recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Southern Greater Glider

## Ability

### Ability

**Split into Three****(Draw)** 3 of your random Marsupials cards in hand gain +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Human babies think they’ve got it made. But the life of a young **Southern Greater Glider** is even better. Instead of being wheeled to the supermarket in a pram, they get to glide through the air in their mother’s pouch. Even after they’ve matured beyond pouch age, they ride on their mum’s back for a further three months.

While they do have big teddy bear ears, this isn’t a <link="https:>Dumbo situation.</link> Instead, they use the membrane between their forearm and tibia to fly through the forests of Southeastern Australia. Many of these little marsupials grow up to become property tycoons, maintaining up to 20 tree-trunk dens at any given time! Sadly, logging and land-clearing has put their habitat at risk, and the species is now listed as endangered.

'Greater glider (Petauroides volans) in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia.' by Third Silence Nature Photography (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Space Shuttle

## Did You Know?

The iconic **Space Shuttle** was a reusable spacecraft system that was in user between 1981 and 2011. The idea was that, rather than having a capsule that crashed back down to Earth and spending hundreds of thousands more to fish it out of the ocean, a plane-like shuttle was sent up that could be piloted to land on a landing strip just like a plane.

Ever felt like you’re glued to your bed in the morning? If you were in the Space Shuttle Discovery, it would almost literally be the case. Sleeping bags were stuck to the walls of the shuttle’s interior so that astronauts wouldn’t float around in their sleep. They also had wake up calls that changed depending on the song they requested. To the astronaut who chose Rocket Man by Elton John – we salute you.

'The Space Shuttle Discovery and its seven-member STS-120 crew head toward Earth-orbit and a scheduled link-up with the International Space Station.' by NASA; edited by jjron (tilt corrected) (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Scarecrow

## Ability

### Ability

**Peckin' Heck****(Draw)** Your Birds cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy until played. **(Play)** Your cards adjacent to this gain +10 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

It may not have a brain, but the **Scarecrow** doesn’t need to think to perform its job. For over 3,000 years, these figures have been used to frighten birds away from farmers’ growing crops.

Today, scarecrows are usually stuffed with hay and dressed in old clothes, but back in medieval Britain, young children were used as live scarecrows, running around the fields waving their arms and throwing stones.

And way back in 2,500 B.C., Greek farmers carved wooden scarecrows in the image of Priapus, the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, that they believed was ugly enough to scare birds away from their vineyards.

Realistically, birds aren’t that shallow. A crop’s a crop, whether the scarecrow is a straight 10 or hideous to look at.
Sir Galahad

## Ability

### Ability

**Pure and Simple****(Return)** Gain +1:energy/turn: permanently and your The Holy Grail card, wherever it is, costs -5 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Born out of wedlock to Elaine of Corbenic (the lady who shows the Grail to Lancelot) and the cuckold-creator himself Sir Lancelot, **Sir Galahad** is renowned for his gallantry and purity, and considered to be an exemplary knight in every way. He even got to pull the sword out of the stone again, and despite managing to do it some years earlier himself, the ageing Arthur was quick to proclaim him the greatest knight ever! (So much for the equality of the round table...)

While staying with his new BFF, he had a vision that showed he, along with two other knights, would find the Holy Grail.

So after packing his travel-armour, eye-mask and one of those neck-pillow things, he sets off with his chums Sir Bors and Sir Perceval on the Grail Quest.

As luck would have it they bump into Percival's sister who takes them to the Ship of Solomon (the original wise guy) which in turn takes them to an island where Galahad finds King David's Sword (sadly not his catapult).

After lots of knightly escapades, they find themselves at the castle of Corbenic at the court of Pellés and his son Eliazar. The men show Galahad the Grail, and ask him to take it to the holy island of Sarras. Presumably confused as to why they hadn't got off their backsides and taken it themselves, he agrees to the mission providing he can choose the time of his own death. An odd choice I grant you, but each to their own.

'Sir Galahad' by Herbert Gustave Schmalz (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Romanos IV Diogenes

## Ability

### Ability

**"The Worst!"****(Draw)** If your deck contains Alp Arslan, this card gains +60 Power until played. **(Play)** If you have played Alp Arslan this game, this card loses -40 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

If we stop time in 1070, Emperor **Romanos IV Diogenes** looks to have a bright future ahead. Just three years prior, he married the widowed empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa and was crowned Byzantine Emperor. Under his rule, the Roman army even managed to reclaim their lands in Northern Syria and Eastern Anatolia from the Seljuk invaders. Everything was coming up Romanos.

In 1071, he seemingly renewed his peace with the Seljuk leader, Alp Arslan, giving him a false sense of security while he gathered a force to secure the rest of Anatolia. It triggered the Battle of Manzikert, which went well for Romanos - to begin with. But he got cocky, and fell for one of Alp Arslan’s tricks, leading to the defeat of the Byzantines and his own capture by the Seljuks.
Satanic Leaf-Tailed Gecko

## Ability

### Ability

**Greedy Gekko****(Play)** This card gains +80 Power and your cards adjacent to this lose -34 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Is it a dead leaf? Is it a tree branch? No, it’s a **Satanic Leaf-Tailed Gecko**. Obviously.

Take a closer look at the *Uroplatus phantasticus* and you’ll find yourself staring into the red eyes of what appears to be a tiny demon. A master of disguise, this Gecko uses its natural camouflage to blend in with its habitat – the tropical forests of Madagascar.

Its specific name *phantasticus* is the Latin word for ‘imaginary’ – these creatures are very real, but the Gecko’s unique appearance led to Belgian naturalist George Albert Boulenger describing it as “mythical” in 1888. When a predator poses a threat, the Gecko opens its jaws wide to reveal a terrifying, devil-red mouth and sheds its tail to effectively give the predator the slip.
Siege of Baghdad (1258)

## Ability

### Ability

**End of a Golden Age?****(Draw)** Your opponent's Legendary cards, wherever they are, lose -25 Power for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

Before the **Siege of Baghdad**, the city had been the centre of Islamic power for 500 years. But that all changed when Hulagu Khan, grandson of Ghengis Khan and ruler of Mongol, advanced on the weakened state and demanded its surrender

```
Although his astrologer friend warned Hulagu that attacking Baghdad would bring earthquakes, pestilence and the death of the Mongol emperor, Hugalu just went ahead regardless. Over the course of 12 days, the Mongols sacked Baghdad, executed the caliph Al-Musta’sim and massacred residents of the city.

```

Survivors said that *"the waters of the Tigris ran black with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river and red from the blood of the scientists and philosophers killed."* The siege marked the end of the Islamic Golden Age.
Space Colonization

## Ability

### Ability

**Space Takeover****(Draw)** If your deck has 5 or more Solar System cards, your The Solar System cards, wherever they are, lose -8 Power until played and your Science cards, wherever they are, gain +8 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Will we ever achieve **Space Colonization**? It’s the biggest roadtrip humanity has ever taken, and there would certainly be more than snack rationing, bathroom breaks and traffic to factor in. Instead, mankind will have to find solutions for bigger problems, like radiation and lack of gravity.

Still, in a 2018 poll, 32% of Americans said they believed long-term habitable space colonies would be built by 2068. If that’s true, millennials and Gen-Z can start planning their cosmic retirement.
In that same vein, there have been <link="https:>**several projects** attempting to recreate the conditions of off-world habitation here on Earth, to test the limits of human endurance. At this point, the most common ideas for space colonisation include: settling on Earth’s Moon, building on Mars, and constructing free-floating space stations.
Mars Rover Curiosity

## Ability

### Ability

**Messages from Outer Space****(Draw)** Your Space Technology cards in hand gain +15 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If you're on Twitter, you should follow the excellent @MarsCuriosity, which quickly has you believing that the Curiosity vehicle itself is tweeting back from Mars. It cracks jokes, posts selfies (no, really!), and relays new discoveries about the climate and geology of the red planet - which has been its home for more than five years.
Sortes

## Ability

### Ability

**Future Knowledge****(Return)** If you won the turn, your Legendary cards, wherever they are, gain +15 Power next turn.

## Did You Know?

Among the modes of divination practised by the Roman Empire, the drawing of lots was one of the most common. Known as **Sortes**, these lots were usually little counters made of wood and were thrown like dice into an urn.

Before throwing and drawing the counters, people would write messages upon them according to circumstances to get a more specific reading. Later, people began writing verses of poetry upon the counters before drawing them out of an urn - the idea being that the verse you draw applies to your situation.

Not so scientific, this fortune-telling trick was much like opening the Bible up at a random page and applying the first passage you see to your own circumstances.
Sayyida al Hurra

## Ability

### Ability

**Last Hurra****(Play)** If it's the last turn of a round, your Plundering Pirates cards in hand gain +25 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

She may have been born to Analusian nobles, but **Sayyida al Hurra** didn’t have an easy start. At just seven years old, she and her family were forced to flee their home to escape the Christian “Reconquista” in Spain. It wouldn’t be something she would forget in a hurry.

After her husband (Abu Hassan al-Mandari, governor of Tetouan) died, Sayyida became the last “al Hurra” (Queen) in Islamic history. With the help of Barbarossa, she built up her own fleet and wreaked havoc on Spanish and Portuguese shipping lines.

Eventually, the Muslim pirate queen upgraded her status by marrying the king of Morocco, but still managed to show who was boss by making him come to her. This is the only time in Moroccan history that a king married away from the capital.

'Modern Portrait of Sayyida al Hurra' by Oxygene Tetouan (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Sir Palamedes

## Ability

### Ability

**Grail Questing****(Return)** Your The Holy Grail card, wherever it is, costs -3 Energy permanently. **(Play)** Your The Questing Beast card in hand gains +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

**Sir Palamedes** was a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend, first appearing in the 13th century prose ‘Tristan’. The tale tells of Palamedes being a Saracen pagan who fights for Princess Iseult’s hand at a tournament in Ireland. As the story goes, Palamedes loses to Tristan, who spares his life but forbids him of pursuing Iseult again.

Iseult ends up marrying Tristan’s uncle (talk about awkward), and Palamedes helps rescue her servant Brangaine before joining the Round Table. In the legend, Palamedes is commonly known as “Knight of the Questing Beast” – because when you’ve hunted a demonic creature throughout your career, a title like that is the least you deserve.

(Spoiler alert: Palamedes finally slays the beast in the quest for the Holy Grail.)
Scheherazade

## Ability

### Ability

**Storyteller****(Draw)** Your Once Upon A Time cards in hand gain +15 Power this turn. **(Return)** Your Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Framing narratives are famous throughout classic literature - that’s a story within a story, if you’re unfamiliar with the term. A fictional storyteller sits down to tell another character a tale. Like Frankenstein relaying his tale to the Captain who found him in *Frankenstein.* Or the unreliable Marlowe telling his story in *Heart of Darkness* Or, if that’s all too lofty, think of good ol’ Peter Falk telling a sickly Frank Savage the story of Westley and Buttercup in *The Princess Bride.*

There’s no better storyteller within a story though than **Scheherazade** of *1001 Nights.* A cruel sultan marries a virgin every night and then kills her the next morning to ensure she’ll never betray him. Misogyny, am I right? One day, Scheherazade volunteers as tribute and to be the Sultan’s next bride but, through clever wits and sheer creativity, she tells him a different story every night and thus delays her demise.

If this sounds familiar, you’ve probably got yet another *Princess Bride* reference in your head as the Dread Pirate Roberts keeps Westley alive each day, saying “Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.” We see you, William Goldman. We see you.

Scheherazade’s tales included the likes of Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba and Aladdin and his lamp (even if 2 of them were added by translators later). In the end, the sultan never ends up killing our clever story-weaver but falls in love with her. We think a constant threat of murder isn’t a good basis for a relationship but good for her for making it through 1001 Nights of this nonsense.
Ship of Theseus

## Ability

### Ability

**Replacement Parts****(Draw)** Your Riding the Waves! cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

If an object has all of its parts replaced, is it still the same object?

This is the question raised in the **Ship of Theseus**, a thought experiment that dates back between 500-400 BC. In the original story introduced in Greek legend, the ship of Theseus was preserved by the Athenians. After a century, every part of the ship had been replaced. Philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke discussed at length whether the ship was the same ship after undergoing all these renovations and, if so, what made it the same ship?

In Hobbes' version, the second ship slowly assumes the identity of Theseus’s ship, while Aristotle says it’s the same because the “formal cause”, or design, does not change.

So when Trigger says that his broom is the same broom even though it’s had 14 new heads and 17 new handles, perhaps he’s not as daft as a brush.
Sahara el Beyda

## Ability

### Ability

**Erosion Formation****(Start)** Your Natural Monuments cards, wherever they are, gain +5 Power until played, and all other cards lose -2 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Sad but true: most of us won’t get to walk on the moon in our lifetime. Still, there’s always pretending. And what better place to make believe than the **Sahara el Beyda** of Egypt? Located about 500km from Cairo, this area is home to a large scattering of pure white rock formations that have been eroded by sandstorms over hundreds of years.

Of these chalk rock formations, the most characteristic is the famous “chicken and atomic bomb” structure, which looks like a modern art installation commenting on man’s impact on the world. Chicken aside, the only life you’ll find here today is a small desert fox, but the abundance of fossilised sea shells serve as a reminder that this dry desert land was once underwater.
Sasquatch

## Ability

### Ability

**Bigfoot****(Draw)** If your deck has 4 or more Tremendous Trees cards, this card gains +30 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

**Sasquatch** is a large, hairy humanoid creature that has been spotted in the northwestern U.S. and western Canada. Like the Yeti of Asia or the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas, Sasquatch is rooted in indigenous legend.

Despite several sightings, Sasquatch is technically a fictional species, and there is scant physical evidence that any such creatures exist but, in Washington State, it’s illegal to kill a Sasquatch – so, if you see one in the area, best to snap a pic and walk away.
Snegurochka

## Ability

### Ability

**The Snow Maiden****(Play)** Your Common Festive Traditions cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Whether it’s Olaf from Frozen, the eponymous character from The Snowman or **Snegurochka**, a snow maiden from Russian fairy tales, snowpeople all suffer the same fate. In the case of Snegurochka, the desire for human companionship is her downfall.

Although she grows to like a human shepherd named Lel, her cold heart is unable to know true mortal love. So, her mother takes pity and gives her this ability, but the moment she falls in love, her heart warms. As you guessed, warmth isn’t good news for a snow girl.

A late addition to Russian folklore, Sneguorchka first appeared in literature in the 19th century. During the mid-20th century, she became known as the granddaughter of Ded Moroz, the Slavic version of Santa Claus.
Skaði

## Ability

### Ability

**Maiden of the Mountain****(Play)** Your Natural Monuments cards in hand gain +26 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

If you love winter sports, you’ll love **Skaði** – the Norse goddess associated with skiing, bowhunting and, in some sources, snowshoes (someone’s got to rule over snowshoes, after all).

To avenge the death of her father, the giant Thiazi, Skaði launched an attack on the gods in Asgard – the Aesir. Fearing Skaði’s anger, the Aesir came up with a way to appease her. Skaði was given the choice of one of the gods to take as a husband – on the condition that she choose him by his legs or feet alone. She chose Njörd, believing he was the god Balder, who was basically everyone’s favourite god.

The marriage between Skaði and Njörd didn’t work out, since Njörd was a sea god and Skaði spent her time in the mountains.
Southern Ningaui

## Ability

### Ability

**Small Prey****(Return)** Your opponent's cards, wherever they are, with 3 or less Base Energy cost +3 Energy for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

It would be easy to mistake the **Southern Ningaui** for a cute little rodent and want to give it a little pat on the head. But this little furball is actually A MINIATURE RAGE MONSTER. In fact, it’ll probably tell you everything you need to know if we mention upfront that it’s from the same family as the Tasmanian Devil. Although this one didn’t make it into a Looney Tunes cartoon.

They only grow to around 5cm long and weigh less than 15 grams but what they lack in size, they make up for in sass. They prey on insects and small lizards and consume their own body weight in tasty bug snacks. They’ve also been known to raid spider webs and eat whatever they find there.

You’re most likely to find them in Australia but you’ll be lucky to find them at all, due to their small size and the fact that they hide in burrows and in spinifex grass. You’ll notice that they’ve got a super bouncy spring in their step if you ever do spot one. That’s probably because they’ve been enjoying being a menace to bugs and lizards. Little fiend.
Seven Colored Earths

## Ability

### Ability

**A Matter of Coarse****(Play)** If it's after Round 2, your cards in hand gain +26 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

If you woke up near the **Seven Colored Earths** in the Chamarel plain of the Rivière Noire District in south-western Mauritius, you could be convinced you’d been transported to a distant planet. The psychedelic colours of the soft sand dunes in this surrealist landmark came about thanks to volcanic rocks cooling at different temperatures.

If you can’t visit this natural monument, don’t worry – apparently, this phenomenon can be recreated on a small scale by taking a handful of different coloured sands and mixing them. Eventually, the sands will separate into a layered spectrum. If you do travel to Mauritius to check these out in person, you won’t be able to walk on them. However, you can buy small test tubes filled with coloured sands in tourist shops nearby.
Scorpion Fly

## Did You Know?

We wish this was actually a scorpion that could fly, but alas.

The unusual name of this insect comes from the male members of a specific family of Scorpion Flies known as the Panorpidae. These males are known to often keep their abdomen raised in a way which resembles the stinging tail of scorpions. That's the real sting in the tail - the tail doesn't actually sting.

The oldest known fossil of the Scorpion fly dates back to 250 million years ago, which is why this insect is often known as ‘the living fossil’ (which is the least awesome superhero name, down there with Captain Taxes and Ms. Mrs.). As of today, there are over 600 different species of scorpion flies all over the world!
Red Dwarf

## Ability

### Ability

**No Strict Definition****(Play)** For every Album in your deck, your Exploring the Stars cards, wherever they are, gain +3 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

**Red Dwarfs** are like the Little Engine That Could of the galaxy - they may be small and cold, but they keep chugging along for trillions of years. Their flares are like fireworks - but instead of lighting up the night sky, they strip away atmospheres and make planets unliveable. Not great for aliens (or future humans in search of a new home.)

Nevertheless, Red Dwarfs are still thought to be the best targets in the search for extraterrestrial life, as their long lifetimes give any planets in their habitable zones a greater chance to develop life. In the Milky Way galaxy, Red Dwarfs are the most common type of star, making up 70% of all stars in our cosmic neighborhood.
Rocket Mail

## Ability

### Ability

**Astrophilately****(Draw)** 9 of your random Radical Rockets cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power until played. **(Return)** For every Radical Rockets card you have played this game, up to a maximum of 8, this card gains +10 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Letters not getting through? Tired of post office backlogs? For urgent communications, try **Rocket Mail**, where your letters are sent hurtling through the sky in a rocket or missile to their destination. This concept dates back to 1810, when German author Heinrich von Kleist proposed the idea of firing shells filled with letters from fixed artillery batteries.

According to his calculations, a network of such “mortar mail” batteries could be used to send a letter from Berlin to Breslau, 180 miles away, in just half a day. 150 years later, the United States’ Postmaster General conducted a successful experiment called Missile Mail in which a cruise missile carrying mail containers was launched from a submarine. Still, due to the high cost and failure rate, rocket mail never really got off the ground.
Skull and Bones

## Ability

### Ability

**The Brotherhood of Death****(Play)** Four of your random cards with "Death" in the name, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

You don’t have to wear a tinfoil hat to have heard of the elite club at Yale University known as the **Skull and Bones** Society. Formed in 1832 by William Huntington Russell and Alphonso Taft, the Skull and Bones society has long been central to several conspiracy theories - namely, that it is a branch of the Illuminati, or that it controls the CIA.
Yet, in a recent <link=""https:>Reddit AMA</link>, one “Bonesman” said the society did little else than hang out, watch movies, drink, play laser tag and “haze” the odd fresher. To be honest, it’s not hard to imagine George Bush (a known member of the Skull and Bones Society) doing drunken laser tag in his free time.
Rubik's Cube

## Ability

### Ability

**Three, by Three, by Three****(Play)** If played between two Arts and Culture cards, gain +27 Power/Turn for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

In 1974, Hungarian designer Erno Rubik created a model of a three dimensional cube using several blocks tied together with a rubber band. His goal? To solve the structural problem of how to move the blocks independently without the cube falling apart.

Little did Rubik know that he was on his way to creating a toy that would plague parents on rainy days and give kids bragging rights for decades to come. It was only after he fashioned the “magic cube”, scrambled it and tried to restore it that Erno Rubik realised he had created another puzzle - one he could not solve.

The cube was renamed and licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toy Corp, in 1980. Since then, over 450 million **Rubik’s Cubes** have been sold worldwide.
Silicon

## Ability

### Ability

**Chip off the Old Block****(Play)** Your Science cards in hand gain +15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Silicon (Si) is a naturally abundant element that makes up over 27% of the Earth’s crust - granite, rocks and sand all contain some degree of Silicon.

Silicon has many commercial uses, although most probably best known for Semiconductor manufacture. What makes it great for the electronics industry is that, despite looking like a metal, it only conducts electricity under certain circumstances which makes it safer for transporting electrical signals. The Silicon needs to be ultrapure though - even if more than one in one billion atoms of it is not silicon, it cannot be used!
Sleipnir

## Ability

### Ability

**Steed of Odin****(Draw)** Your Odin card in hand gains +70 Power until played. **(Play)** Repeat.

## Did You Know?

When you’re a powerful Norse war god and the King of Asgard, a standard horse just wouldn’t do. According to Norse mythology, Odin’s steed was an eight-legged shamanic healing horse called **Sleipnir**.

Sleipnir is described as the best and fastest of all horses – in fact, its name derives from Old Norse, meaning “slippy” or “the slipper” because the speed of the horse made it look like it was sliding through air.

Where did the horse come from? Some stories say Loki gave birth to Sleipnir after turning himself into a female horse. Because Loki is an Asgardian God and possesses superpowers, Sleipnir is bestowed superpowers too – notably, super strength, which allows the magic horse to lift up to 2 tonnes.
Sekhmet

## Did You Know?

Sekhmet is the ancient Egyptian goddess of healing, war and the Sun, sort of - as the daughter of Ra she's often considered a manifestation of his fiery rage. It's so nice when they join the family business.

One particularly mad myth about Sekhmet tells of the end of Ra's reign. Ra sends Hathor, who takes the form of his daughter, to murder anyone who conspired against him. Sekhmet isn't quite sated at the end of the battle and her bloodlust compels her to continue killing until she almost wipes out the whole human race. Ra comes up with a plan; he mixes beer and red dye so it resembles blood, then gives it to her (because she doesn't have a metaphorical bloodlust, it's an actual need to consume blood - myths do literal stuff like that sometimes). She gets so drunk on what she thinks is real blood that she gives up on killing everyone.

Thanks, beer!
SpaceX Falcon 9

## Ability

### Ability

**Commercial Launch****(Play)** If it's the first turn of a round, your cards in hand gain +9 Power this turn. **(Return)** A random Space card in your hand gains +39 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Got a spare $62 million lying around? You’ll be able to fund a launch of a **SpaceX Falcon 9** rocket, the world's first orbital-class reusable rocket. Between April and May of 2021, SpaceX launched 5 Falcon 9s in the space of three weeks. The fifth mission marked Falcon 9’s eighth trip to space, which culminated in a successful landing on SpaceX’s football field-size drone ship called “Of Course I Still Love You”, which is positioned a few hundred miles downrange from Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean.

Previously, the SpaceX Falcon 9 had launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, and three Starlink missions.
Shiba Inu

## Ability

### Ability

**Internet Famous****(Draw)** Gain +6 Power/Turn until this is returned to your deck.

## Did You Know?

Such dog. So meme. Sure - the **Shiba Inu** may be the most popular companion dog in Japan, but outside of Japan it is most famous as '**Doge**'. If this means nothing to you then well done, you've somehow sidestepped the internet.

Doge was the top meme of 2013, and has since been referenced in US Congress, on NASCAR sponsorship, in Google doodles and in airline safety videos.

What's it about? Really, who knows. But if you search for 'Doge' chances are you'll recognise the Shiba Inu.
Scotoplanes

## Ability

### Ability

**Sea Pig****(Return)** Your Venomous Creatures cards, wherever they are, gain +14 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If you love Micro Pigs, you’ll love **Scotoplanes**! …Okay, maybe not, but these little sea pigs deserve love, too. We may not be ready for sea cucumber cafés, but their short, podia legs give them a cute and chubby look that's perfect for the internet's "aww" crowd.

Like the vacuum cleaners of the deep sea, Scotoplanes love to chow down on detritus and other organic matter that’s settled on the ocean floor. They aren’t picky eaters, which is just as well because there aren’t many restaurants in the deep sea. Over the years, these adaptable little sea pigs have evolved to thrive at depths between 1,500 and 5000 metres. Being small and flexible allows them to withstand the high pressure of the deep ocean.

'A living Scotoplanes from Monterey Bay with a juvenile Neolithodes diomedae king crab sheltering beneath it' by NOAA/MBARI (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Soccer

## Ability

### Ability

**Back of the Net!****(Return)** If you won the turn, your cards, wherever they are, gain +6 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

The most widely played game on the planet, **Soccer** was originally called Association Football but was quickly shortened to ‘assoc’ and nicknamed ‘soccer’ soon after.

Soccer brings people together, makes grown men cry and is the inspiration behind a myriad of convoluted chants including Scotland’s fans’ threatening song in their 2007 World Cup qualifier game against Italy: “We’re gonna deep fry your pizzas”. Now that’s fighting talk.

## Fusion

 Caber Toss | 3
Rudyard Kipling

## Ability

### Ability

**The Jungle Book****(Play)** If your deck has 3 or more Mammals cards, your Life on Land cards, wherever they are, gain +5 Power until played. Repeat for Reptiles, Cool Cats and Primates.

## Did You Know?

By 1897, **Rudyard Kipling** was not only one of the most acclaimed authors of his time, but the highest paid writer in the whole world. For his literary success, Rudyard (née Joseph) has an inner “daemon” to thank, which he claims helped him write his most famous work, ‘The Jungle Book’. Hey, whatever works for you, dude.

A child of colonial India, Rudyard Kipling projected many of his feelings about belonging and alienation through the wolf-cub Mowgli, a boy raised away from people of his own kind. For his widely loved works of fiction, Kipling became Britain’s first Nobel laureate in literature, and even the Queen wanted to knight him. Writing aside, he did have some toxic political views, being an outspoken defender of the British Empire.
Roopkund

## Ability

### Ability

**Skeleton Lake****(Play)** Your Horrible Halloween cards in hand gain +25 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

In 1942, a British forest ranger made a disturbing discovery while patrolling the Indian Himalayas. Some 16,000 feet above sea level was a frozen lake strewn with hundreds of human skeletons. That summer, the ice melted in **Roopkund** lake, revealing even more skeletons. Who were these people and what happened to them?

One popular theory is that the skeletons belonged to an Indian king, his wife and their attendants, all of whom died in a blizzard over 800 years before. But when scientists analysed the remains of 38 bodies, they found that some dated back to around 1,200 years. Not only that, but some of the deaths were separated in time by as much as 1,000 years. To this day, what happened at Roopkund lake remains a mystery.
Samurai

## Ability

### Ability

**Honor and Respect****(Play)** If you are winning the round, this card loses -10 Power.

## Did You Know?

Samurai were the officer caste in medieval Japanese armies. They lived their lives according to a code of honour called Bushido, which features the following Eight Virtues:

Righteousness, Courage, Benevolence, Respect, Honesty, Honour, Duty and Self-Control.

..."Don't be a jerk", essentially. Wielding a variety of weaponry, the Samurai would commonly carry a Katana, a Wakizashi (short sword) or a Tantō (dagger).
Salamander

## Ability

### Ability

**Fiery Lizard Spirit****(Draw)** Two random Reptiles cards in your hand gain +25 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Their name means ‘fire lizard’ in Greek - and that’s no accident. You see, the ancient Greeks thought **Salamanders** were “fire spirits” who could pass through flames unharmed. So, in the first century AD, Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder put this theory to the test and chucked a salamander into a fire. He wanted to see if it could not only survive, but put the fire out altogether. Reader, it did not. As you probably guessed, the salamander burned to death.

But that didn’t stop the legend from persisting. From Ancient Rome to the Middle Ages and way into the Renaissance, salamanders were seen as magical fire-proof lizards. Some people even tried to weave them into fabric to make fire-resistant clothes. Their fate? Probably the same as Pliny’s salamander.
Sopdet

## Ability

### Ability

**Bringer of the Flood****(Play)** If it's the last turn of a round, your Egyptian Mythology and Oceans and Seas cards, wherever they are, gain +17 Power for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

We may celebrate the new year as a chance to set goals we’ll give up in March, but the Ancient Egyptians focused their attentions on “The Coming of **Sopdet**”. In their culture, Sopdet was the personification of the star Sirius as an Egyptian goddess.

This star was the most important of the stars to the ancient Egyptians, as it rose just before the sun each year, immediately before the annual flooding of the Nile River. In the early First Dynasty ivory tablets, Sopdet is depicted as a cow with a plant-like emblem between her horns. Later, she would go on to be depicted as a woman, and by the Roman period, the hybrid goddess Isis-Sopdet was depicted as a woman riding side-saddle on a large dog.

'Sopdet, the ancient Egyptian personification of the star Sirius' by Jeff Dahl (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Skylab

## Did You Know?

Oh sure, we could tell you how **Skylab** was a precursor to the International Space Station and orbited the earth from 1973 to 1979...

But instead let's talk about the shower.

Taking a shower in zero gravity poses some challenges. For a start, a shower curtain isn't enough: Skylab's shower required astronauts to erect a sealed cylinder around them.

Then there's water rationing. The average American shower uses 65 litres of water - on Skylab they used less than 3, and it was sucked away by a vacuum. As Paul Weitz, who has the honor of being the first man to shower in space, said: *"It took a fair amount longer to use than you might expect, but you come out smelling good."*
Shawarma

## Ability

### Ability

**I Don't Know What It Is, But I Wanna Try It.****(Play)** Five random cards from either player's hand gain +25 Power this turn (reveal before scoring).

## Did You Know?

**Shawarma** is a mouth-watering Middle Eastern meat treat whose origins can be traced back to the Ottoman Empire era. Served with either pita or laffa bread, thin shavings of meat are accompanied by tahini, onions and pickles. The word ‘shawarma’ comes from the Turkish word çevirme, which means “turning”, referring to the slowly rotating rotisserie.

This is what makes the Shawarma different to a kebab, as well as the fact that it comes in a wrap rather than on the skewer. Shawarma is one of the most popular types of street food in the Arab world, and one of the most tagged food on Instagram in the Middle East, receiving some 444,230 tags in several languages.

And look, if it’s good enough for The Avengers, it’s good enough for you.
Sir Gareth

## Ability

### Ability

**Beaumains, But Not An Archer****(Return)** The card opposite this costs +3 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

In Arthurian Legend, **Sir Gareth** was the youngest son of King Lot and Morgause, King Arthur’s half-sister, making him Arthur’s nephew and brother to Sir Gawain. Playing a significant role in Sir Thomas Malory’s *Le Morte d’Arthur*, Sir Gareth was one of the most chivalrous knights, having been knighted by and ultimately devoted to Sir Lancelot.

Tragically, when Sir Lancelot sought to save Queen Guinevere from burning at the stake, he slew Sir Gareth by accident. As you might have guessed, that didn’t sit well with Sir Gawain, who turned against Lancelot when he heard about his brother’s fate. It was the feud between Lancelot and Gawain that set the stage for Mordred’s takeover of the kingdom.
Silver

## Ability

### Ability

**Every Cloud****(Play)** Your cards with "Cloud" in their name, wherever they are, gain +39 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

From tableware to technology, jewellery, mirrors and medicine, **Silver** is used worldwide across a range of industries. This soft and shiny precious metal goes by the symbol Ag on the periodic table and is the best electrical and thermal conductor of all the metals.

Discovered in 5,000 BC, silver is often overshadowed by gold – yet this incredible metal is so vital to our lives. It also has natural antibacterial properties; the saying “born with a silver spoon” originates from wealthy families feeding their children with silver spoons for their germ-killing properties.

It’s not the cheapest to buy, but silver can make it rain – literally. The compound silver iodide has been used for cloud seeding, to cause clouds to produce rain and try to control hurricanes.
Scorpio

## Ability

### Ability

**Sign of the Scorpion****(Play)** Your King Scorpion and Emperor Scorpion cards in hand gain +38 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The phrase *”go with your gut”* is basically the slogan for **Scorpio**s. Born between October 23 to November 22, they are the most likely of the Zodiac signs to trust their intuition when making decisions. That seems to have worked out great for famous Scorpios such as Bill Gates and Julia Roberts (but perhaps not so great for another Scorpio, Hillary Clinton).

Although not an exact science by any means, astrology buffs say Scorpios tend to be passionate and assertive people with determination and focus rarely seen in other Zodiac signs. On the flip side, they’re also known to be ruthless and single-minded in pursuit of their objectives. If you stand in the way of a Scorpio on a mission, don’t be surprised if you get knocked down.
Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal

## Ability

### Ability

**Monumental Memory****(Play)** Your Taj Mahal card in hand gains +25 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Arranged marriages don’t always work out, but for **Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal**, it was a match to rival even the longest Tinder relationships. They were betrothed in their teens and got married five years later, which was an unusually long engagement at the time. Although, apparently, the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan wasn’t the most patient, as he first married Princess Kandahari Begum.

But Mumtaz was his true love, and once married, they spent nineteen years together and had fourteen children. Tragically, Mumtaz died when giving birth to their fourteenth child. Before she died, she asked the Emperor to build a monument that would show their love to the world. In her honour, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal.

'Mugahl emperor Shah Jahan and his empress Mumtaz Mahal.' by Shakespeare's England (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Southern White Rhinoceros

## Ability

### Ability

**CRASH!****(Play)** Your Black Rhinoceros card in hand gains +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

There are five species of **Rhino**, and it's the black and the white **Rhinos** that live in Africa. These majestic beasts are runner up in the biggest land-based mammal competition coming in behind elephants and despite their considerable bulk, a charging **Rhino** can reach speeds of 40Km/h (25 mph).

Although they live in conditions with little shelter from the sun, they're prone to sunburn and it is for this reason that **Rhino**love mud; it's a natural sunblock that protects them from UV rays, keeps them cool and prevents insect bites.

The **Southern White Rhino** has been a conservation success story but despite this, on average one white rhino is poached every day to supply the Asian traditional medicine market. It's cousin, the Northern White Rhino, has not fared so well - only two females remain on the entire planet at the time of writing.

The horn itself is made of keratin, a protein also found in our fingernails and hair. Because of this, a **Rhino's** horn will grow back if it's trimmed.
Shu

## Ability

### Ability

**He Who Rises Up****(Draw)** If you are losing the round, your cards in hand gain +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Imagine you’re suddenly transformed into an Egyptian god and are given the choice to control three things only: what would you pick? For **Shu**, an ancient Egyptian deity, it was Air, Wind and Lions. A pretty cool combination if you ask us.

Often depicted in a human form holding the ankh symbol, Shu (Egyptian for “emptiness” or “he who rises up”) was one of the first gods created by the creator/sun god Atum-Ra (Re). As the god of the air, Shu was the deity responsible for keeping the sky and earth from touching each other.

Together with his sister, Tefnut, they represent two fundamental principles of human existence: Shu symbolising the force of preservation and Tefnut symbolising air that brings about change.
Robert Henry Lawrence Jr.

## Ability

### Ability

**Normal Progression****(Play)** Your Space cards in hand gain +8 Power this turn and this card gains +8 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Robert Henry Lawrence Jr was the first African-American Astronaut and, despite the numerous achievements across his career, he remained a modest man. Commenting on the significance of his selection he remarked: “This is nothing dramatic. It’s just a normal progression. I’ve been very fortunate.” There may have been a bit of fortune in his rise to astronaut, but most of it was down to the fact he was an exceptional pilot who excelled at academia and theory.
After earning a degree in chemistry he joined the airforce and became a highly accomplished senior USAF pilot and then test pilot while also earning a PHD in physical chemistry, ultimately enrolling in the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program (MOL program).

Tragically his life was cut short in 1967 when he crashed his F-104 Starfighter jet while teaching flight test trainee Major Harvey Royer the landing techniques that would later be used for the Space Shuttle. Royer survived the incident but sadly Lawrence’s seat ejected sideways, killing him instantly.

Because of secrecy around the MOL program it wasn’t until 1990 (when the definitions of an astronaut were changed) that he received the recognition he deserved.
Safety Pin

## Did You Know?

In Ukraine, a **Safety Pin** is attached to children’s clothes to ward off evil spirits. In the Philippines, they are used to pin charms onto a baby’s clothing for good fortune. In the 1970s, punks wore them as a fashion statement.

The common Safety Pin sure has had a colourful past – one that stretches right back to the Bronze Age! Back then, it was a fibula – an ornamental clasp used to hold clothing together – but it didn’t keep the wearer safe from the sharp point. It would only be in 1849 that American mechanic Walter Hunt would design the modern safety pin which had a clasp on one end that protected the wearer – be they new-born baby or old-school punk.
Sidney Cotton

## Did You Know?

Inventor, pilot, spy. **Sidney Cotton** did it all. The Australian aviator was a pioneer when it came to aerial photo-reconnaissance and had even developed an early example of color film.

During WWI, Cotton designed the Sidcot flying suit, which helped pilots stay warm while flying at high altitudes. Which already sounds like a very cool achievement (or should we say, warm?) but that wasn’t enough for Cotton. Just as WWII broke out, Cotton used his charisma and charm to talk people into letting him fly over German bases (while claiming to be film producer, scouting locations) and secretly taking pictures with a camera hidden under his seat.

In fact, just as war broke out, Cotton was the last private flight to leave Berlin and casually flew over Germain airfields while secretly snapping away with his camera. During WWII, he led an aerial photographic unit, which earned the nickname “Cotton's Crooks”, due to Cotton being a bit of a scamp when it came to regulations. He also wore a badge with a reference to what he called the 11th Commandment - “Thou shalt not be found out.”
Semele

## Ability

### Ability

**A Mortal Mother****(Draw)** Your Dionysus card, wherever it is, gains +44 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

The Buzzcocks’ famous song comes to mind when recounting the story of **Semele**, for this Phoenician princess fell hard in love with someone she shouldn’t have fallen in love with.

A priestess in the temple of Zeus, Semele slaughtered a bull as a sacrifice to the great and powerful God. Zeus saw Semele and was smitten. Eventually, she became his mistress. When Zeus’ wife Hera found out about his infidelities, she used trickery to punish the girl. Taking the form of an old woman, she cast doubt in Semele’s mind and suggested Zeus was a catfish.

So, Semele asked Zeus to show her his true powers as proof. It was too much: no human could survive being confronted by the full majesty of a God, and she was killed instantly.
Shih Tzu

## Ability

### Ability

**Little Lion****(Return)** If your deck has 14 or more Life on Land cards, your Life on Land cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

They’re small, impossibly cute and their name means “Little Lion”. The **Shih Tzu** likely gets its name because of its association with the Tibetan God of Learning, who, according to legend, travelled with a small fluffy dog who could transform into a full-sized lion. While Shih Tzu’s can’t undergo metamorphosis, under their glamorous fur coats is a muscular frame that makes this breed excellent in agility training.

When China underwent its Communist Revolution, the Shih Tzu breed all but disappeared. Because their numbers dwindled during the first half of the 20th century, every Shih Tzu alive today can trace its lineage back to one of 14 dogs – seven males and seven females – that were used to rebuild the breed.