recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Charles Ponzi

## Ability

### Ability

**The Ponzi Scheme****(Draw)** Your cards in hand gain +50 Power this turn. **(Start)** Your cards in hand lose -10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In 1920, a five-foot-two-inch rogue from Italian descent raked in an estimated $15 million in eight months by convincing tens of thousands of investors in Boston that he had the ultimate Get Rich Quick scheme. His name? Mr **Charles Ponzi.**

Like taking candy from a baby, Mr Ponzi told clients that they would get 50% on their investment in International Postal Reply Coupons within 90 days. Right enough, early investors received payouts as promised - but not because of any clever wealth-creating strategy. The only activity here was the shuffling of money from new clients to old ones. As long as new investors were lured in, there was money to go around. But when the clients stopped coming, Ponzi’s scheme collapsed, and he was <link="https:>forced to pay investors several million dollars.</link>
Copper Scroll

## Ability

### Ability

**Finders, Keepers****(Draw)** Your Hidden Gems cards in hand cost -1 Energy permanently. **(Play)** If next to Copper this card gains +26 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

If you love a treasure hunt, you need to check out the **Copper Scroll**. Discovered in the spring of 1952 in Cave 3, near Khirbet Qumran, the Copper Scroll is one of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. However, unlike the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Copper Scroll is not made of parchment – instead, its inscriptions are etched into a copper plate.

While the other scrolls contain codes of conduct, hymns and prayers, this one contains a list of gold and silver treasures, buried in 63 locations across Jerusalem before the sacking of the Second Temple in 70 AD. According to the scroll's inscriptions, the treasure trove contains some 1,280 talents of gold coins and more than 65 bars of solid gold.
Deborah Sampson

## Ability

### Ability

**The Female Soldier****(Play)** If played between two The American Revolution cards, your opponent's cards in hand lose -22 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

She was the first female American soldier - but no one knew that at the time. Using her dead brother’s name, **Deborah Sampson** enlisted herself to fight in the Revolutionary War. If you’re familiar with Mulan’s story, you’ll know disguising yourself as a man can only go so far when you’re putting yourself in harm's way every day.

To prevent being found out, Sampson literally cut a musket ball out of her own leg so she wouldn’t have to get treated by doctors. Unfortunately, her secret would soon come out when she contracted a fever in 1783. After her real identity was revealed to her commander, she was honourably discharged at West Point, but still had to fight to receive her veteran's pension.
Dial Up

## Ability

### Ability

**Slow Surfer****(Start)** For every round completed this game, your History of the Internet cards in hand gain +5 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Recognised by most Millennials, the piercing screech of **Dial Up** ‘<link="https:>dialling up</link>’ sounds like an <link="https:>80s Robot</link> dying a slow death. Ironically, Dial Up was the (painful) birth of modern internet. In 2000, 34% of people were still using it!

As the name suggests, a connection was made via the telephone line, so you couldn’t browse the web if your parents were using the landline. And it was slow. Extremely slow. According to an experiment conducted in 2012, the average website today would take over two and a half minutes to load using Dial Up. Even loading Google’s search page took ten seconds.

In that time, you can tie an emergency knot, peel an entire head of garlic, fold a T-shirt in two moves or deseed a pomegranate.
Flower Moon

## Ability

### Ability

**Moon of May****(Play)** Your Plant Life cards in hand gain +20 Power this turn and next.

## Did You Know?

In ancient times, people tracked the changing of the seasons not by the solar year, but by following the lunar month. For thousands of years, people across both Native America and Europe named the moons after features they associated with the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere. For that reason, the full moon of May is known as the ‘**Flower Moon**’ - named after the flowers that bloom during this springtime month like indigo, bluebells and violets.

The brightest of the lunar phases, some Algonquin tribes also knew May’s full moon as the Corn Planting Moon. The Anglo Saxons knew it as the Milk Moon, from the Old English Rimilcemon, meaning the ‘Month of Three Milkings’. For clarification, they were milking cows, not the moon itself, despite its dairy composition.
Dancing House

## Did You Know?

Listed as one of the 5 Most Important Buildings of the 1990s by Architekt Magazine, this collaboration between Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunić sits on a previously derelict site in Prague which the US had bombed in 1945. Perhaps the strongest advocate for its construction was the Playwright-turned-President Vaclav Havel, who had previously lived next to the site.

The '**Dancing House**' was originally called 'Fred and Ginger', as it was inspired by the famous dancing pair, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

CRAFTING CLUE BELOW!

- Bonded by a bridge of magpies.
Coo Coo

## Did You Know?

*Coo-coo*, cou-cou, or fungi (no relation to… well… fungi…) is a dish consisting mainly of cornmeal and okra.
Served along with flying fish, coo-coo becomes the national fish of Barbados, where it is traditionally served on Fridays.
A coo-coo stick is a wooden stick shaped like a small cricket bat usually used during its preparation, and while many Barbadians considering it integral to the stirring of the dish, you can still replicate this dish at home with the following recipe:
450g (1lb) cornmeal
470ml (16oz) of cold water
10 okras
1tsp salt
1 finely chopped medium sized onion
1 bulb of thinly slice garlic
Fresh herbs to taste
60g (2oz) unsalted butter
Add some cold water to the cornmeal and leave it to stand while adding the okra, salt, garlic, onion and herbs to a large saucepan. Add the water and bring the mixture to a boil, before simmering gently for 10 minutes. Strain the liquid from the pan into a container.
In another saucepan, mix the soaked cornmeal with half of the strained liquid, stirring continuously with a whisk (or coo-coo stick!) while adding the rest of the liquid, until the cornmeal is cooked through.
Mix in the okra and the butter and it’s ready to serve!
Curse of the Pharaohs

## Ability

### Ability

**Deadly Disturbance****(Draw)** Your Ancient Egypt cards, wherever they are, gain +24 Power until played. **(Play)** If you are trailing by 200 Power or more, your opponent loses -10 Power/Turn permanently.

## Did You Know?

If we’ve learned anything from action/adventure movies, it’s that nothing good comes from disturbing the dead. Case in point: the **Curse of the Pharaohs.** Legend has it that disrupting the peace of embalmed Egyptian pharaohs will bring you bad luck, illness and death - irrespective of whether you’re an innocent archeologist or an opportunistic thief.

Is it true? Well, in 1922, esteemed archeologist Howard Carter and his financial backer Lord Carnarvon unearthed King Tutankhamun’s tomb. Shortly after, Carnarvon died from an infected mosquito bite. Mysteriously, his half-brother suffered a similar fate, and the radiologist who examined King Tut’s body passed away a year later. Objects from the tomb were given to Howard Carter’s friend, whose house burned down, got rebuilt and then flooded.
Daguerreotype

## Ability

### Ability

**Say Cheese****(Play)** Your Sunshine, Mercury, Copper and Silver cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If you thought Kodak cameras were retro, you haven’t seen the **Daguerreotype**. This was the first commercially successful photographic process that relied on polished silver plates. For the process to work, the plates had to be cleaned so that you could literally see your face in them.

Named after the inventor, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, daguerreotypes were very technical to make and involved dangerous chemicals like mercury, cyanide and sulfuric acid. When it reached its peak popularity in the early 1850s, the price of a daguerreotype ranged between 25 cents for a sixteenth plate (of 1 5/8 inches by 1 3/8 inches) to 50 cents for a low-quality “picture factory” likeness to $2 for a medium-sized portrait by the best in the business.
Album pairing

Some cards support paired album buffing, where two albums both attract buffs, or both albums present gives some other large benefit. The tables identify cards that have paired album special abilities, organised by the two albums that you would build your deck around. You can find further cards to fill the deck at Buffing Albums - for example if you are building a deck around arts and science, then good filler cards would be arts cards that buff science or science cards that buff arts. You could also consider buffing specific collections within the relevant albums.
Codex Gigas

## Ability

### Ability

**Devil's Bible****(Draw)** Your cards with "Devil" or "Hell" in the name, wherever they are, gain +29 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Measuring a whopping 92 centimetres tall weighing over 74 kilograms, the **Codex Gigas** is the largest known medieval manuscript. With 320 pages made from the skins of 160 donkeys, this book truly spared no expense. However, at some point, the last ten pages were removed from the book. By that logic, about five donkeys sacrificed their hides for nothing.

Donkeys aside, the Codex Gigas was meant to be a work of history, which is why it contains the complete Christian Bible, Jewish historical texts, an encyclopaedia, and even a chronicle of Bohemia. The identity of the scribe who penned this epic work remains a mystery, but according to legend, they made a deal with Lucifer to finish it in one night, and included a massive portrait of the devil to thank him. Hey, whatever gets the job done, right?
Cyberspace

## Ability

### Ability

**Enter the Matrix****(Play)** If your deck has 8 or more Oceans cards and 8 or more Arts & Culture cards, your cards, wherever they are, gain +16 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Crime, poverty, and sickness getting you down? No worries, just immerse yourself in the pristine realm of **Cyberspace**. It's the ultimate "out of sight, out of mind" deal, where you can live in <link="https:>blissful ignorance</link> .

The term “cyberspace” itself started with author William Gibson, who used the word to describe a network of computers that would link all people and machines - a sort of virtual reality that could be navigated much like the real world. Sound familiar?

Mark Zuckerberg may talk like the Metaverse is new, but the theory behind cyberspace has been lurking in sci-fi for decades and tested out in computer games like Habitat and Second Life. Thanks to advances in technology, we now have all the Web protocols to build an open platform “cyberspace” accessible by all devices.
Diamond Dove

## Ability

### Ability

**Whistling Wings****(Draw)** Your Birds cards in hand gain +14 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

The **Diamond Dove** is a beautifully delicate bird and one of the smallest pigeon species found in Australia. If you happen to be spending some time Down Under and hear two long “coos” followed by a pause and one slow “coo”, you may be in the presence of one of these birds. Either that, or you’re in the presence of someone doing bird noises.

```
Apart from the blue and silver varieties, Diamond Doves of many colours have been created in captivity, including the peach, yellow, red, cinnamon and snow white. When they fly, the wings of a Diamond Dove make a whistling “frrr” noise. Although, again, this could be a bird enthusiast doing an impression.

```
Cockatiel

## Ability

### Ability

**Tiel With It****(Return)** If you won the turn, your Life on Land cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

Reasons to get a **Cockatiel**: they’re talkative, beautiful to look at and they make <link="https:>amazing beatboxers</link>. However, they only mimic songs they like. Males will then replicate these songs to attract females to them. So, if you have a cockatiel and it’s not mimicking any of your favourite tunes, it’s time to face the facts: your music taste is trash.

Although the cockatiel’s head crest looks pretty, it isn’t purely decorative. Parrot enthusiasts say you can tell the mood of your bird by the movement and shape of its crest. A flattened crest is a sign your bird is in a bad mood (i.e. skip the song), while bushy crest feathers that resemble a shuttlecock suggest your cockatiel is having a blast (i.e. pump up the jam.)
Clipeus

## Ability

### Ability

**All-Round Protection****(Draw)** Your cards in hand cost -1 Energy for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

The Romans didn’t invent the **Clipeus** shield (that was the Etruscans), but they took it, modified it and made it their own during the Republican period. The Clipeus was basically the Roman soldier’s version of a designer handbag (if handbags could protect you from deadly weapons.) They were personalised, expensive and showed off their owner’s status and style. And, like a good handbag, they could also be used in offensive attacks if necessary.

Roman soldiers would often use the edge of the shield to strike at their enemies - a technique known as “shield bashing.” When they weren’t being used in battle, they were displayed in triumphal processions, where victorious generals would parade the streets of Rome with their spoils of war and decorated shields.
Chestnut Bob

## Ability

### Ability

**Bob's Your Uncle****(Play)** Your Beautiful Butterflies cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power for 6 turns.

## Did You Know?

**Chestnut Bob** – or, as he’s known to his mother, Chestnut Robert, is a common species of skipper butterfly found in South Asia and South-East Asia. In the morning, these butterflies bask in the morning light to warm up their flying muscles and feed on flowers of herbs. They’ll return in the evening for dinner after a long day’s flight.

Butterflies use colours and patterns for attraction and deception – in the case of the Chestnut Bob, the brown hue of its wings makes for effective camouflage against most tree trunks. The males of the species are completely chestnut coloured on the upper side without any markings. The female is the same but has a band of white spots on her forewing.
Cleaner Wrasse

## Ability

### Ability

**Salon of the Surf****(Start)** A random Oceans and Seas card in your hand gains +15 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Right, see the flipper on that fish on the front of this card? That ain't a flipper. That's a **Cleaner Wrasse** getting right up inside its gill to clean all the detritus it can from up in there.

It's the beautician of the ocean, and we mean that almost literally - they will wave their tailfin up and down to alert other fish that they're open for business. When a customer comes along they set to work brushing away all the gunk and grime from the outside and inside, entering via their gills and even their mouths!

And the best part? You don't have to engage in small talk about the football or what you're up to this weekend!
Command Module 'Columbia'

## Ability

### Ability

**Splashdown!****(Return)** Your Apollo 11 card in hand gains +18 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Apollo 11's Command Module was called Columbia and carried the Apollo 11 astronauts to and from the orbit of the moon. Whilst the Lunar Module took Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong to the surface of the moon, Columbia remained in orbit with Michael Collins on board. After the mission the module splashed down 812 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii, where it was collected by the nearby USS Hornet.

Imagine falling to Earth in a little room no bigger than the inside of a truck cabin, with two other people, landing in the middle of the ocean with no one around for hundreds of miles and having to wait for the navy to come pick you up. Hope they brought some playing cards or something.
Christina, Queen of Sweden

## Ability

### Ability

**17th Century Smarts****(Play)** Your Philosophy, Prominent Painters and Mega Math cards in hand gain +15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

In 1626, midwives confirmed the birth of a male heir to Sweden and the news was rushed to King Gustav Adolphus. But there had been a mistake: the child was, in fact, a girl. That girl would grow up to defy stereotypes and become one of the most educated women of the 1600s - not to mention one of the most powerful monarchs in Europe.

In spite of her obligations as queen, Christina had no interest in getting married or producing heirs. Instead, she dressed like a man, brushed shoulders with philosophers and revelled in traditionally male sports.

During her reign, **Christina, Queen of Sweden** was instrumental in bringing an end to the Thirty Years War - hence, people were shocked when she abdicated the throne, moved to Rome and converted to Catholicism. Slay, king!
Conlang

## Ability

### Ability

**Priori, Posteriori****(Draw)** Your non- Arts & Culture cards in hand gain +15 Power until played. **(Play)** Your Arts & Culture cards, wherever they are, gain +9 Power for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

If someone has ever told you “Shekh ma shieraki anni”, then that means they quite fancy you (“my sun and my stars”) - in Dothraki. Or, if someone has told you “Valar morghulis”, that means they’ve probably got bad intentions for you (“all men must die”) - in High Valyrian.

Now, unless you’re a big fantasy fan, it’s likely you’ve never heard of either of these languages, never mind these phrases, because they’re both examples of **Conlang**, or constructed languages. In this case, both of these languages were invented for George R.R. Martin’s fantasy epic Game of Thrones. Sadly, no one speaks Dothraki or High Valyrian in the real world. We know, we’re sad about that too.

But some superfans of other examples of conlang strive to keep them alive. Maybe you know a few words of Klingon (Star Trek), or the Elvish languages (Lord of the Rings), or a little bit of Na’Vi language (Avatar).

Now, let’s sign off with some lovely Klingon words - “pe’vIl mu’qaDmey”, which means “Curse Well!” We’ve been assured this is ultimately Klingon for “have a nice day” but maybe don’t go yelling it at your loved ones, just in case.
Cheetah

## Did You Know?

Let's put our hands together for the Cheetah! The fastest land animal in the world!

A Cheetah can reach the insane speeds of 112km/h in just THREE seconds. To put it into some perspective, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport can reach the same speed in 3.1 seconds.

Cheetahs are indeed extremely speedy but they do tire quickly and can only keep up their top speed for a few minutes before they're just way too exhausted to continue. HARD RELATE.

## Card Changes

Buffed from 50 power to 88 power on 13 February 2023

## Fun Fact

Cheetah is the only Legendary card, Limited and Standard, that has no special ability. The Cheetah was released on February 19, 2020 along side seven other new Cool Cat cards.
When the Cheetah was buffed from 50 power to 88 power, this was a nod at the iconic scene in Back to the Future where Doc says to Marty "when this baby hits 88 miles per hour...".
Cherry Blossom

## Ability

### Ability

**National Flower****(Play)** Your Feudal Japan cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played and if your deck has 2 or more Plant Life cards, your Japanese Folklore cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

**Cherry Blossoms** are like nature’s confetti, popping to celebrate the end of winter. Known as Sakura in Japan, their pink and white flowers only stay for a limited time (one to two weeks tops). It’s a reminder to cherish every moment and make the most of the present.

For that reason, the Japanese hold an annual Cherry Blossom Festival, where people gather to drink, eat, socialise and stare at the blossoms. Picnicking under these trees is a thousand-year-old custom known as “hanami”, which literally means “watching blossoms”.

Early scripture suggests the tradition was started by aristocrats in the Nara period (710-794). Today, people of all backgrounds gather under the trees, bringing warm cooked meals, alcohol, snacks and sweets. Although the blossoms themselves are edible, they taste like disappointment, so don’t bother.
Crowned Woodnymph

## Ability

### Ability

**Crowning Glory****(Play)** If you are winning the round, your Crown-of-Thorns Starfish card in hand gains +50 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Crowned Woodnymphs are a species of hummingbird that you'll find across the Amazon Rainforest. There are three subspecies;

Violet-Crowned Woodnymphs, which are named for their violet head colouration;

Green-Crowned Woodnymphs, which are named for the green head colouration (I hope you see a pattern emerging...);

and Emerald-bellied Woodnymphs, which have green bellies and make me wonder if The People That Name Animals know what they're doing.
Augustus Leopold Egg

## Ability

### Ability

**The Clique****(Draw)** If your deck has 8 or more Prominent Painters cards, give them, wherever they are, +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Like a chicken, Augustus was born to Ann Egg. Because that was his mother’s actual name. But **Augustus Leopold Egg** would break free from his shell to become a renowned Victorian artist, best known for his triptych (a painting in three parts) titled Past and Present, which tells the story of a man that Egg knew whose wife had been unfaithful.

Sadly, although highly acclaimed and appreciated, these paintings found no buyers during Egg’s lifetime. Although some of his works depicted tragedy, others were more lighthearted, such as his paintings of comic scenes from Shakespeare and Lord Byron and his artistic roast of the queen titled Queen Elizabeth Discovers She is No Longer Young. Brutal stuff, Mr Egg.
Commodus

## Ability

### Ability

**Gladiators, READY!****(Draw)** Your cards in hand gain +20 Power this turn. **(Play)** Your The Colosseum card in hand gains +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

You know that you're not necessarily the most trusted of leaders (or sons, for that matter) when you have to job-share with your father. It was on these inauspicious terms that the 15-year-old **Commodus** started his joint reign of the Roman Empire with his dad Marcus Aurelius.

It wasn't long after Aurelius crossed the river Styx\*, and Commodus took over the reins fulltime, that he started setting a new benchmark for poor empire management, general incompetence and megalomaniacal dictators everywhere. Seriously, Joaquin Phoenix did not capture the true erratic madness of the real Commodus who devalued the currency, ravaging the recently great empire, and set about creating the Plebeian Games which was basically him vs lions, tigers, other exotic creatures and tied up slaves.

He was his own biggest fan, with evidence suggesting he believed himself to be a demigod, building statues of himself dressed as Hercules to reinforce the idea among his subjects. In an early marketing win, it worked for him, as he was popular with both the army and populous at large, in stark contrast to the hatred the Roman senate showed him.

Like all the best emperors it ended with assassination by poison. Well, it was supposed to end with poison, but unfortunately for the conspirators, Commodus had an excellent gag reflex, bringing it back up shortly after ingestion. So it fell to his former wrestling partner to strangle him in the bath.

* Romans believed that when they died they had to pay the ferryman to cross the river Styx and on to the underworld.
Crafting Recipes

Some cards are not available in packs and are instead created with specific recipes. Fusions take a relatively high number of cards marked as fusion ingredients. In contrast, cards that are marked as **Crafted Card** require only nine basics commons are rares (so far) and are generated with the crafting process. These are released as puzzles to solve initially so it might take several days after the card is available before the recipe is known. The recipes for all crafted cards. The puzzle is (or will be) described in the card information page for each of these cards.

This page is not about general upgrades to your cards by crafting, that's in the Crafting Guide.

## The Alphabet

* Abacus
* Beluga Whale
* Cepheus
* Deinonychus
* Egyptian Cats
* Fram
* Giant Armadillo
* Hydrogen Fuel Cells
* Ionic Column

## The Periodic Table

* Heart Nebula
* Nellie Bly
* Argentinosaurus
* The Silk Road
* The Trial of the Axes
* Ornithomimus
* Fog
* Lunar Module 'Eagle'
* Peter Paul Rubens

## The Chromatic Scale

* Ceres
* Ada Lovelace
* Emerald Swallowtail Butterfly
* Griffon Vulture
* Dying Star
* Anthias
* Scarab Beetle
* Angel Shark
* The Shard

## William Shakespeare

* Nellie Bly
* The Bag of Wind
* Amphicyon
* Galileo Galilei
* Venus
* Scottish Fold
* Night Vision
* Grus
* Hector's Dolphin

## Nine Muses

* Homer
* Lyra
* Scale Worm
* Sea Cucumber
* Corpse Flower
* Dancing House
* The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl
* Peter Paul Rubens
* Uranus

## Pangaea

* Kibbeh
* Russian Blue
* Kabaddi
* Bush Cricket
* Roald Amundsen
* Pato
* The Oregon Trail
* Loire River
* The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl

## Cornucopia

* Orange Peel Doris
* The Milky Way
* Saltasaurus
* Lemon Shark
* Sea Cucumber
* Mimosa Pudica
* Carbonari
* Sandwich Theory
* Cheese Rolling

## Ennead

* Forget-Me-Not
* White Lily
* Earthquakes
* Galileo Galilei
* Dust Storm
* Rain
* The Moon
* The Big Bang
* Mummies

## The Nine Realms

* Mount Olympus
* Shifting Solar Plasma
* Mira
* Pluto, Dwarf Planet
* Sunshine
* Fog
* Greenhouse Gases
* Mummies
* Yue Lao

## Dante's Inferno

* Slash-and-Burn
* Carbonari
* Circe
* Magnetar
* West Indian Manatee
* Ohaguro
* The Trial of the Axes
* Lotus-Eaters
* Deviled Eggs

## Mandelbrot Set

* Barringer Crater
* Rex Begonia
* Earthquakes
* Aquila Alcohol Cloud
* Kenai River
* Fibonacci Spiral
* Algae
* Saturn
* Tidal Energy

## Seance

* Vampire Bat
* Thick-Headed Fly
* Amber Phantom Butterfly
* No. 14 Chair
* Mummies
* Dead Drops
* White Lily
* Rain
* Memory
Claude Garamond

## Ability

### Ability

**An Influential Type****(Draw)** Your Times New Roman and Movable Type cards, wherever they are, cost -4 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Known for his creation of the Garamond typeface, typefounder **Claude Garamond** was one of the first punch cutters to work independently of printers. Oddly enough, there was no Garamond typeface before it was revived – just a guy called Claude who cut type. It was only after he died, and his wife sold his punches, that his unique typefaces were acquired and used by type foundries. This is when the family of Garamond fonts we know today came to be recognisable.
Cheung Po Tsai

## Ability

### Ability

**Rise Through The Ranks****(Return)** This card gains +13 Power and costs +1 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

In the late 1700s **Cheung Po Tsai** was abducted, aged 15, by the pirate Cheng I. He became his most trusted subordinate and quickly rose through the ranks, with Cheng I and his wife adopting Cheung as their son. Cheng I died suddenly in 1807 and his widow and **Cheung Po Tsai** quickly became lovers (I know, eugh), and would later marry. They were able to secure the loyalty of Cheng’s relatives, as they lead a number of the ships in the fleet. **Cheung Po Tsai** and his wife were said to have 50,000 followers and 600 ships.

By 1810 **Cheung Po Tsai** had to surrender after suffering defeats by the Portuguese Navy. He accepted an amnesty offered by the Qing Dynasty government and would be given the rank of colonel in the Qing's Guangdong navy.
Crystal Ball

## Ability

### Ability

**The Fortune Teller****(Return)** Your Tarot cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power and cost +1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Typically seen in a fortune teller’s tent, the **Crystal Ball** has roots that date back to the ancient Druids, who used crystals to foretell the future. For those of you who aren’t divination experts, the act of crystal gazing is called “scrying” - a word derived from “descry” which means to perceive. Although reflective surfaces like crystals, mirrors and pools work best, you can technically “scry” into anything.
(That said, if your fortune teller is scrying into their phone, you probably aren’t getting your money’s worth.)

The largest-known true crystal ball is housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. and weighs a whopping 42 kilograms!

FYI: If your crystal ball keeps warning you of cold winters, you’ve probably bought a snow globe by accident.
Comb Jellies

## Ability

### Ability

**Combover****(Play)** Your Mary River Turtle card in hand gains +48 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Ctenophora (the "c" is silent, saying-it-right fans), otherwise known at **Comb Jellies** are invertebrates that use "cilia" to swim. they have comb-like hairs all the way down their transparent bodies, and the movement of those is what propels them through the water.

They may have "jelly" in their nickname, but ctenophora are not jellyfish and they behave in a way that is subtly different to their transparent cousins when it comes to what they do with their waste. Normal jellyfish spit out undigested waste through the same orifice it came in, but a comb jelly's food goes in one end and out the other.

It's not often we do a card where the remarkable thing about it is that it behaves similarly to humans - in fact, it's believed that it shares a common body plan with homo sapiens. Go look at the Common Body Plans card to find out how that's an incredible genetic Sliding Doors.
Disco Ball

## Ability

### Ability

**Look At Them Shine****(Play)** The card opposite this loses -20 Power this turn and your cards adjacent to this gain +20 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

When Charles and Logan McGrath from England invented the **Disco Ball** in 1859, they didn’t call it a disco ball. Because disco didn’t exist yet. In fact, they didn’t officially call it anything, as they didn’t file a patent for their big shiny mirror balls.

So, in 1917, a man named Louis Bernard Woeste applied for a patent for his not-so-catchily-named “Myriad Reflector”. It measured 27 inches in diameter and was covered in over 1,200 tiny mirrors, creating a scattered light effect that Woeste likened to “dancing fireflies of a thousand hues.”

82 years later, a 62-pound myriad reflector (which had come to be known as a disco ball) fell from the ceiling and almost killed Boy George, clipping his face and shoulder on the way down during rehearsals.
Chêne Chapelle

## Ability

### Ability

**Hollowed Ground****(Play)** Your Thunderstorms card, wherever it is, gains +30 Power until played. **(Draw)** Your cards with "Mary" in their name, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

In the French village of Allouville-Bellefosse, there stands a tree that the locals swear was the spot that William the Conqueror prayed at before his famous conquest. A giant oak measuring approximately 15 metres tall, this tree is thought to be at least 800 years old.

When the tree was nearing 500 years old, tragedy struck in the form of lightning, gutting its trunk. Not wanting to let a good tree go to waste, two monks set about sprucing up the hollowed interior. Before long, the tree had become a shrine to the Virgin Mary, complete with a chapel. A second chapel and an external staircase were later added, and the tree became known as La **Chêne Chapel**, meaning “The Chapel Oak.”
Chrétien de Troyes

## Ability

### Ability

**Structural Precedence****(Play)** If your deck has 6 or more Arthurian Legends cards, your The Write Stuff and Documented cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Spicy twists, chivalric romances and tests of knighthood: **Chrétien de Troyes** gave us some of the juiciest plotlines in Arthurian legends. He was the first to pen the tumultuous relationship between Lancelot and King Arthur's wife, Guinevere, and the first to introduce enthusiastic European readers to the concept of the Holy Grail. He even popularised the name "Camelot" for Arthur's court.

Like the twelfth-century equivalent of Stan Lee, he gave us episodic verses about heroes of the round-table and their deeds rather than stories of Arthur himself, building out the expansive Arthurian Literary Universe (ALU). Despite his profound contributions, barely anything is known of Chrétien de Troyes - even his name just translates to “a Christian from Troyes,” which could refer to almost anyone of that city.
Dead Leaf Butterfly

## Ability

### Ability

**Hidden Beauty****(Play)** Your Hidden Gems cards in hand gain +10 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

This is a hard one to write about as it's all in the name. When resting in a closed-wing-position it looks like a dead leaf. As it happens very few creatures like to chow down on dead leaves. That's pretty interesting in itself, but amazingly, the **Dead Leaf Butterfly** looks different at different times of the year as it has dry and wet season forms. The dry season form looks visibly more dried out (smaller) and baked (orange/brown). This is what is referred to as a polyphenic trait.

This marvel may look like a drab old leaf when closed, but when it opens it's wings the upper side reveals a luminous and iridescent colour pattern as beautiful as any other butterfly.
Comet West

## Ability

### Ability

**Split****(Play)** If played in the left slot, your cards in hand gain +14 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

It’s been described as one of the brightest objects to pass through the inner Solar System: **Comet West** (no relation to Adam West), came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on February 25, 1976 and was reportedly bright enough to study in broad daylight. However, in the vein of the boy-who-cried-wolf story, Comet West wasn’t really reported on by popular media, because the last comet they made a song and dance about (Comet Kohoutek) in 1973 turned out to be pretty disappointing.

By contrast, Comet West was actually pretty remarkable, as its breakup was one of very few comet breakups seen from historical times by the 1970s. As it passed within 30 million kilometres of the sun, it split into four pieces which were scattered and studied intently by astronomers.

'Comet West was discovered in photographs by Richard West on August 10, 1975.' by J. Linder/ESO (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Ded Moroz

## Ability

### Ability

**Grandfather Frost****(Draw)** If your deck contains Snegurochka, your Festive Traditions cards in hand gain +8 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

In Communist Russia, there’s no place for a velvet-clad capitalist who breaks and enters your home at Christmas. So, with the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia’s version of Santa Claus was banished into exile.

Known as **Ded Moroz**, this character can be traced to Slavic mythology which predates Christianity. Back then, he was known as Morozko - and he wasn’t a jolly old man, but a powerful hero who forged chains as strong as iron. Still, the Soviet leaders saw him as a bit of a children’s god, and were flatly against any manifestations of religion. So, Ded Moroz was cancelled… But 20 years later, he made a comeback.

Of course, since Christmas wasn’t allowed under the Soviet Union, Ded Moroz was framed as a gift-bearer who comes on New Year’s Eve.
Amargasaurus

## Ability

### Ability

**Smaller Sauropod****(Play)** All cards in both players hands with 40 or more Base Power lose -20 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

While all dinosaurs succumbed to extinction, many were lucky enough to leave behind a legacy. **Amargasaurus** was one of those. Although the species is only known from one skeleton discovered in 1974, its remains were virtually complete, including a fragmentary skull. That makes Amargasaurus one of the best known sauropods of its epoch.

It may not have been as large as other sauropods, but make no mistake - this herbivore had #BigNeckEnergy, boasting a 2.4-metre-long neck with prominent spines to deter predators, attract mates and help with temperature regulation. During the Early Cretaceous period, the Amargasaurus shared its woodland environment with at least three other sauropods, so probably had to exploit different food sources in order to reduce competition.
Easter Egg

## Ability

### Ability

**Party Time, Eggscellent****(Play)** For each card in your deck with "Egg" in the name, this card gains +10 Power.

## Did You Know?

To those naysayers who argue that eggs have no place in the Easter tradition, prepare to stand corrected. Eggs symbolised new life for Pagans, a fitting image during the spring season. The Christians then adopted eggs for Easter to represent Jesus’ emergence from the tomb.

Traditionally, eating eggs was a major faux pas during Lent. So, in the days leading to Easter, eggs were gathered and gifted between friends and families, although obviously, the egg being chocolate is only a recent development that began in 19th Century France and Germany.

The idea became really popular (because, chocolate) and soon formed part of the Western Easter tradition.

FYI: The world's largest chocolate **Easter Egg** was made in Italy in April 2011. It measured 34 feet and weighed approximately 15,873 pounds.
Foxglove

## Ability

### Ability

**Digitalis****(Draw)** Your Venomous Creatures cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy until played. **(Play)** Your Hands card in hand gains +50 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Characterised by their tubular purple-pink flowers with a whitish tinge on the inside, the **Foxglove** is so named for the shape of the flowers, which look like little gloves that would perfectly fit the paws of a fox. Like a sports car, the Foxglove is both beautiful and dangerous. Ingesting only 5 grams of dried leaf or 2 grams of fresh leaf from this plant is enough to kill a person.

On the flip side, this remarkable plant also has heart-protective properties that were discovered in the 18th century. When digitoxin and digotoxin are extracted from the plant, they can be used to slow down the heartbeat and prevent edema by facilitating the removal of excess water from the body.
DeLong Star Ruby

## Ability

### Ability

**Ransom****(Draw)** Lose -1:energy/turn: permanently. **(Return)** Gain +1:energy/turn: permanently and gain +3:energy/turn: this round.

## Did You Know?

If you ever visit the Natural History Museum in New York City, make sure to check out the **DeLong Star Ruby**. Weighing 100.32 carats, this magnificent gem is a rich rouge colour with a distinctive 6-rayed star effect.

The DeLong Star Ruby gets its name from Mrs Edith Haggin de Long, who bought the stone from a renowned gem merchant in 1937. Edith Haggin de Long donated the star ruby to the museum and the extraordinary ruby was named in her honour.

Of course, such a rare and precious gem was bound to be the target of a burglary, and in 1964, a thief known as Murph the Surf did just this. Thankfully, the gem was ransomed and returned to the museum.
Daruma Doll

## Ability

### Ability

**Good Luck!****(Start)** If you are winning the round, this card gains +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If you’ve ever visited Japan, you’ll recognise the **Daruma Doll**, a traditional Japanese Doll modelled after the founder of Buddhism, Bodhidharma, symbolising good luck in Japanese culture.

While the red bulbous shape is iconic, there are some more intricate details that you might not have noticed about the doll, especially when it comes to the facial hair, which is styled after two animals that are all known in Asian tradition to represent longevity; the crane and the tortoise. Look closely at the beard to spot the (very) abstract tortoise, and the cranes in the eyebrows!

Daruma Dolls are purchased with two blank white eyes and are useful if, like this author, you have a habit of setting goals to completely forget them, until months later you find the corner of that dusty self-help book poking out from under the bed. When setting a goal, the left eye is painted black and will remain staring at you judgementally until that goal is achieved, when the right eye is also filled in.

Although a symbol of good luck, the Daruma Doll has a dark origin - we recommend that the squeamish among you turn the card over now.   Bodhidharma was a monk well practised in the art of “wall-gazing”, and according to mythology once sat in a meditative state without moving for nine whole years, causing his arms and legs to fall off from atrophy. Another legend suggests that when he finally succumbed to sleep (well-earned, one would think), he was so angry at himself that he cut his own eyelids off to avoid ever making the same mistake, hence the design of the doll today. We did warn you!
Cottingley Fairies

## Ability

### Ability

**Cardboard Cutouts****(Play)** If your deck has 3 or more Hoaxes and Cons cards, your cards with "Fairy" in the name, wherever they are, gain +17 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In 1917, two girls captured close-ups of fairies in Cottingley Beck through a camera lens. In a series of five photos, Frances Griffiths and her cousin Elsie Wright showed the world hard proof that these fairies were living at the bottom of the garden. Or at least, that’s what they wanted you to think.

In fact, these artistically inclined conspirators had copied images found in “Princess Mary’s Gift Book”, added wings to them and held these hand-drawn fairies upright with hatpins. Still, the **Cottingley Fairies** were certainly real enough to fool Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - although, that being said, Conan Doyle was also taken in by the <link="https:>Piltdown Man</link> fake. The true nature of both hoaxes was only uncovered after his death.
Copperband Butterflyfish

## Did You Know?

The magnificent Copperband Butterflyfish, which might sound like a joke name you'd give if you were pretending not to know how to pronounce Benedict Cumberbatch, is one of the trickiest fish to keep in an aquarium - they struggle to acclimatise to tanks, and many refuse to eat in captivity.

In the wild, it's a different story. Their elongated beaks mean they can grab food in harder to reach spots that other fish can't get to, so there's very little competition and they can thrive.
Day Octopus

## Ability

### Ability

**Big Blue****(Draw)** If your deck has 8 or more Oceans cards, this card gains +65 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Also known as the big blue octopus, the Octopus *cyanea* or **Day Octopus** can be found in both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its nickname comes from its feeding habits, as this cephalopod only hunts and eats during daylight hours. By that definition, humans are day mammals, but let’s not get too off track here.

Like many cephalopods, the day octopus can use its cells to change its colour frequently, but it can also alter the patterns and texture of its skin. If you thought you were indecisive, you haven’t met the day octopus - one researcher observed the coral-reef dwelling creature changing its appearance 1,000 times in seven hours! Considering it lives for only one year, perhaps this octopus is just making the most of its time on Earth.
Discovery Expedition

## Ability

### Ability

**A Cold New World****(Play)** Your Dizzying Discoveries and Riding the Waves! cards in hand gain +10 Power this turn. **(Return)** Your remaining Exciting Exploration cards in hand cost -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

In 1901, a team led by Robert Falcon Scott charted a course to the Antarctic regions to carry out scientific research on what was still largely an untouched continent. It would be the first official British exploration of Antarctica since the voyage of James Clark Ross in 1839.

Their ship, “Discovery”, was built especially for the mission, measuring 172 feet long, 34 feet wide and weighing 285 tons. It was also the last traditional three-masted wooden ship to be built in Britain.

Organised by a joint committee of the Royal Society and Royal Geographical Society, the **Discovery Expedition** was a success, despite the severe setbacks crew experienced along the way. Nevertheless, the Expedition was able to confirm that Antarctica was indeed a continent.
Chōchin-obake

## Ability

### Ability

**Astonish****(Draw)** If you have lost 1 or more rounds this game, your opponent loses -40 Power/Turn and you gain +40 Power/Turn this turn.

## Did You Know?

Some ‘Yokai’ from Japanese folklore are evil by nature and terrifying to look at. **Chōchin-Obake** is not one of those. This silly spirit inhabits a paper lantern, but doesn’t come to life until 100 years of service. At that point, a “mature” Chōchin will evolve into a Chōchin-Obake.

The paper of the lantern will split, and a gaping mouth will appear with a tongue. One or two eyes pop out of the lantern. And… that’s it. No fire breathing, human eating or soul possessing. Just a funny lantern who flies around, wagging its tongue to give people a fright.

This yokai clearly served as the inspiration for Dusknoir, a Ghost-type Pokemon that looks like the offspring of a cyclops and a futuristic lamp.
Francis Crick

## Ability

### Ability

**Central Dogma****(Draw)** Lose -1:energy/turn: and gain +16 Power/Turn permanently.

## Did You Know?

He is best known for being a co-discoverer of the <link="https:>structure of the DNA molecule</link> and for his significant contributions to the field of molecular biology - but **Francis Crick** was no biologist. Well, not to begin with, anyway.

Crick actually began his scientific career with a degree in physics from University College London. During World War II, he worked as a scientist for the Admiralty Research Laboratory, leading on the design of magnetic and acoustic mines. After the war had ended, Crick pivoted from physics to biology - a transition which he described as "almost as if one had to be born again”.

Francis Crick is proof that a career change can be a good thing (but we can’t guarantee you’ll win the Nobel prize for it.)

'Francis Crick in his office' by Photo: Marc Lieberman (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 2.5 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Cockatrice

## Ability

### Ability

**The Death-Darting Eye****(Return)** An opponent's random card in hand **Lock**s for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

If you ever happen upon a **Cockatrice**, don’t mention Nando’s. This two-legged dragon creature has a rooster’s head and will happily take revenge on anyone profiting from its chicken descendants. If you think you can fight it, think again: the Cockatrice can cause death with a single glance. If it spits on you with its poisonous saliva, you’re also dead.

According to legends originating from Roman times, cockatrices were born from an egg laid by a cock, not a hen, and incubated by a toad or a snake - hence its reptile-like qualities. The only way to stop the egg from hatching into a deadly cockatrice is to throw it over a roof, and have it land on the other side, without the egg ever touching the house.
Chicken

## Ability

### Ability

**Game of Chicken****(Play)** If it's the last turn of a round, a random card in your hand gains +50 Power this turn (reveal before scoring).

## Did You Know?

The **Chicken**, or *gallus gallus domesticus* if you're not on colloquial terms, needs no introduction or explanation. If you've lived on planet Earth for any length of time, there is no doubt you've come into contact with some form of chicken - be it as a pet, at a farm, or on a plate.

Incredibly, chicken is not a generic term for a larger genus or species of bird, but is itself a domesticated subspecies of the Red Junglefowl, a bird native to parts of Southeast and South Asia. Molecular evidence suggests that we've been domesticating the Junglefowl as far back as 8,000 years ago, which is convenient for any budding time traveller wanting to make a *six billion four hundred and seventy-five million* egg omelette (coincidentally, the number of eggs presumed to be produced a year with the 25.9 billion chickens living as of the year 2019, assuming each chicken is capable of 250 eggs a year). Egg-cellent.