recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Long John Silver

## Ability

### Ability

**I'm Cap'n Here****(Play)** If played next to Robert Louis Stevenson, your Plundering Pirates cards, wherever they are, gain +27 Power until played. **(Return)** Your Plundering Pirates cards, wherever they are, cost +1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

He is one of the most iconic villains in literature - but the idea for **Long John Silver** wasn’t totally plucked from Robert Louis Stevenson’s imagination. Apparently, Stevenson’s friend and mentor, the poet William Ernest Henley, inspired Stevenson’s depiction of his famous pirate character.

Like Long John Silver, Henley walked with a crutch and had a commanding presence. He probably didn’t have a parrot on his shoulder, though. But the missing leg and parrot that Stevenson gave Silver went on to influence the image of the pirate in pop culture.

Everyone knows the best villains aren’t just straight-up-evil, and that’s what makes the antagonist of Treasure Island so compelling as a character. Charming, cunning and morally ambiguous, Long John Silver is a representation of the complexity of human nature itself.
Io

## Ability

### Ability

**IO.U 3 Energy****(Draw)** A random card in your hand costs +3 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

**Io** is Jupiter's fifth moon. Jupiter, of course, has 79 other moons (26 provisional, 53 confirmed), so what makes **Io** so special? I'll tell you what. It's the most volcanically active body in our solar system.

**Io** has 150 volcanos, which doesn't sound that impressive when compared to the 1,500 potentially active volcanoes on Earth. But **Io** is also covered in lakes of lava and liquid rock. It's Mustafar from Star Wars, basically.
Lü Dongbin

## Ability

### Ability

**Life Eternal****(Play)** Your Chinese Folklore cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power until played. **(Return)** For every Eight Immortals card you have played this game, this card gains +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Probably the most well known figure of the Eight Immortals and often considered their leader, **Lu Dongbin** was born during the Tang Dynasty. Specifically, on the 14th day of the 4th month of the Chinese calendar.

But Lu Dongbin wasn’t always immortal. As a human, he was a scholar, a poet and apparently, a womaniser, who enjoyed getting drunk and “charming” the ladies. However, Zhōnglí Quán set him on the right path, putting him through Ten Tests before he was given the secrets of life to become an immortal.

From resisting the temptations of women to banishing demons with a sword and taking a potion that could kill him, these were no easy trials - but Lu smashed them and ascended to immortality.
Mac 'n' Cheese

## Ability

### Ability

**Pretty Cheesy****(Play)** If you are winning the round, your cards in hand with 5 or less Base Energy gain +18 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

A staple in British and American cuisine, **Mac ‘n’ Cheese** traces its roots back to 13th century Italy – specifically, an Italian cookbook called the “Liber de Coquina”. In the book is a recipe called Lasanis that foodie historians believe to be the first-ever macaroni and cheese recipe.

Some credit Thomas Jefferson for introducing this classic comfort food back to the U.S. – although an exaggeration, Jefferson did help to make it popular. He dined on the dish during his time in Italy and loved it so much that he brought an Italian pasta maker back home with him to make the dish at the White House.

The traditional mac n’ cheese includes pasta, cream and Parmesan cheese, but everyone has a favourite version of this winter warmer.
Letters of Marque

## Did You Know?

A **Letter of Marque** and reprisal was a government issued license that gave permission to destroy or capture vessels belonging to an enemy group or nation. (A privateer was a privately owned ship with a Letter of Marque).

Owners of a **Letter Of Marque** saw it as a statement of honour and patriotism, albeit a very profitable one. The could attack other vessels, typically outside of their nation's borders, and bring them in for a reward (without even freezing them in carbonite). Of course, this blurred the lines with piracy somewhat - but privateers did have to obey laws of war, such as treating captives as safely as possible.

The first **Letter Of Marque** was issued during the reign of Edward III in England and was abolished by the Declaration of Paris in 1856, which had a primary goal of ending the practice.

'Letter of marque given to Captain Antoine Bollo via the shipowner Dominique Malfino from Genoa, owner of the Furet, a 15-tonne privateer, 27 February 1809' by Unknown (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Koko

## Ability

### Ability

**Talking Monkeys****(Play)** For each Primates card in your deck, give your Brilliant Human Body cards, wherever they are, +2 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Don’t worry, primates (probably) won’t evolve to become the dominant species and use humans as pets or for cheap labour. But one monkey called **Koko** did show a lot of potential when she became the first gorilla to become fluent in American Sign Language.

Born in the San Francisco Zoo, Koko was taught over 1,100 ASL signs and understood more than 2,000 words in the English language. When Koko died in 2018, she shared a powerful message to humankind: “I am gorilla… I am flowers, animals. I am nature. Man Koko love. Earth Koko love. Man stupid. Stupid! Koko cry. Time hurry! Fix Earth! Help Earth! Protect Earth! Nature see you. Thank you.”

Note to mankind: don’t blow up the planet in a nuclear war.

'Koko, the sign-language gorilla trained at Stanford University now playing the ukulele' by FolsomNatural (Source: Flickr) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Maximinus Thrax

## Ability

### Ability

**Power of the Military****(Play)** For every Innovations of War and Machines of War card in your deck, up to a maximum of 10, give this card +10 Power.

## Did You Know?

We have to assume ancient Roman writers were exaggerating when they said emperor **Maximinus “Thrax”** stood over 8 foot tall and had sandals twice the size of regular army issue. Apparently, he wore his wife’s bracelet as a thumb ring and devoured 40 pounds of meat and 18 bottles of wine at each meal.

Hyperbole aside, the rule of Maximinus Thrax (born Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus) is often considered to mark the beginning of the Crisis of the Third Century, when the Roman Empire nearly collapsed. But he’s also the first soldier who rose through the ranks to become Roman emperor.

After an unsuccessful mission to Rome to deal with rebellious senators, Maximinus’ troops starved and turned on him. He was assassinated in May 238 along with his son.
Leopard Cat

## Ability

### Ability

**Little Leopard****(Play)** If played between two cards with "Leopard" in the name, your Cool Cats cards, wherever they are, gain +16 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Behold the trailblazer of cat domestication, with roots dating back to Neolithic China, 5,000 years ago. Sure, it may not rival its larger namesake in size, but the **Leopard Cat** is a compact powerhouse and a bad-ass in its own right.

With forehead stripes that scream "fierce," this species come in a range of coat lengths and colors to match their habitat preferences. At night, these solitary hunters prowl through shrublands, grasslands, and tropical forests all the way from Russia to Indonesia, taking daytime catnaps on trees. Hey, we all need our beauty sleep.

Being excellent swimmers, Leopard cats have colonised offshore islands throughout the area of their distribution. They’ve even evolved to have webbed toes, helping them swim and move on slippery ground.
Kuchisake-onna

## Ability

### Ability

**Am I Pretty?****(Play)** If you are winning the round and if you have played **Kuchisake-onna** this game, your Japanese Folklore cards adjacent to this gain +50 Power this turn. **(Return)** If you lost the turn, your opponent loses -50 Power/Turn next turn.

## Did You Know?

If a woman in a mask walks up to you in a dark alley and asks you if she’s pretty, don’t be fooled. This isn’t a pandemic-era romantic encounter, it’s a planned attack by **Kuchisake-onna** - a malicious Japanese yokai from urban legends. I

f you answer “No,” she’ll kill you. If you say yes, she’ll remove her mask, revealing a <link="https:>Joker-style mouth</link>, and ask “how about now?” If you say no or scream in fear, she’ll kill you. If you still say yes, she’ll slit your mouth from ear to ear to match hers.

The only way out is through a non-committal answer - a shrug or “so-so” will do. This will confuse Kuchisake-onna and give you time to run away.
Laughing Kookaburra

## Did You Know?

Also known as the ‘bushman’s alarm clock’, the **Laughing Kookaburra** is a common enough sight in Australia - even to the extent that’s it’s considered a pest by some farmers as they attack fowl.

You may well have heard or sung the Kookaburra song (‘*Merry, merry king of the bush is he*’, etc.), but did you know that in 2011 the copyright holders successfully sued the Australian band Men At Work for backdated royalties? This was because the flute riff from their huge 1981 hit ‘Down Under’ copied ‘a substantial part of *Kookaburra*’.
Lipstick Echeveria

## Ability

### Ability

**Kiss of Death****(Draw)** Your Plant Life cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Native to Mexico the Echeveria agavoides, or **Lipstick echeveria** isn't quite what you might have imagined considering its Nickname! Its leaves are traditionally cactus-like, pointed, and sharp but it bears more resemblance to your grandma's broach or even red broccoli than something you chose to plant in your garden, yet has still been described as one of the most beautiful succulents around.
Lascaux Caves

## Ability

### Ability

**Top Marks****(Return)** If you won the turn, this card gains +20 Power permanently and your Arts & Culture and Science cards, wherever they are, gain +7 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found while out on a walk? An old coin, a weird feather, or perhaps even a gold ring? How about a cave containing over 2000 pieces of perfectly preserved, 17,000 year old art from the Upper Paleolithic period?

Well, for the teenaged Marcel Ravidat and his friends, that just so happens to be what they stumbled across near the small village of Montignac in southwestern France in September, 1940 - the **Lascaux Caves** - a cavern full of over 600 hand painted animals and symbols, and over 1500 engravings - mainly of cattle, stag. equines and a smattering of other animals. Oh, and just the one human (who’s either just lost a fight with a bison or is having a nice nap next to a bison). It also houses the largest animal ever discovered in cave art - a bull that measures a massive 5.2 meters long!

Unfortunately, once opened to the public in 1955, the carbon dioxide and humidity inevitably began to damage the paintings, and they closed again after just 8 years. But over 12 years, the caves and painting were painstakingly replicated, and Lascaux II, *the sequel,* opened in 1983 just 200 metres away from the original caves.
Melatonin

## Ability

### Ability

**Time for Sleep****(Draw)** This card **Lock**s for 3 turns. **(Start)** This card gains +8 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

It can be found in bananas and its arch nemesis is blue light: **Melatonin** is the sleep hormone your body produces to regulate sleep cycles. Like a natural pacemaker, this hormone is produced in the pineal gland in the brain and then released into the bloodstream. Darkness is the natural trigger, telling the pineal gland to start making melatonin so you can drift off - hence why you might fall asleep in a dark and cosy cinema, despite the bright light and loud sounds from the movie you’re watching. Either that, or the film is just really boring.

In addition to its circadian rhythm, melatonin levels also have a seasonal rhythm, getting higher in the autumn and winter when nights are longer.
Mandelbrot Set

## Ability

### Ability

**Recursive Detail****(Draw)** For every Mega Math card you have played this game, this card gains +5 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

To the uninitiated, the **Mandelbrot Set** is just a series of trippy shapes and cosmic patterns, like the view through a kaleidoscope or a hippy’s eyes on hallucinogens. In actuality, it’s so much more than that.

Named after the French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, this general class of fractal sets was discovered in 1979 after Benoit got access to IBM’s computers. Through basic computer graphics, he was able to show how visual complexity can be created from simple rules. He said that even clouds or shorelines that seemed chaotic had a degree of order.

The Mandelbrot Set has also been called God’s Thumbprint, because it possesses a complexity that looks the same but never precisely repeats - kind of like the way thumbprints look similar but are all completely different.

'Mandelbrot Set' by Wolfgang Beyer with the program Ultra Fractal 3 (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Magnetoreception

## Ability

### Ability

**Magnetic Sense****(Play)** If played adjacent to any Arts and Culture card, your Arts & Culture cards, wherever they are, gain +16 Power this round. Repeat for each album.

## Did You Know?

In 1883, in an attempt to explain the phenomena of clairvoyance, Lord Kelvin proposed a seventh sense of magnetism. It was suggested that clairvoyants were more in tune with their magnetic senses, and interpreted these feelings as belonging to invisible ghostly spirits.

His theory was laid to rest (ba-dum-tsch), until in the 1970s, when it was discovered that some of the bones of the human nose might indeed once have been receptive the Earth’s magnetic field, acting as a compass!

Although for humans this has become evolutionary useless, there are loads of animals that still use **Magnetoreception** to get around, including fish, amphibians, birds and reptiles. There are two main hypotheses for how this is achieved - either through a “radical pair mechanism” that is detected through a cryptochrome protein in the eye, or a more conventional iron-based beak or nose that acts as a traditional compass.
Mead of Poetry

## Ability

### Ability

**Fleeting Inspiration****(Play)** Your The Write Stuff cards in hand gain +60 Power this turn. **(Return)** Your remaining The Write Stuff cards in hand lose -10 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Forget Dutch Courage – the **Mead of Poetry** is the new alcohol-related power-up. In Norse folklore, the poetic Mead was a mythical beverage that gave the drinker the ability to recite any information and solve any question.

The drink is a vivid metaphor for poetic inspiration, usually associated with Odin – in fact, there’s a whole story devoted to its creation and the aftermath of such a valuable drink existing. It starts with every great God and Goddess spitting into a jar and then fashioning a man from the spit – as you do when you’re a Norse God, apparently. The man was so wise that he was killed for his knowledge by two jealous dwarves who mixed his blood with honey to create the mead of poetry. Anyone for a sip?
Mecynorhina Torquata

## Ability

### Ability

**Beetlebot****(Play)** If played next to any Futurology card, your Bugs cards, wherever they are, gain +26 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Move over, goliath beetles - we've got a contender for the title of "biggest flower beetle in the world": **Mecynorhina Torquata!** These bad boys can grow up to a whopping 55-85 millimetres in length for males, while the ladies are a tad smaller at 50-60 millimetres.

But size isn't the only thing that sets these beetles apart. The male bugs come equipped with their very own forehead horn that they can use in combat. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been enough to ward off humans.

In recent years, Mecynorhina torquata have become the latest victim of technological manipulation as humans have created cyborgs of M. torquata by implanting electrodes and a radio device. Perhaps in 100 years, we’ll look back on this as the moment it all went wrong. But it will be too late.
Mata Hari

## Ability

### Ability

**Mata of Life and Death****(Play)** This card gains +40 Power this turn. **(Return)** This card loses -40 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Some regard **Mata Hari** as one of the greatest spies of the 20th century, others say she was little more than a gossip involved with officers on both sides in WWI. A famous exotic dancer turned courtesan, Mata Hari was like the female James Bond – and it would be her downfall.

Alas, being a celebrity and a spy don’t really go hand in hand, and when the French Army discovered she was receiving money from a German officer, they had her executed.

'Mata Hari in 1910 wearing a jewelled head-dress' by Unknown author - scan from a magazine (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Knight of Cups

## Ability

### Ability

**An Invitation...****(Draw)** This card gains +15 Power this turn and a random card in your hand gains +15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Knights are usually a symbol of masculinity, wielding weapons and charging into battle. Not this guy. The **Knight of Cups** is a sensitive soul who is very much in touch with his emotions and intuition. The white horse he’s riding symbolises purity, clarity, and spiritual awakening. When making decisions, he follows his heart - regardless of whether it’s the logical choice.

Getting this card in a reading is usually a sign of an upcoming proposal, offer, good news or invitation. Maybe your partner’s about to get down on one knee; maybe you’re about to be invited backstage at a concert - or maybe your fortune teller is about to offer you a job as their assistant. Hey, it’s not the worst gig going.
Marine Caddisfly

## Ability

### Ability

**Floor is Larva****(Draw)** If you are winning the round, a random card in your hand gains +5 Power until played and if you are losing the round, a random card in your hand gains +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

More commonly known as the**Marine Caddisfly**, *Chathamiidae* is a small family of caddisflies who start their lives in a pretty obscure way. The female lays her eggs in the Australian cushion star, a form of starfish. While she enjoys a baby shower and mocktails with the gals, the starfish incubates her unhatched younglings for 30 days. Once hatched, the larvae exit their hosts through the stomach and out the mouth. Now that’s what I call a sea section…
Lightning Bird

## Ability

### Ability

**Witch Doctor's Servant****(Play)** If you have played Witching Hour this game, your Forces of Nature cards, wherever they are, gain +25 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

A word of advice: if a witch doctor sets a **Lightning Bird** on you, kill it with fire. We’re talking actual flames, here, as gunshots or stabbing will not work. Try to drown or poison the bird too and it will bounce back as if nothing happened.

Also known as the Imundulu or Thekwane, the Lightning Bird is a shape-shifting vampiric creature from South African mythology. Used by the magically-inclined to control minds, cause illness or bring about bad luck, this being can take the form of a rooster-like bird, that of a peacock or a horrifying winged creature the size of a person. When needed, it can even masquerade as a human, feeding off of the blood of other humans. Simply put, this bird is Bad News.
La Noche de Los Rábanos

## Ability

### Ability

**Radish Art****(Draw)** If your deck has 16 or more Arts & Culture cards, two random Curious Cuisine cards in hand gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

"La Noche de Los Rábanos" translates to "The Night of the Radishes", and takes place on December 23rd in Oaxaca, Mexico. The community comes together to carve their radishes into all sorts of forms.

The abundance of the radish in Mexico in the mid 18th century lead people to start carving them - Oaxaca had long-held wood carving traditions, and a bunch of radishes lying around, so they used them to make their Christmas stalls look more appealing. In 1897 the mayor declared a radish carving competition, which continues to this day.

'Day of the Night of the Radishes' by Drew Leavy (Source: Flickr) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Luna Moth

## Ability

### Ability

**Active Moon****(Play)** Your Moon In Motion cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Delicate lime green wings with purple outlines and long tails make the **Luna Moth** a lovely sight. But beauty aside, these large silk moths boast more defensive techniques than Novak Djokovic.

For starters, the red-brown eyespots on their wings are designed to make the luna moth look like a much larger creature. If predators do attack, they’ll usually aim for the flashy long tails - however, for the moth, losing these tails is barely an inconvenience.

And it's not just the adults that fend for themselves. When threatened, the Luna Moth larvae produces a clicking sound that is audible to humans and extends into ultrasound frequencies audible to predators. The creepy clicking is followed by regurgitation of the larvae’s intestinal contents, which should be enough to put anyone off.
Lobster Nebula

## Ability

### Ability

**Shell Company****(Play)** If played next to Crab Nebula, your Crustaceans cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power for 4 turns.

## Did You Know?

Where do lobsters go when they die? We’re not 100% sure, but we suspect the good ones go to lobster heaven, located in the **Lobster Nebula**. Found in the constellation of Scorpius, this explosion of coloured gas is officially known as NGC 6357, but sometimes called the lobster nebula because of its resemblance to the crustacean.

However, not everyone sees it the same way. Besides a lobster, it’s also been called the War and Peace Nebula because, in infrared images, the bright western part looks like a dove while the eastern part looks like a skull. Even anime fans put in a petition to rename the nebula <link="https:>the Madokami Nebula</link>, but that’s definitely grasping at straws.
Mary Seacole

## Ability

### Ability

**Succour****(Play)** If you have lost at least 1 round this game, a random Brilliant Human Body and a random Marvellous Medicine card in your hand gains +40 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

A daring adventurer and a trailblazer in the field of nursing, **Mary Seacole** was born in Jamaica in 1805 - although she kept her exact birth date a secret. From her mother, she learned the art of healing, and travelled to Central America and London to work as a nurse.

During the Crimean War, Seacole headed to the Crimea, where she set up a “British Hotel” to provide food, shelter and medical care for sick or convalescent officers. One of the first female nurses to work in a warzone, Seacole’s work was nearly as celebrated as Florence Nightingale’s, and the newspapers wrote that Nightingale was called “The Lady with the Lamp,” while Mary Seacole was “The Creole with the Tea Mug.” Although, the British Army, who adored her, simply called her 'Mother Seacole'.
Memphis

## Ability

### Ability

**"Bauhaus Meets Fisher-Price"****(Play)** If you have played Bauhaus this game, your Playtime cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Vibrant clashing colours, geometric shapes, bold patterns and stripes: we know it as the look and feel of the 80s, but among designers, this aesthetic is known as **Memphis** design. Formed in Milan, the Memphis design movement was a group of Italian designers, architects, and writers who stood against the slick, black design of the 1970s.

Why Memphis? It’s after Bob Dylan’s song ”Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again”, which was playing in the background when the group first met. It was fitting that their first collection was launched at Milan’s Salone del Mobile in 1981.

Although this aesthetic is still popular today, it was pretty controversial at the time, and was famously referred to as “a shotgun wedding between Bauhaus and Fisher Price.”

'A collection of objects by The Memphis Group' by Zanone (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Echidna

## Ability

### Ability

**Knuckles Down****(Draw)** If you are losing the round, 2 random cards in your hand gain +20 Power until played but if you are winning the round, 1 random card in your hand gains +40 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

The **Echidna** lives life in the slow lane. With the lowest body temperature of any mammal and incredibly slow metabolism, these creatures can live up to 45 years in the wild! They have spines like a porcupine, a pouch like a kangaroo and a long beak-like snout: in short, Echidnas are what happens when mother nature hits “random”.

Plus, like their cousin the platypus, the Echidna are one of only two types of mammals that lay eggs. A female usually lays one egg at a time, which she incubates in her pouch for 7-10 days. Want to know how they reproduce? Considering it starts with the fact that males have a four-headed penis, the less said, the better.
Maid Marian

## Ability

### Ability

**Commanding Respect****(Play)** For every Merry Men card in your deck, this card gains +15 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Make no mistake - **Maid Marian** is much more than Robin Hood’s girlfriend or your first awkward animated crush. In fact, she’s a bit of a feminist icon. The origins of the character are uncertain, but it is believed that Maid Marian may have been based on a noblewoman from the 12th century named Matilda Fitzwalter (although some experts argue she’s a personification of the Virgin Mary.)

Although she didn’t appear in any of the early, medieval versions of the legend, Maid Marian emerges around the late 16th century as the May Queen, with Robin as her King. By the 1900s, her character had evolved into that of a fiercely independent woman who commanded high respect in Robin’s circle for her courage and loyalty. In some versions, she’s even a skilled archer.
Kuiper Belt

## Ability

### Ability

**A Vast Frontier****(Return)** If your deck contains Makemake, your remaining Space cards in hand gain +8 Power until played. Repeat for Eris and Pluto, Dwarf Planet

## Did You Know?

Surrounding our Solar System is the **Kuiper Belt**, a colossal disk of asteroids and dwarf planets that stretches out for 1,000 AUs (astronomical units). For perspective, the distance between Earth and the Sun is 1 AU, and the Kuiper Belt starts about 30 AUs away from it (which is still relatively close in universal terms).

It's made up of potentially millions of objects - humanity has only identified 2,000, but it's thought that there are at least 100,000 out there that are at least 60 miles in diameter. It's also believed that it's lost millions of objects over the aeons, as they've formed into bigger objects or been sent away as comets.

The belt is named after Gerard Kuiper, an astronomer who speculated that there were objects beyond Pluto (back when it was a fully paid-up member of the planet club) in 1951. Kuiper did not discover the belt himself, but rather his study of Neptune (and, crucially, how its orbit shaped the belt's inner edge) means that the idea of the belt is generally ascribed to him.

'Objects of the Kuiper belt' by WilyD (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Little Jack Horner

## Ability

### Ability

**Sat In The Corner****(Play)** If played in the left or right slot, your Curious Cuisine and Festive Traditions cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

On the surface, **Little Jack Horner** is no more than a harmless children’s rhyme about a little boy eating a pie. But apparently, there’s more to this verse than meets the eye. First mentioned in the 18th century, the pie-themed rhyme is taken by some to symbolise acts of opportunism in politics.

One popular theory points to the tale of Thomas Horner, a steward to the abbot of Glastonbury. The abbot wanted to win king Henry VIII’s favour in the hopes of keeping the abbot open, so he sent Horner over with a pie to sweeten the deal. Inside the pie were the deeds to twelve manor houses. During the journey, Horner opened the pie and fished out the deeds of the manor of Mells in Somerset.
Lucrezia Borgia and Giovanni Sforza

## Ability

### Ability

**Annulment****(Return)** All cards, wherever they are, lose -30 Power next turn.

## Did You Know?

Lucrezia was just 11 years old when she got engaged to the Lord of Val D’Ayora, a minor nobleman. A few months later, he was binned off when the Borgia family found a better option.

But when Lucrezia’s dad became Pope Alexander VI, her second husband got dumped in favour of Giovanni Sforza, who was 14 years her senior. Not long after the wedding of **Lucrezia Borgia and Giovanni Sforza**, the French King tried to take over Naples.

The Sforza family supported the king, and the Borgias made out as if they did too – only to ruthlessly betray him. #ThatAwkwardMoment when your family and your husband’s family are on the opposite sides of a major geopolitical conflict – who here can relate?!

Unsurprisingly, the marriage didn’t last long.
Ma'at

## Ability

### Ability

**Order, Justice and Harmony****(Play)** If you have played Themis and any Musically Minded card this game, this card gains +80 Power.

## Did You Know?

Truth, Balance, Order, Harmony, Justice, Reciprocity and Propriety. If you like the sound of these principles, you can definitely get behind **Ma’at**, the Egyptian goddess who was the personification of these seven principles.

Whether you were a priest, a Pharaoh or a regular member of the community, you were expected to embody these principles in ancient Egypt. Even in modern times, it can’t hurt to follow the Seven Principles of Ma’at, which were seen as beneficial not just to the individual but for society and the world.

After a person died, it was said that their heart was weighed against the feather of Ma’at, which is why this goddess is depicted as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head.
Leprechaun

## Ability

### Ability

**Pot of Gold****(Play)** If played next to Gold and Rainbow, give both of them and this card +45 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Life as a **Leprechaun** ain’t easy. For a start, these little guys are said to be the unwanted children of the fairy community, so it’s hardly surprising that they’re grouchy, solitary creatures. Plus, they’ve always got someone coming for their gold, which they worked hard to earn through their cobbling business. This gives leprechauns a distrusting nature, but they aren’t all bad.

Show kindness to a leprechaun and he may loosen his purse strings and share the wealth. Tread on his land, however, and you’ll be in violation of EU law. Yup, you read right. In 2010, Carlingford, Ireland earned official European Union recognition for its leprechauns, and the Sliabh Foy Loop Trail became a sanctuary for the country’s remaining leprechauns—236 in total, apparently.
Great Barracuda

## Did You Know?

Barracuda are kind of like trees because you can tell how many years old one is by counting its rings. Fortunately, you don't have to cut the fish in half - these rings appear on their scales and otolith (a part of their inner ear).

That's about the only way they're like trees - they're a vicious, carnivorous creature that has been known to attack divers without provocation.
Loki Patera

## Ability

### Ability

**Overturning Crust****(Draw)** If your deck has 7 or more Planetside cards, your Planetside cards, wherever they are, gain +25 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Named after the God of Mischief himself (or Marvel's fan-favorite villain, take your pick), **Loki Patera** is the heavyweight champion of active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io. As if being on the most volcanically active body in the Solar System wasn't enough, this colossal crater is surrounded by a sea of blazing hot material that covers over 20,000 square kilometres.

Despite the unpredictable nature of most volcanic eruptions, Loki Patera has a schedule as reliable as a Swiss watch. Researchers discovered back in the 90s that this lunar prankster would blow its top around every 540 days. But it seems Loki's mischief-making has gotten even more efficient, with eruptions now happening every 475 days or so.
Leatherback Sea Turtle

## Ability

### Ability

**Gentle Giants****(Return)** Your remaining cards in hand with 7 or more Base Energy cost -3 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

Behold, the **Leatherback Sea Turtle**: the largest breed of turtle on Earth, growing up to around 2m in length and weighing up to a massive 900kg. That’s double the weight of a grand piano! Unlike other members of the Turtle family, this behemoth has no hard shell. Instead, it has a large carapace made from thick rubbery skin that has 7 distinct ridges running the length of the animal.

Leatherback Sea Turtles are expert swimmers: they use their powerful front flippers to propel through the water while their rear flippers act like the rudder of a boat, steering them through the sea. As a result, they have the widest distribution of all marine turtles and can be found in oceans spanning Alaska to New Zealand.
Legend of the White Snake

## Ability

### Ability

**Here I Go Again****(Play)** Your cards with "Snake" in the name, wherever they are, gain +10 Power until played and if you have played **Legend of the White Snake** this game, your cards with "Snake" in the name, wherever they are, gain an additional +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If a mysterious stranger tries to sell you rice balls under a bridge, think twice before eating them. There’s a small chance you might actually be eating immortality pills. That’s the premise of the **Legend of the White Snake**, one of China’s ‘Four Great Folktales’.

Upon first glance, the story seems simple: a man (Xu Xian) falls in love with an immortal (the white snake) and their love is thwarted by the monk Fahai. But throughout the course of the story, we experience the battle between good and evil; we encounter a dragon king, sea goblins and witness our protagonist die before being brought back to life.

As well as being a great folktale, The Legend of the White Snake also reflects the major philosophical influences that shaped Chinese society.
Lumiere Brothers

## Ability

### Ability

**Cinématographe****(Play)** If played next to any Stage and Screen card, your Stage and Screen cards, wherever they are, gain +14 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If we’ve got anyone to thank for the birth of cinema, the **Lumiere Brothers** (Auguste and Louis) deserve a big round of applause for their contributions. Granted, they had some earlier work to build on (Léon Bouly who first patented the technology but couldn’t afford to continue his projects), but their work on the Cinematograph was a huge step forward in film technology.

The two brothers were born in France and worked in their father’s photography studio and his factory, which made photographic plates. The boys were already child geniuses and Louis (the younger of the two), even came up with a new kind of developing plate at the age of 17! After seeing Edison’s Kinetoscope in action, the Lumieres decided they could do better. While the Kinetoscope could only be viewed by one person, the boys set about creating a device which could project film onto a wall and be enjoyed by many. Thus, their version of the Cinematograph was born! It was revolutionary not just for exhibition but also because it recorded and developed film too.

The Lumieres were also avid filmmakers and their “actuality films” (films capturing snippets of daily life - a bit like documentaries but without any story) went on tour. These were super short and captured things like workers leaving their factories or people fishing. They also created an early newsreel!

So, if you’re ever looking for someone to thank or blame for the MCU, the *Avatar* films, or Zack Snyder’s *Justice League* - look no further than the Lumieres.
Mary Rose

## Ability

### Ability

**Dredged Up****(Draw)** Your Riding the Waves! cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

Henry VIII had three major hobbies: marrying women, finding a way to get rid of these women, and shipbuilding. The pride he took in his “Army by Sea” saw his fleet grow from 5 at the start of his reign to 58 by the time he died in 1547. Of all the ships he had built during this time, his favourite was the **Mary Rose**.

Not only was it the largest of his ships, but it also featured state-of-the-art gunports, which was pretty high tech for the 14th century. In the Battle of St. Mathieu, the Mary Rose drew first blood; she shot out the mainmasts of the French flagship the Grand Louise, taking the ship out of commission and killing 300 men in the process.

'The Tudor period carrack Mary Rose under going conservation with polyethylene glycol' by Mary Rose Trust - Mary Rose Trust (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Leo Tolstoy

## Ability

### Ability

**War and Peace****(Draw)** If you are tied in the round, gain +4:energy/turn: this turn. **(Return)** If you are leading by 100 Power or more, your opponent loses -40 Power/Turn for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

If you have a spare decade and enjoy reading tomes rather than books, then **Leo Tolstoy** is the man for you. The Russian writer is one of the most famous novelists in the world of literature and even if you haven’t read it, it’s likely you’ve heard of his masterpiece, *War and Peace.*

After a failed stint at university and then a failed stint at being a farmer, Tolstoy decided to follow in his brother’s footsteps and join the army, which meant he wound up fighting in the Crimean War.

Throughout all of this, Tolstoy wrote almost constantly. He kept journals in his youth then wrote fiction while at war. Then, throughout the 1860s, Tolstoy set about writing War and Peace, which was published in volumes from 1863 and 1869. Of course, the success demanded a strong follow-up and that he did with *Anna Karenina.*

In the 1870s, Tolstoy went through a bit of an internal struggle, fighting with his faith and depression. His writings after this became centred on nonviolent resistance and more moral ideas. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times (but didn’t win) and his writings had a huge impact on many great thinkers including Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Margaret Mitchell

## Ability

### Ability

**Frankly My Dear...****(Play)** Your cards in hand with "Scarlet" in the name gain +30 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn if you only write one novel in your lifetime, especially if it’s one as iconic as *Gone With the Wind.* American novelist **Margaret Mitchell** may only have sent one book out into the world during her lifetime but it’s safe to say that it made a massive impact. In fact, if we were adjusting for inflation, the film version of Gone with the Wind would be the highest grossing film of all time. Take that *Avatar!*

Mitchell was born in 1900 in Georgia and grew up a tomboy and was influenced by her suffragette mother. However, after her boyfriend died in WWI and her first marriage ended after her husband was, well, the absolute worst, Mitchell had been through a bit of a time. She remarried in 1924 and things seemed to be on the up.

Mitchell went on to become a journalist but a broken ankle put an end to that and she set about writing a novel instead. That novel was *Gone With the Wind.* A wild success, Mitchell became an overnight celebrity and even won a Pulitzer for the book. A civil war tale, *Gone With the Wind* reflects on stories Mitchell heard during her youth in the South.

Sadly, Mitchell was killed in 1949 after being hit by a car while crossing the street. While she didn’t publish any other works during her life, it’s safe to say that she made her mark on American literature.
Mae Jemison

## Did You Know?

**Mae Jemison**, born October 17th 1956, holds an amazing first - she is the very first person that has been to space who guest-starred on Star Trek! She portrayed Lieutenant Junior Grade Palmer, a transporter operator in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode *Second Chances* (which I've never seen myself, but thanks to the internet's fervent insistence on documenting the minutiae of individual TV episodes, I can go into that much detail about.)

Oh, there is one other major first attributed to **Jemison** - she was the very first black woman to go to space. I mention this second in part because it creates a funnier flow to this piece, but also because it was kind of because of Star Trek - and, specifically, Nichelle Nichols's Commander Nyota Uhura - that she was inspired to pursue a career in astronautics.

**Jemison** knew from a very young age that she wanted to go to space. She initially trained in chemical engineering at Stanford University, before moving onto Cornell Medical School. She graduated there with an M.D. degree and spent a few years working as a general practitioner before joining the Peace Corps.

In 1985, inspired by the likes of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford, **Jemison** applied to NASA's astronaut training programme and, in 1987, she was accepted. Her first space mission came in 1992, where she served as Science Mission Specialist on the STS-47 mission.

She spent eight days in space and orbited the Earth 127 times. She conducted several experiments up there, including studies on the development of tadpoles in zero gravity and a method of producing saline solution in space. She would begin all her communications back to Earth with "Hailing frequencies open", quoting Commander Uhura.
Jungle Cat

## Ability

### Ability

**Hunting Solo****(Play)** All other cards in both player's hands lose -16 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The **Jungle Cat** is found in a variety of habitats – ironically, the jungle is not one of them. Instead, they favour wetlands, earning them the more suitable (but less glamourous) nickname of ‘Swamp Cat.

Like the African wildcats and domestic cats, a few Jungle Cat mummies were found in ancient Egypt. On the IUCN List of Threatened Species, the Jungle Cat is listed as Least Concern. If you’re a nearby rodent, sadly these cats are a massive concern. Run.

Seriously, go now.

'Jungle Cat on tree at Sundarban, West Bengal, India' by Soumyajit Nandy (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Le Mont-Saint-Michel

## Ability

### Ability

**Protected by the Tides****(Play)** Your King Tide card in hand gains +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Located at the mouth of the Couesnon River between Brittany and Normandy, this castle looks like it's sprung out from a fantasy novel. It's origins are steeped in mysticism too, with Bishop Aubert claiming to have been visited by the Archangel Michael to build it for him.

More likely, it was selected as an eminently defensible position - when the tide comes in, the castle is surrounded by seawater and becomes a full island.

During the Hundred Years' War, this proved crucial to French morale. Its resistance to repeated sieges by the English inspired Joan of Arc to take up arms!

These days there's a nice bridge you can walk across to get to it, and as such, it falls to tourist sieges constantly.
Marsha P. Johnson

## Ability

### Ability

**Action Revolutionary****(Play)** Your Shake Up The System cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Born in 1945, **Marsha P. Johnson** was a black transgender activist and a leading figure in LGBTQ+ movement in New York City. As a regular performer at the Stonewall Inn, she stood up against the frequent and unjust police raids on this popular gay bar.

Following the Stonewall uprising, Johnson co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) organisation, dedicated to helping homeless LGBTQ+ youth in New York City. It was one of the first advocacy groups to prioritise the needs of transgender people.

Johnson chose the middle initial P for "Pay It No Mind" to respond to intrusive questions about her gender and sexuality.

In honour of her contribution, Brooklyn's Marsha P. Johnson State Park was established in February 2020, making it one of the few state parks named after an LGBTQ+ trailblazer.
Marbled Cat

## Ability

### Ability

**On your Tail****(Draw)** If you are tied in the round, a random card in your hand gains +50 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

It may be similar in size to the domestic cat, but the **Marbled Cat** has one thing they haven’t got: a great big bushy tail! These long tails sometimes even exceed the length of the head and the body, helping the Marbled Cat to balance on the tree branches where they spend much of their time.

Although it weighs just three kilograms, the large teeth and flexible paws makes the Marbled Cat a terrifying predator for small creatures like birds, squirrels, rats and even lizards and frogs who share its arboreal habitat.

Found from sea level up to elevations reaching 3,000 metres, this species of wildcat’s distribution lies across northern India, Nepal and through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Loki

## Ability

### Ability

**Mischief Maker****(Return)** Your opponent's remaining cards in hand cost +3 Energy next turn.

## Did You Know?

The moustache-twirling villain of the Norse gods, Loki is the trickster god. He's often depicted as being antagonistic to them, appearing in myths to stir the pot or tempt them - see the other cards in this collection for stories of his mischief.

The gods eventually have enough of his scheming, and bind him to rock in a cave using the entrails of his son, Narfi. He is guarded by a giant serpent that drools venom. His wife Sigyn, the embodiment of longsuffering, stands by her husband and catches the venom in a bowl before it hits him. When she has to leave to empty the bowl, venom that lands on Loki causes him extreme pain, and his convulsions are the cause of earthquakes. Nothing to do with plate tectonics, then.
Markhor

## Did You Know?

Its long spiral horns look like the perfect attachment for a giant’s drill. Its wry smile suggests it knows something you don’t. Its beard could rival Gandalf’s. Meet the **Markhor**, a species of goat that likes to hang out in the mountains of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Himalayas.

It isn’t the expansive views that make the mountain-tops attractive to the markhor, but that its natural predators (wolves and big snowcats) are generally too afraid to climb as high as the goat goes, which can be around 13,000 feet above sea level. The Markhor isn’t too partial to snow, though, so when winter arrives, they travel back down the mountains to warmer ground.
Loveland Frog

## Ability

### Ability

**Humanoid****(Play)** If your deck has 5 or more Brilliant Human Body cards, your Amphibians cards in hand gain +20 Power until played, and vice versa.

## Did You Know?

When it comes to cryptids, the A-listers like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster tend to get all the love. But rarely do you hear tales of the **Loveland Frog**. Sure, it’s not the most majestic of creatures (and <link="https:>this photo in particular</link> does it no favours), but the legendary humanoid frog at least gave Ohio something to get excited about beyond corn production.

The first sighting dates back to 1955, when a travelling salesman claimed to have seen three, bipedal reptilian creatures of around 3 feet tall conversing under a bridge in Loveland, Ohio, one holding a wand-like device above its head. Despite further sightings over the years (including one hoax that took two Pokémon Go players by surprise), the Loveland Frog is thought to be just an urban/amphibian legend.