The **Giant Panda** however is an undeniably good fit when it comes to being the poster-child for endangered species. These magnificent but solitary bears were in steep decline throughout the late 1970s to the mid-1980s but, thanks to a concerted effort spearheaded by the Chinese, their population has risen to a point where they are no longer classified as endangered. That's not to say they're out of the woods; climate change and habitat destruction will severely affect the wild population over the coming years.

Now we get to the proverbial 'Panda in the Room': their lousy libido. The sexual lethargy of the panda has few parallels. On the one hand, a female panda will only enter estrus once a year, giving any frisky males between 24 to 72 hours a year to make their move. On the other hand, male pandas have little to no sexual appetite for 10 months of the year and mating is so rare that researchers have even questioned whether they know what to do. So much so, scientists have tested Panda-Porn on them in an attempt to get them in the right mood before being introduced to a female.
Heimdall

## Ability

### Ability

**Rainbow Bridge****(Return)** If at least 6 cards in your deck are from different Albums, your cards, wherever they are, gain +30 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Son of Odin, **Heimdall** was the ultimate watchman. But make no mistake: he was much more than a curtain twitcher in a horned helmet.

Apparently, his super-hearing was so powerful that he could hear the grass growing in the meadows and wool growing on sheep. Such a power can be a blessing and a curse; although he was the perfect watchman for Asgard, the sounds of eating at the dinner table would have been unbearable.
Gaussian Function

## Ability

### Ability

**Parklife****(Play)** If played next to Wadi Bani Khalid, your Natural Monuments cards, wherever they are, gain +24 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Often referred to as the “Prince of Mathematics”, Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss changed the world as nerds know it. This was a guy who corrected an error in his father’s payroll calculations at age three, and who began managing those accounts by age five. So his achievements in the field aren’t too surprising.

In the area of probability and statistics, Gauss introduced what is now known as the ‘**Gaussian Function**’ - a family of functions that crop up in many areas of science and engineering. Through his work, he showed how probability could be represented by a bell-shaped curve, which peaks around the mean or expected value and quickly falls off towards plus/minus infinity. The Gaussian Function is also used to model financial scenarios, chemical processes and nuclear reactions, while designers might recognize the name from the Gaussian Blur function - all thanks to Mr Gauss.
Great Smog of London (1952)

## Ability

### Ability

**Severe Air Pollution****(Start)** If your deck contains Coal, your opponent loses -5 Power/Turn until this is returned to your deck.

## Did You Know?

A byproduct of the industrial revolution, the phenomenon of London fog dates way back before the 1950s. Already, the term “pea-souper” had been coined to describe the dense, yellow appearance of fog in the UK’s capital.

But the **Great Smog of London (1952)** was a pea-souper on a scale never seen before. It began with an anticyclone - a high pressure weather event that traps cold air below warm air higher up. As it settled over London, the emissions of factories and domestic fires had nowhere to go, so created a toxic cloud near ground level.

It was the worst smog in the city’s history - visibility was so poor that pedestrians couldn’t see their own feet. It stuck around for five days, but tragically claimed the lives of thousands through bronchitis and pneumonia.

'An early 1950s view of Trafalgar Square looking towards the southeast.' by Leonard Bentley (Source: Flickr) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Giorgio de Chirico

## Ability

### Ability

**Metaphysical****(Play)** If your deck has 4 or more Greek Mythology cards, your Weird World cards, wherever they are, gain +14 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Have you ever found yourself sitting on a bench having a breakthrough about your next great painting? **Giorgio de Chirico** did. Known as the godfather of surrealism, de Chirico got the inspiration for his famous piece ‘Piazza d’Italia’ while chilling on a bench in the Piazza Santa Croce, facing a Gothic church and a statue of Dante.

Although he had sat there before countless times, the painter said he had the impression he was seeing these things for the first time, and the composition of the painting revealed itself in his mind’s eye. Later, de Chirico would build a reputation from painting dream-like scenes of empty town squares in a style that sparked the short-lived ‘Metaphysical Painting’ movement.
Hair

## Ability

### Ability

**Split Ends****(Return)** This card loses -20 Power permanently and your remaining cards in hand gain +20 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

**Hair** is one of the fastest growing tissues on your body – second only to bone marrow. It’s also super strong: a single strand could hold 100g in weight, while the combined hair of a whole head could support 12 tonnes, or two elephants (don’t try this at home!). However, the idea that your hair will grow faster if you cut it is just a myth: split ends have no bearing on hair growth, since hair grows from follicles in your scalp.

What is true, though, is that each strand of hair can contain traces of 14 different elements - including gold! But no, shaving your hair to sell the gold isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme that works, unless you’re Chewbacca.
Grace O'Malley

## Ability

### Ability

**Pirate Queen****(Draw)** Your Plundering Pirates cards, wherever they are, gain +30 Power for 2 turns and an opponent's random card in hand loses -20 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

An hour after giving birth at sea, Irish folklore says that **Grace O’Malley** – also known as the Pirate Queen of Ireland – defended her ship from ambush. Wrapping her child in a blanket, she appeared on deck, rallied her crew and proceeded to capture the pirate ship. All in a day’s work when you’re a fearless seafarer.

Grace, whose name in Irish is Gráinne Ní Mháille, had wanted to travel the seas from an early age. When her parents said no and argued that her long hair would catch in the ship’s ropes, she cut off her hair. When Grace met Queen Elizabeth at Greenwich Palace, she refused to bow – after all, she considered herself a Queen and not a subject of the Queen of England!

'Grainne Mhaol Ni Mhaille Statue' by Suzanne Mischyshyn (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
General Relativity

## Ability

### Ability

**Warp Spacetime****(Play)** Lose -15 Power/Turn this round. **(Return)** Gain +40 Power/Turn next turn.

## Did You Know?

It’s been over 100 years since Einstein published his book on **General Relativity** - and yet, it feels like just yesterday. Albert Einstein’s mind-bending theory says that gravity is a warping of spacetime. The bigger an object, the more it warps the space around it. Depending on our position and speed, time can appear faster or slower to us – which is why astronauts on the ISS will age just a tiny bit slower than people on Earth.
Black-Banded Owl

## Ability

### Ability

**Wide-eyed Wonder****(Draw)** If you are not losing the round, this card gains +30 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

They can fly at speeds of up to 37mph and live up to 20 years in the wild; The **Black-Banded Owl** is a beautiful species of owl native to South America. Named for the black and white bars that cover its body, the Black-Banded Owl flaunts its unique look in the subtropical and neotropical forests. However, they’ve also been spotted near coffee and banana plantations. Despite being entirely nocturnal, the species clearly has an appreciation for breakfast.

Not only are their markings distinctive, but the call of the black-banded owl is easily recognised (if you’re a connoisseur of owl noises, that is.) When the male calls to the female, it does so in seven different descending notes. If she’s interested, the female will echo the call to swipe right.
Genomes

## Ability

### Ability

**Sequencing****(Draw)** For every time you have played DNA this game, your Brilliant Human Body cards, wherever they are, gain +8 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

We may be an advanced species capable of brilliant things, but did you know that humans share more than half of our genetic material with bananas? The reason we look nothing like them is because genes only account for 2% of your DNA, while the rest of your genome is made up of what scientists call non-coding DNA.

In its complete form, the genome contains all of the information needed for a person (or a banana, for that matter) to develop and grow. In humans, the genome consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes located in the cell’s nucleus, as well as a small chromosome in the cell’s mitochondria. The term “genome” was created by Hans Winkler in 1920 and is thought to be a combination of the word ‘gene’ and ‘chromosome’.
Hatzegopteryx

## Ability

### Ability

**Hatz Off****(Return)** If you lost the turn, your remaining cards in hand gain +30 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

During the late Cretaceous, Transylvania was an island that hosted one of the LARGEST pterosaurs of all time. Now, scientists think that this giraffe-sized, bird-like reptile might have also been the island’s arch-predator.

**Hatzegopteryx** was so gargantuan in fact, that when Paleontologists discovered its fossil remains back in 1991, they thought the fossils belonged to a theropod such as a T-Rex!

It's believed that its wingspan was up to 12 meters (40 ft) across, and its unusually strong and robust skull was 3 meters (10 ft) in length. The jaw was never found but it's believed it could be the longest jaw for any terrestrial tetrapod that has EVER existed. Are you quaking in your boots? Because we are!

Hatzegopteryx is still the only creature discovered on what was the island of Transylvania that could take down REALLY large prey. Paleontologists also found that the neck muscles could withstand a heck of a lot of force, which means that this beast was essentially capable of bludgeoning sizeable dinosaurs and potentially rose to the top of the food chain on the island.

And there you were, thinking that Dracula was the scariest thing to come out of Transylvania.

'The Maastrichtian, Transylvanian giant azhdarchid pterosaur Hatzegopteryx...' by Mark Witton (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)

## Trivia

* This card, along with Pfeffer's Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Cheetah, Augustus and MRI Scanner are considered as players' favourite cards and one of the either copy is included in the Awards Pack.
Caracalla

## Ability

### Ability

**The Rights of Citizens****(Return)** If your deck has 5 or fewer Common cards, give them, wherever they are, +13 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

We get it. Sharing a throne with your sibling can’t be easy. But did emperor **Caracalla** really have to murder his brother Geta in front of his mother and have over 20,000 of his followers killed? Probably not. With all opposition silenced, Caracalla (a nickname based on the cloak he wore) had the famous baths of Caracalla constructed, led several campaigns in Dacia and Persia and laid down a brutal revolt in Alexandria by murdering all men of military age.

Sure, the army loved him because he doubled their pay, and Caracalla scored political points by making all Romans into citizens, but his cruel and capricious leadership saw him assassinated by one of his own ministers after a reign of only six years.
Grizzly Bear

## Ability

### Ability

**Grizzled Veteran****(Play)** If you are winning the round, this card gains +50 Power.

## Did You Know?

Grizzly Bears are actually a sub-species of the Brown Bear, which may make our decision to make this a Fusion card over the Legendary Brown Bear card seem daft.

Then you remember that these things can stand up to 8 feet tall and weigh over 800 pounds, have claws as long as adult human fingers and can run up to 35 miles per hour, and you start to respect them a little more.

Fun fact; a couple of Grizzlies once lived on the grounds of the White House. Captain Zebulon Pike, an explorer, brought them to Washington as a gift for Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, unsure how to deal with two Grizzly Bears, kept them caged for a while before sending them to a museum.

That would be the last time Grizzlies had ever made it to the White House, and unless the Memphis NBA team ever wins a championship it'll stay that way. One day, Memphis.... one day.
Freyr

## Did You Know?

Not to be confused with his sister Freya (a mistake that is being made constantly in the CUE office), Freyr is the Norse God of peace, fertility, rain and sunshine. The most well-known myth about Freyr is that of his courtship of the giant Gerd.

One day Freyr decides to sit on Odin's throne in Asgard, from which he can see all of creation. He spots the frost giant Gerd and is instantly smitten. He resolves to ask her to marry him, which requires a dangerous journey into Jotunheim, home of the frost giants - he will have to contend with trolls, ice wizards and all sorts of horrible trials, so he gives his sword to a servant and tells him to go ask her for him. And they say romance is dead...

The servant, Skirnir, survives the terrible journey and, with a mix of gifts and the threat of a teeny-tiny curse, convinces Gerd to accept Freyr's proposal. Skirnir returns of Freyr and gives him the good news, but keeps the sword for his troubles. This leaves Freyr defenceless when Ragnarok comes, which he considers a small price to pay for being with his love.

Move over Romeo and Juliet - if your love story doesn't contain frost giants and ice wizards, we just aren't interested...
Giant Weta

## Ability

### Ability

**Take the Weta with You****(Start)** A random Bugs card in your hand gains +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

It may not be the cutest bug around, but the giant weta’s name does the creature a disservice. Their genus name, Deinacrida, means “terrible grasshopper”, while their common name ‘weta’ comes from the Maori word wetapunga, meaning “god of ugly things.”

Before you write off this gerbil-sized insect for its looks, it might interest you to know that the **Giant Weta** is older than some dinosaurs. Fossils found from the Triassic period 190 million years ago show striking similarities to the weta inhabiting New Zealand today.

Sadly, a huge decline to their population due to habitat destruction means this novelty-sized grasshopper is at risk of extinction. As a result, 10 out of 100 species of giant weta are now protected by law in New Zealand.
Giant Armadillo

## Ability

### Ability

**Hard Shell****(Play)** Your Olive Ridley Sea Turtle and Green Sea Turtle cards in hand gain +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The **Giant Armadillo** is native to northern South America, and can be identified by its large claws and scaly carapace. They are among the few species that will eat Fire Ants, which makes them both a key part of the ecosystem and a regular patron of chilli cookouts.

'Armadillo' by Kristine Paulus (Source: Flickr) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)

CRAFTING CLUE BELOW!

- I give it a C-, hardly iconic.
Göbekli Tepe

## Ability

### Ability

**Animal Relief****(Return)** If you are losing the round, your Mammals and Wonders of Construction cards, wherever they are, gain +23 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Since its discovery in 1994 near the city of Şanlıurfa in Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey, **Göbekli Tepe** has been blowing the minds of archaeologists and researchers – some of whom claim it was the site of the biblical Garden of Eden. What’s so special about these ruins, I hear you ask?

Well, the ancient sculptures and megalithic architecture make up what is believed to be the world’s earliest temple. Thought to be over 12,000 years old, Göbekli Tepe predates the invention of writing, the wheel and the beginning of agriculture.

Given that people of the time were supposedly hunter-gatherers, it’s puzzling that they could have organised and constructed such a complex site. This has left researchers scratching their heads as it challenges the conventional view of civilisation and how fast we evolved.
Hazel Dormouse

## Ability

### Ability

**Tiny Creatures****(Draw)** If you have played any Little Critters card this game, your Going Underground cards in hand gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

The **Hazel Dormouse** looks like they're straight out of a Disney movie. Golden fur, big black eyes and an extra fluffy tail. And at only 6-9cm long, they’re pretty damn cute.

They’re also pretty damn sleepy and have been known to hibernate for up to 7 months out of the year. Move over, Sleeping Beauty! These dozy little beasties can also go into a state of “torpor” which involves lowering their body temperature in order to save energy.

Their diet consists mostly of seeds and nuts and berries, as well as the occasional caterpillar - don’t remember that scene in *Alice in Wonderland!* And when they’ve just woken up from one of their very long naps, they’re also partial to eating blossoms from trees during the springtime, which just furthers our theory that they are indeed a Disney princess, who has been transformed into a Hazel Dormouse.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off for a 7 month nap.
Frigga

## Ability

### Ability

**Bonds of Marriage****(Play)** Your Odin card in hand gains +70 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Queen of the Norse gods, Frigga (sometimes spelled Frig, or Frigg, depending on how far into the word you can be bothered to type) is the more popularly recognised wife of Odin. Freya is also thought to have been a wife of his, but there is speculation that the two are one and the same (except in the CUE office, where we treat them as two different beings because that means we can make two different cards).

Tales of her escapades are remarkably scarce compared to the other Norse gods, but there is one story that'll ring true if you've ever had a petty squabble with your partner (i.e. if you've ever been in any kind of relationship). Two tribes, the Vandals and the Winnilers, are going to war.

Odin thought the Vandals would win, but Frigga thought the Winnilers would deserve victory more. Rather than putting on a bet and letting fate decide, Odin decided that the winner would be the first army he saw upon waking up in the morning. He felt pretty confident because his side of the bed overlooked the Vandals camp. Frigga had other plans - when he'd gone to sleep, she turned the bed around so he'd be facing the Winnilers when he woke.

She also went down to the Winniler tribe and told the women to tie their hair down over their chins so they looked like bearded warriors, which is kind of overkill but, look, we've all gone to extreme lengths to win a minor squabble.
Greek Urns

## Did You Know?

**Urns** in Ancient Greece had a multitude of uses, from food and drink storage to ritual artefacts. Urns have helped archaeologists understand the history of Ancient Greece. The depictions of events on the sides of Urns, coupled with carbon dating, has allowed them to assemble a sequence of events that... ahem... truly *holds water*.
Hebe

## Ability

### Ability

**Prime Of Your Life****(Play)** If it's the first turn of a round, your Ancient Greece cards in hand gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Here’s one way to win a popularity contest at Mount Olympus: become the cupbearer for the gods and goddesses and serve them their nectar to keep them eternally young. That role belonged to **Hebe**, the goddess of youth. She was also the patron goddess of young brides and an attendant of Aphrodite, occasionally sporting wings like Iris and Nike.

Hebe was dedicated to her role as cupbearer, until she was dismissed. Or was she? In the 1500s, the Church of England began spreading the idea that Hebe was fired because her dress became undone, leaving her exposed. However, there’s no Classical literary or artistic source for this account - and many people believe the Church made it up as a way of warning women to stay modestly covered at all times.
Gigantoraptor

## Ability

### Ability

**Raptor-ous Applause****(Return)** If you won the turn, this card gains +30 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Despite the '-raptor' part of its name, the Gigantoraptor shares more in common with the bird-like Caudipteryx and Avimimus. It's one of the largest beaked dinosaurs ever discovered, and was likely a two-ton beast covered in feathers.

Gigantoraptor is a fairly recent discovery - the first and only specimen was found in Mongolia in 2005 by Xu Xing. And what a specimen it was - whereas usually it takes Paleontologists many finds to piece together what a skeleton looked like, Xing's Gigantoraptor was near-complete.

There is a dinosaur egg, currently being kept very safe in the Childrens' Museum of Indianapolis in the United States, which contains an actual dinosaur embryo. It's speculated, given its size and the location it was discovered in, that it could be a Gigantoraptor - so if they ever do decide to do Jurassic Park for real (ignoring all the warning signs), it'd be a lot more feathery.
Heat Death of the Universe

## Ability

### Ability

**Maximum Entropy****(Draw)** Your cards, wherever they are, with 7 or more Base Energy cost -3 Energy this round and your cards, wherever they are, with 4 or less Base Energy cost +3 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

All good things must end - but how will it happen for the universe? A big rip, intergalactic warfare or The Big Chill? The latter is thought to be the most likely - but don’t worry, we’ve still got billions of years before that happens.

Still, in case you’re around at the time, this is what you can expect: as space expands, the universe will reach a state of maximum entropy. When that happens, “**Heat Death of the Universe**” will ensue, leaving the universe in a state of no thermodynamic free energy.

Orbits will decay, planets will fall and stars will run out of fuel. Even black holes will eventually evaporate. A chilling prophecy for sure, but hey, maybe another Big Bang will bring us all back a few billion years later.
Goliath Birdwing Butterfly

## Ability

### Ability

**Too Big to Fail****(Return)** If you lost the turn, this card costs +6 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

The behemoth of a butterfly known as the **Goliath Birdwing Butterfly** is the second-largest butterfly in the world, boasting a wingspan of 28cm on average. They’re also the second most poisonous – thankfully, they aren’t harmful to humans, though. Hailing from New Guinea, we can only assume this butterfly is known as Big Papua to its friends (and Lil’ Pupa when it’s still in a cocoon).
Harry Moore and Harriette Simms

## Ability

### Ability

**For Freedom Never Dies****(Return)** If you are losing the round, your Shake Up The System cards, wherever they are, cost -2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

**Harry Moore and Harriette Simms** were leaders in the early civil rights movement in the U.S. They met in 1925, when Moore was teaching fourth grade at an elementary school in Brevard County and Simms was working for an insurance company. They were married within a year on Christmas day, 1926. Soon after the birth of their daughters, the Moores founded the Brevard County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Tragically, they became the first martyrs of the movement on the night of their 25th wedding anniversary when a bomb was planted and detonated under their bedroom floor. It was the only time that a husband and wife were murdered during the history of the movement.
H-IIA

## Ability

### Ability

**Japanese Aerospace****(Play)** For every Feudal Japan card in your deck, up to a maximum of 5, your Radical Rockets cards, wherever they are, gain +5 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Its name sounds like a flirty robot saying hello - however, if the **H-IIA** expendable launch system could talk, “goodbye” would be more fitting. Operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, H-IIA is Japan’s primary large-scale launch vehicle.

First launched in 2001, this high performance rocket is efficient by design and has since achieved one of the highest performance to cost ratio of any launch system in the world. As of December 2021, H-IIA rockets were launched 45 times, including 39 consecutive missions without a failure, dating back to 29 November 2003.

Notable launches of H-IIA include Akatsuki, the space probe studying Venus, and SELENE, the second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft.

'H-IIA F19 launching IGS-O4' by NARITA Masahiro (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Harper Lee

## Ability

### Ability

**To Kill a Mockingbird****(Play)** Your opponent's Birds and [[:Category:Sea Birds |Sea Birds ]] cards, wherever they are, lose -25 Power for 2 turns and your Shake Up The System cards in hand gain +14 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Before she was known by her pen name, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel *To Kill A Mockingbird* was called Nelle **Harper Lee** – Nelle being her grandmother’s name, Ellen, spelt backwards. Lee dropped her given name to keep people from mispronouncing it “Nellie”, and worked on her novel in her downtime from her job as a ticket agent for Eastern Air Lines and British Overseas Airways.

One Christmas, her good friends gave Lee the ultimate present: an envelope with a year’s wages, allowing her to take the time off to write. Upon its release in 1960, *To Kill a Mockingbird* became an instant bestseller and remains so today, with more than 30 million copies sold in more than 40 languages.
Gavialinum

## Ability

### Ability

**Teeth on Edge****(Play)** If you are trailing by 66 Power or more, this card gains +66 Power.

## Did You Know?

We aren’t gaslighting when we tell you that the **Gavialinum** was not an ancient sea crocodile. Sure, it has the face of a crocodilian, and the body… of a crocodilian (plus a long whippy tail). But this is no crocodile.

And, despite their similar names and appearance, the extinct Gavialinum isn’t even related to the modern-day Gavialidae, a family of large semiaquatic reptiles with sword-like snouts. In fact, this extinct beast is actually a genus of teleosaurid thalattosuchian, thought to have lived in the Middle Jurassic period.

That’s according to analysis on fossils found in France that date back approximately 166 million years ago. On each jaw of its long, narrow snout, the Gavialinum had 33 teeth which it used to chomp up small-bodied fish – just like crocodiles do.

'Hypothetical life reconstruction of Gavialinum rhodani' by Nobu Tamura (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered) Background added, color corrected, image enhanced.
Helen Keller

## Ability

### Ability

**Miracle Worker****(Play)** If you have lost 1 round this game, gain +15 Power/Turn permanently.

## Did You Know?

**Helen Keller** was already making history in her early twenties when she became the first person with deafblindness to earn a college degree. An outspoken advocate for women’s rights and a strong supporter of birth control, Helen Keller triumphed as an author and political activist, and went on to found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

As well as her intelligence, Keller also had a wicked sense of humor. With the help of her teacher and lifelong friend, Anne Sullivan, Keller performed a 20-minute show on the vaudeville circuit in the prohibition-era 1920s where she told her life story. When asked by an audience member, “What do you think is the most important question before the country today?” Keller’s response: “How to get a drink!”
Gray Treefrog

## Ability

### Ability

**Toxic Secretions****(Start)** Your opponent's cards in hand lose -5 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Put your angry-letter-writing-kit away, we know the frog on the front of the card is, in fact, green. As its scientific name Dryophytes versicolor suggests, the **Gray Treefrog** creates an awesome camouflage between brown, green and gray depending on where they are sat. Which begs the question as to why it’s called the Gray Treefrog at all, but you know. Not our circus.

Gray Treefrogs make their home in the eastern half of the USA and in part of Canada, solely at the top of high tree tops, which makes their ability to survive freezing temperatures very handy.
Gingerbread House

## Ability

### Ability

**Built With Love****(Draw)** Your Super Structures and Wonders of Construction cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

There are a lot of traditions revolving around **Gingerbread Houses** and their gingerbread inhabitants. For example, in Sweden, breaking a piece of gingerbread into three would grant you a wish; and 16th-Century folk-medicine practitioners in England would prescribe gingerbread men to single women, who believed that convincing a man to eat it would cause him to fall in love with her.

Gingerbread Houses are becoming increasingly impressive. The Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain restaurant (Marana, Arizona) has created a gingerbread *dining space* made from almost a metric ton of ingredients - but even that is put to shame by the largest Gingerbread House in the world, which measures 60 x 42 feet.

On a diet? Not to worry - this thing is a mere 35,823,400 calories.

Meanwhile, in the city of Bergen in Norway, kindergarteners, schoolchildren, local businesses, and thousands of other volunteers have banded together since 1991 to create *Pepperkakebyen* - a model town made entirely out of gingerbread!
Giant Tube Worms

## Ability

### Ability

**Venting****(Play)** If played next to Sulphur, your opponent's cards in hand lose -14 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

You’re given the opportunity to live to 250 years old. There’s just one catch: you must live these 250 years as a **Giant Tube Worm**. Do you do it? To help you make your mind up on this hypothetical offer, here are some arguments for and against.

For: you get to live a helluva long time.

Against: you have to live between 6500 - 13,000 feet underwater.

For: you’ll be able to tolerate extremely high hydrogen sulphide levels.

Against: you have no eyes, mouth or gut and will never completely leave your tube.

For: you don’t have to deal with human worries or even have a job. You literally just sit in your tube turning hydrogen sulphide into carbohydrates. Where do we sign up?

'Campagne Phare 2002 ' by 'Campagne Phare 2002 ' by IFREMER is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered) (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Guernsey Double

## Did You Know?

When you realise that Guernsey is actually much closer to France than it is to the UK, it becomes less surprising to discover that the island’s population only adopted Sterling currency in 1921. However, what is surprising is that they weren’t using up-to-date French currency, either.

Until 1834, Guernsey used the French Livre – a currency that France itself had abandoned in 1795. Rather than adopting the franc like the French had or moving to pounds like the British, Guernsey made up its own currency – the **Guernsey Double**. Doubles were a series of copper coins that were worth 1⁄80 of a French franc.

Eight Doubles were equivalent to One Penny in UK currency. The name ‘double’ came from the French ‘double deniers’, so the correct pronunciation was ‘dooble’.

'1864 Guernesey 8 Doubles' by Centpacrr (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered) Background replaced
Goyahkla

## Did You Know?

**Goyahkla**, AKA Geronimo, was an Apache leader who belonged to the Bedonkohe band of the Chiricahua Apache tribe. He was a symbol of Native American resistance to both the United States and the Mexican military. He was a fearsome fighter who wreaked havoc on Mexican troops and swore vengeance against Mexico, leading a series of bloody raids on its soldiers and settlements… why? Because they murdered his entire family, including his wife, children and mother.

“I had lost all,” he said in his autobiography, following the massacre. “I have killed many Mexicans - I do not know how many… Some of them were not worth counting.”

Goyahkla established a strong resistance to his many enemies that lasted for over 30 years. He was a relentless, notorious and feared fighter with enemies amongst his own people and the US and Mexican Militaries.

Goyahkla eventually did surrender and in 1886 the jig was officially up. He was held as a prisoner of war in camps located in Florida, Alabama and Oklahoma. In his later years Goyahkla converted to Christianity, sold autographed photos of himself, and had the honour of riding on a horse in President Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural parade in 1905.

Goyahkla was never allowed to return to his tribe or homeland and died at the hospital in Fort Sill in 1909. His legacy lived on with the 2011 U.S. military strike that killed Osama Bin Laden code-named, you guessed it - 'Geronimo.'
Giant River Otter

## Ability

### Ability

**Defend your Territory****(Draw)** Your Going Underground cards in hand gain +28 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

A word of advice: don’t, under any circumstances, mess with a **Giant River Otter**. Forget the cute cuddly otters you see in YouTube videos clutching their favourite rock - these creatures eat Piranhas for breakfast and anacondas for elevenses.

Some reports claim they’ve attacked humans when unprovoked, and they’ve even been known to take on small crocodiles. The honey badgers of the water, these large otters can reach up to 1.7 metres in length. For context, that’s roughly the same height as the average human man. Giant river otters are also the noisiest of all otter species and are capable of producing a scream so loud that it can be heard from almost a mile away.
Granrojo Jellyfish

## Ability

### Ability

**Those Aren't Tentacles...****(Play)** All cards in both player's hands lose -10 Power this turn. **(Return)** If you won the turn, your opponent's remaining cards in hand lose -10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

The Tiburonia **Granrojo Jellyfish** is a rarely-seen, very large species of jellyfish that measures around 76cm in diameter. Despite its hefty size, scientists only discovered this unusual jellyfish in 1993. When they did, they were intrigued to find that the Granrojo Jellyfish didn’t have traditional tentacles like other jellyfish – instead, they found it had thick, fleshy mouth-arms that it uses to capture food.

Yes, we said mouth arms.

Unless you frequently swim at a depth of 1.5km, you’re unlikely to encounter the Granrojo Jellyfish, which was originally going to be named “big ugly” upon its discovery. Fortunately for the jelly, members of the crew felt that name was too harsh and dubbed it “granrojo” meaning big red in Spanish.
Hagedorn Temperature

## Ability

### Ability

**Unstable Matter****(Play)** Give three random opponent's cards in hand -5 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Absolute zero, technically known as zero kelvins, is the lowest temperature possible. But what’s the absolute maximum? Let’s work our way there. At 300 kelvins, we reach the comfortable room temperature. At 373K, we can make a cuppa or boil some pasta.

Push that to 1000K and most metals will liquify. Take it to 6,000K and you get the surface temperature of the sun… and at 1.7×10^12K, we reach something called the **Hagedorn Temperature**.

First discovered and named after Rolf Hagedorn, pictured on Wikipedia <link="https:>looking smug with a wine glass,</link> the Hagedorn Temperature is thought to be the boiling point of hadronic matter. A quick caveat: The Hagedorn Temperature isn’t technically “the” maximum, but at this temperature, hadronic matter must either "evaporate" or convert into quark matter.
Ghost

## Ability

### Ability

**That's the Spirit****(Return)** Gain +1:energy/turn: permanently and if you lost the turn, gain +1:energy/turn: permanently.

## Did You Know?

**Ghost** is a very broad entry into the CUE canon, and a bit like having an ‘Animal’ card - but let’s see how we get on.

Pliny the Younger included one of the first *written* ghost stories in his letters from the first century AD. He relates seeing the spectre of an old man in chains haunting his house in Athens (Perhaps a clue as to what became of Pliny the Elder?)

Ghost stories have since become a staple of cultures around the world - and famous ghosts include Henry VIII (and the wives he ‘fell out with’), Abraham Lincoln, Aaron Burr, Charles I, Al Capone and Bonnie and Clyde. (So either notorious people or notorious deaths, generally speaking. )

The reason we have the concept of ghosts at all likely stems from ancient beliefs that our spirit is a separate entity from our body, and has the ability to live on. Something that’s hard to disprove without a severely compromised Ethics Committee.

While ghosts are gradually… ahem… disappearing, a third of US and UK residents still believe in them.
Height

## Ability

### Ability

**Skeleton Sequence****(Play)** Your Sue Black's In The Bones cards, wherever they are, gain +3 Power until played. **(Play)** If you have played Age Estimation this game, your Ancestral Origin card, wherever it is, gains +8 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

The height of most adults falls within about 12 inches – between 5ft and 6ft. Individuals shorter than 5ft and those taller than 6ft tend to be considered outliers and are therefore more unusual. Because of this, extremes of height are more useful for identifying an individual.

Height is generally calculated from the lengths of the long bones and in particular those of the lower limbs (femur – thigh bone and tibia – shin bone). It is logical that if you have longer limb bones, then you will be taller and if you have shorter limb bones you will be shorter.

Accurate adult height can be calculated from the femur and the tibia to within 2 inches but other bones can be used if these are not available and includes, for example, the bones of the upper limb.

Native American skeletons discovered on Santa Catalina Island in California, USA exceeded 8ft in height and would by today’s standards be considered giants. Conversely, adult human skeletons found in caves on the South Pacific island of Flores were only around 3 ft 4ins in height – *Homo floresiensis* are were referred to as ‘hobbit like’.

Professor Dame Sue Black is an anatomist and a forensic anthropologist. She led for her discipline in the war crimes investigations in Kosovo and has deployed to many countries around the world including Thailand, Iraq, Sierra Leone and Grenada. She is the author of 14 textbooks and 2 popular science books about her career. She is a Fellow of 5 learned academies and is a cross bench Peer in the House of Lords. She is currently Pro Vice Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University and is President Elect for St. John's College, Oxford.
Helheim

## Ability

### Ability

**Realm of the Dead****(Play)** Your Asgard card in hand gains +20 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

In an uncanny case of nominative determinism, **Helheim**, known simply as Hel, is also governed by Hel - one of Loki’s daughters.

There are varying reports as to whether Hel is *in* Niflheim or just nearby - if you’re planning on a visit it’s best to just to look it up on your sat nav, *or* be particularly evil, and then die.

Yes, Hel, like its extra-"l"'ed Christian counterpart, is where the bad people spend their afterlife. Unfortunately, given the kudos given to Norsemen dying in battle, it was also where people who died of disease and old age went - which seems a bit harsh. Thankfully Hel (the goddess) has a massive house which she lets out to not-so-evil dead people, like a post-death AirBnB.
Elisabeth of Bavaria, Queen of the Belgians

## Ability

### Ability

**The Red Queen****(Play)** Your Female Unruly Rulers cards in hand gain +20 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Some say it’s bad taste to flirt at a funeral, others think that being around death reminds you to live life to the fullest so why not. **Elisabeth of Bavaria, Queen of the Belgians** didn’t seem even remotely bothered what people thought when she met Prince Albert, her future husband and the future King of the Belgians, at her aunt’s funeral in 1897.

Luckily, their rather melancholy start actually led to a successful reign and when Albert took to the throne, Elisabeth threw herself into her role and took a hand-on approach to being Queen. She became beloved by the people for many reasons including her kindness, her charity work and how genuine she seemed when people met her. During World War I, she worked with nurses, visited the front lines, sponsored a nursing unit, and was generally a stand-up lady.

After the death of her husband and later death of her daughter-in-law, she stepped up as Queen Dowager to support her son…and then her younger son when he first abdicated…and then her grandson after he died. She finally died at the age of 89, having seen 4 different men as King of the Belgians, and her at the right hand of them all.
He Xiangu

## Ability

### Ability

**Life Eternal****(Play)** If your deck has 3 or more Eight Immortals cards, your Plant Life cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power for 2 turns and your Eight Immortals cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

Badass groups of supernatural beings aren't a concept reserved for comic books. In Chinese mythology, the Eight Immortals are a group of historical and mythical figures who achieved immortality through their spiritual pursuits and devotion to Taoism.

The only female of the eight, **He Xiangu** was instructed as a teenager to eat powdered mica (a silicate mineral) by a divine being who believed it would give her immunity from death. Having done so, He Xiangu ascended into heaven to become a Xian - an immortal, enlightened practitioner of Taoism.

In Chinese culture, He Xiangu is often depicted holding a lotus flower, a source of physical health and mental wellbeing. She is also described as “floating beauty” because of her ability to gently float above the ground.
Goblin

## Ability

### Ability

**Goblin Energy****(Draw)** Your cards, wherever they are, with 1 or less Base Energy gain +10 Power and cost +1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Regular **Goblins** don’t have a vendetta against Spiderman. And they don’t look like Willem Dafoe. Well - not *really.* In European folklore, the word “goblin” is usually reserved for an ugly fairy (sorry Willem) that is either mischievous or malevolent.

Although they live in grottoes, stories tell of these sprites attaching themselves to households and “trolling” residents in the night, moving furniture and stealing nightclothes from sleeping people. In some tales, goblins help parents by punishing children when they’re bad and rewarding them with presents when they’re good. Think Santa Claus, but tiny and weird looking.

The word itself is derived from the Greek word “Kobalos,” meaning “Rogue” - a bit like you when you’ve stayed in pyjamas all weekend eating endless buckets of chicken wings. #KobalosMode
Gee's Golden Langur

## Ability

### Ability

**Endangered Primate****(Play)** Your Rare Primates cards, wherever they are, gain +28 Power for 4 turns.

## Did You Know?

What wisdom can ye dispense to us troubled humans, oh ancient wise monkey? Hello? Monkey? Nope, despite looking like it may know the solution to all of our earthly problems, **Gee’s Golden Langur** isn’t going to give you anything. In fact, researchers have found that this Old World monkey deliberately works hard to avoid human interaction, making them very difficult to observe in the wild.

Here’s what we do know: Gee’s Golden Langur was officially discovered in 1953 by a tea planter and naturalist Edward Pritchard Gee. They are thought to live in troops of around 8, with a ratio of several females to each adult male. Sadly, it is one of the most endangered species of India and Bhutan, with populations declining by 30% in the last 30 years.
Great Egret

## Did You Know?

**Great Egrets** are tall, long-legged wading birds with long, S-curved necks and long, dagger-like bills. Yes, we know we have used the word 'long' three times in that short sentence but that's because everything about the **Great Egret** is, well... *long*.

In-flight, the long (there we go again) neck is tucked in and their extremely long (sorry) legs extend far beyond the tip of the short tail. There, we threw in a 'short'.

Great egrets usually wade in shallow water (both fresh and salt) to hunt fish, frogs, and other small aquatic animals. They typically stand tall, still and unassuming and watch for unsuspecting prey to mooch on by. Then, BOOM, with startling break-neck speed, the **Egrets** strike with a jab of their bill.

The white-as-snow Great Egret likes to get dressed up and looks a hell of a lot snazzier for the breeding season. A patch of skin on its face turns neon green, and long plumes grow from its back. Called 'aigrettes', these plumes were a prize possession as adornments for ladies in the late nineteenth century...
Genetic Engineering

## Ability

### Ability

**Splice****(Draw)** This card loses -20 Power permanently and gives a random card in your hand +20 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

A gene is basically a chunk of a DNA strand that codes for something; a unique recipe for specific structures of proteins. While organisms have different genes, they have a similar DNA structure/code (we'll get into this later).

It was Austrian monk Gregor Mendel who discovered the laws of inheritance. He worked out that gene 'factors' come in pairs and more specifically that they are inherited as distinguishable units. Of course, by the time Mendel had worked this out, humans had been playing with genes for thousands of years and simply not realising it. Selective breeding had already yielded crops and different dog breeds. They were selecting visual traits, not necessarily realising that these traits were created from genes.

Now back to the structure of DNA. Fascinatingly, we hypothesise that all life on earth is related because the way our DNA is 'written' is very similar, but beyond that, we also share many of our genes with lots of other creatures. For example, we share around 93% of our DNA with rhesus monkeys and between 50-60% with a banana.

Modern-day **Genetic Engineering** uses multiple techniques to manipulate genetic material to better understand, enhance or repair genetic functions. From growing insect-repelling fruit & veg to inhibiting decay and curing diseases, the possibilities (and the potential controversies) are endless!