recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Franz Marc

## Ability

### Ability

**Der Blaue Reiter****(Draw)** If your deck has 3 or more Oceans and Seas cards, this card gains +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Although his career was cut short by his death in the Battle of Verdun in 1916, German painter **Franz Marc** had a profound impact on the various Expressionist movements that came after the first world war.

Best known for his paintings of brightly coloured animals, Marc looked to the natural world as an antidote to modern life, depicting animals as a means of capturing the innocence and godliness that he believed men had long since lost.

As a founding member of Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”), a group of German Expressionist artists, Marc developed his own theory of colour symbolism. Blue was used to represent masculinity, yellow for femininity and red to symbolise the physical and violent world.
Dust Storm

## Did You Know?

Dust Storms occur when a strong wind blows over dry, exposed ground creating a wall of dust which sweeps over large distances. This can be for thousands of miles; Bermuda has red soil inland, and scientists were at a loss as to how it got there until they realised that dust storms had carried it from Africa, little by little over the course of about a MILLION years!

And it's not just dust and sand they move - anything microscopically small can get caught up, including fungi, pollutants, chemicals, bacteria and even radiation.

"Black Sunday" - a particularly bad dust storm in 1935 - is believed to have displaced 300 million tons of topsoil from the US prairie.
Dwarf Mongoose

## Ability

### Ability

**Youth Club****(Play)** Your cards with 10 or less Base Power, wherever they are, gain +20 Power this round. **(Return)** Your opponent's King Cobra card, wherever it is, costs +4 Energy until played and your King Cobra card, wherever it is, costs +4 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

**The Dwarf Mongoose** has a thriving social life, living in packs of as many as 32 mongooses. Within these groups, the mongooses have a hierarchy in which each member has its own role to fill. The boss of the Mongoose crew is usually an older, dominant female, and her mate is the second in command.

Together, the couple are the only breeders in the group – the others must focus on foraging. Most female mongooses in the group are fine with queuing, and don’t tend to leave the group unless they lose their place in the hierarchy to a younger sister (understandable.) Impatient non-breeding males can cut the cue by transferring to another pack or starting a new one with other females.
Eye of Horus

## Ability

### Ability

**Vision of Protection****(Play)** If played in the right slot and next to Eye of Ra, your Ancient Egypt and Egyptian Mythology cards, wherever they are, gain +14 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

According to Egyptian myth, Horus (the falcon-headed god) lost his left eye during a fight with Set, the god of chaos and war who had killed his own brother (Horus’ father.) During the battle, Horus severed Set’s testicles and Set got revenge by shattering Horus’ eye into six pieces.

Thankfully for Horus, his eye was magically restored by the cow-headed goddess Hathor who poured gazelle milk on his wounds. The restored eye was named Wadjet after an old Egyptian god whose name meant health and wholesomeness.

As a result, the **Eye of Horus** came to be known as a symbol to represent health, wellbeing and restoration. So… Anyone else wondering why Set’s testicles didn’t get the gazelle milk treatment?
François Le Clerc

## Ability

### Ability

**Methodical Looting****(Play)** If played in the left slot, your Riding the Waves! cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played, if played in the middle slot, your Lost Treasures cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played and if played in the right slot, your Plundering Pirates cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

During any attack, French privateer **Francois Le Clerc** was always the first to board an enemy vessel. This cavalier attitude earned him a reputation as a badass, but it literally cost him an arm and a leg.

While fighting the English at Guernsey in 1549, he suffered severe damage to his arm and lost his leg - but Le Clerc didn’t let that stop him. Instead, he fashioned himself a wooden prosthetic and became known as Jambe de Bois" ("Peg Leg") - he was, after all, the first pirate in the modern era to have a wooden leg.

After raiding several ports in Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba, Peg Leg & Co became the first Europeans to settle on Saint Lucia, using the nearby Pigeon Island to target Spanish treasure galleons.
Film Noir

## Ability

### Ability

**Dark Film****(Play)** If you are trailing by 200 Power or more, your History cards in hand gain +50 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Of all the collections in all the card games, she had to walk into mine. A dangerous dame with an unobtainable standard of beauty steps into my office. I’m sitting in the dark with only the grimy streetlight shining through the venetian blinds, sipping on whisky (even though it’s 10am) and smoking my sixth cigarette of the day (again, it’s only 10am). Oh and it’s raining. It’s always got to be raining. Looks like we got the perfect opening scene for a **Film Noir.**

**Categorised by detective tales, femme fatales and dramatic lighting, Film Noir rose to popularity in the 1940s and 50s (although had appeared as early as the 1920s), with some of the most iconic titles being *The Big Sleep,* *Double Indemnity* and *The Third Man*. The films are dark, gritty, and occasionally inspired by pulp crime novels. They feature tortured souls, innocent people done wrong, and plenty of dastardly double-crossing.**

**In contemporary cinema, the genre “Neo-Noir” was born from its predecessor and gave us films like David Fincher’s *Se7en*, *Bound by the Wachowskis, Christopher Nolan’s *Memento* and the dream that is *LA Confidential.****

***If your watchlist hasn’t doubled just from reading the back of this card, then we recommend you pop on a fedora, dim the lights and enjoy some monochromatic melodrama.***
Fangtooth Moray

## Ability

### Ability

**That's A Moray...****(Draw)** Your The Moon and Pizza cards, wherever they are, gain +60 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Fangy and toothy are certainly good adjectives when it comes to describing this member of the teeth-laden Moray eel family.

It has a striking yellow and black coloration and is blessed with not one but two rows of fangs, the largest of which measure around 4cm in length.

Predominantly found in the Mediterranean and East Atlantic, they grow to around 120cm in length and spend their days lurking in wait for prey which includes crustaceans, shrimp and fish. On occasions, they have been known to lash out at surfers and divers but are generally passive unless they feel under threat.

Interestingly, like the Hippo and Barbell or sharks and the Remora Fish, the Fangtooth has an arrangement with the White Striped Cleaner Shrimp who will pick food debris and parasites from its open mouth.
Feronia

## Ability

### Ability

**Freedom****(Draw)** Your Common Arts & Culture cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

To the ancient Romans, **Feronia** was a goddess associated with wildlife, fertility, health and abundance. Unfortunately, the <link="https:>bust depicting Feronia</link> doesn’t really give off big health vibes, as it’s missing a nose.

Although she was worshipped by the Romans (the <link="https:>plebians</link> and <link="https:>freedmen</link> in particular) Feronia was not a native Roman Goddess. Instead, she originated amongst the Sabine people in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula. But sometime during the early 3rd century BC, a temple to Feronia was built on the Campus Martius, an open tract of land outside the city of Rome.

Why would a rural goddess whose name literally means wild and uncultivated consent to a city dwelling? Apparently, the promise of worship tempted her. Get it, girl!
Flor de la Mar

## Ability

### Ability

**Sunken Treasure****(Return)** If your deck has 9 or more Oceans and Seas cards, your Lost Treasures cards, wherever they are, gain +15 Power for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

Built in Lisbon in 1502, the **Flor de la Mar** was one of the largest and most beautiful vessels of the time. Then again, the builder of the Titanic did say “God himself could not sink this ship,” and we all know how that ended.

We actually don’t know for sure how the Flor de la Mar met her end, but here’s what we do know: in November 1511, the ship left Malacca, carrying spoils from a successful conquest and an impressive tribute from the King of Siam to the Portuguese king. But the ship’s design made it difficult to manoeuvre while filled to its maximum capacity. Couple this with a bad storm off the coast of Sumatra and it’s not hard to see how the ship sank along with the booty on board.
Four of Pentacles

## Ability

### Ability

**Miserly Attitude****(Start)** All cards in both player's hands lose -1 Power until played and this card gains +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If you’ve just pulled the **Four of Pentacles** from a deck of Tarot cards, the universe may be telling you to relax your grip on your purse strings. No one’s trying to take your money. You don’t need to sit on it like Smaug. Naturally, you don’t want to splash the cash and lose it all, but you don’t have to drop it all on a sports car or round-the-world trip.

Plus, it might not be money you’re holding onto but material possessions. Maybe you’re a hoarder with a hundred rolls of toilet paper stockpiled for the next apocalypse. Or maybe the Tarot is totally random and the card means nothing to you. Still, it’s never a bad idea to loosen up, let go and quit buying toilet paper.
Edwin Hubble

## Ability

### Ability

**Galactic Scaling****(Play)** If played next to Hubble Space Telescope, your Space Technology cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Today, it’s common knowledge that there are many other galaxies beyond our own. But it wasn’t until **Edwin Hubble** discovered his first Cepheid variable star that this mind-blowing fact was illuminated.

Born in 1889 in Missouri, Hubble was raised on science fiction novels. A fascination for the world around him led him to pursue a career in the sciences and obtain a PhD in astronomy from the University of Chicago in 1914.

As World War One loomed, Hubble completed his dissertation and swiftly embarked on military duty in France. Remarkably, the 86th Division, to which he belonged, saw no combat. So, unharmed by war, Hubble returned to the US to work at Mount Wilson Observatory where he made the discovery that completely reimagined our place in the universe.
Dybbuk

## Ability

### Ability

**Soul Possession****(Draw)** If your deck has 5 or more Brilliant Human Body cards, a random Brilliant Human Body card in your hand loses -40 Power this turn and this card gains +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

In Jewish folklore, a **Dybbuk** is a hitchhiking spirit, doomed to roam the earth for eternity as a punishment for its sins. That is, until it can find a living host whose body it can steal, taking it for a supernatural joyride for a bit.

Possession by way of Dybbuk is different from your run of the mill kind because rather than some hellish demon taking the wheel, it’s specifically the spirit of an evil person. To be honest, I don’t think I like the sound of either of those things.

While the Dybbuk does appear in spiritual writings in the 16th Century, it wasn’t until playwright S. Ansky came along in the 1910s and wrote the influential play “The Dybbuk” (or sometimes called “Between Two Worlds”) that the creature gained some fame in popular culture. The play was initially performed in Yiddish and tells the story of a young bride who is possessed by her former (and now conveniently dead) lover on her wedding day and must now receive an exorcism. Which sounds like the worst wedding gift ever, if you ask us.
Emperor Norton I

## Ability

### Ability

**Self-Proclaim****(Draw)** Your opponent's cards in hand lose -5 Power this turn and this card gains +35 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

One of America’s most famous eccentrics, **Emperor Norton I** was like the OG Kanye West. On September 17th, an unusual proclamation was published in the San Francisco Bulletin from a man named Joshua Norton, in which he declared himself Emperor of the United States. Clad in an ostrich feather plumed hat and a military uniform, Norton certainly acted the part. He issued his own currency, ate free of charge in restaurants and strutted about San Fran like he ruled the place.

'Portrait crop of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, also known as Joshua A Norton' by Notwist (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Flatback Sea Turtle

## Did You Know?

The **Flatback Sea Turtle** (Natator depressus) has the smallest geographic range of the seven sea turtles, preferring to stay in roughly the same place for its entire life. That’s pretty depressus if you ask us, but these creatures seem happy to make a home in the shallow waters along the coast of Australia and Papua New Guinea and stay put while their cousins take on open ocean migrations.

As you would have guessed, the flatback turtle is named for the flatness of its shell, one of the characteristics that distinguish it from the other sea turtles around the world. Adults forage for their food, choosing a healthy diet of soft-bodied prey, such as jellyfish with a side of sea cucumber.
Dying Star

## Did You Know?

Stars spend their lives fusing hydrogen and helium atoms to create heavier elements. When they're finished doing that, they do one of two things.

If they're extremely large stars, they explode and become supernovas, launching all those elements out into space, where they go to form new celestial bodies.

If they're smaller stars, like our sun eventually will be, they puff up to become red giants which slowly shed their outer elements into the universe.

'Hubble's New Eyes: Butterfly Emerges from Stellar Demise in Planetary Nebula NGC 6302' by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Source: Flickr) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)

CRAFTING CLUE BELOW!

- Hera’s fish?
Electric Eel

## Ability

### Ability

**Brought to 'Eel****(Return)** If you won the turn, your opponent loses -30 Power/Turn next turn and your opponent's remaining cards in hand lose -30 Power next turn.

## Did You Know?

Measuring up to eight feet long, the **Electric Eel** isn’t an eel at all – it’s actually a member of the knife fish family. The electric eel – or should we say electric knife fish? - can zap out more than 600-volt pulses up to 400 times per second. Fortunately, fatal electric eel attacks on humans are rare. However, multiple shocks can cause respiratory or heart failure, and people have drowned after being shocked.

In case you’re wondering, the answer is no – we can’t use electric eels as a means of generating electricity, because they aren’t consistent enough. Yes, these high voltage fish can produce powerful electric shocks to stun prey, but they would have to keep releasing the electricity at a constant rate in order to power our appliances.
French Bulldog

## Did You Know?

French Bulldogs originated in the famous French city of... Nottingham.

That's right - they're not originally French at all, but were taken to France by lace workers who had lost their jobs to the machines of the Industrial Revolution. These workers had bred English Bulldogs with Terriers to create this distinctive lap dog.
Eurasian Magpie

## Ability

### Ability

**Good Morning Mr. Magpie****(Draw)** Your Birds cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

Like other members of the Corvidae family, the **Magpie** is highly intelligent. In fact, one species in particular (the Eurasian Magpie) ranks among the world’s smartest creatures and is one of the few non-mammal species to recognise itself in a mirror.

In Yorkshire, England, to see a magpie is very bad luck. Considering magpie numbers in the UK have quadrupled over the last 35 years, your chances of seeing one are fairly high. However, if you do happen to spot one while you’re in God’s Own Country, just remember to salute the bird and say, “Good Day, Mr. Magpie, how is your wife?”. Doing so is said to ward off the bird-related bad luck although, oddly enough, the magpie is actually a symbol of good luck in East Asia.
Equestrian Statue of the Duke of Wellington

## Ability

### Ability

**Cone But Not Forgotten****(Draw)** If your deck has 4 or more History cards, your Fancy Fashions cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In Glasgow’s Royal Exchange Square, in front of the Gallery of Modern Art, you’ll find a regal statue of Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington. You will also find a traffic cone on his head. And, if you’re really lucky, his horse will be wearing one, too.

The statue is a Category A listed sculpture and was erected in 1844 to commemorate the end of the Napoleonic Wars (and an attempt to strengthen Scottish and English relations). However, at some point during the 1980s, the locals decided to start giving the Duke of Wellington a cone for a hat and it’s become a major Glaswegian landmark, for the cone more than the statue or its original significance.

Now, don’t get us wrong, as affectionate as this gesture is, it’s still a criminal offence and an act of vandalism. Ol’ Welly’s lost his stirrups after years of revellers climbing up to place his coney hat and suffered some damage. However, no matter how much police and the local council try to prevent it, the cheeky folk of Glasgow won’t stop.

Over the years, his cones have had celebratory makeovers - it’s sometimes a Santa cone at Christmas, it was gold for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and more recently it was blue and yellow as an act of solidarity for Ukraine.
Fishing Cat

## Ability

### Ability

**Going Swimmingly****(Play)** A random Feisty Fish and a random Fabulous Fish card in your hand gains +42 Power until played. **(Return)** This card costs -1 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

If you think all cats hate water, you haven’t met the **Fishing Cat**. Found in South East Asia, northern India and Sri Lanka, this species of feline earned its name for its remarkable ability to catch fish. Who needs a fishing rod when you can plunge your head underwater and flick out fish with your large paws? One study revealed that 76% of the fishing cat’s food is fish, although it won’t hesitate to snack on birds, insects and rodents when hungry.

One remarkable feature of the fishing cat is the layered structure of its fur. Their first layer of short fur is so dense that water cannot penetrate it, meaning the cat can keep warm and dry during chilly fishing expeditions.
Egyptian Blue

## Ability

### Ability

**Spectrum of Color****(Play)** If you have played Scheele's Green this game, your Tropical Indigo card, wherever it is, gains +40 Power permanently. **(Return)** If you have played Scheele's Green this game, your Tropical Indigo card, wherever it is, costs +2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

It’s impossible to think of ancient Egypt without thinking about **Egyptian Blue**. Given how important a role the river Nile played in their lives, blue came to represent the universe, creation and fertility. Unfortunately, river water isn’t actually blue, and can’t be used as paint. So, for a long time, only the earth colours were used as pigments.

Eventually, the Egyptians found a way to make the first ever synthetically produced color pigment - Egyptian Blue. Created around 2,200 B.C, the artificial pigment was made from ground limestone mixed with sand and a copper containing mineral such as azurite or malachite, which was then heated between 800 and 1,000 degrees. The result? A brilliant blue glass that could be crushed and combined with egg whites to make paint.
Fountain of Youth

## Ability

### Ability

**Youth Restoration****(Draw)** If it's on or before Round 2, gain +10 Power/Turn permanently, and if it's after Round 2, your History cards, wherever they are, lose -10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Legends say that the **Fountain of Youth** will help you recapture your glory days. Is there any truth to it? Nope! But that hasn’t stopped people throughout history from searching for it.

The Greek historian Herodotus spoke of healing waters that he believed a youthful tribe called the Macrobians got their powers from. However, the modern myth stems from stories about 16th-century Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon. He allegedly found it in Florida on his way to Bimini, an island that was reputed to have magical waters. Spoiler alert: he didn’t actually find it.

Nevertheless, the Sunshine State cashed in on the legend by opening the Fountain of Youth national park, a tourist trap for seniors seeking to turn back the clock.
Eurypterus

## Ability

### Ability

**Scorpion Ascendant****(Return)** Your remaining Venomous Creatures cards in hand gain +40 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

New York: home to the Empire State Building, dollar pizza slices, iconic yellow cabs and the first **Eurypterus** fossil to ever be discovered. Okay, so it’s no Lady Liberty, but the largest individual discovered was estimated to be 60 cm.

Also known as ‘sea scorpions’, Eurypterids were both predators and hunters, feasting on a diet of trilobites, cephalopods and worms. Although they had no backbone, they were heavily armoured and had vicious grasping claws that they used to render prey utterly helpless. Eurypterids thrived in shallow marine environments during the Paleozoic Era, but some of them could also walk on land - scientists think they were among the first animal groups to make the transition from sea to land.
Frederick the Great

## Ability

### Ability

**The Arts and War****(Draw)** If your deck has 8 or more Arts & Culture cards and if your deck has 8 or more Science cards, gain +30 Power/Turn for 9 turns.

## Did You Know?

When Adolf Hitler looks up to you, it’s generally not a good thing. And, judging by his legacy, **Frederick the Great** was certainly a divisive figure. However, through reform, war and the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Frederick II did “make Prussia great again”.

He supported freedom of speech, freedom of religion and worked to bring Prussia into the age of enlightenment - but Frederick’s record isn’t exactly squeaky clean. After taking the throne in 1740, he immediately launched an unprovoked attack on the Austrian region of Silesia (in what is now southwestern Poland), triggering the eight-year War of Austrian Succession. With the full force of the formidable army he inherited from his father, Frederick held Silesia and went on to invade Bohemia.
Francisco Goya

## Ability

### Ability

**Last of the Old Masters****(Play)** If it's the last turn of a round, your Prominent Painters cards in hand gain +15 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Born in 1746, **Francisco Goya** is considered one of the most important Spanish artists of the late 18th century. He served as the court painter to several Spanish monarchs and depicted a range of styles, from Rococo tapestry cartoons to the haunting Romanticism that captured the horrors of the Peninsular Wars.

By 1819, Francisco had gone through a lot, witnessing war, political instability, and battling illness, which ultimately left him deaf. Seeking solace, he retreated to his villa, la Quinta del Sordo, where he created the enigmatic "Black Paintings" directly on the walls. These 14 nightmarish scenes, unnamed and shrouded in mystery, diverged from his earlier works. Goya never intended to publicly exhibit them, leaving art historians puzzled by their subjects and significance.
Eureka!

## Ability

### Ability

**Breakthrough****(Return)** Your Science cards, wherever they are, gain +16 Power this round and if you won the turn, your remaining cards in hand gain +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

This writer has most of his great revelations in the bath, but none so world-shattering as the bathtime discoveries of Greek Mathematician and physicist Archimedes. He famously shouted "**Eureka!** Eureka!" upon discovering the water levels rose as he got into his bathtub.

Archimedes was trying to solve a problem for the king, who thought he might have been conned by a jeweller he had asked to melt down some gold to create a crown. The king believed his crown to have a little less gold, which he also believed was replaced with silver by the craftsperson, and he tasked Archimedes to study the crown and find out if this was true without damaging it.

So how does this relate to the bath? Well, the displacement of the bathwater showed Archimedes that there was a relationship between the water and the item being immersed in it, where silver weighs less than gold, the same weight of silver would displace more water than the gold. Using this theory, Archimedes was able to prove whether or not the crown was made of gold.

Since then, "Eureka!" has been the cry of the epiphany-haver.
Emperor Shrimp

## Did You Know?

The Emperor Shrimp is very common across the Indo-Pacific region. A commensal crustacean, it will form symbiotic relationships with other species (usually Sea Cucumbers) to maximise its chance of survival - in exchange for protection and nutrients, the Shrimp returns the favour by cleaning its host. This writer can definitely see the appeal.
Bat Flower

## Ability

### Ability

**First at Bat****(Play)** If it's the first turn of a round, your cards in hand gain +15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The **Tacca chantrier** also known as the **The Bat Flower** or “Devil’s Flower” is an unusual looking flower because it produces dark and rather sinister-looking petals, which could be described as bat-like. You've seen the picture, it's basically a bat on a stick, but unlike a real bat on a stick it has a sweet and pure scent and won't try to bite you.
Dunkleosteus

## Did You Know?

Dunkleosteus was a fish that lived around 380 to 360 million years ago, and was one of the largest fish to have ever existed; in your face, Nemo.

With armoured scales, it grew up to 9 metres in length and could weigh over 3 tons. Prone to cannibalism of their own, Dunkleosteus were real brutes and what they lacked in true teeth, they made up for in bite, with two long bony blades that could snap and crush almost anything.
Eridanus

## Ability

### Ability

**Flowing River****(Draw)** Your Raging Rivers cards in hand gain +15 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If you happen to spot a constellation that looks like a large, winding river in the sky, it’s probably **Eridanus**. The 6th largest of the 88 constellations, Eridanus has represented many different rivers to various civilizations over time. In Mesopotamia, for example, it was the river Tigris or Euphrates. To the ancient Egyptians, it was the Nile. To the Romans, the constellation was seen as the river Po, Italy’s longest river. To non-astronomers, it’s just a bunch of stars in the sky.

Although Eridanus is home to about 200 galaxies, it’s also home to a whole lot of nothing. In literal terms, we’re talking about a cold spot or “supervoid” devoid of galaxies. The Eridanus Supervoid stretches over about a billion light years, making it the biggest supervoid ever discovered.
EpiPens

## Ability

### Ability

**Adrenaline Spike****(Draw)** This card loses -20 Power this turn and gain +3:energy/turn: this round.

## Did You Know?

They say the pen is mightier than the sword. If the sword is anaphylaxis, the revolutionary **EpiPen** is certainly a worthy contender. With the increase of food allergies in recent years, the epinephrine autoinjector or “EpiPen” has proven invaluable in treating severe allergic reactions.

Sheldon Kaplan first invented the EpiPen for anaphylaxis alongside the ComboPen, an autoinjector filled with a nerve gas antidote for the U.S military in the 1970s, although he never did receive any royalties for either.

It should be mentioned that the use of EpiPens without prescription is dangerous.
Eggs Benedict

## Ability

### Ability

**Poach****(Play)** Your Curious Cuisine cards in hand gain +12 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Who doesn't love brunch? Apart from The Flash in the theatrical cut of Justice League, everyone loves that mid-morning not-quite-lunch-but-too-late-for-breakfast meal, and one of its staples is **Eggs Benedict** - a dish featuring eggs, bacon and English muffins that looks like a sandwich that collapsed under the weight of its own taste.

It's known that it came to prominence in New York City in the late 1890s, but no one quite knows who first created the dish. Delmonico's, a historic restaurant in New York, claims to have created the dish, but a different account claims that Lemuel Benedict, a Wall Street stockbroker, stumbled into the Waldorf Hotel with a powerful hangover and ordered the poached eggs, buttered toast bacon and hollandaise in the hopes it would set him right. The maître d' loved the idea and added it to the menu at once.

The classic configuration is toasted English muffins with Candian bacon, poached eggs and hollandaise, but many variations exist. Huevos Benedict substitutes avocado for the bacon, Artichoke Benedict replaces the English muffins with hollowed artichokes, and Eggs Hemingway swaps out the bacon for salmon. Benedict Cumberbatch hasn't yet put his name to a variation, but that's some synergy waiting to happen, surely?
Flying Saucer

## Ability

### Ability

**Alien Abduction****(Play)** For each set of exactly 4 cards from any album in your deck, your Space cards, wherever they are, gain +6 Power until played. **(Return)** Your remaining Space cards in hand cost -2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

We all know and love the classic sci-fi aesthetic of a **Flying Saucer**. The aliens’ answer to a Renault Clio, sightings of these extraterrestrial [citation needed] vehicles have been recorded since the Middle Ages.

It wasn’t until private pilot, Kenneth Arnold, had a bit of a weird Tuesday in June 1947 when nine unidentified flying objects whizzed past his plane that the term flying saucer was coined. Unbelievably, and absolutely not due to FOMO, thousands of sightings across the planet (specifically, this one) followed.

In 1952, the United States Air Force began using the term UFO in its Project Blue Book, an enormous analysis of thousands of sightings, determined to see what was going on up there. 17 years later, they shared their results - no aliens. Although, out of 12,618 UFO reports, only 11,917 had a clear, earth-based answer like stars or passing planes. So… aliens?
Electronic Voice Phenomena

## Ability

### Ability

**Spirit Voices****(Play)** If your deck contains no Science cards, your The Occult cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

When painter and filmmaker Friedrich Jurgenson was innocently recording bird songs one morning in 1959, he picked up another sound entirely - one that he believed to be from beyond the grave from his dead father. It wasn’t the first example of **Electronic Voice Phenomena** - in fact, two decades prior, American photographer Attila von Szalay picked up EVP messages on a recording device that he interpreted as saying: “This is G!”, “Hot dog, Art!” and "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.”

Then, 10 years later, a mysterious Latvian doctor shared a collection of tape recordings that he claimed revealed communication with Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. While some of the sounds could be interpreted as voices, sceptics say EVP is just radio interference or tricks of the mind.
Emerald Tree Boa

## Ability

### Ability

**Strike From Above****(Return)** If you won the turn, your opponent's remaining cards in hand lose -20 Power next turn.

## Did You Know?

Emerald Tree Boas are bright green with a yellow underside, although they're born red and take on the green pigment at a year old. They have pits in the scales around their mouth which helps them detect heat from potential prey on the jungle floor below, before they strike from above. With no venom glands to poison their victims with, they have to crush them to death.
Elizabeth I

## Ability

### Ability

**The Past Cannot be Cured****(Return)** If your deck contains Mary Queen of Scots, your opponent's History cards in hand cost +3 Energy this round. **(Play)** If played next to Mary Queen of Scots, it and this card lose -100 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The Virgin Queen, Good Queen Bess, Gloriana or just plain old Queen Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and soon-to-be-headless Anne Boleyn. She took charge of the throne of England after the untimely deaths of her half-brother, the young Edward VI, and her childless half-sister Mary I, and swiftly set about doing the monarchy things that monarchs have become famous for, such as lording it over everyone else, imposing one's will and lots of recreational beheadings to keep the masses on their toes.

But unlike her unstable father and arguably more unstable half-sister, Mary (AKA Bloody Mary, who had a penchant for burning people at the stake), she brought a degree of stability to the kingdom.

We all know her through her greatest hit - thrashing the Spanish Armada - but she achieved a lot during her reign, bringing prosperity and religious tolerance, ushering in a golden age of arts and exploration. She definitely deserves her place in the top two British monarchs named Elizabeth.

Now, to address the elephant (virgin) in the room. This may or may not be true, and it's unlikely we'll ever know for sure now. She had some well-documented romances in her younger years, but she chose never to marry despite getting numerous offers. It may simply have been a case of leaving it too late; she was covered in smallpox scars, her oral health was notoriously poor and she had thinning hair. In any case, she was succeeded by James VI of Scotland whose mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was executed by Elizabeth some years before.
Franklin's Lost Expedition

## Ability

### Ability

**Icebound****(Return)** If your deck has 1 or more card with "Ice" in the name, a random card in your hand and an opponent's random card in hand **Lock**s for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

No disrespect, but if you name your ships HMS Terror and HMS Erebus (the dark region that souls passed through on their way to Hades in Greek mythology), it’s not the best omen. Nevertheless, the two set out as part of a British voyage of Arctic exploration, headed up by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845.

Sadly, the expedition was put on ice - quite literally - when both ships carrying a total of 129 officers and men became icebound in Victoria Strait. It would have been 134, but five men were discharged due to sickness and sent home. Given the fate of the crew from **Franklin’s Lost Expedition**, that illness was probably the best thing to happen to them.
Fire Element

## Ability

### Ability

**Energy and Passion****(Play)** If your deck has 2 or more Classical Element cards, your Arts & Culture cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power for 2 turns. **(Return)** Your Aries, Leo and Sagittarius cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Greek philosophy held that the Universe comprised four elements: Fire, Water, Earth and Air. They supposed that everything they came into contact with was in one of these four states (coming into contact with fire is not recommended.)

But they were also symbolic of aspects of the human mind - the **Fire Element** representing ambition, courage, drive and determination. According to Greek philosopher Heraclitus, the Fire Element was the most important as it gave rise to the other elements.

He also believed the soul was made up of fire and water, and the ultimate “soul goal” was to get rid of the water and become pure fire. Ironically, Heraclitus died of Edema - a condition in which fluid collects under the skin.
Elliot See

## Ability

### Ability

**Pilot Program****(Play)** If it's the first turn of a round, your Awesome Aviation cards, wherever they are, gain +13 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Born in Dallas, Texas in 1927, **Elliot See** had a career as a marine engineer for General Electric before being called for duty as a naval aviator in the Korean War of the early 1950s.

Beyond his experiences in the United States Navy, and as you can probably deduce by his sub-categorisation in CUE, See was selected for NASA's second group of astronauts in 1962 as prime command pilot for Gemini 9. Tragically, both he and his crewmate Charles Bassett were killed due to a collision with the McDonnell Aircraft building 101 whilst undergoing supersonic jet training.

Though never making it to outer space physically, his memory survives on the Fallen Astronaut plaque placed on the Moon by crew members of Apollo 15 in the early 1970s.
Ekpe

## Ability

### Ability

**Feline Delta****(Draw)** If your deck has 3 or more Cool Cats cards, your Raging Rivers cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power until played (and vice versa).

## Did You Know?

In parts of South-eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon, boys of a certain age are initiated into a secret society known as **Ekpe**. This all-male association is based on a culture of respect to the village ancestors and celebrates a spirit by the name of Ekpe who presides over ceremonies.

Reasons to join the Ekpe society: the boys have got your back. If a member of the Ekpe society is in trouble, they only have to beat the Ekpe drum in the Ekpe house and the whole society will mobilise to see that justice is done. Also, the Ekpe society holds sponsor feasts for the town to provide the poor with food and drink. What happens in the Ekpe society stays in the Ekpe society, so blabbermouths need not apply.

'Ekpe costumes from South Nigeria' by Wellcome Collection (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Flea

## Ability

### Ability

**Leap!****(Return)** For every card you have played this game, this card gains +2 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

The war between pet owners and **Fleas** is as long as time. But it’s pointless for us humans. The common flea will always win. After all, how can we compete with a species whose females lay up to 40 eggs a day? If you allow just one female into your house, in 60 days your home could be crawling/jumping with as many as 20,000 fleas!

Of course, you could always see it as an opportunity to start your very own flea circus. And yes, these do actually exist. In the early 1900s, William Heckler was one of the first people to become a successful flea master. He called his fleas “skilled professionals” as they leapt, juggled, raced and answered to his voice commands.
Djeser-Djeseru

## Ability

### Ability

**Holy of Holies****(Play)** Your Ancient Egypt and Egyptian Mythology cards in hand gain +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Djeser-Djeseru, which means "Holy of Holies" in Egyptian, is a shrine to the pharaoh Hatshepsut located on the west bank of the Nile near the Valley of the Kings. Hatshepsut, one of Egypt's earliest female pharaohs, was one of the most prolific builders in ancient times and this was the crowning jewel of her portfolio.

It appears in good condition today, but that's the result of decades of restoration work by the Polish Academy of Sciences. Over the years it had been defaced and ruined, most notably by Hatshepsut's successor, Thutmose III.

Thutmose made great efforts to erase her from history - she was married to his father, and so took the throne before him. It's unclear why, but he went on a campaign of destruction of all the monuments built under Hatshepsut's reign, including Djeser-Djeseru. One theory speculates that he didn't want history to record the interruption of a consecutive line of pharaohs called Thutmose which, if true, is barely an excuse.
Flying Scotsman

## Ability

### Ability

**Special Scotch Express****(Play)** For every Round completed this game, gain +30 Power/Turn this turn. **(Return)** This card costs +1 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Technically **The Flying Scotsman** was a passenger train service that operated between London and Edinburgh. The famous loco we all know and love adopted the name in 1923 but, let's be honest - when you think of The Flying Scotsman you're thinking of the classic LNER Class A3 4472 Apple Green design. And what a beauty she is! (Anyone else think it's weird we personify locomotives as female?)

Anyway, it was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and it became widely known as the fastest train in the world after cutting travel times from London to Edinburgh significantly, hitting a record breaking 100mph in service.

Nerd Alert. Let's talk wheel arrangements and the Whyte notation, as it's quite important when talking about steam locomotives. The Class A3 4472 is a 4-6-2 denoting that it has 4 'Pony' wheels underneath the smoke box; these are unpowered wheels and denote the 4. We then move on to the 6 powered 'Driving' wheels connected by the coupling rods to the cylinders, denoting the 6 and finally we have the trailing wheels on a single axel giving us the 2.

'The Flying Scotsman climbs up the hill out of Watchet' by Geof Sheppard (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Echo

## Ability

### Ability

**Repeat After You****(Play)** If you are trailing by 100 Power or more, this card gains +140 Power.

## Did You Know?

Greek Mythology is full of toxic relationships, family feuds and couple’s drama, and **Echo’s** story is no different. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book III, Echo was a mountain nymph who lived on Mount Cithaeron. Zeus had a penchant for beautiful nymphs and often visited them, much to the disdain of his wife Hera.

When she started to become suspicious, she came down from Mount Olympus to spy on her husband. But Echo distracted Hera by chatting to her for so long that Hera missed her window to catch Zeus in the act. Spoiler alert: being on Hera’s bad side was not a good idea. She laid a curse on Echo so that she could no longer speak for herself at all, but only utter the last words spoken to her.
Fermi Paradox

## Ability

### Ability

**The Great Filter****(Draw)** Your cards in hand with 70 or more Base Power gain +35 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

The Milky Way is massive. It comprises billions of stars, many of which are similar to our sun. Given the sheer size of our galaxy, it seems logical to assume that we aren’t alone in it. So, why haven’t we found intelligent extraterrestrial life yet? Surely, by now, we would have more evidence to prove the existence of aliens?

This contradiction is known as the **Fermi Paradox**, named after the Italian American physicist Enrico Fermi. Although he wasn’t the first to consider this question, Fermi’s name is associated with the paradox because of a conversation he had in 1950 with fellow physicists Edward Teller, Herbert York and Emil Konopinski. After discussing faster-than-light travel and the probability of intelligent life, Fermi famously asked: “Where is everybody?!”
Fin Whale

## Ability

### Ability

**Ain’t No Fin Like the Real Fin****(Draw)** Your other cards in hand lose -100 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Finback; Flathead; Common rorqual; greyhound of the sea. The **Fin Whale** goes by many names and is one of the biggest mammals in the world – second only to its cousin, the blue whale.

Although they’re half as tall as the Arc de Triomphe, this species is not predatory. A gentle giant, the fin whale is a filter feeder that survives on a diet of tiny krill and small fish. Their gigantic size is only possible because of their aquatic habitat and the buoyancy that seawater provides. If they were land mammals, fin whales would almost certainly be crushed under their own weight. Luckily, they live exclusively in water, and their large size helps them to survive very long migrations between the poles and the tropics.

'Balaenoptera physalus' by Aqqa Rosing-Asvid - Visit Greenland (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Dmitri Mendeleev

## Ability

### Ability

**Cards on the Table****(Return)** Your Excellent Elements cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Do chemists dream atomic sheep? Not exactly, but legend has it that trailblazing chemist **Dmitiri Mendeleev** saw his vision for his ground-breaking periodic table in a dream, presented to him as chemical elements lined up in order of increasing mass. It was the first table capable of predicting the behaviour of chemical elements and even had spaces for those yet to be discovered.
Edward Hopper

## Ability

### Ability

**Nighthawks****(Draw)** If your deck has 3 or more Curious Cuisine cards, your Birds cards in hand gain +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

With an extensive and far-reaching influence thanks to his mastery of light and dark in American realist painting, **Edward Hopper** and his expansive creative output serve to provide fantastic insight into the world of early 20th century America.

Initially aspirational to the works of French Impressionist painters whilst studying, Hopper went through several mediums and styles before his work was profitable. It wouldn't be until he was 41 that he would finally achieve financial stability and widespread recognition, with his most famous and recognisable output beginning in the late 1920s, including paintings such as *Chop Suey* and *Nighthawks* (pictured).

His career spanned several decades, surviving the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Second World War, with Hopper succumbing to natural causes in May of 1967. His multitudes of art are held by several institutions throughout America.
Elagabalus

## Ability

### Ability

**Bad Reputation****(Return)** If you won the turn, all remaining cards in both player's hands lose -50 Power next turn.

## Did You Know?

Renowned for eccentric behaviour, **Elagabalus** became the Roman emperor in the year 218 AD at the young age of 15. Never one to go with the flow, Elagabalus rejected traditional Roman morals from the get-go and led a life that many found shameful. He married four women, kept several male courtiers as lovers and replaced the head of the Roman pantheon with the deity Elagabel, forcing members of Rome’s government to celebrate and worship this deity.

Eventually, the constant outrages towards the powerbrokers in Rome grew unacceptable, and Elagabalus was murdered in 222 and replaced by his cousin, Severus Alexander. The assassination plot was devised by none other than his own grandmother – now there’s a good reason to respect your elders.

'Bust of Elagabalus' by José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Dragon's Blood Tree

## Ability

### Ability

**Blood of the Dragon****(Return)** Your opponent's remaining cards in hand **Burn** (24) for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

An evergreen tree, the Dracaena cinnabari or **Dragon's Blood Tree** can live up to 650 years and reach heights between 33 and 39 feet. Hardy as it may be, this rare tree will bleed deep red blood when chopped down.

As you may have guessed, the “blood” is the dark resin it produces, but local mythology says the sap from the tree is a cure-all – for healing fevers, calming ulcers and even for varnishing violins!

Because of the belief that the sap is the blood of a dragon, the resin is also used in rituals to increase the potency of spells for protection. Shaped like an upturned umbrella, you’ll find this tree in the Socotra archipelago of Yemen.