recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Svalbard Global Seed Vault

## Ability

### Ability

**Backup Plan****(Play)** If your deck has 1 or more Climate Change cards, your Plant Life and Tremendous Trees cards in hand gain +32 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

What if a catastrophic disaster led to the loss of crops around the world? Don’t worry yourself too much, but if something did happen, the **Svalbard Global Seed Vault** would be able to provide some level of insurance. It’s been called the Noah’s Ark of Plant Diversity – and with good reason.

Hidden deep inside a mountain on the remote island of the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, this seed vault stores and protects nearly 1 million samples of crop varieties from about 5,000 different species. Even if you wanted to get in, the Global Seed Vault is practically impenetrable, and unless you have actual business there, you won’t be allowed inside.

'Entrance to the Seed Vault during Polar Night' by Subiet (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Splintercat

## Ability

### Ability

**Fearsome Critters****(Play)** 6 of your random American Folklore cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played. Repeat if your deck has 8 or more Mythical Creatures cards.

## Did You Know?

Anyone would be cranky with a killer headache. Granted, most of us got our headaches from dehydration, lack of sleep or maybe one too many cocktails the night before. The **Splintercat** only has itself to blame.

This cryptid from this Pacific Northwest is known for charging trees headfirst in order to knock all the branches off and shatter the trunk. Just why this creature likes doing this - especially if it results in a splitting headache - no-one knows. But why do strange cryptid creatures do anything really?

Another version of the creature from Nova Scotia who only comes out during the winter might help us understand the origin story of this beast. It is said that the sound of trees cracking in the cold winter forests is a sign that the Splintercat has woken up from hibernation. But if you ask us, it sounds like a good story to keep kids out of the woods in the middle of winter.

Granted, a giant headbutting cat also seems pretty cool.
String Theory

## Ability

### Ability

**Plucky****(Return)** If you lost the turn, this card costs -2 Energy permanently and if you won the turn, gain +30 Power/Turn next turn.

## Did You Know?

In one episode of the Simpsons, Homer starts reading a book on Advanced Marketing, then swaps it for Basic Marketing, before looking up ‘Marketing’ in the Dictionary.

I felt like that researching **String Theory**. I even ended up on a site called *String Theory for Kids*, which proudly stated that ‘M theory/supergravity theory has 7 higher dimensions’, and that ’in versions of quantum field theory that include supersymmetry, each boson has a corresponding fermion, and vice versa.’

This begs the question - whose kids are we talking about here? My son likes Fortnite and Pizza Fridays, should I be concerned?

So let’s keep things big picture; this is rocket science, astrophysics and brain surgery rolled into one. And I mean that literally - String Theory is a leading contender for a Unified Field Theory or Theory of Everything (TOE).

We don’t **need** a Theory of Everything - but most physicists would like one. This is because Newton’s laws of gravity, neatly refined by Einstein, were a tidy package that made us all feel safe (unless we were stood under a grand piano, say). Then Quantum Mechanics came along, showing that when things get very small, they behave very strangely.

This made people feel uncomfortable, because it’s messy having things behave in different ways at different scales. So the search for a unified theory began: one that would explain all the Quantum Theory weirdness (including electromagnetism and nuclear forces) *as well as* the more ‘mundane’ laws of General Relativity.

And String Theory (I am assured…) is one such theory. Oh look - we’ve run out of space on the card. :)
Tadpole Galaxy

## Ability

### Ability

**Metamorphosis****(Play)** If it's the first turn of a round, your Amphibians cards, wherever they are, gain +17 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

When two galaxies love each other very much, they do a special cuddle. When that happens, it can form another, bigger galaxy! Case in point: the **Tadpole Galaxy**, so-named for its distinctive shape, which features a long tail of stars and gas extending from the main body.

Thought to have been formed through the collision and merging of two smaller (potentially frog-shaped) galaxies, UGC 10214 is harbouring a supermassive black hole at its centre, which has a mass of about 30 million times that of our sun.

Catching a glimpse of the tadpole galaxy close up is unlikely, as it’s 420 million light years away from Earth. Thankfully, Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys snapped a picture of it in 2002, which revealed 6,000 more galaxies spanning billions of light-years.
The Hoover Dam

## Ability

### Ability

**Hold Back The Water****(Play)** Your opponent's Oceans and Seas cards in hand lose -15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The Hoover Dam, on the border between Nevada and Arizona, provides enough electricity to power 1.3 million homes.

It's a hydroelectric dam - water from the blocked Colorado River is allowed to come through the dam, and as it gushes through its channels it forces turbines to spin inside. The spinning turbines cause a generator to spin too, which creates electricity.

Want to know how much concrete was used to build the dam? There are 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete in both the dam and the surrounding power plant and other facilities - that's enough to build a road between the coasts of the USA!
Sumerian King List

## Ability

### Ability

**Thousand Year Reign****(Play)** For every round completed this game, your Unruly Rulers cards, wherever they are, gain +7 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Benjamin Franklin's list of virtues, Santa’s naughty and nice lists, Craigslist - all very important lists in their own right, but perhaps none as historically significant as the **Sumerian King List**. Dating back to the early third millennium BCE, this ancient Mesopotamian record details the names of Kings of Sumer and their supposed reign lengths.

Thanks to this document, we can get a bit of a glimpse into the early history of Sumer and the development of its political and social structures. However, some of the rulers mentioned in the early list such as Etana, Lugal-banda and Gilgamesh, are mythical or legendary figures whose heroic feats are subjects of a series of Sumerian and Babylonian narrative compositions. Hey, maybe they just wanted to screw with historians of the future.
Spanish Dancer

## Ability

### Ability

**Dancing Slug****(Play)** If played in the left or right slot, your cards adjacent to this gain +28 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Looking for underwater Flamenco lessons? Look no further! Join us at the coral reef dance club for expert lessons from our very own **Spanish Dancer**!

This large and colourful nudibranch is ready to teach you all the moves. Not only will you learn to crawl along the sea floor like most nudibranch, you’ll also discover how to swim when threatened - a unique talent among nudibranch that only Spanish Dancers know how to do.

All fish, marine mammals, molluscs and waterbugs of all ages and experience are welcome to the class! The striking red dress worn by our resident Spanish Dancer is part of their body, but don’t worry if you don’t have one. Red skirts are available to hire for a small fee!
The Great Barrier Reef

## Ability

### Ability

**Colours of the Ocean****(Play)** Your Oceans and Seas cards in hand gain +30 Power this turn and your opponent's Oceans and Seas cards, wherever they are, lose -30 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

**The Great Barrier Reef** is the largest living thing on Earth (sorry, Blue Whale). Comprising of 3000 individual reef systems, coral cays, remote tropical islands and pristine beaches, the Great Barrier Reef is home to 10% of the world’s total fish species. But that’s not all: since the reef is millions of years old, so too are some of the creatures living there. Some of these prehistoric fish have remained unchanged over the last 500 million years!

## Fusion

 Violet-backed Starling | 3
Ten of Cups

## Ability

### Ability

**Happy Ending****(Play)** If you have won at least 2 rounds this game, 10 of your random Tarot cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Congratulations. If you’ve just pulled the **Ten of Cups** in a tarot reading, you’re sorted. Happy family - check. Happy relationship - check. Happy sunshine and rainbows - check. You’re all good.

Seeing as the card depicts a literal happy family - embracing parents and dancing children - this card should give you some comfort and a sense of security and stability. If you were in a fairy tale, this would represent your happy ending. Now you can just sit back and enjoy this feeling of contentment and all of the joy that brings.

Now, if you draw the reversed Ten of Cups, it’s possible that you’re not getting enough out of your relationships or current situation. You might be wanting or needing something else. Or maybe you’re neglecting your relationships or family in favor of other pursuits.

But don’t worry, we’re almost certain you’ve just pulled the upright version and it’s all good. And no we’re not just saying that so we can end this card on a happy note!
Sukunabikona

## Ability

### Ability

**Small Lord of Renown****(Draw)** If your deck contains exactly 5 Japanese Folklore cards, this card gains +20 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Just like Tyrion from Game of Thrones, **Sukunabikona** drinks and he knows things. He’s also famously small. In the Shinto religion, Sukunabikona is the kami of the onsen (hot springs), healing, brewing sake and knowledge. He is also credited with the invention of cures for several diseases of both humans and animals.

If you’re out in the wilderness and seek protection from “creeping things” like insects or snakes, Sukunabikona is your guy. And, if you’re worried about unseen spiritual forces, Sukunabikona doubles up as a protector against “calamities” by way of incantation and spells. And, if all else fails, Sukunabikona was said to be the inventor of sake. A few glasses of this rice-based alcohol and you’ll forget all about creeping things and calamities.
Steam Engine

## Ability

### Ability

**Chuffed****(Return)** If you won the turn, your Ingenious Inventions cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Thomas Savery (English inventor 1650-1715) invented the first steam-powered device. The crude steam pump was not, in fact, an engine and worked by vaporizing water to fill a tank with steam, then isolating it using taps and condensing the steam to create a vacuum, drawing water in. This is similar to the vacuum created when jarring jelly (jam); that distinctive click is the jar sucking in air and releasing the lid's dimple. The suction is caused by the vacuum created as the jelly (jam) cools in a sealed jar.

Anyway, I digress. Although this wasn't technically an engine, it paved the way for the piston based **Steam Engine**, which is where Denis Papin and his Steam Digester come into play. Papin’s digester was a high-pressure cooker designed for extracting fats from bones using steam at high pressure. After several unplanned explosions, he came up with the idea of a steam-release valve, which is how we get to Thomas Newcomen and the atmospheric engine. It's one of those giant leaps forward in technology that led to a seismic shift in almost everything.

Hailing from Devon in the UK, a prolific producer of tin where mine flooding was a major problem. In 1712, Newcomen, a designer and ironmonger by trade, set about resolving the problem by replacing the steam receiving vessel with a piston based on Papin's design. Rather than the vacuum drawing water in, it drew a piston in.

Sadly for Newcomen, James Watt (who refined his invention) still gets most of the credit to this day. But by the time he died in 1729, there were at least 100 of his atmospheric engines working across Europe saving lives, vastly improving production efficiency and hurtling Britain towards the industrial revolution.
Telephone Box

## Ability

### Ability

**Ringing Endorsement****(Return)** Your Telephone and Cell Phone cards, wherever they are, gain +28 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Although the **Telephone Box** isn’t commonly used in modern society, the coin payphone was a revolutionary invention when William Gray first came up with the idea in 1889. Then, in 1924, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott won a Post Office sponsored competition with his design of the K2 cast iron red telephone kiosk.

Scott had originally proposed the colour of the K2 Kiosk to be silver with a blue-green interior. However, to match the Post Office’s brand, the company chose red. Due to the cost to make the kiosk (around £35 per unit, which would have been about £1500 back then), only 1,700 examples were installed mostly in London. Along with the red London bus, the red phone box is an iconic and instantly recognisable symbol of Great Britain.
Quasar

## Ability

### Ability

**Outshine****(Play)** All cards in both player's hands lose -10 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Quasars are amongst the brightest objects in the Universe - about 100 times as luminous as our Milky Way!

They inhabit the centres of active galaxies and consist of a very large black hole surrounded by an "acceleration disk" made up of gas and stars which looks awesome in the sky.

Although scientists are kind of at a loss as to what their purpose is. I don't think they need one, personally; can't something just look cool in space?
Sun Wukong

## Ability

### Ability

**Monkey King****(Draw)** This card **Lock**s for 2 turns. **(Play)** Your Primates cards, wherever they are, gain +30 Power until played. **(Return)** Your Primates cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Also known as the Monkey King, **Sun Wukong** is a Chinese trickster god and the main character in Wu Cheng’en’s novel ‘Journey to the West’. Born from a magical rock, Sun Wukong had incredible strength. He was able to lift and support the weight of two ‘heaven mountains’ on his shoulders while running “with the speed of a meteor.” Not only that, but he had the power to transform into precisely 72 different animals and objects.

Sadly, Sun Wukong got cocky (well, who wouldn't?) and so was thrown out of the Jade Emperor’s court for disrespecting the other gods. He also ate all of the Peaches of Immortality – the exact ones he was supposed to guard. As a punishment, the Monkey King was banished from heaven and imprisoned for 500 years.
Sweeney Todd

## Ability

### Ability

**Worst Pies in London****(Play)** If your deck has 3 or more Horrible Halloween cards, your Common and Rare Curious Cuisine cards, wherever they are, gain +26 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Long before he was on stage singing Stephen Sondheim lyrics or before he was in front of Tim Burton’s camera, **Sweeney Todd**, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, began life in a Penny Dreadful serial called “The String of Pearls”, published from 1846 to 1847. While some people may have believed over the years that Todd was based on a real serial killer, there is almost no proof of that and we don’t even know for sure who wrote the original story either.

If you’ve never heard of the Demon Barber, Sweeney Todd is known for killing patrons of his barber shop before passing their bodies along to his partner-in-crime, Mrs Lovett, who bakes them into pies.

In the original story, the musical, and the film, there are also dramatic subplots involving young lovers, disguises, people getting shipped off to the asylum and a few cases of “oh dear, I’ve gone and killed the wrong person.” No matter how you slice it, it’s certainly a story that’ll make you think twice about going for a shave or even eating a pie.
The Grim Reaper

## Ability

### Ability

**For Whom the Bell Tolls****(Play)** An opponent's random card in hand loses -50 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Different cultures have different attitudes towards the concept of Death, and many of them personify it. The image of a hooded skeleton with a scythe appears frequently in folklore, known to many as **The Grim Reaper**.

The concept, as we know it today, is believed to have been established in Europe during the Black Death (the 14th-century plague that wiped out nearly 25 per cent of the continent's population - if you're reading this during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, when it's being written, know that it could be so much worse. Wear a mask and social distance, people).

At the time death was on lots of people's minds, so it makes sense that **The Grim Reaper** would take the form of a skeleton. Its black cloak symbolises mortality (and looks menacing), and the scythe represents the role it plays in the passing of human life.

A scythe is used to harvest grain or grass, and given that the agricultural communities of Europe were the worst affected - the harvest represents the death of another year - the scythe makes sense as the implement of choice a pastoral society would give their personification of mortality.

**The Grim Reaper** is said to appear to people before their death to either escort them to the afterlife - the scythe is used to literally sever their connection to the living would - or to cause of their death.
Sunshine

## Did You Know?

Sunshine is light and energy that comes from the Sun. It takes around eight minutes to travel from the Sun at the centre of our solar system to the Earth.

The Canadian band Len had a hit single in 1999 with Steal My Sunshine, but you shouldn't try to steal sunshine. Without Sunshine there would be no life on Earth - plants need Sunshine for the process of photosynthesis, and plants produce oxygen that living creatures breathe, and those living creatures go on to thrive and write hits like Steal My Sunshine. And better songs.
Refrigerator

## Ability

### Ability

**Chilled Out****(Draw)** This card **Lock**s for 2 turns and your Ice Age cards, wherever they are, gain +27 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

It’s easy to take inventions like the **Refrigerator** for granted, but grabbing a cold one wasn’t always so straightforward. Back in ancient Egypt, Pharaohs made slaves fan their wine all night to cool it down and, even in the early 1900s, ice houses were still the traditional way to store ice and keep meat and dairy cool.

While the first form of artificial refrigeration was invented by Scottish scientist William Cullen in 1755, it was General Motors who sold the first household refrigerator in 1911. Its first popular line was the Kelvinator. By 1956, 80% of homes in the U.S. had a refrigerator. By 2005, that number had risen to 99.5%.

In case you wondered, the biggest fridge in the world is 27km long and located in the Large Hadron Collider.
Spinner Dolphin

## Did You Know?

Make some noise and put your hands together for The Spinner Dolphins, the reigning Olympic champions of the sea world.

Spinner Dolphins are champion spinners (we jest about the Dolphin Olympics but we totally wish it was a thing); they're such amazing acrobats that they've been recorded fully spinning along their body length SEVEN times during a single leap! Up your game, lesser Dolphin species.

This is how the show usually goes - the Spinner starts to spin in the water just before emerging head-first and leaping up to 3m into the air, spinning continuously again and again before falling back into the sea with an almighty dramatic splash. It's a TEN out of TEN from us!

As you can well imagine, Spinner Dolphins are insanely popular with dolphin watchers as their acrobatic behaviour is nothing short of spectacular... ENCORE!
Sun Bear

## Ability

### Ability

**Slip of the Tongue****(Return)** If you are losing the round, gain +5:energy/turn: next turn.

## Did You Know?

Watch a video of the **Sun Bear** in action and there’s a high chance your reaction will be ‘I want one’. They’re more adorable than Paddington - and they have Winnie-the-Pooh’s predilection for honey (in fact, they’re also known as Honey Bears).

So it’s harder to accept that they are an endangered species - not because they are being captured as pets, but because of commercial logging, forest fires, and (most depressingly) an unproven belief that their bile from their gall bladders can treat everything from sprains to sore throats.

Lastly - something that makes you wince: The Sun Bear has the longest tongue of any bear, ideally suited for licking the honey out of bee hives. Yes, along with the bees. And yes, the bees sting the tongue. Ouch.
Sunbeam Snake

## Ability

### Ability

**Alien Shield****(Play)** Your Space cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

You arrive at the reptile disco and clock the **Sunbeam Snake** twisting and turning on the dance-floor. Its iridescent scales catch the colourful lights as it moves. You look down at your own scales and suddenly feel so very underdressed.

“Hey, looks aren’t everything, right?” you say to reassure yourself, before remembering that the Sunbeam Snake isn’t just nice to look at. Unlike most snakes, it has two lungs rather than just one, and being oviparous, it can also reproduce quickly, laying up to 10 eggs at a time.

By the time you’ve gone home for a quick costume change and returned to the club, the sunbeam snake has already secured the future of its species. As the music blares and the sunbeam snake’s tail vibrates to the beat, you decide to call it a night.
The Gingerbread Man

## Ability

### Ability

**Not The Gumdrop Buttons!****(Play)** For every Curious Cuisine card played by either player this game, this card gains +5 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

🎵 When you try your best, but you don't succeed…🎵
We can all relate to **The Gingerbread Man**, a plucky baked boy from the fairytale of the same name who escapes several pursuers until eventually being devoured by a hungry fox. Sometimes, life be like that.

Fortunately, the Gingerbread Man got his moment of glory in the 2001 kids classic ‘Shrek’ when he teased Lord Farquad with the Muffin Man rhyme. The story has also been adapted for different audiences - for example, Eric Kimmel’s ‘The Runaway Tortilla’ about a desert-roving tortilla who has to avoid donkeys, rattlesnakes and buckaroos.

There’s also the Chinese New Year tale, The Runaway Rice Cake by Ying Chang Compestine, Peter Armour’s ‘Stop That Pickle!’ and Leslie Kimmelman’s Hanukkah version called The Runaway Latkes.
The Geocentric Model

## Ability

### Ability

**It's All About Me****(Play)** For each The Solar System card in your deck, your Earth card, wherever it is, gains +8 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

While many of us seem to think that the universe revolves around us, the **Geocentric Model** was a widely held belief that the Earth really was the centre of everything. It proposed that the Sun, the Moon and all other planets revolved around the Earth, a theory which has now been debunked.

The idea was first suggested by Eudoxus in 380BC, then further developed by Aristotle, before being refined in more detail by Ptolemy in the 2nd Century. Ptolemy’s model suggested that the Earth was static in the centre of the universe and that the heavens moved around the planet in a series of circles.

This belief was so strongly held that it took nearly 1500 years before someone came along and said “Wait, that doesn’t seem right.” That person was Nicolaus Copernicus, who suggested the Heliocentric Model instead, proposing that the Sun was in fact the centre of our solar system.
Testudo Formation

## Ability

### Ability

**Slow But Strong****(Return)** Your cards, wherever they are, gain +48 Power and cost +3 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

The **Testudo Formation** - which literally means 'Tortoise Formation' - is the famous Roman military formation you'll recognise from Asterix comics, though its use had become widespread by the Middle Ages.

The principle was to defend lightly-armed troops by using the shields of those with heavy armour at the front and sides of a phalanx, and in addition to protecting all the troops from archers and other missiles by forming a roof of shields.

It was hardly the most agile formation, but as a way to advance during a siege or battle without losing men, it was highly effective.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

## Ability

### Ability

**Silent Horror****(Start)** A random card in either player's hand loses -30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

In the wake of World War I, the German population needed a break from reality - or, at least, a piece of art so dark and surreal that it might provide distraction. Enter ‘**The Cabinet of Dr Caligari**’ - the first film in the German Expressionist movement.

The hauntingly memorable silent film follows the story of a student whose friend has fallen victim to a mass-murdering sleepwalker under control of a fairground hypnotist, Dr. Caligari. Not only is this film groundbreaking in its storytelling (spoiler alert: the story turns out to be the delusion of a patient in an insane asylum), but the nightmarish set design was made entirely out of paper due to the lack of budget available.

Made before “horror” was a defined genre, this is sometimes cited as the first true horror movie.
Supermarine Walrus

## Ability

### Ability

**Fleet Spotter****(Play)** Your Riding the Waves! cards, wherever they are, gain +19 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Used mostly during World War II, the **Supermarine Walrus** was first developed for use by the Australian Air Force because they were looking for a catapult-launch amphibian craft (which sounds very cool but also absolutely terrifying). What they got was the Supermarine Walrus (also known as the Seagull Mark V), first flown in 1933. The ship proved a success and was eventually in use by the Royal Navy, especially during World War II.

Walruses were initially used to spot enemy submarines and evidence of gunfire from ships but they were also put to good use for search and rescue. The Walrus’ amphibious nature meant that it could touch down on water to save stranded Royal Navy or downed RAF pilots.

The ships were affectionately called “Shagbats” or “Steam Pigeons” by crew. The Steam Pigeon name comes from the way that steam would rise after sea water hit the hot Pegasus engine.
The Enigma Machine

## Ability

### Ability

**Crack the Code****(Draw)** Your opponent's cards in hand lose -7 Power this round and this card gains +35 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

**The Enigma Machine** was an intricate device used during World War II by Nazi Germany to send encoded messages to its army. Little did they know the Allies had a team of code-breakers onside (including Alan Turing) who were skilled in chess, crossword puzzles and ancient writing.

In all fairness, the codes *were* difficult to decipher; some took up to four years to crack. However, the information they finally uncovered helped the Allies prepare for the D-Day invasion.
Sushi

## Ability

### Ability

**Raw Power****(Play)** This card gains +30 Power. **(Return)** If you won the turn, this card gains +30 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

**Sushi** is a traditional Japanese dish and comes in a variety of forms which has its origins somewhere around the Mekong River (Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand) where fermented fish was wrapped in sour rice.

Why not spoil your day by trying our simple and delicious recipe?

260g (2 cups) of sushi rice
6 tablespoons of good quality rice wine vinegar
6 sheets nori (dried seaweed)
1 ripe avocado - remove skin, stone and slice
1 cucumber, peeled, de-seeded and sliced
200g (8 ounces) of smoked salmon, cut into strips
Wasabi paste to taste

Tools: bamboo mat or flexible rolling mat

Follow the rice's cooking instructions and after it is cooked add the 6 tablespoons of rice vinegar stir and leave until it is cool (you don't want it cooking the other ingredients)

Place 1 sheet of nori onto the bamboo mat and spread a thin layer of cool rice on the seaweed making sure you leave space at the top and bottom edges for sealing the roll. add the avocado, cucumber and smoked salmon to the rice around 5 cm from the bottom edge of the nori.

Wet the top edge of the nori and roll tightly from the bottom edge to the top. Once rolled to ensure the wetted nori has contact along the full length of the sheet before chilling and then slicing. Add Wasabi as desired.

* Avid Games accepts no responsibility for heart palpitations, uncontrollable shaking or hair loss as a result of eating this dish.
Spotted Owl

## Ability

### Ability

**What a Hoot!****(Return)** If you are winning the round, this card costs -1 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Sadly, for such an adorable creature, the **Spotted Owl** is considered "near threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which doesn't mean it's quite on the verge of extinction, but its numbers are dwindling. They are primarily found in the northwestern United States, a heavily-wooded region where timber logging (and the subsequent destruction of their homes) is generally recognised as the biggest threat to their survival.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it became the poster child for forest conservation - a debate raged between conservationists who wanted to protect the **Spotted Owl**, and the loggers who were concerned that their protected status would lose them their jobs. The owl was the subject of many articles and court battles, and even made the front cover of TIME Magazine.

The owl's protected status has been upheld and continues to this day, although it is still threatened by wildfires and competition with the barred owl.
Spiny Lobster

## Did You Know?

Right, let's see how far we can get into this description of the Spiny Lobster, AKA the Rock Lobster, without dropping in a lyric from the B-52s 1978 hit of the same name.

Watch out if you see motion in the ocean (unbelievable - Ed), especially at night - the nocturnal Spiny Lobster might be scuttling around! It's got two massive antennae on its head, which it doesn't use for sensory input as others do - these are its weapons.
The Ark of the Covenant

## Ability

### Ability

**Don't Look At It!****(Draw)** A random card in your hand gains +70 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

One of history's great mysteries, **The Ark of the Covenant** is supposedly an ornate golden case that's said to hold the stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were written by the Israelites over 3000 years ago.

According to the Bible, the **Ark** is involved in several miracles. When the Israelites laid siege to Jericho, they paraded the **Ark** around the walls for seven days until the walls magically crumbled away. During the Exodus, it would clear the path of obstacles and creatures for the Israelites.

The **Ark** vanishes from record between 597 and 586 BCE when the Babylonian Empire conquered the Israelites, and nobody knows what happened to it.

There are many theories as to where it could be now. Many believe it found its way to Ethiopia, where it is hidden in the St. Mary of Zion cathedral in Aksum. Others say that it's in the warren of tunnels beneath the First Temple in Jerusalem - the site which surrounds the sacred Dome of the Rock, which makes it impossible to dig beneath.

It probably isn't in the Ancient Egyptian city of Tanis, which is where Indiana Jones discovers it in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (or "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark", if you're okay with changing the name of films for franchise synergy).

## Trivia

* The quote "Don't Look At It!" is a reference to *Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark* where the Nazis are killed after looking into the opened Ark of the Covenant.
Tamamo-no-Mae

## Ability

### Ability

**Fox Spirits****(Play)** If your deck contains Kitsune, your Japanese Folklore cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Not all beautiful women turn out to be shape-shifting nine-tailed foxes with supreme magical powers capable of bringing down an empire. But in the case of **Tamamo-no-Mae**, that was absolutely the case.

Born some 3,500 years ago in what is now China, Tamamo-no-Mae became a powerful sorceress before taking the form of a white-faced, golden furred kyūbi no kitsune (nine tailed fox spirit.)

Her first move? Possessing Daji, a concubine of the Shang dynasty's last ruler King Zhou, and bringing about a reign of terror in China. Later, the fox appeared in Japan as Tamamo-no-Mae, the most favoured courtesan of Emperor Toba. But things took a turn for the worst when the fox spirit made the emperor fall ill, and Tamamo-no-Mae was eventually exposed for what she was.
The Amber Room

## Ability

### Ability

**Reconstruction****(Return)** This card gains +90 Power and costs -2 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

It was called the Eighth Wonder of the World and one of Russia’s most treasured artefacts – but during World War II, **The Amber Room** was looted and taken to Königsberg (of Seven Bridges fame) for reconstruction and display. After the war, the jewel-studded room was never seen again.

Designed in the early 18th Century as a showpiece chamber for Frederick I, the King of Prussia, the Amber Room was filled with stunning architectural features like gilding, gold leaf, mosaics and statues of angels. Some say it was destroyed during the first bombing of Königsberg, while others believe it sits in a bunker in Poland, having been switched for a replica just before it was looted. The only pieces of the room ever recovered were a cabinet and the fourth Florentine mosaic.
The Aqueduct

## Ability

### Ability

**Go With The Flow****(Play)** Your Raging Rivers cards in hand gain +15 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

This card shows the Roman **Aqueduct** Pont du Gard, which crosses the Gard River in France. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is a great example of a Roman aqueduct - one which the writer of this card walked daredevil style across the top of when she was 8, much to her mother's dismay.

Roman aqueduct systems were built for approximately 500 years, from 312 B.C. to A.D. 226. An incredible feat of engineering for the time, they served as a channel used to transport fresh water to cities and towns.

Earlier civilizations in Egypt and India also built aqueducts, but the Romans, as always, took it to a whole new level and built extensive and complex networks across many of their territories.

It was all down to meticulous planning when it came to **Aqueducts**. They were constructed carefully from a series of pipes, tunnels, canals, and bridges. The natural slope of the land and our old friend gravity had a role to play too - they allowed aqueducts to channel water from a freshwater source, such as a spring or lake, and onwards to a city.
The Charter Oak

## Ability

### Ability

**Hide 'n Sheet****(Draw)** If your deck has 3 or more Documented cards, your Tremendous Trees cards, wherever they are, cost -2 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

**The Charter Oak** is a symbol of American independence and is commemorated on the Connecticut State Quarter. At the time that the tree fell in 1856, it had a 21-foot circumference and was at least 1,000 years old.

After the Connecticut Colony had been established, English royal agent Edmund Andros came with forces to reclaim the Connecticut Charter for the crown. Captain Joseph Wadsworth seized the charter and hid it in a cavity of the giant oak that sat on Wyllys Hyll, so Andros could not find it. This act helped Connecticut retain its sovereignty. After a terrible storm took the tree down, timber from the oak was salvaged to make the desk for the Governor of Connecticut.
The Octavius

## Did You Know?

Legend has it that **The Octavius** was discovered in 1775 by a whaling ship called the Herald which came across a badly weather-beaten schooner drifting off the coast of Greenland. The Captain ordered a boarding party of five to investigate and, as they made their way below deck, they discovered 28 sailors stiff and motionless. When they entered the Captain’s office, they found him at his desk, stiff and blue with a pen in his hand. The last entry in the ship‘s log was from 11 November 1762, meaning the ship had been lost in the Arctic waters for 13 years.

Now, this all sounds a little too creepy to be true, and in all likelihood, it is only partially true - earlier versions of the story featuring a different ship called the Gloriana.
The Holy Grail

## Ability

### Ability

**The Gift of Life****(Draw)** Your Brilliant Human Body cards, wherever they are, gain +28 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

From medieval tales to Indiana Jones and The Da Vinci Code, the myth of **The Holy Grail** has endured over centuries. Thought to be the cup used by Jesus during the Last Supper, legends hold that the Grail had the power to heal all wounds, deliver eternal youth and grant everlasting happiness. Unsurprisingly, scores of people have hunted for this sought-after Christian relic for centuries.

In the Arthurian story, a character known as the Fisher King had a serious wound that kept him from healing. He needed the Grail so he could do more than sit and fish near his castle (understandable.) Many of King Arthur’s knights sought it, but only Galahad was worthy of wielding the Grail. You go, Galahad.
The Art of War

## Ability

### Ability

**...Appear Where You Are Not Expected****(Draw)** Your Sun Tzu card in hand costs -2 Energy until played. **(Return)** If your deck has 3 or fewer History cards, the card opposite this costs +5 Energy and loses -50 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Sun Tzu shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list in the 5th century BC with **The Art of War**, a self-help book for military strategists everywhere.

The 13 chapters of the book each cover a different ‘art’ - such as initiating battle, using spies, or attacking with fire. But even if some of the methods discussed have become outdated, the book is still required reading for militarists: it has been used by Japanese Daimyos, US Generals, and the KGB.

As you’d expect, The Art of War has expanded beyond its original context, and there are now many texts that interpret the principles for business, sports, pottery, legal engagements, and so on\*.

We don’t actually know whether there *was* a Sun Tzu, by the way. Scholars are pretty confident there was a militarist named Sun Bin, and it’s possible that Sun Tzu is just a fictionalised personage representing a collection of authors adding to and adjusting the text over time.

* (Ok, not pottery. But you weren’t entirely sure, were you?)

'The Art of War, a Chinese bamboo book, open to display the binding and contents.' by vlasta2 (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
The Brain

## Ability

### Ability

**All in the Mind****(Draw)** Your cards, wherever they are, gain +23 Power for 2 turns and this card **Lock**s for 2 turns. **(Return)** An opponent's random card in hand **Lock**s next turn.

## Did You Know?

What’s firm like jelly, weighs around 1.4kg (3 pounds) and contains 86 billion nerve cells? Here’s a clue: you’re using it right now to read this.

**The Brain** is one of the largest and most complex organs in the human body – it’s the controller of thoughts, speech, vision, memory, respiration, touch and movement. If your body was a business, your brain is the top boss, giving orders to all departments. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t just use 10% of our brains. In fact, the majority of the brain is almost always active over a 24-hour period.

Every day, the average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those, 95% are exactly the same repetitive thoughts as the day before, and about 80% are negative.
Tayra

## Did You Know?

Tayras are known to be expert climbers because of their unique adaptations - their paws have evolved to be better suited to gripping than for digging.

They're also known for being cachers - they'll take unripened bananas and store them in their burrows for a few days while they wait for them to become edible.
Spectral Tarsier

## Did You Know?

The Spectral Tarsier is found in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and on surrounding islands. It's most notable for its eyes, which are the largest relative to body weight of any mammal.

Look at those things! They're bigger than their brains. They're so big they don't actually rotate in their sockets; the Tarsier can turn its head around 360 degrees, like an owl, so it doesn't need to and just lives with a perpetual "they said WHAT!?" look.
The Lion and the Unicorn

## Ability

### Ability

**Fighting for the Crown****(Play)** If your deck has 3 or more Cool Cats cards, your Mythical Creatures cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played, and vice versa.

## Did You Know?

In the United Kingdom, **The Lion and the Unicorn** appear on the UK’s royal coat of arms and they were first brought together when James I and VI (of England and Scotland respectively) took the throne. The Lion represents England while the Unicorn represents Scotland, which means if you’re from Scotland, you get to say that your national animal is a unicorn, which will never stop amusing the Scottish writer of this card back.

In literature, including the famous nursery rhyme, the Lion and the Unicorn are often fighting, representing the prickly relationship between England and Scotland over the years. In Lewis Carroll’s *Alice in Wonderland* the two creatures are fighting over the crown of a king whose side they already fight for, highlighting the ludicracy of the two sides fighting all the time.
The Alamo

## Ability

### Ability

**Remember the Alamo!****(Draw)** Your Legends of the Old West cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Remember **The Alamo**? Hopefully not, as you’d be pushing up the daisies right now. But the USA might be a very different shape right now if it weren’t for those three words.

In the 1830s, much of Texas was under Mexican control. With President Santa Anna’s centralised Mexican government showing increasing disregard for the rights of its citizens, in 1835 a group of *Tejanos* and US Colonists (jointly ‘Texians’) rebelled. This became known as the Texas Revolution.

The rebels made good progress, and successfully drove the Mexican army out of their territory. However, under Santa Anna, the army returned to attack the Alamo - a former Spanish Mission that had been converted to a fort. The Texians defending the Alamo were hugely outnumbered - their calls for reinforcements had met with fewer than 100 troops.

Inevitably, the Mexican Army overpowered them - but what made the Alamo so notorious was the merciless violence that ensued. Men who surrendered or escaped were hunted down, such that every Texian was killed.

The result, however, was that ‘Remember the Alamo!’ became a powerful battle cry of the Texians, and more and more troops joined their cause in reaction to Santa Anna’s injustice. Eventually, the Republic of Texas was formed - standing until 1845 before it became the 28th State of America.

Among the soldiers to die at the Alamo were James Bowie (after whom the Bowie Knife is named), and the ‘King of the Wild Frontier’ himself, Davy Crockett.
Takachiho Gorge

## Ability

### Ability

**Amaterasu's Hiding Place****(Play)** Your Japanese Folklore cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power until played. Repeat if played next to Amaterasu.

## Did You Know?

While taking a rowboat down a volcanic gorge past a beautiful waterfall sounds far too good to be true, this is exactly what to expect from a visit to **Takachiho Gorge.** Found in Miyazaki Forest on Kyushu Island in Japan, Takachiho Gorge is a magical sight.

If you decide to go adventuring, the best time to try to get the very best view is in summer or autumn (although apparently it’s still stunning in the winter). If you want to get even more specific, the best time of day is around 10-11am when the sun perfectly hits the Minainotaki Waterfall, creating a beautiful golden glow around the 17m of cascading water. It can get pretty busy with tourists but it’s probably going to be worth it for that view.

If you’re not a fan of boats (or are convinced you’d end up right under the waterfall), you can always take the footpath above and walk along the edge of the gorge instead.
Sperm Whale

## Ability

### Ability

**Back from the Brink****(Return)** If you are losing the round, gain +4 Energy.

## Did You Know?

The spermaceti that gives the Sperm Whale its name was highly sought after for its use in cosmetics, and this threatened the species with extinction.

Thankfully populations have now largely recovered - although between climate change, marine pollutants (such as plastics) and whale hunters targeting them for meat, it may not be long before they are endangered again.

We kind of spoiled the mood there... but sometimes you just have to tell it as it is.
The Inner Fish

## Ability

### Ability

**Fish Out of Water****(Return)** If your deck has 6 or more Oceans cards, your Life on Land cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

What would you think if we told you that, when you were an embryo only 5 weeks after conception, you looked like a fish embryo and had a long tail and gill slits? It’s true!

All embryos of backboned animals look fish-like at first, with long tails and gill slits and other fishy features. But then fish embryos grow and develop to keep these features, while the embryos of amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals modify these features, so the gills are replaced by lungs, and in some animals (like apes and humans) the tail disappears entirely.

This powerful line of evidence is proof that all backboned animals evolved from a fish-like ancestor in the distant past, and have transformed by changing the later stages of their embryonic development. So you re-enact your long evolution from the fish in every part of your development as an embryo!

Learn more at donaldprothero.com.

Donald Prothero has taught college geology and paleontology for 35 years at Caltech, Columbia among others. He earned his B.A. in geology and biology from the University of California Riverside in 1976, and his M.A. (1978), M.Phil. (1979), and Ph.D. (1982) in geological sciences from Columbia University.

He is the author of over 40 books and over 300 scientific papers, mostly on the evolution of fossil mammals (especially rhinos, camels, and horses) and on using the earth's magnetic field changes to date fossil-bearing strata. He has also been on the editorial boards of journals such as Geology, Paleobiology, Journal of Paleontology, and Skeptic magazine.

In 2015 he received the Joseph T. Gregory Award for service to vertebrate paleontology and in 2016, he received the "Friend of Darwin" award from the National Center for Science Education.

He has been featured on numerous TV documentaries, including Paleoworld, Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, Prehistoric Monsters Revealed, Monsterquest, Prehistoric Predators: Entelodon and Hyaenodon, Conspiracy Road Trip: Creationism, as well as Jeopardy!
The Great Flood

## Ability

### Ability

**Two by Two****(Play)** For every 2 Life on Land cards in your deck, your Oceans and Seas cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power for 3 turns

## Did You Know?

The animals may not have really come by two by two (hurrah) onto a floating wooden zoo, but according to underwater archeologists, the **Great Flood** referenced in the biblical tale of Noah’s Ark could have happened in the Black Sea region.

Their theory is that the Black Sea was once a freshwater lake until it was flooded by a huge body of water from the Mediterranean Sea. When they went looking, scientists found an ancient shoreline dating back to around 5,000 BC.

While the flood definitely didn’t sweep the entire Earth, some experts believe that around 150,000 square kilometres of land went underwater, and that the story of this traumatic event was passed down from generations, inspiring the story of Noah’s Ark.