recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Stone Tools

## Did You Know?

A lot of CUE cards have subjects that require a little bit of explanation to truly get to grips with what they're about. So it's refreshing to write about **Stone Tools** which are tools, made out stone.

You see, Neanderthal Man realised very quickly that if they were going to survive, fighting against prehistoric creatures, they would need something more effective than their fists and forehead to strike them with. And they didn't live in the Weapons Lying Around Age, they lived in the Stone Age.

It's unknown exactly who figured out that the sharp edges of broken rocks could be used as rudimentary blades, but give that person a medal because they enabled mankind to invent things like arrowheads, knives, spear points, and eventually things like hammers and querns.

(What is a quern, you may ask? Why it's two rounded stones rotated together to grind things between them. Obviously.)

Early toolsmiths used whatever they could find around to make their tools - archaeologists have dug up tools made of flint, basalt, quartzite and obsidian among others (which, contrary to what you might have learned in Minecraft, is pretty hard but not the hardest).

The art of working stone into useful tools is called knapping, which uses a technique called lithic reduction - you work the material and strike parts of it to shape it into something useful.

Basically, if we were going to be suitably reductive, you bash the stone with another stone until something sharp falls off that you can put on a stick.
Robin Hood

## Ability

### Ability

**Steals from the Rich, Give to the Poor****(Play)** Your opponent's cards in hand with 80 or more Base Power lose -20 Power this turn and your Merry Men, wherever they are, gain +20 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

He was a legendary outlaw and skilled archer who lived in the beautiful woodlands of **Sherwood Forest** with his band of Merry Men. Or was he? Who Robin Hood really was remains a mystery.

Up until the 16th century, Robin Hood was placed in stories based in many different time periods, ranging from the time of Richard I to Edward III. Then, a Scottish philosopher proposed the new date of the 1190s, and it just kind of… stuck. As for who he really was, potential Robin Hoods of the time range from disgraced earls to yeomen and woodland-dwelling weirdos.

In all likelihood, Robin wasn’t a noble villain committed to fighting for social justice. He was probably just a hot-tempered outlaw who liked to pick fights with people. And he probably wasn’t a fox, either.
Sarutobi Sasuke

## Ability

### Ability

**Monkey Jump****(Play)** If your deck has 4 or more Primates cards, your Japanese Folklore cards, wherever they are, gain +23 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Found across kōdan narrative art and fictional writings in Japanese folklore, **Sarutobi Sasuke** is a legendary ninja commonly depicted as the leader of the Sanada Ten Braves, a fictional group of ten ninjas who supposedly assisted warlord Sanada Yukimura during the Siege of Osaka.

Although he’s just a young boy, Sasuke has been blessed with extraordinary abilities like shape-shifting and superhuman strength. In fact, Sarutobi Sasuke’s very name means "monkey jump" in Japanese, a nod to his agility and quickness in arboreal landscapes.

While there’s no evidence to prove his existence or involvement in the Siege of Osaka, Sasuke's impact on ninja fiction is undeniable. Today, Sarutobi Sasuke's legacy continues to thrive in popular franchises like "Naruto," where his name resonates through characters such as Sasuke Uchiha.
The Colossus of Rhodes

## Ability

### Ability

**Helios Rises****(Play)** If it's the first turn of a round, this card gains +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The Colossus of Rhodes was a giant statue of Helios, the ancient Greek god of the Sun, which overlooked the city of Rhodes. It's estimated that it stood around 33 metres high, the same as the Statue of Liberty, which made it the tallest statue in the ancient world and a shoo-in for the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World list.

The statue was erected in celebration of Rhodes's victory over an invading force from Cyprus in 305 BC. The Cypriots siege of the city of Rhodes lasted about a year before it failed and they left behind all their equipment in their retreat. The Rhodians sold off the equipment and used the money they made to build the Colossus.

It's often depicted, including on the front of this card, as standing with one foot either side of the entrance to the harbour of Rhodes but there's debate over that - it may have been stood just one side of it.

There have been plans to build a modern Colossus in Rhodes since 2008, which have stalled due to disputes over where the original Colossus was actually located. Our solution would be to build one in all the possible places, then knock them down as evidence of the true location comes to light, but we're not in town planning or budgeting and that's probably for the best.
The Digestive System

## Ability

### Ability

**Can You Stomach This?****(Draw)** Your Curious Cuisine cards, wherever they are, gain +11 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

As it happens, gut instinct is a real thing, but it’s not what you might think. Hidden in the walls of **The Digestive System** is a “2nd brain” known as the Enteric Nervous System. Unlike the brain in your head, the ENS can’t solve a maths problem, pen a love note or learn to drive a car. It’s more like the project manager of your gut, communicating back and forth with the head brain.
Stem Cell Therapy

## Ability

### Ability

**Replicate****(Draw)** A random card in your hand gains +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Stem cells have a massive potential to help understand and treat a range of diseases, injuries and other health-related conditions.

The potential of stem cell treatments is evident in the use of blood stem cells to treat diseases of the blood, a therapy that has saved the lives of thousands of children with leukaemia and those with certain types of cancers. **Stem Cell Therapy** can also be used for tissue grafts to treat injury to the bone or certain diseases.

Since the 1980s, skin stem cells have been used to grow skin grafts for patients with severe burns on very large areas of the body and even the surface of the eye.

A new stem-cell-based treatment to repair damage to the cornea (the surface of the eye) after an injury like a chemical burn has recently received marketing approval in Europe.

Important clinical trials involving stem cells are underway for many other conditions and researchers continue to explore new avenues using stem cells in medicine.
The K-T Extinction Event

## Ability

### Ability

**Gone, but not Forgotten****(Return)** Your Paleontology cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

The Cretaceous-Tertiary (K–T) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction, to be wilfully confusing) happened approximately 66 million years ago. It is believed that it was caused by a massive impact of an asteroid or comet around 10 to 15 km (6 to 9 mi) wide. The impact destroyed enough of the global environment so that 75% of plant and animal species, including all the dinosaurs, were wiped out. (Mosquitos stuck in resin notwithstanding.)

We know this happened because throughout the world there is a thin layer of sediment in the rocks from that period, containing high levels of iridium metal - rare on Earth, but common in asteroids.

There are conflicting theories surrounding the duration of this extinction. It may have been a short period of time (relatively speaking) of a hundred to a few thousand years... or it may have been much longer. Regardless, this had a huge impact on the evolution of life and allowed mammals to replace the dinosaurs. If it wasn’t for this event, humans would probably have not had the opportunity to evolve into the beings we are today. So... that's kind of a happy ending, right?
The Great Wall of China

## Did You Know?

**The Great Wall of China** is one of the oldest, largest, and most celebrated achievements of human invention. It gets around 10 million visitors a year, but there are still a few things you might not have known about China’s ancient landmark.

The Great Wall wasn’t the first fortification erected in Chinese territory to protect citizens from foreign invaders. Oh no, as far back as the 8th century BCE, barriers were going up in order to repel nomadic armies.

When Qin Shi Huang seized power in 221 BCE and kicked off the Qin Dynasty, he began construction on a 5000-kilometre wall to sensibly safeguard his territory. Later dynasties continued this work and added their own unique touch.

Although the official number of the length of the Great Wall is 8851.8 kilometres (5500 miles), the length of all the Great Wall built over thousands of years is estimated at 21,196.18 kilometres (13,170 miles). Just for a bit of a reference point, the circumference of the Equator is 40,075 kilometres (24,901 miles).

When building any kind of wall and making a checklist… cement, water, bricks etc usually feature, but it's not often that flour makes the cut. However, when the Qin Dynasty (221-207BC) was building the Great Wall, glutinous rice flour was used in making the binding material to bind the bricks.

The Ming Dynasty, who built the last part of the wall, scrapped the flour and used bricks and cement to construct the wall and many tall watch-towers. The recognizable segments of the wall are all down to the hard graft and handiwork of the Ming Dynasty, which created these facets between the 14th and 17th centuries CE.

In darker news, the Great Wall of China has often been called the longest cemetery on Earth. Over a million people died building the Wall and archaeologists have found human remains buried under many parts of the wall.

Contrary to common belief, the Great Wall of China cannot actually be seen from space with the naked eye, which is a sham. Not that we’re in space much, of course, it'd just be nice to know it was there.
The Mechanical Turk

## Ability

### Ability

**Checkmate****(Draw)** If you have played Chess this game, your Hoaxes and Cons cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If you’re impressed by the sophistication of robotics today, imagine how the public reacted in 1770 to inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen’s latest creation: a chess-playing robot with exceptional skill.

Dubbed the **Mechanical Turk**, the automaton was dressed in robes and a turban, sitting regally at a wooden cabinet with a chessboard on top. And boy, could the Turk play! It wasn't just good at executing repetitive tasks - it actually responded to the unpredictable behaviour of humans.

When faced with cheaters like Napoleon in 1809, the Turk swiped across the board and scattered the pieces to the ground like it had a mind of its own - because it did. In fact, the Turk was being operated from the inside by human chess masters. Still, at least it didn’t <link="https:>break anyone’s fingers</link>.
The Gutenberg Bible

## Ability

### Ability

**The Age of Printing****(Play)** Your Printing Press and Movable Type cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Although the moveable type was invented in China some 400 years prior, **The Gutenberg Bible** is still widely credited as being the first book printed using the printing press in 1455. With only 49 copies still in existence, it’s no surprise that the Gutenberg Bible has been the target of thievery.

In 1969, wannabe-cat burglar Vido Aras hid in a bathroom in a Harvard Library with the goal of stealing two copies of the Gutenberg Bible. After successfully climbing onto the roof, prizing the two volumes from their case and stashing them in his knapsack, he lost his grip and fell six stories. The books survived, and so did he, albeit picking up a fractured skull in the process.
The Grand Architect

## Ability

### Ability

**Uniting Beliefs****(Play)** Your Arts & Culture and History cards in hand gain +10 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

While the idea of a Great or **Grand Architect** of the Universe exists in various religions and belief systems, its purpose in Freemasonry is admirably inclusive (especially given the notoriously *exclusive* nature of the Masons).

The idea is that all faiths can equate their understanding of a Supreme Being with the Grand Architect, without inherently condemning or demeaning the way it is understood by other religions. At this point, there is an assumed equality between members of the fraternity, and further discussion of religion is (typically, though not in all cases) forbidden.

The tools of the Grand Architect - the square and compasses - form the primary symbol of Freemasonry.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf

## Ability

### Ability

**False Alarm****(Play)** If you have played **The Boy Who Cried Wolf** this game, this card gains +50 Power permanently and your opponent loses -100 Power/Turn this turn.

## Did You Know?

There once was an annoying little boy who looked after sheep. Every now and then, just for poops and giggles, he would yell “WOLF!” and frighten the locals into thinking that a wolf was snacking on the helpless sheep. The boy got off on the attention because he was horrible that way. He did this several times and the locals went “Oi, you, stop raising false alarms!” In a cruel twist of fate, a hungry wolf did indeed turn up and when the little boy started screaming for help, nobody came, resulting in the loss of all the sheep. And possibly the boy too in some really gnarly versions.

And that’s the tale of **The Boy Who Cried Wolf** from Aesop’s Fables. Dating back to around the 4th Century BCE, it’s a story literally everybody heard when they were young. Like almost all of Aesop’s Fables, the story has a strong moral or lesson behind it. In this case, it’s “quit lying all the time or nobody will believe you when you actually have something important to say, you silly goose!”

Weirdly enough though, a recent educational study has found that after reading the story, some children were actually more likely to lie because, you know, kids are very suggestible. So maybe make sure that you discuss the moral after reading this one to your kiddos? Or at least make sure the little boy gets eaten at the end. We’ve got to really frighten them off!
Sun Dance

## Ability

### Ability

**Pray for Healing****(Play)** If you are losing the round, 3 random cards in your hand gain +24 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

They go for days without eating, dancing back and forth in the hot sun during the height of summer. The **Sun Dance** ceremony makes Burning Man look like child's play. Typically held at the summer solstice, this sacred ceremony is performed by several First Nations in the Prairies. It’s a ceremony of renewal and cleansing for the tribe and the earth, and it can get pretty intense.

For some tribes, the ritual involves piercing rawhide thongs through the skin of a dancer’s chest with wooden pegs as a form of sacrifice. In return, the spirits give the dancer the strength to finish the ritual. The phrase “dance like nobody’s watching” really applies here, as in most Sun Dance cultures, it’s forbidden to film or photograph these ceremonies.
The God Particle

## Ability

### Ability

**Mass Gathering****(Play)** Your Excellent Elements cards in hand gain +60 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

The Higgs boson, (that's BOSON for anyone sniggering at the back) is sometimes referred to as the 'God Particle'.

Why is it important? Because its discovery lends strong support to the Standard Model of particle physics that scientists believe govern the basic building blocks of matter. It signals the existence of the Higgs field, which is an invisible energy field present throughout the universe that imbues other particles with mass. Since its discovery in 2012, the particle has been making waves and causing mass excitement among the scientific community.

Well, most of the scientific community; Stephen Hawking had a bet with Gordon Kane that physicists would not discover the Higgs Boson. Hawking, down $100, berated the discovery saying it made physics ' less interesting'.
Stradivarius

## Ability

### Ability

**A Family Affair****(Play)** Your cards adjacent to this gain +38 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

There are only 650 **Stradivarius** instruments left in the world and most of these are in the hands of private collectors. What’s so special about them?

Stradivarius instruments were hand-made by the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari, who was a master craftsman of string instruments during the 17th and 18th centuries. Some claim that the quality of sound that a Stradivarius instrument creates is irreplicable, which is why an authentic instrument made by this family could be worth hundreds of thousands to several million U.S. dollars in today’s prices.

Simply put, this is the type of vanity purchase you make when you grow tired of hearing sub-par violins (which anyone who's been in the vicinity of someone learning the instrument for the first time can relate to) and have more money than sense (something I hope to one day relate to).
The Concert

## Ability

### Ability

**Lost In Music****(Draw)** For every Instrumental card in your deck, up to a maximum of 4, your Lost Treasures cards, wherever they are, gain +5 Power for 4 turns.

## Did You Know?

In 1964, an episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour called “Ten Minutes from Now” aired on TV. The story centred around an art heist, with one of the works being Johannes Vermeer's masterpiece, **The Concert**. Pretty unremarkable in itself - but 26 years later, two thieves dressed as police officers really did steal this painting from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. To this day, the painting has not resurfaced, and the robbers were never caught.

Valued at $250 million, experts believe The Concert may be the most valuable stolen object in the world. The art sleuth Charley Hill said he believed the thieves may have chosen St Patrick's Day to stage the heist, counting on the noisy celebrations in the street to slip by undetected.
Tanuki

## Ability

### Ability

**Yes, Yes****(Play)** If you have played Raccoon this game, your Life on Land cards, wherever they are, gain +6 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Also known as the **Tanuki**, the Japanese Raccoon Dog has been a staple of Japanese folklore for centuries. But its name is a bit of a misnomer – you see, despite their appearance, raccoon dogs are no relation to the common raccoon. Tanuki are actually members of the Canidae family, alongside wolves and foxes. However, unlike wolves and foxes, these creatures are the only canines who hibernate during the snowy, barren winter months next to their mating partner.

In Japanese culture, the Tanuki appears in stories as a mystical beast known as ‘bake-danuki’ which can be translated as “monster raccoon dog.” Depending on the tale, the creature is either a trickster, a shapeshifter or a sign of good luck.
The Ace of Wands

## Ability

### Ability

**Burst of Inspiration****(Play)** Your Prominent Painters cards, wherever they are, gain +7 Power until played. If you have played Prominent Painters this game, they, wherever they are, gain another +7 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If you’ve signed up for a Tarot reading and you happen to pull **The Ace of Wands**, it’s usually a good sign. As the first card in the suit of Wands, this card symbolises a bold step towards a new beginning.

While the Tarot shouldn’t be taken as hard facts, the whole idea behind the card is the promise of a new opportunity with the potential to grow - hence the hand extending from a cloud holding a sprouting wand. However, if the Ace of Wands appears reversed, it can symbolise circumstances delaying progress. Also, keep in mind that Aces in the Tarot represent potential, not guaranteed results. In other words, you can’t just drop everything and assume it will go your way because you got this card (it's not Temüjin Contract, Netrunner players).
Table Mountain

## Ability

### Ability

**Unusually Diverse****(Play)** Your Tremendous Trees and Plant Life cards, wherever they are, gain +30 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

It’s South Africa’s most photographed landmark and features on Cape Town’s flag. **Table Mountain** is a flat-topped mountain that stands approximately 1084 metres tall. Given that some of the rocks on Table Mountain date back over 360 million years, this is one of the oldest mountains in the world - aeons older than the Himalayas and the Rockies.

Now considered one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, Table Mountain has over 350 trails for hikers to take to the top. Fortunately for those less avid or able hikers, there’s a cableway that can carry visitors right to the top. Talking of the top, Table Mountain’s flat peak is often shrouded in clouds that are aptly nicknamed the “table cloth”.

'Table Mountain' by GigiXLulTSR, provided via Discord (Thank you!)
Terminator

## Ability

### Ability

**Twilight Zone****(Draw)** This card gains +40 Power permanently. **(Return)** If it's the last turn of a round, this card costs -2 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. Well, kind of. The actual Twilight Zone - also known as a **Terminator** - is the moving line that divides the daylit side and the dark side of a planet.

On Earth, the terminator is a fuzzy line due to our atmosphere bending sunlight, and it passes through the surface twice a day - at sunrise and at sunset. During this time, anything could happen: a spaceship could crash land into your garden. You might disappear into your TV set. Or maybe you won’t notice when you take a wrong turn at the next exit and pass right into… the Twilight Zone.
The Mayflower

## Did You Know?

The Mayflower ferried the first Pilgrims from Plymouth, England, to what would become Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620 - the first colony in the New World.

It was a merchant ship that wasn't really suited for trans-Atlantic voyages - before going to the New World, it had only made trips across the English Channel and Northern Europe. Nevertheless, it departed Southampton Water (in Southern England) on August 5th for America.

Here's the bit that you may not know - The Mayflower wasn't alone on its journey. It left Southampton Water alongside the Speedwell, a ship bringing Pilgrims from Holland, and the two were due to make the trip The New World together. Unfortunately, the Speedwell made it 300 miles west of England before it took on water - both ships returned to Dartmouth and it was decided that the Mayflower would take everyone by itself.

History does record rumours of the Speedwell's captain deliberately sabotaging his ship out of fear of starving in the New World...
TRAPPIST-1

## Ability

### Ability

**IT'S A TRAP(PIST-1)!****(Play)** Gain +10 Power/Turn this round and your Cephalopods cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

TRAPPIST-1 is an ultra-cool red dwarf star, at the centre of a solar system like ours.

It's basically like a slow-burning candle that will shine for about 900 times longer than the current age of the universe; like one of those annoying birthday cake candles that no one can ever blow out.

## Trivia

* The quote "IT'S A TRAP(PIST-1)!" is a play on the quote "It's a trap!" said by Admiral Ackbar in *Star Wars: Return of the Jedi*.
The Cambrian Explosion

## Ability

### Ability

**Emergence****(Draw)** If your deck has 9 or fewer Paleontology cards, these cards, wherever they are, gain +5 Power until played. Repeat for Life on Land and Oceans. **(Return)** Repeat above.

## Did You Know?

Before **The Cambrian Explosion**, approximately 541 million years ago, most forms of life were very simple, single-celled organisms. Then, something amazing happened: an evolutionary burst filled the seas with a huge variety of animals that sported modern anatomical features. Among the animals that evolved during this period were chordates – animals with a dorsal nerve cord, and arthropods – the ancient ancestors of insects and crustaceans.

The Cambrian explosion is one of the most important events in the history of life on Earth - the question is, what happened to trigger this rapid evolution? Some think that breakthrough evolutionary innovations like the development of eyes were the catalyst. Others point towards a sharp, temporary rise in oxygen as the reason for the emergence of large, complex predators.
The Great Nothing

## Ability

### Ability

**NULL AND VOID****(Draw)** All cards in both player's hands lose -50 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Also known as the Boötes void, **The Great Nothing** is an enormous, spherical region of space that contains very few galaxies. At nearly 330 million light-years in diameter, this “supervoid” is one of the greatest mysteries of astronomy.

The seemingly perfect circular formation of Boötes void perplexes astronomers and alarms those who believe the void represents something sinister. Did someone press the big red button in the centre of this region?
Statue of Liberty

## Ability

### Ability

**Enlightening the World****(Play)** If your deck has exactly 6 Science cards, your Science cards, wherever they are, gain +21 Power until played. Repeat for each album.

## Did You Know?

If you’re visiting New York, make sure to check out the giant copper replica of Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi’s mother. Yup, you read right. But the **Statue of Liberty** wasn’t always set to reside in the Big Apple. The original statue was to be called "Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia", and it was to sit at the entrance of the Suez Canal. But the project got turned down due to the costs involved, and so the idea was recycled into “The Statue of Liberty.”

Turning Bartholdi’s idea into reality took 21 years, and cost the French $250,000. But to the French, it was worth it: the Statue of Liberty would serve as a public symbol of friendship and showed the world that their country was recovering from the Franco-Prussian war.
The Little Hunting Dog

## Ability

### Ability

**Tiny Knights****(Play)** Two random cards in your deck with exactly 1 Base Energy gain +38 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Bed-bugs, fleas, flies and gnats were no match for the **Little Hunting Dog**, a formidable pest controller from Chinese folklore. The story goes that a scholar moved from his city home to a Buddhist temple to escape the noise. There, he faced another problem: his room was overrun by insects.

After several nights of tossing, turning and scratching, he witnessed two tiny little knights around two inches tall riding into his window on horses the size of grasshoppers. With them was a little hunting dog the size of an ant, and after them came hundreds of horsemen with hunting falcons and dogs who made short work of the fleas before taking their leave. Only the original little dog remained, until the scholar accidentally crushed him in his sleep. Oops.
Smiley

## Ability

### Ability

**Have A Nice Day :)****(Play)** If you are winning the round, your Gorgeous Graphic Design cards, wherever they are, gain +24 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

The grandfather of the happy emoji, the **Smiley** traces its origins back to 1962 - specifically, the New York City radio station WMCA. The station used the smiley as part of a marketing campaign, printing the symbol onto sweatshirts and giving them out to listeners who answered their phone with the words “WMCA Good Guys!”.

When stars like Patsy King and Mick Jagger started wearing the sweatshirts, the smiley went viral (or whatever the ‘60s equivalent of “viral” was). By 1963, 11,000 sweatshirts had been given away - but that was just the beginning. Several years later, sad-faced graphic designer <link="http:>Harvey Ross Ball</link> drew a yellow happy face to raise morale at the State Mutual Life Assurance Company. His rendition was printed onto 50 million buttons and became world famous.

'Example of a Smiley Face' by Mystic (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
The Capuchin Catacombs

## Ability

### Ability

**Creepy Catacombs****(Return)** Your Weird World cards, wherever they are, gain +13 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

One of Sicily’s more macabre tourist attractions, **The Capuchin Catacombs** are a network of spooky, subterranean tunnels that house the mummified remains of over 8,000 people.

Initially, the catacombs were designed to preserve the remains of deceased friars. But, over time, it became a status symbol to be entombed in this underground crypt. In their wills, people would actually specify the exact clothes they wanted to be buried in, while some asked to have their clothes changed according to fashion trends (nobody wants to be an outfit repeater, even in death.)

Some of the corpses in the Capuchin Catacombs date back over 500 years! Disturbingly, some are set in poses; for example, two children sitting together in a rocking chair. Unsettling doesn’t even get close to describing this place.
Surfing

## Ability

### Ability

**Catch a Wave****(Draw)** If you are winning the round, your Around the Reef cards in hand gain +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Dudes, check this out! Back in the 12th Century, cave paintings showed people ripping waves in Polynesia. Those Polynesians took their stoke to Hawaii, and from there, **Surfing** exploded, man! They called it "wave sliding," and it was way more than just a good time. It had major cultural and spiritual vibes, bro.

The elite riders charged the sickest waves on long and narrow Olo boards, while commoners shredded the sick ones on short Alaia boards. And it wasn't just about fun, it was a full-on competition! Winners scored mad bragging rights, wagers, and even status in society. Lingo experts say "surf" might've come from the old-school word "suff," meaning "the shoreward surge of the sea." It got mixed up with "surge," and the word "surf" just stuck, bro.
The Horizon Problem

## Ability

### Ability

**Equilibrium****(Play)** Your cards adjacent to this lose -150 Power this turn. **(Return)** Your Science cards, wherever they are, gain +15 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

After the Big Bang, some parts of the universe would have been hotter than others. However, it seems everywhere we look, the universe is the same temperature. Why? Well… we don’t actually know. This is what’s known as **The Horizon Problem**.

In order to balance out the temperature, two parts of space would have to exchange energy via photons moving at light speed. But with the universe in constant expansion over billions of years, those photons shouldn’t have been able to reach each other to create uniformity.

But they have, which means one of two things: either the universe is way bigger than we thought, or everything we know about light speed is wrong. In any case, we’re wrong about something - and not just a little something, either.
The Laws of Motion

## Ability

### Ability

**Momentum****(Return)** If you won the turn, your cards, wherever they are, gain +3 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

It had been some 20 years since Sir Isaac Newton had come up with his theory of gravity. Grappling with the concept of being remembered as a one-hit-wonder, in 1686 he published *Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis.*, his three **Laws of Motion**, which guaranteed he wouldn't end up being remembered as science's New Radicals.

**The First Law**
Every object persists in a state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed on it.
This basically means if you kick a soccer ball it would go on forever unless forces act on it (which they invariably do; wind, friction, schoolboys faces, Maradona's hand etc).

**The Second Law**
Force is equal to the change in momentum (mV) per change in time. For a constant mass, force equals mass times acceleration, or *F=ma*.

Put simply, the harder you kick your soccer ball the further it will go. The greater the mass of the object, the more force will be required to accelerate the object. You'll know this if you have ever kicked a ball made of concrete.

**Third Law**
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that the two forces are the same. The force required to kick your concrete football is equal to the bone-cracking opposing force.
Stygimoloch

## Did You Know?

The **Stygimoloch** was a herbivore very much like the Pachycephalosaurus - bipedal, with a tough bony dome-shaped skull that it headbutted its problems with. In fact, it's so much like Pachycephalosaurus that paleontologists aren't totally sure that it wasn't just a juvenile one (not that that's going to stop us making a card for it).

One major feature that differentiates **Stygimoloch** from its possible elder form are the spikes sticking out from the back of its head - typically longer than Pachycephalosaurus's, these would have been used by males in competition for females.

Its name means "Devil from the Styx", by the way, because it would have looked very demon-like from the front - although, if you happen to be in front of a **Stygimoloch**, you're going to be less concerned with what it's head resembles and more how much it's going to hurt after it's been rammed into your stomach.
Rorschach Test

## Ability

### Ability

**What Do You See?****(Draw)** If your deck has 2 or more Crustaceans cards, your cards with "Bat" in the name, wherever they are, gain +15 Power permanently. **(Play)** If your deck has 2 or more cards with "Bat" in the name, your Beautiful Butterflies cards, wherever they are, gain +15 Power permanently. **(Return)** If your deck has 2 or more Beautiful Butterflies cards, your Crustaceans cards, wherever they are, gain +15 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Look at this inkblot and tell us what you see. If you said “smiley face”, it might indicate your future as a vigilante with a knack for breaking into people’s apartments and scribbling in your journal. That, or you’re just a little kooky.

This is a (very) over-simplified version of how the **Rorschach** Test works - but in our defence, this method was inspired by a popular kids game. In the late 19th century, children were super into klecksography—the art of making images with inkblots. In 1921, psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach adopted this idea as a means of diagnosing mental illness.

Although Rorschach said his test could be used on anyone, he did exclude teenagers from his list, stating that they had too much in common with the clinically insane to be assessed.
The Phantom of the Opera

## Ability

### Ability

**A Strange Duet****(Play)** If exactly 2 cards are played this turn and if played adjacent to any card, your Horrible Halloween cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Before the film or the musical, or the film of the musical, there was the novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (or **The Phantom of the Opera**) by Gaston Leroux. Leroux was inspired by some real events at the Palais Garnier, a Parisian opera house, and decided to write the tale of the Opera Ghost.

If you haven’t seen/read/sung-along-to Phantom of the Opera, it’s about a beautiful young soprano called Christine who joins the Palais Garnier. The opera house’s resident phantom demands (via spooky letter) that she sings all the lead roles and when this is ignored, it all kicks OFF. Not only does another singer lose her voice but there’s a dramatic chandelier crash, which kills an audience member. See, when Phantoms write you scary letters, you really should take heed!

Of course, it all spirals from there. There’s an underground lake, gothic romance and a rather aggressive wedding proposal. If you like your Halloween monsters with a beautiful voice and maybe a little bit sexy and mysterious (while horribly scarred), the Phantom is the one for you. And if you ever see the stage show, the falling chandelier is still a spectacular sight.
The Great Race

## Ability

### Ability

**Animal Crossing****(Draw)** Your Life on Land cards in hand gain +12 Power until played and your opponent's Life on Land cards in hand lose -12 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

According to an ancient tale in Chinese mythology, the Jade Emperor invited all of the animals in the world to take part in **The Great Race**. Twelve species arrived at the starting line: a pig, dog, rooster, monkey, sheep, horse, snake, dragon, rabbit, tiger, ox and rat. All species considered; it was quite a low turnout.

As a reward for turning up, the Emperor gave them each a year in the Zodiac. Their performance in the race would determine which order the years would come. In order to cross a river, the rat persuaded the ox to let it sit on its head while the ox swam across, before making a mad dash for the finish line. This ruthlessness earned the rat first place in the Zodiac.
The Hindenburg

## Ability

### Ability

**Hubris****(Return)** If you lost the turn, your remaining cards in hand lose -10 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

The Hindenburg was an airship (which, to boil it down in a way that belittles the engineering and design work of hundreds of smarter people than I, is basically a submarine strapped to a balloon) that flew between 1931 and 1937. Airships work by filling that giant balloon with helium, which gives it lift.

On its final flight, the Hindenburg was ferrying passengers from Germany to the United States and was due to land in New Jersey on May 6th 1937. Because of export restrictions on helium in the US, the Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen - this is sort of like filling your petrol car with diesel, except much more explodey.

There's debate behind what caused the spark that ignited the 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen gas; the official report claims that it was a "discharge of atmospheric electricity, but conspiracy theorists will tell you that it was a sabotage attempt by the United States against the Nazi Party. What we do know is that the Hindenburg went down just before it was due to land, the hydrogen within completely combusting in about 32 second. Miraculously, the accident killed only 36 out of the 97 people on board.
Science Cards

This is a list of all the Science cards currently in the game as of 16 January 2024.

## Fears and Phobias

 SFP002
 SFP003
 SFP004

## Science Mythic Cards

 MYSC002
 MYSC003
 MYSC004
 MYSC005

## Trivia

* The cards SCC001 and SCC003-6 were previously Melting Ice Caps, Forest Fires, Rising Sea Levels, Rising Temperature and Acid Rain, but were replaced in future updates.
Spanish Shawl

## Ability

### Ability

**Shawl Thing****(Draw)** Your Fancy Fashions cards, wherever they are, gain +36 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

With an appearance similar to something you’d see at the Met Gala, the **Spanish Shawl** is not your average sea slug. But those bright orange protrusions on its back aren’t just for style. In fact, these ‘cerata’ are extensions of its digestive system. They also help the Spanish Shawl to breathe, because they increase the surface area of the skin that is exposed to the oxygen bearing water.

Unlike most nudibranchs, who can only crawl on a surface, this stunning sea slug can swim in the open water by contorting its body back and forth in a U shape. This motion is what the creature is named after, because it looks like a Spanish flamenco dancer when it swims.
Stingray

## Did You Know?

Climb aboard explorers, today we're learning about Stingrays, which are superorder of cartilaginous fishes (Meaning that they have a boneless skeleton) and are a close relative of sharks.

Rays can vastly vary in size from the size of a saucer to the oceanic manta ray which can reach up to 2,000kg and 7m across. Their natural predators include seals, sea lions, sharks and other carnivorous sea-dwellers.

During a mating period, mature females give off electrical signals that attract potential partners. Like many sharks Stingrays are ovoviviparous, meaning that the tots are hatched from eggs that are held within the body until they are ready to hatch.

Sadly climate change, overfishing and habitat loss have led to a population decline. there are more than 500 species of ray assessed are under the IUCN Red List, and more than 100 classified as threatened.

We love a good Greek myth so we'll finish off with one. Odysseus was killed by his son Telegonus using a spear tipped with the spine of a stingray.

## Trivia

* The quote "Standby for ACTION!" is a reference to the 1942 American war film "Stand By for Action".
The Blarney Stone

## Ability

### Ability

**Gift of the Gab****(Play)** An opponent's random card in hand loses -14 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Got a job interview coming up? Go and kiss the **Blarney Stone** and you’ll be given the gift of the gab, according to Irish legends. Lodged in the wall of Blarney Castle, a medieval fortress near Cork, the stone has attracted thousands of tourists every year since the 1800s.

However, one does not simply kiss the Blarney Stone. To be within kissing distance, you’d have to climb a dizzyingly steep spiral staircase of 127 steps. Once you get there, you would have to lie on your back and clutch tightly to an iron railing to avoid falling 100 feet. The old-fashioned way to do this was to hold people’s ankles and hang them upside down, which didn’t always end well.
Stambheshwar Mahadev

## Ability

### Ability

**Underwater Temple****(Play)** If your deck has 14 or more Oceans cards, your Wonders of Construction cards, wherever they are, gain +33 Power for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

Look at the **Stambheshwar Mahadev Temple**. 150 years old, located in Kavi Kamboi, in the state of Gujarat. Now look at me. Now look back at the temple. It’s not there. It’s gone. Now look at me. Now look at the temple. It’s back. Let us explain this glitch in the matrix with simple science.

Apart from being one of the oldest shrines, the Stambheshwar Mahadev temple is known for vanishing and reappearing twice during the day. During high tide hours, the temple gets totally submerged into the sea. Then, as the tide starts to get low again, it emerges out of the water inch by inch, unveiling the 4-feet high Shiva lingam.

'Stambheshwar Mahadev Temple at Kamboi Gujarat India' by સતિષચંદ્ર (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Omnicide

## Ability

### Ability

**Nature is Healing****(Start)** A random Life on Land card in your hand gains +10 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

If your biggest concern about dying is FOMO, **Omnicide** is probably the best outcome you can hope for. You’ll still die, but so will everyone else.

The term is usually used in reference to total human extinction via human actions like nuclear war, but omnicide could also come from irreversible population decline, a large-scale volcanic eruption or an asteroid impact. Hey, it might even happen by way of a <link="https:>big purple Eternal-Deviant</link> deciding that removing half of the Earth’s population wasn’t far enough.

The closest we’ve come to Omnicide was around 70,000 years ago following the eruption of a Sumatran volcano called Toba, which is thought to have reduced the human population down to 10-30 thousand.
Stargazer Fish

## Ability

### Ability

**Look to the Skies****(Draw)** Your Space cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

If you are a bit too keen on relaxing beach holidays, the delightful **Stargazer Fish** should help rectify that for you.

So-called because their eyes are positioned on the tops of their heads (and not for their love of astronomy), they camouflage themselves entirely but for their eyes, waiting to attack their prey from the ocean floor. They have a few tools at their disposal too - between the 50+ species of Stargazer Fish, they can have - \*deep breath\* - a wriggling worm-like mouth organ to attract prey, a sharp set of teeth, two venomous spines, and *the ability to send out electric shocks.*

Personally, we’d be avoiding the so-called “meanest things in creation!” at all costs, but as their venom is not poisonous when eaten, they can actually be found as a delicacy in some cultures - although we think we’d rather skip to dessert.
Syukuro "Suki" Manabe

## Ability

### Ability

**Simulating Our Fate****(Return)** If your deck has 1 or more Climate Change cards, your Science cards, wherever they are, cost -2 Energy for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

Dealing with a climate change denier? Point them in the direction of **Syukuro "Suki" Manabe**, the Japanese-educated American meteorologist who co-wrote the first credible report of global warming in 1967. If not for this guy, we might have found ourselves floating on a raft at the end of the world scratching our heads as to what happened.

Later, Manabe pioneered the use of computers to create the first three-dimensional model of global warming, allowing researchers to predict how the Earth’s surface temperatures are influenced by atmospheric conditions. This ambitious 20-year project paved the way for climate change research and earned Manabe a share of the 2021 Nobel prize in physics. So, while we might still end up on that raft, at least we’ll know why.

'Syukuro Manabe cropped' by 文部科学省ホームページ (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
The Easter Bunny

## Ability

### Ability

**By a Hare****(Play)** If you are winning the round, your cards in hand gain +10 Power this turn. **(Return)** This card costs -2 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Surprisingly, the **Easter Bunny** is not some twentieth-century marketing gimmick, but instead dates back to at least the seventeenth century. The tradition was first mentioned in print in Georg Franck von Franckenau’s 1682 bodice-ripping blockbuster, ‘De ovis paschalibus’. (This is a perfect example of Latin making something daft sound quite erudite: the title translates to ‘About Easter Eggs’.)

Until more recently, the Easter Bunny ran his egg distribution business along similar lines to Santa Claus - basing payouts on the independently-assessed good behaviour of children. However, E.B. employed alternative supply chain methods from the outset, eschewing stocking-based delivery in favour of a high-risk ‘hide-them-all-over-the-place’ strategy - aka the ‘Easter Egg Hunt’.

The Easter Egg Hunt was popularised by Queen Victoria who took part in and later ran Maundy Thursday hunts from the age of 14. This is all well and good when you have the grounds of Kensington Palace to go at. However, if you’re in a 2-bed apartment during lockdown, you may find the hunt rather short-lived.
Tamandua

## Did You Know?

Tamanduas are unique among anteaters - they're smaller than most varieties. Their forearms feature four digits, the third of which is an oversized claw. This claw is so large that the Tamandua has adapted to walking on the sides of its feet so as not to puncture itself with its own massive claw. Sometimes evolution is still in progress, I suppose.
Spinning Jenny

## Ability

### Ability

**Efficient by Design****(Return)** Your Grand Designs cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

We’ve all been there – one minute, you’ve knocked over your spinning wheel and you’re watching the spindle turn; the next, you’ve got a brainwave for an idea that will revolutionise the textile industry.

For James Hargreaves, that *literally* happened. His invention for the Spinning Jenny, a machine that could spin multiple spindles at once from one wheel, allowed the textile industry to move from homes to factories.