recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
First-Foot

## Ability

### Ability

**First Through the Door****(Play)** If it's Round 1, your cards adjacent to this gain +50 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

According to Scottish, Northern English and Manx Folklore, the **First-Foot** is the first person to step over the threshold of a household in the new year, and has the almighty responsibility of being titled the bringer of good fortune for the coming year.

Thanks to the sexist expectations of the past, it is generally expected that the first-foot be male - although the tradition also ties in… hair-ist(?) themes, with a preference for a dark-haired male over a blond man to be the first over the doorway (except in the North York Moors of course, where they should be fair-haired). It seems bald guys don’t really get a look-in.

The tradition is still common in Scotland to this day, and the first-foot is expected to bring good luck gifts such as a black bun, salt or coal. Think we’d prefer the Lego set.
Draco Volans

## Ability

### Ability

**Exclusively Arboreal****(Draw)** If your deck has 6 or more Tremendous Trees cards, your Tremendous Trees cards, wherever they are, cost -2 Energy for 3 turns. **(Play)** Your Reptiles cards, wherever they are, gain +15 Power for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a badass flying lizard known as the **Draco Volans**. Although ‘volans’ means “flying”, this lizard doesn’t actually fly - but it does glide. Using a patagia, a membrane that covers its ribs, the Draco Volans soars through the rainforests of South-East Asia.

Males use their flying mechanism to patrol their territories of one or more trees, while the female of the species glides freely between them in search of a mate. It’s your classic boy-meets-girl story, with the twist that they’re both reptiles with stretchy skin flaps. Both male and female can manage around 8 metres of flight before they settle on a branch to take a breather and prepare for another launch.
Drop Bear

## Ability

### Ability

**The Carnivorous Koala****(Play)** If you have played Koala this game, your Carnivores cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Planning a trip down under? Don’t forget to buy some Vegemite or toothpaste to spread behind your ears. Failing that, stick a fork in your hair. It sounds crazy, but these are the only known repellents of the **Drop Bear** - a predatory marsupial that terrorises tourists across Australia.

Champions of the Surprise Kill, these blood-thirsty beasts will wait up to four hours in their arboreal hide-outs. With their victim in view, these vicious creatures drop as much as eight metres to attack their prey.

…Except that Drop Bears aren’t real. The origin of the hoax is unknown, but the concept of the drop bear has long been an in-joke amongst Australians intended to confuse outsiders and put scouts off camping. You can take that fork out of your hair now.
Douglas Fir

## Ability

### Ability

**They're Really Something...****(Return)** If your deck has exactly 1 other Tremendous Trees card, your Tremendous Trees cards, wherever they are, gain +50 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

“I’ve got to find out what kind of trees these are, they’re really something,” says special agent Dale Cooper when he first makes his entrance to Twin Peaks in the eponymous tv series. Those trees, we later discover, are **Douglas Firs** - and they’re pretty amazing.

An evergreen conifer native to North west America, the Douglas fir can grow to 55 metres, making it one of the three tallest trees in the continent. Not only that, but these beautiful conifers boast a lifespan of over 750 years, with the oldest specimens living for over 1,300 years. Pine cones from the Douglas Fir are unusually pointed in shape and hang straight down from the branches. According to Native American legend, mice often hid in the cones to escape forest fires.
Dragonfly

## Ability

### Ability

**Incessant Buzzing****(Return)** If you won the turn, gain +1:energy/turn: permanently.

## Did You Know?

Dragonflies evolved around 300 million years ago. Whilst modern dragonflies have a wingspan of two to five inches, fossils have been found with wingspans of up to two feet. A dragonfly has incredible vision by virtue of its eye taking up nearly all of its head.
Fat-tailed Dunnart

## Did You Know?

When The People That Name Animals were handing out names, the Fat-Tailed Dunnart didn't fare so well. This marsupial mouse stores excess fat in its tail and inhabits a wide variety of environments from the southern coast of Australia to arid inland regions and can be found in woodlands, shrub-lands and grassy areas, often found sharing habitats with the common house mouse. Everybody needs good neighbours...

Now for the clever bit; In order to save energy, Fat-Tailed Dunnarts can undergo winter torpor, which, in a nutshell is pretty similar to hibernation, lasting a few hours or several days at a time. When these sleeping beauties awake from their torpid state, they use a lot of energy in order to raise their body temperature. During these periods of regaining their energy, they typically spend their time sunbathing...

Despite the lousy name, these guys have got it all worked out and, really, we should all be a little more Fat-Tailed Dunnart...
Four of Wands

## Ability

### Ability

**Celebration of Harmony****(Return)** If you won the turn, your cards, wherever they are, gain +1 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Whether wedding bells are ringing or you’re celebrating another lap around the sun with the people you love, the **Four of Wands** signals for you to let your hair down and enjoy the party.

It’s not an exact science, but if you see meaning in the cards, the number four represents stability, balance and strong foundations. Meanwhile, the suit of wands symbolises the source of your energy.

Together, these elements make for harmony in the home and a satisfying sense of completion. Or maybe your fortune teller just wants you to feel good about yourself by telling you what you want to hear. Even if that’s the case, you may as well follow their advice, put your feet up and be thankful you didn’t draw the Tower card.
Epsilon Eridani b

## Ability

### Ability

**Lonely River****(Play)** If this is the only Space card in your deck, your Raging Rivers cards, wherever they are, gain +25 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In the early 1990s, a Canadian team of astronomers floated the idea that a K-type star known as Epsilon Eridani may be orbited by an exoplanet. Unfortunately, their observations weren’t definitive enough to make a discovery. Then, in the year 2000, a team led by Artie Hatzes stole their thunder with a formal discovery. The planet was indeed real, boasting a mass 0.63 times that of Jupiter. As of 2022, **Epsilon Eridani b** remains the only confirmed planet in its planetary system.

Positioned at a distance of 3.53 astronomical units from its star, Epsilon Eridani b takes a leisurely 7.6 years to complete an orbit and experiences stellar winds a whopping 30 times stronger than what we get on Earth.
Dorygnathus

## Did You Know?

Dorygnathus, which is named after the Greek for "Spear Jaw", was a relatively small pterosaur that lived along the coastlines of what is now Europe. They were the seagulls of Jurassic Period, except instead of wanting to steal your chips they would have been after your fish - they were piscivorous eaters.
Draugr

## Ability

### Ability

**Linger On****(Return)** If you lost the turn, your Norse Mythology and Machines of War cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In Norse mythology, the **Draugr** is not someone you want to run into. Much like zombies, these undead creatures still have their physical bodies. Unlike most zombies, they possess human-level intelligence, superhuman strength and can increase their size at will.

After a Viking died, the main sign that they would become a Draugr is that the corpse was not in a horizontal position but found in an upright or sitting position. Any greedy or miserly person was usually a candidate to become a Draugr after death, living in their graves and guarding their treasure within their burial mound.

Regardless of how they were in life, the Draugr were monsters whose whole M.O was killing the living, and anyone killed by a Draugr was destined to become one themselves.
Eye of Ra

## Ability

### Ability

**Vision of Violence****(Play)** If played in the middle slot and next to Eye of Horus, your opponent's cards in hand lose -35 Power this turn. If also played next to The Sun, they lose an additional -15 Power this turn and if your deck contains Sight, the card opposite this loses -10 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Not to be confused with the eye of Horus, the **Eye of Ra** actually refers to the daughter of Ra, the all important sun god of ancient Egypt. One of the most recognisable emblems of ancient Egypt, the eye is seen as an extension of Ra’s power (although also a totally independent being) and a representation of the sun god’s feminine side. Hey, who says there’s no ‘eye’ in ‘team’?

If you’re thinking “it’s just an eye” - you’re wrong. For a start, eyes in Egyptian mythology were seen as symbols of sight and perception - and this eye had the power to see anything. Plus, the Eye of Ra was believed to be a powerful, destructive force that used violence to control its enemies.
Easter Egg Tree

## Ability

### Ability

**Ostereierbaum****(Play)** Your Tremendous Trees cards in hand gain +12 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

When it was suggested we produce an Easter Egg Tree card, most of us thought we were being pranked.

Imagine our delight then, when we found that the **Ostereierbaum** really is a thing! And that Volker Kraft - who had dreamed as a child of having his own Easter Egg Tree - produced the Saalfelder Ostereierbaum: an apple tree in his garden that was eventually decorated with an incredible *ten thousand* hand-blown Easter Eggs each year.

And imagine our crushing disappointment when we found that the Saalfelder Ostereierbaum closed - forever - in 2015.

Worry not though: Martha Stewart began promoting the concept in 2019, and with Rostock Zoo having broken the world record with nearly 80,000 eggs on a single tree, the tradition looks set to keep on running.
Engelier and Gerin

## Ability

### Ability

**Steal the Show****(Return)** Gain +4 Energy. **(Draw)** Your Iapetus card, wherever it is, gains +27 Power until this is returned to your deck.

## Did You Know?

Iapetus is the third-largest natural satellite of Saturn and the eleventh largest in our Solar System. Upon this huge moon are two impact craters known as **Engelier and Gerin**. The former is around 500km long, while the latter is 445km (or roughly the same length as the Grand Canyon).

Both craters are named after members of the Paladins (or Twelve Peers), a group of fictional knights of legend from the French epic Song of Roland. If you ever get your hands on a super-powerful telescope, Engelier is located at 41 degrees south latitude and 265 degrees west longitude. Its formation destroyed about half of Gerin, which is located at 46 degrees south latitude, and 233 degrees west longitude.
Enceladus

## Ability

### Ability

**Moon Modifier****(Play)** If played between Titan, Moon of Saturn and Dione, give those cards +24 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Need a break from your space exploration to check your hair? We recommend swinging by **Enceladus**, the sixth largest of Saturn’s moons. Since it’s covered by fresh, clean ice, Enceladus is one of the most reflective giants in the solar system.

Realistically, you probably can’t snap a pic of your #SpaceFit in the reflection, but Enceladus has other things going for it. For one, it has most of the chemical ingredients needed for life and likely has hypothermal vents spewing out hot, mineral-rich water into its ocean.

Named after a giant in Greek mythology, Enceladus measures about 500 kilometres in diameter and completes one orbit every 32.9 hours within the densest part of Saturn’s E Ring.
Color Spectrum

## Ability

### Ability

**Visible Vibrancy****(Play)** If your deck has 2 or fewer cards from any album, your cards from that album, wherever they are, gain +11 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Throughout history, everyone from Aristotle to Kermit the Frog has pondered the existence of rainbows. Then, in the 1660s, English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton began a series of experiments with sunlight and prisms. By splitting light with a glass prism, he proved that white light is made up of a **Color Spectrum**.

This discovery, along with the work of others before him, finally explained how rainbows are formed. Newton also noted that the sequence of colours in the spectrum is unchanging, always running in the same order that comprises seven colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. This order is easily memorised through a helpful mnemonic: â€œRichard of York Gave Battle in Vainâ€
Famine

## Ability

### Ability

**Judgment Day****(Draw)** Both player's Curious Cuisine cards, wherever they are, lose -20 Power this round. **(Play)** Your opponent's cards in hand lose -15 Power this round. **(Return)** If you won the turn, your Death card, wherever it is, gains +50 Power next turn.

## Did You Know?

When the apocalypse rolls around, you’re gonna be really hungry. That’s according to the Book of Revelation in the Bible, anyway. In this doom-mongering passage, four horsemen come forth in the end times to represent each element of the apocalypse. One of these is **Famine**, personified by a horseman riding a black horse. The horseman is carrying a pair of weighing scales, representing the way that bread would have been weighed during a famine.

So, how bad will it get? The text in Revelation says “a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius,”, which essentially means food prices during the apocalypse will surge to be twelve times higher than normal. Best to stock up on tinned food, just in case.
Evolution

## Ability

### Ability

**Evolutionary Leap****(Return)** Your Legendary cards, wherever they are, cost -2 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

**Evolution** is the process by which living things, plants, animals, bacteria etc can gradually change over the course of generations and time.

The idea of evolution by natural selection was first put forward by Charles Darwin, but he has his own card, so go and read that one if you want to find out more about the man.

Human evolution has been a long process of change which goes beyond the apelike ancestors from which we diverged. This common ancestor, shared with chimps, bonobos and gorillas, lived around 6-8 million years ago. Traits that we associate with being human such as bipedalism (walking on two legs) evolved around 4 million years ago. Bigger brains, the capacity for language, use of tools etc happened more recently.

Scientist think that there were between 15-20 different species of early human, but geneticists are now revealing more information from our past, already demonstrating that there was cross-species breeding between Neanderthals and humans, that's right many of us have Neanderthal genes. But it goes further than that there are also hidden signs of other species hidden within our genomes. We have no bones, or archaeological items for these distant relatives but our genes are gradually unlocking our complex evolutionary history.

*Evolution* is also the name of a so-so early-2000s sci-fi movie that was obviously trying to make the *Ghostbusters* lightning strike twice, and didn't totally fail but, y'know, *Ghostbusters* is *Ghostbusters*.
Edvard Munch

## Ability

### Ability

**Soul Painting****(Play)** Your Prominent Painters cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Even if you haven’t heard of **Edvard Munch**, you’ll undoubtedly be familiar with his most famous work: “The Scream.” But did you know that the figure in The Scream isn’t actually screaming? According to the Norwegian painter, the scream came from the surroundings, not the person. At the bottom of the piece, he printed these words: “I felt a large scream pass through nature.”

Although he made his career as an artist (and quite a successful one), Munch could have been an inventor. Not because of his technical skills, but because of one idea he had in an undated letter to his friend: “Had I been in possession of the as yet undiscovered little remote telephone which one carries around in one’s pocket, you would have long ago received communications from me.”
European Herring Gull

## Ability

### Ability

**Nick a Chip****(Draw)** A random Curious Cuisine card in your hand costs -3 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

It’s too late now. After living side by side with humans in big cities, **European Herring Gulls** have evolved out of hunting, and are now competing with mankind for convenience-store snacks. In Devon, one winged shoplifter - known as <link="https:>STEVENSEAGULL</link> to locals - has stolen a total of £300 worth of crisps from the British supermarket, Tesco by figuring out the automatic doors.

That’s not totally surprising, given that the species is highly intelligent. Once they have learned something useful, they remember it and will even pass on behaviour patterns to their friends and family. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, this opportunistic species of sea bird is the most abundant species of gull worldwide, and can be found in large numbers along the coasts in the Northern Hemisphere.
Eisriesenwelt

## Ability

### Ability

**World of the Ice Giants****(Play)** If your deck contains Ymir, this card gains +38 Power this turn. Repeat if your deck contains Laufey.

## Did You Know?

For sale: large, multi-storey living space in Austria. Location: under Hochkogel mountain in the Alps. Entrance can be found near the small town of Werfen. Size: Property is approx. 42km long. Must love ice. Must be comfortable with circa. 200,000 tourists visiting each year.

Welcome to **Eisriesenwelt**, the largest ice cave in the world. A true spectacle of nature, Eisriesenwelt (German for “World of the Ice Giants") was unknown until the end of the 19th century, when a natural scientist named Anton Posselt explored the first 200 metres of the cave. Before his discovery, the cave was known only to locals, who refused to enter it as they believed it was an entrance to Hell - which is totally fair enough.
Edward, the Black Prince

## Ability

### Ability

**Knight of the Garter****(Play)** If you have played any Battle! card this game, this card gains +28 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The English revered him. The French feared him. **Edward, the Black Prince** was considered one of the greatest knights of his age. But he wasn’t known by that name until after his death. In his lifetime, he was Edward of Woodstock, and he didn’t waste time earning a reputation.

At the tender age of 16, he led the English vanguard at the Battle of Crécy (1346) and defeated the French. Ten years later, he vanquished the French at Poitiers and even managed to capture their king, John the Good. But it’s Limoges that some say earned him his moniker.

In 1370, Edward was betrayed by a bishop and lost control of Limoges to the French. In a revenge-fuelled massacre, Edward brutally murdered at least 300 civilians.
Emperor Nero and Poppaea Sabina

## Ability

### Ability

**Tragic Temper****(Play)** Your History of Heartbreak cards in hand gain +20 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

If the rumours are true, Emperor Nero was a nasty piece of work who murdered his second wife, Poppaea Sabina, with a kick to the belly while she was heavily pregnant. But the truth about **Emperor Nero and Poppaea Sabina** remains a mystery.

If we take the Roman historian Tacitus’ tale to be the truth, then Nero’s actions are unforgivable. But evidence recently found on a frayed piece of papyrus suggests there was another version of the story, where Poppaea Sabina bid farewell to Nero before darting off to heaven on a chariot driven by a goddess.

Let’s be honest – the first account is certainly the more believable. After all, Nero did have his first wife banished and ordered her to be suffocated in a steam bath.
Dr Moreau

## Ability

### Ability

**Are We Not Men?****(Play)** If your deck has 1 or more Hybrid Animals cards and 1 or more Brilliant Human Body cards, your Science and Life on Land cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Ape-Man! Hyena-Swine! Fox-Bear-Woman! No, these aren’t rejected ideas for the next generation of Pokemon, these are some of the ungodly creations of mad scientist **Doctor Moreau!**

Written by sci-fi pioneer H.G. Wells, the novel *The Island of Doctor Moreau* tells the story of a shipwrecked man who gets washed up on an island of animal-human hybrid creatures. They’re all the product of the maniacal Doctor Moreau, who has been partaking in some casual vivisection, which had him spurned from “proper” society in London. Now he lives on his island with his creatures, playing God and going a bit mad.

The novel came about at a time when vivisection was a hotly debated topic and when Darwin’s theory of evolution was on the rise (which really did alter a lot of people’s understanding of the world). It approached the ethics of the novel’s experiments in a fantastical and horrifying way, questioning what right people had in exerting their control over animals and other creatures.
Flight 19

## Ability

### Ability

**Mysterious Disappearance****(Draw)** If your deck contains The Bermuda Triangle, this card gains +45 Power until played. **(Play)** If you have played The Bermuda Triangle this game, this card loses -45 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

While we all know that the Bermuda Triangle is CURSED, the 14 men (on 5 aircraft, we should note) of **Flight 19** who flew over it on 5 December 1945 sure didn’t. And now they’re gone. Just…gone.

The five torpedo bombers set off on what was supposed to be a three hour training exercise at 2.10pm. Everything seemed to be going fine until one plane noted that their compass was malfunctioning and they thought they were flying in the wrong direction. Then another reported a malfunctioning compass too. Rain and heavy cloud cover settled in and the pilots radioed one another to say that they didn’t know where they were.

By 6pm, the pilots were starting to argue among themselves and some were insisting on flying west while another thought they hadn’t flown east enough. Eventually they decided to make a crash landing in the ocean but communications were lost. Flight 19 were gone.

To make matters even worse, one of the rescue teams sent out also went missing. Although it is assumed that their plane blew up, rather than succumbing to the Bermuda Triangle. Which actually doesn’t sound any better.

So what did happen? Strangely enough, one of the Lieutenants had asked to be excused that morning (and was denied) and the team didn’t radio the rescue tower, just communicated between themselves. And what did happen to their compasses? Bermuda Triangle or just an unfortunate training mission which crash landed into the sea? You decide!
Flapjack Octopus

## Ability

### Ability

**Flat Increase****(Draw)** Your Cephalopods cards, wherever they are, gain +16 Power and cost -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

They don’t call the **Flapjack Octopus** ‘Adorabilis’ for nothing. This is by far the most adorable umbrella octopus you’ll ever see – but it isn’t totally innocent. These cephalopods are great hunters, capable of pouncing on their prey and killing them with their retractable beaks.

The name “flapjack octopus” comes from their ability to compress themselves to a flattened, flapjack shape, therefore appearing non-hostile to their prey. If there happens to be a shark around who has a penchant for flapjacks, this tactic might be a bust.

Anyone totally in love with this little octopus? To see one in the wild, you’ll have to dive between 200 and 600 metres into the Pacific, where the water is only 6 degrees Celsius.

'A deep sea flapjack octopus' by Rhinopias (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Dumbbell Nebula

## Ability

### Ability

**Weight a Second...****(Play)** Your Weight card in hand gains +28 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The Dumbbell Nebula is the second-largest nebula (interstellar cloud of dust and gas) we're currently aware of - only the Helix Nebula is larger. It's also the one that, in this writer's humble opinion, looks least like its name. I'd have gone with Marble Nebula, myself.

Notably, it was the very first Nebula to be discovered by none other than Monsieur Charles Messier (1730-1817), the great astronomer who created the system by which we catalogue all big space objects.
Emperor Qianfei

## Ability

### Ability

**Teenage Dirtbag****(Draw)** Two opponent's random cards in hand **Burn** (15) until played. **(Play)** Your Tutankhamun card in hand gains +50 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

One of the most insane emperors in China’s long history,  **Emperor Qianfei**  was clearly unhinged. His short reign as a teenage emperor was characterised by brutal impulses, such as having his prime minister, Liu Yigong, attacked and killed. It was said that Qianfei took out his eyes and put them in honey, branding them “pickled ghost eyes”. What goes around comes around, as Qianfei was assassinated just a year after becoming emperor.

'Former Deposed Emperor of Liu Song, Liu Ziye' by Unknown Author (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Duck-Billed Platypus

## Ability

### Ability

**Curative Poison?****(Draw)** Your Venomous Creatures cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Platypus are cute right? WRONG. These egg-laying mammals have poison apparatus on their hind legs and poison glands on their thighs. The sting isn’t dangerous to humans but it can be extremely painful and cause a high temperature. For smaller mammals, like dogs, the sting can be fatal.

It’s not all bad news though; scientists are researching how platypus venom could pave the way for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. So, look out for some furry duck-billed friends in white coats in a hospital near you soon.
Eros

## Ability

### Ability

**Just The Two Of Us****(Play)** If your deck has exactly 2 Arts & Culture cards, give those cards, wherever they are, +20 Power until played. Repeat for each of the other albums.

## Did You Know?

The epitome of love and desire itself, **Eros** is one of the first mythological depictions of Hallmark’s favourite matchmaker, Cupid. However, he himself has not always been so lucky in love.

Psyche was a mortal woman of a beauty so unreal that the Goddess Aphrodite was super jealous of the male attention she received, and asked Eros to poison men’s souls to rid them of their desire for her. Nice.

Slight flaw in the plan: Eros just fell in love with her too.
Meanwhile Psyche’s parents received the devastating news from the Oracle that their daughter was to be married to a horrible beast whose face she could never see. Fortune-telling clearly held more weight back then, as her parents, though distraught, went ahead and arranged the wedding.

However, once married, Psyche was thrilled to discover that her monstrous husband was lovely and gentle and kind and all those things - although she was only allowed to be with him at night. (Red flags, right??). But upon telling her sisters of her happiness, they jealously convinced her to kill him to save herself. Eros was left broken-hearted by her betrayal (er…) and fled.

Anyway, it’s like, a whole *thing* but in her desperation to find her lost love, Psyche passed the three impossible tasks set to her to reunite with Eros (…keep up at the back…), and amazed by their love for each other, Zeus himself granted her immortality so they could be together forever. Awwwh. (Well, kinda. It’s not quite Love Actually, is it?)
Franz Kafka

## Ability

### Ability

**The Metamorphosis** **(Return)** If your deck has 1 or more Money, Money, Money cards, your Bugs cards, wherever they are, gain +14 Power and cost -1 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

Born in 1883, **Franz Kafka** was one of the most prominent authors of the 20th century. He was such a big figure in the literature of the time, that you might recognize the English term *kafkaesque* - used to describe the surreal situations similar to those found in his work.

If you’re prone to the kind of absurd dreams that end with you fighting off a giant purple bear with a talking lemon squeezer (to draw from experience), you might have an idea of what that word means.

Now one of his most famous works, although it went largely ignored at the time, *The Metamorphosis* exemplifies the term. The short story tells of a travelling salesman, Gregor Samsa, who awakes one day to find himself transformed into a giant insect.

His family are understandably horrified, and after time dealing with the kind of things that have to be dealt with when one transforms into a giant insect, his father hurls apples at him, severely injuring him. After a terrible time of neglect, Gregor begins to realise the toll that his existence takes on his family, and he returns laboriously to his room where he starves to death overnight.

Themes of alienation and existential anxiety can be found throughout his work. Unsurprisingly, Kafka himself worried endlessly that he was found to be mentally and physically repulsive, despite being described by those who met him as an obviously intelligent, handsome man with a dry sense of humour.

These fears plagued Kafka all his life until he tragically died of tuberculosis at the young age of 40.
Fly Agaric

## Ability

### Ability

**Power-Up****(Play)** Your Plant Life and Amphibians cards in hand gain +8 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

Without a doubt, the most iconic toadstool of them all, the **Fly Agaric** features in fairy-tales and folklore as a home for magical creatures. Biologically speaking, their role in nature is pretty magical too: in the birch woodlands where they grow, fly agaric helps trees by transferring nutrients into their roots.

Although reports of toadstool-related deaths are rare, eating a fly agaric can cause stomach cramps and hallucinations, which makes for a pretty grim combo. If you have a problem with flies in your house, however, this toadstool can be good to have around. Historically, the caps were broken up and sprinkled into saucers of milk. It's known to contain ibotenic acid, which both attracts and kills flies – hence the name.
Fairy Lights

## Did You Know?

In 1881, the Savoy Theatre in the Strand became the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity, fitted out with 1,200 incandescent light bulbs created by North East inventor Sir Joseph Swan.

It was a huge hit, and one year later, Swan was asked by the owner of the theatre if he could make miniature lights for the lead fairies to wear as they danced on the opening night of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Iolanthe’. It was here that the term **‘Fairy Lights’** was coined.

That’s all well and good: but we’re still waiting for someone to invent the fairy light detangler so Christmas tree decorating doesn’t begin with the ultimate test of your patience.
E. Coli

## Ability

### Ability

**Prokaryote Contaminant****(Play)** If played in either the left or right slot, your Science cards in hand gain +8 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

It may be lurking on your salad, but lettuce Romaine calm - **E.Coli** isn’t *everywhere*, and there are easy ways to protect yourself from this bacteria like washing your veg, cleaning your kitchen utensils and surfaces and cooking food thoroughly.

The most studied free-living organism, Escherichia coli has a record of 11 prestigious Nobel prizes associated with it. Although it was originally discovered and named Bacterium coli commune in 1885 by paediatrician Theodor Escherich, it was reclassified in 1895 and renamed after its discoverer.

So far, more than 700 serotypes of E. coli have been identified, and many of these strains are harmless. Just how much you suffer from coming into contact with E. coli depends on the type of ‘E’.
Edward Jenner

## Ability

### Ability

**Vaccination****(Draw)** All cards in both player's hands lose -20 Power this turn and if you are losing the round, your cards in hand gain +20 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Born May 1749, **Edward Jenner** is one of the most influential scientists of all time. Working at a time when smallpox was widespread, Jenner was intrigued that someone who had contracted cowpox, a fairly harmless disease, could not become infected with smallpox. So, he tested his theory by getting a dairymaid with fresh cowpox lesions on her hands to infect a young boy with the disease. He was ill for 9 days but quickly recovered.

Right enough, when Jenner put the boy in contact with smallpox matter, he couldn’t be infected. It was this breakthrough that led to the creation of the world’s first vaccine and brought in a new era of preventative measures for contagious diseases.
Drum Kit

## Ability

### Ability

**Jazz Trio****(Draw)** If you have played Piano this game, this card gains +10 Power this turn. Repeat for Bass Guitar. **(Play)** Your Piano and Bass Guitar cards in hand gain +10 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Some facts of life: dog like walkies, cat like enslaving and man like drum. Seriously, for as long as man has roamed the earth, our species has been banging on drums as a means of communicating with far away villages, alerting our tribe of danger and to make sweet music that makes us feel good. Even as early as 5500 BC, people were playing rudimentary drums made of alligator hides.

Much has changed since then, with first medieval **Drum Kits** created in the 1700s, after which drums became a staple of large orchestras. The modern drum kit was formed much later, during the 1930s, and comprised five pieces: bass drum, snare drum and three toms (plus several cymbals). However, the world’s largest drum kit has 813 pieces, and took 36 years to build.
Doomsday Clock

## Ability

### Ability

**2 Minutes to Midnight****(Play)** If it's Turn 3 and you are losing the round, this card gains +85 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

How close are we to man-made Armageddon? Honestly, given how things are going on Earth, it certainly doesn’t feel far away. According to the **Doomsday Clock**, it isn’t.

At present, we’re “at doom’s doorstep”, sitting at 100 seconds to midnight. Well, that can’t be good. Created in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock is a metaphor that symbolises how close humanity is to destroying the world, measured by how close we are to “midnight”.

For reference, in 1947, the original setting was seven minutes to midnight. Of course, since then, it’s gone back and forth (24 times, to be exact.) The farthest we got was in 1991, when we were at 17 seconds to midnight.
Dobermann

## Ability

### Ability

**Guard Dog****(Draw)** An opponent's random card in hand **Lock**s this turn. **(Play)** Your Dogs cards in hand gain +16 Power this turn. **(Return)** A random card in your hand **Lock**s next turn.

## Did You Know?

Notoriously loyal, muscular as hell and boasting a top speed of 32 miles per hour, the **Doberman** is considered one of the best guard dogs. Although its ancestry is a bit of a mystery, this breed was originally developed in 1890 by Louis Dobermann - a tax collector.

Ergo, you’d think the Doberman would be cut out for a long career in law enforcement. But, despite their physical prowess and intelligence, police and military often reject this breed because of their health problems, soft temperament and tendency to bond with one person.

Nevertheless, Dobermans are easy to train - that’s according to the famous writer Hunter S. Thompson, who apparently trained his pet Doberman to attack on the command word, “Nixon”.
Engraved Hourglass Nebula

## Ability

### Ability

**Eye in the Sky****(Return)** Your Common and Rare Constellations and Common and Rare Nebulae cards, wherever they are, gain +26 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If Big Brother really is watching us, it’s from the **Engraved Hourglass Nebula** - a planetary nebula in the southern constellation Musca that looks freakishly like a giant eye in the sky. Due to its distinctive appearance, this cloud of cosmic gas is nicknamed the Eye of God - a moniker it shares with the Helix Nebula.

Discovered by Annia Jump Cannon and Margaret W. Mayall, the nebula’s shape is thought to be caused by speedy stellar wind expanding in the dense equator of the nebula, creating a denser shape there than at the poles. However, astronomers have yet to unravel some of the remarkable characteristics of the Hourglass Nebula, such as the unusual positioning of the progenitor star away from the centre.
Earth Element

## Ability

### Ability

**Heaviness and Matter****(Play)** If your deck has 2 or more Classical Element cards, your Life on Land cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power for 2 turns. **(Return)** Your Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Back when people thought that the universe was made up of only a few elements, the **Earth Element** was thought to encompass all solid matter. Being earthlings ourselves, our existence depends on a surface to stand on - so this element came to be one of the four classical elements that we thought formed the basic building blocks of life.

We weren’t wrong, but leaps in science proved that it wasn’t as simple as we once thought. Nevertheless, Earth and other Greek classical elements were incorporated into the Golden Dawn system that inspired Wicca magic and modern mysticism. During a ritual, a mystic might invoke the Earth element to secure stability in the home, in health or in employment (the witchcraft jobs market can be pretty competitive).
Fortune Cookie

## Ability

### Ability

**Fortune or Misfortune** **(Start)** A random card from either player's hand gains +10 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Whether you will win the lottery or die in seven days is unknown - that is, until you crack open a **Fortune Cookie** and discover your fate. Despite their prevalence in Chinese restaurants, fortune cookies are not of Chinese origin.

Where they come from is unknown - in fact, in 1983, there was even a mock trial held in San Francisco's pseudo-legal Court of Historical Review to determine the origins of the fortune cookie.

The largest manufacturer of fortune cookies is Wonton Food Inc, who produce over 4.5 fortune cookies *daily*. However, not every cookie has a unique fortune. Actually, your fate is determined by one of 15,000 fortunes that Wonton has in its database. Theoretically, you have the same fortune as 300,000 people every day.
Edmund Halley

## Ability

### Ability

**Spot The Rock****(Play)** Your Halley's Comet card in hand gains +66 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Known for the comet that’s named after him, **Edmund Halley** is a legend of literally astronomical proportions.

As well as being the first to predict the return of a comet by calculating its orbit, Halley’s ability to reduce large amounts of data into a meaningful order allowed him to create a map of the world that charted the direction of trade winds over the oceans. In 1686, it became the first ever meteorological chart to be published.
Easter Island Statues

## Did You Know?

Rapa Nui is an incredibly remote island in the Pacific Ocean - its closest inhabited neighbours are the Chilean Juan Fernandez Islands, which are nearly two thousand kilometres away - which is littered with giant stone head statues, called Moai.

The Moai stand at about four metres tall each, and all feature proud expressions. It's unknown which members of the Rapa Nui people crafted them, and it's also unknown how they were moved into position.

There are 887 of them on the island, but that's not all that was ever created - at least 16 have been removed from the island, taken to museums all across the world, and very recently (This card is being released on Easter Sunday 2020 - Happy Easter!) an unoccupied truck rolled into one causing incalculable damage. APPLY YOUR HANDBRAKES, people.

Speaking of Easter - why on earth is Rapa Nui called Easter Island? It's because it was discovered by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen on Easter Sunday 1722. Sorry it's not a more chocolatey answer.
Feijoada

## Did You Know?

**Feijoada**\* is the national dish of Brazil and gets its name from 'feijão', Portuguese for 'beans'. This dish has a high-bean content and it is therefore recommended you take the precautionary step of ventilating the room after consumption.

450 grams (1 pound) of dried black beans soaked overnight
4 tablespoons olive oil
225 grams (8 oz) pork shoulder cut into medium-sized chunks
225 grams (8 oz) of thickly sliced smoked bacon
2 large sliced onions, divided
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 bay leaves
A pinch of ground coriander, salt and pepper
A handful of fresh coriander (cilantro)
A handful of fresh parsley

Heat the oil in a large oven-ready pan and sear the pork. Add ½ the chopped onion, garlic and cook until caramelization starts (around 4-5 minutes). Add the bay leaves, ground coriander (cilantro) and seasoning. Add the beans and cover with water to a depth of 7cm (3 inches). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer uncovered for 2 hours, or until tender.

Preheat the oven to around 200 degrees C (400 Fahrenheit) add the bacon and remaining onion and cook for 15 minutes.

Finally, just before you serve, add the chopped parsley and fresh coriander (cilantro) to the dish making sure you save a small amount to sprinkle on top when you serve.

* While this is the ideal dish for budding pétomanes, it is not the ideal thing to eat before attending the theatre, cinema or Evensong for example.
Form of the Good

## Did You Know?

What makes a chair a chair? According to Plato, it’s the chair’s “chairness”. More specifically, the Form of the Chair. This form is separate from the chair itself; it exists in an eternal state independent of any person’s idea of a chair. Even if all knowledge of chairs was lost on Earth, the form of the chair would live on as an abstract concept. Make sense?

Okay, so in addition to forms of material things, Plato said there were forms of Truth, Beauty and Good. So, when you sit on a really comfy chair, the form of the chair is participating in the **Form of the Good** by performing its function well because of its qualities. And that’s good, because after all that philosophy, you’re going to need to sit down.
Dubai Frame

## Ability

### Ability

**Alleged Theft****(Draw)** Your Limited Super Structures cards, wherever they are, lose -20 Power and your non-Limited Super Structures cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until this is returned to your deck.

## Did You Know?

While you might find beautiful landscape paintings held within gilded frames, the **Dubai Frame** is a 150m tall by 96m wide frame which encases spectacular views of the actual city of Dubai itself. Looking through one side, you’ll see some of the city’s greatest landmarks and if you look through the other, you’ll capture the sights of old Dubai. It contains a museum and an observation deck with a glass floor (not for those with a fear of heights or vertigo!)

However, the design of the world’s largest picture frame has caused a bit of a fuss. Originally, the design was the result of the 2009 ThyssenKrupp Elevator International Award which was won by Mexican architect Fernando Donis, who had designed two pillars connected by an observation deck. Years later, when the design of the frame was made public, it didn’t resemble Donis’ work at all. Donis claimed that a clause in the contract would require him to waive his intellectual rights to the frame, to which he refused. Donis filed a lawsuit against the Municipality of Dubai and ThyssenKrupp Elevator in 2016, claiming that his vision for the structure was stolen.
Doc Holliday

## Ability

### Ability

**O.K. Corral Pals****(Play)** Your Wyatt Earp card in hand gains +25 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

John Henry "Doc" Holliday was a gambler, gunfighter, and dentist by trade, which is where he got his nickname "Doc".

Shortly after taking up his career in dentistry, Doc made an abrupt move to Dallas, Texas (probably due to tuberculosis) where he quickly developed a reputation for gambling and brawling before moving on to Dodge City, where he befriended fellow gambler, gunslinger and lawman Wyatt Earp, later following him to Tombstone (a boomtown near the Mexican border). It was here that Doc Holliday cemented his icon status with his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

In 1881, Virgil Earp deputized Wyatt and his other brothers along with Holliday prior to the skirmish that was over in under a minute. When the smoke had cleared, the “Cowboys” Billy Clanton and brothers Tom and Frank McLaury lay dead. The reasons for this brief battle are complex, but the justification for the killings was because Clanton and the McLaury's had failed to surrender their guns before entering the town (which had been banned earlier that year).

This relatively minor event could have easily gone unnoticed in the annals of history if it wasn't for Stuart N. Lake (a former aide to Roosevelt) who published 'Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal' which included a dramatic retelling of the shoot-out simplifying the events of the day into good vs evil. Which couldn't be further from the truth.
Eurasian Lynx

## Did You Know?

The Eurasian Lynx looks may look as cute as your moggy at home but a word to the wise; 'never judge a lynx by its looks' (\*great bumper sticker right there!)

The Lynx may look cute as heck but trust us, it's as fierce as a predator can be. It's all about the power of 4 with this pint sized pussy cat...the Lynx can take down an animal 4 times its own size and jump more than 4 times its height!

In Europe, the Eurasian lynx was once on the brink of extinction, with numbers falling to around 700 between 1930 and 1950. The great news is that conservation work has allowed populations to make a come back, with numbers increasing over the past 50 years.
Downburst

## Ability

### Ability

**Rain Dance****(Draw)** Your Forces of Nature cards in hand cost -2 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

Nature’s equivalent of the “ground and pound”, a **Downburst** is not something you want to get caught in. Picture the scene: you’re just minding your own business when suddenly a thunderstorm rips through the sky and powerful winds descend before spreading quickly when they hit the ground. You’re caught in a downburst, a strong ground-level wind that can cause damage similar to a tornado.

While winds in your average thunderstorm might reach 50 km/hr, winds in a downburst can reach over 100 km/hr. But what causes a downburst to occur? There are two main culprits: precipitation loading - the increasing weight of water and hail - and evaporational cooling, which increases the density of air and downward acceleration. In reality, all you need to know about downbursts is that they sure pack a mean punch.
Fiddler Crab

## Ability

### Ability

**Follow the Waves****(Play)** If played next to two Oceans and Seas cards, your Crustaceans cards, wherever they are, gain +23 Power this turn and next.

## Did You Know?

**Fiddler Crab** claws are proportionally bigger than any other animal weapon on earth. And they don’t just use them in defence, either. When a potential mate is nearby, males will wave their <link="https:>large second claw in the air</link> (like they just don’t care) and woo her with vibrational signals made by drumming.

These displays take a lot of energy - after all, their pincer can weigh up to half the weight of an adult male crab. Performing this courting routine shows the female how fit the male is, and when a female is ready to mate, she’ll leave her territory and move through the crowd of waving crabs to her chosen partner. Should a male crab lose his pincer, he’ll grow one back on the opposite side after his next moult.