recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Agrippina the Elder

## Did You Know?

**Agrippina the Elder** was a distinguished and prominent Roman member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty of the first century. She was the wife of the general and statesman Germanicus and a relative to the first Roman Emperors.

She was quite the woman - the second granddaughter of Emperor Augustus, sister-in-law, stepdaughter and daughter-in-law of Emperor Tiberius (must get awkward at family reunions), mother of Emperor Caligula, maternal second cousin and sister-in-law of Emperor Claudius and the maternal grandmother of Emperor Nero.

Her life was complicated and dramatic, to say the least. She accompanied her husband Germanicus to Germany and to the East, where he died at Antioch in AD 19. On her return, she was livid and accused Tiberius of having had Germanicus murdered, and relations between them remained extremely tense, as one can imagine if you have just accused someone of murder...

Sejanus, Tiberius’ chief minister, encouraged the Emperor’s suspicion of her for his own twisted purposes, especially when the death of Tiberius’ son Drusus in AD 23 brought her sons into direct line for the succession.

In AD 29 **Agrippina** was exiled, and her son Drusus was imprisoned the next year. In AD 33, two years after the fall of Sejanus, they both died in suspicious circumstances of starvation. Tiberius was suspected of having ordered their deaths.

Of her nine children by Germanicus, one son and three daughters survived her, the son becoming Tiberius’ successor as the emperor Gaius Caligula.
Akechi Mitsuhide

## Ability

### Ability

**Assassin****(Play)** An opponent's random card in hand loses -20 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

**Akechi Mitsuhide** was Feudal Japan’s Aaron Burr - someone now more famous for his betrayal than his achievements. [NB We are assuming at this point that all sentient beings have either watched, listened to, or know the story of *Hamilton*.]

Mitsuhide rose through the ranks during Japan’s Warring States (or *Sengoku*) period, to eventually become one of Oda Nobunaga’s most trusted generals. It was a shock to everyone then, when in 1582 he turned his army of 13,000 soldiers on Nobunaga at Honno-Ji. Nobunaga died in the attack and Mitsuhide assumed responsibility.

The reasons for this betrayal are unclear. Was it spurred by the death of his mother, which was indirectly brought about by Nobunaga? Was it ambition, plain and simple? Or… and this theory is the ultimate get-out clause… did Nobunaga himself *ask* Mitsuhide to kill him?

Regardless - Mitsuhide’s subsequent reign as Shogun only lasted 13 days. The harder they come, the harder they fall.
Adventure Galley

## Ability

### Ability

**The Privateer's Ship****(Return)** If your deck contains Captain Kidd, your remaining Oceans and Seas cards in hand gain +15 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Built in 1695, the **Adventure Galley** was a hybrid vessel that combined three ship-rigged masts and two banks of oars, making for great manoeuvrability in storm or shine. She didn’t start life as a pirate ship, but that’s what she would become after years of travels across the Atlantic and Indian oceans in search of pirates proved fruitless.

By this point, captain William Kidd was desperate. Stressed at the lack of spoils from his trip, Kidd himself turned into a pirate. Finally, the Adventure Galley succeeded in capturing two ships off India - but by early 1698, the now pirate ship was a husk of what she once was. No longer sea-worthy, the Adventure Galley was sunk off the coast of Madagascar, never to be seen again.
Bluebell

## Ability

### Ability

**Bluebells in Bloom****(Play)** Your Flower Moon card, wherever it is, gains +29 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Known as Common **Bluebells**, English Bluebells, British Bluebells, wood bells, fairy flowers and wild hyacinth, these sweet-smelling flowers grow best in what Americans call “old growth forests” - ancient woodlands that have existed continuously since the middle ages.

If you love Bluebells, you need to get on board with ants. Why? Because ants help spread bluebell seeds, so if you stamp on them, you’re basically stopping bluebells from growing. If you hate Bluebells, don’t even think about digging them up: this species of flower is protected in the UK under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. You won’t go to jail for digging them up, but you will be heavily fined if you’re caught by the flower police\*.

* the flower police force may or may not exist.
Anne Bonny

## Ability

### Ability

**Dress to Kill****(Play)** Your opponent's cards in hand lose -8 Power this turn and your Calico Jack card in hand gains +35 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

A fiery-tempered redhead, with an unknown date of birth and no record of death - **Anne Bonny** was quite the archetypal pirate. One of the most famous female Pirates, she was the illegitimate daughter of a Layer and his servant, and was raised as a boy until her father's wife discovered her. This led to them moving to Carolina where Anne married a poor sailor turned Pirate and was cut off from her father's fortune.

The two then started their love story as a cute little Pirate couple... until Anne left her husband for the much cooler John "Calico Jack" Rackham. They stole a ship, she dressed as a boy again to join him in battle, then they had a child, and she was finally happy ever after!

Oh and then they got caught and sentenced to death.

But wait that's not all! Her execution was postponed as she was pregnant. And here the story ends, nothing else was ever recorded about **Anne Bonny** #girlpirate #notkeiraknightly.

'The pirate Anne Bonny' by Unknown (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered) https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/international-crimes/anne-bonny/
Angora Rabbit

## Ability

### Ability

**Hypoallergenic****(Draw)** Your Going Underground cards in hand cost -1 Energy until played. **(Play)** If played next to Pika, your cards adjacent to this gain +27 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Commonly described by owners as big docile balls of fur, **Angora Rabbits** are one of the oldest types of domestic rabbit, bred for the long fibres of their coats known as Angora wool. Although they’re almost unbearably cute and mellow as they come, these bunnies have so much fur that they need extra care and attention as they are unable to fully groom themselves sufficiently.

The Angora Rabbit is thought to have originated from Ankara in Turkey and been brought to France in the early 1700s. By the mid-18th century, they had become a favourite pet of the French royalty, and their popularity soon grew throughout Europe. Today, there are many sub-breeds of the Angora – the Jersey Woolly being the smallest, and the Giant Angora the largest.
Brontosaurus

## Did You Know?

A lot of fuss gets made about whether the Brontosaurus is actually just an Apatosaurus, so let's set the record straight.

When a series of fossilised remains were discovered, The People That Name Animals And Sometimes Dinosaurs were quick to name it the Brontosaurus ("Thunder Lizard", a very awesome name). A few decades later a paleontologist named Elmer Riggs decided it was too close to the earlier-discovered Apatosaurus, and bam! The Brontosaurus went extinct again.

However, a study in 2015 which took into account 81 different sauropod species concluded that the Brontosaurus was different enough to be its own creature again! Yay!
Alaskan Malamute

## Ability

### Ability

**Dog of the Last Frontier****(Return)** A random card in your hand gains +50 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

The **Alaskan Mamalute** is one of the oldest breeds of Arctic sledge dogs, bred for their strength, endurance and ability to haul heavy freight through treacherous conditions. But there’s more to this breed than its job. They are believed to be a descendant of the domesticated wolf-dogs who accompanied the Paleolithic hunters that crossed the land bridges of the Bering Strait and migrated into North America roughly 4,000 years ago.

Affectionate, loyal and more than a little sassy, Alaskan Malamutes throw their unrivalled work ethic behind everything they do—even playtime! Thanks to their double coat, they won’t have a single problem going for walkies in the freezing winter snow – so be prepared to wrap up warm and venture out into the wilderness if you adopt a Malamute!
Brain-computer Interface

## Ability

### Ability

**Cybernetics****(Play)** If you have played Personal Computer this game, this card gains +15 Power. Repeat for The Brain.

## Did You Know?

It sounds like a concept that couldn’t exist beyond the realms of science fiction, but the **Brain-computer Interface** is a very real and tangible device that we can buy today. In simple terms, Brain-computer Interface (BCI) technology allows a human brain and an external device to talk to one another.

Research on BCIs first began in the 1970s by Jacques Vidal at the University of California, LA. In the five decades that followed, BCI technology evolved to become smarter. Don’t worry, a BCI device can’t project your thoughts on a wall for the world to see but, by leveraging multiple sensors and complex algorithms, it’s now becoming possible to analyse and extract relevant brain patterns – no surgical intervention required!
Archelon

## Ability

### Ability

**Southward Migration****(Draw)** For every round completed this game, this card loses -15 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Although not all prehistoric creatures were ginormous, a lot of them were. We’re talking 130-foot dinos, dragonflies the size of your arm and sharks that made whales look small. **Archelon** is a perfect example.

This giant sea turtle grew up to 15 feet long and weighed two tons - for context, that’s around the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Also known as the Ruling Turtle, Archelon once reigned over the shallow waters of the North American inland sea. Unlike many turtles, its shell wasn’t really a shell at all, but more of a leathery carapace that helped Archelon swim faster as well as offering a layer of protection.

Although it mostly ate squid and jellyfish, Archelon’s strong jaw and sharp beak suggests it was also partial to mollusks and crustaceans.
Antihistamines

## Ability

### Ability

**Alleviate Allergy****(Draw)** Your cards in hand gain +12 Power until played and if you are losing the round, your Brilliant Human Body cards in hand gain +36 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

We’ve all been there: packed our suitcase, chosen a good book and headed off somewhere sunny for a vacation. Things are perfect, until you wake up the following morning festooned in mosquito bites. The chances are you’ve reached for a packet of this wonder drug to ease the itch.

The keen eyed among you may have noticed **Antihistamine** is made up of two words: the first being ‘anti’ meaning opposed to or against, the second one is histamine which is a bit trickier. Histamine is an organic nitrogenous compound created by the body as an immune response to foreign invaders (it’s pretty important) including allergens.

Mast Cells (immune cells) are dispatched to the location and release histamine which makes its way to nerve cells and attaches itself to protein receptors. When it binds, it ultimately sends a response to your brain, creating an itch. Antihistamine prevents the binding part of the process.
Attila the Hun

## Ability

### Ability

**Flagellum Dei****(Return)** Gain +15 Power/Turn for 3 turns and both player's The Roman Empire cards, wherever they are, cost +4 Energy for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

His favourite hobby was pillaging Roman cities, and he made a name for himself as one of the most brutal “barbarian” rulers in history: **Attila the Hun** called himself ‘flagellum Dei’ (the Scourge of God), built a vast empire across Eurasia and almost brought the mighty Roman Empire to its knees.

As well as killing his own brother to seize absolute power, Attila invaded Gaul to win himself a wife, despite already having several. But she wasn’t enough, and in 453, he decided to take another wife. On the evening of their wedding, Atilla feasted and drank late into the night. The next morning, he was found dead in the bridal chamber. It appeared he had suffered from a nosebleed and choked to death on his own blood.
Acrocanthosaurus

## Ability

### Ability

**Grow a Spine****(Play)** Your Paleontology cards in hand gain +20 Power this round. **(Play)** If your deck has only Paleontology cards, they gain an extra +15 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

The **Acrocanthosaurus** was the largest predator of its time (the Early Cretaceous Period). Only one species has been discovered to date, in Atoka County in Oklahoma in 1950.

Its forearms were short, but it still would have beaten T-Rex in an arm wrestle. (If arm-wrestling was a thing back then, which it wasn’t, and if it had co-existed with the T-Rex, which it didn’t.)

Palaeontologists are unsure about the Acrocanthosaurus’ dorsal spines - some of which were a foot long. They may have comprised a ‘sail’ as per the Spinosaurus, but as some of the spines had attachments for muscles, this is now in doubt. Instead, researchers believe the spines would have supported a fatty hump running down the creature’s back, and which may have helped with thermoregulation, or may have just been about showing off to other dinosaurs. Remember this was before Ferraris existed. A hump was *quite* the accessory.
Arrowhead Crab

## Did You Know?

**Arrow Crabs**, as you’ll have guessed, are named after their excessively pointy heads. With their long spidery legs they might look intimidating, were it not for the googly eyes that look like they were stuck on by your 4-year-old niece.

The young of **Arrow Crabs** are called *Zoea* - presumably, the parents were going for a cool misspelling, and Aliviyah and Liahm were already taken. At this stage they are transparent, so any childhood claims that no-one paid attention to them are easily explained. Eventually, they moult and enter what is known as the *Megalops* stage (no really, look it up) - which is when they take on their crab form.
Al Khazneh

## Ability

### Ability

**Petra-fied****(Draw)** Your Ancient Egypt cards in hand cost -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Al Khazneh is one of the most beautiful and elaborate temples in Petra, a city of the Nabatean Kingdom inhabited by the Arabs in ancient times. As with most of the other buildings in this ancient town, including the Monastery, this structure was carved out of a stunning sandstone rock face, probably during the second half of the reign of King Aretas IV (ruled 9 B.C. - 40 A.D.).

Just like something straight out of Indiana Jones\*, the Pharaoh's Treasury ("Khazneh al-Fira'un", "al-Khazneh" for short) is almost 40 meters high and intricately decorated with Corinthian friezes, figures and more. The Treasury is crowned by a funerary urn, which according to local legend and the Bedouins, conceals a pharaoh’s treasure...

* Actually, LITERALLY out of Indiana Jones - it played the exterior of the temple that housed the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The interior of the temple was shot at the decidedly less exotic Elstree Studios in England.
Atlantis

## Ability

### Ability

**Sunken Glory****(Return)** This card costs -6 Energy and gains +50 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Right off the bat, let's get this straight - **Atlantis** was made up by Plato. His story tells of the half-god-half-human Atlanteans, who constructed a utopian continent which had everything in abundance - food, precious metals, exotic wildlife.

He didn't specify where it was located exactly, but he did say that it was at its peak 9,000 years before his own time - and then it disappeared, destroyed and sunken into the ocean by some unknown force.

What he did specify was its size - he reckoned it was "larger than Libya and Asia combined", which is geographically questionable but he was working with limited cartographic data at the time, cut him some slack. He also said that its legend had been passed down to him by generations of poets and priests, but his stories are the only known record of it...

It's pretty much unquestionably not real, then, but there is probably some truth in the story. Plato was philosophising about some heavy themes at the time - the divine vs humanity, human corruption, utopia and so on - and those themes were channelled into the story of **Atlantis** as a cautionary tale for what he saw happening in his hubristic society.

Plus, there is the devastation of Santorini. Populated by the Minoans around 3,600 years ago, the island was levelled and ruined by a massive volcanic eruption - after which the Minoans were never heard from again. The story of **Atlantis** may have been inspired by this event.

A 2020 study postulated that, if it did exist, it would probably be in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Plato specified that it was beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, and a particular area called Rockall is subject to all kinds of tectonic activity. Who knows, maybe there are the remains of an ancient civilisation down there?
Capture of Guam

## Ability

### Ability

**Without Resistance****(Draw)** If you are tied in the round, this card loses -40 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

T’was a bright summer’s day in 1898; the Spanish governor of Guam was just kicking back, enjoying island life. When, seemingly out of nowhere, a single U.S. Navy cruiser arrived on the shore as part of a plan to capture the island of Guam.

To the Spanish garrison, it came as a bit of a shock. They had no knowledge of the Spanish-American war, and neither did the governor. At the time, there was only a small Spanish military presence on the island, and when the U.S.S Charleston showed up, the crew were actually disappointed that there were no Spanish ships to engage for the **Capture of Guam**.

Although the governor initially refused to surrender, he quickly changed his mind without a fight when he learned of the outbreak of hostilities.
Calabash Nebula

## Ability

### Ability

**Rotten Eggs****(Play)** Your cards with "Egg" in their name, wherever they are, gain +29 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Last one to the cosmos is a Rotten Egg Nebula – or should we say, a **Calabash Nebula**! Located about 5,000 light-years away toward the constellation of Puppis, this area gets its unfortunate nickname because it contains a lot of sulphur – an element that, when combined with other elements, smells like a rotten egg. Thankfully, 5,000 lightyears is a far enough distance that you won’t catch a whiff of it on Earth.

Astronomers say that the Calabash Nebula is a perfect example of the death of a low-mass star like the Sun. Through the Hubble Space Telescope, an image was taken of the star going through a rapid transformation from a red giant to planetary nebula, blowing outer layers of gas and dust out into the surrounding space.

'The Calabash Nebula' by ESA/Hubble (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Caño Cristales

## Ability

### Ability

**Rainbow Waters****(Draw)** A random card from each Album in your hand gains +18 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Visit **Caño Cristales** between June to November and you might just witness one of Mother Nature’s most dazzling displays. The 62.1-mile-long river flows through Columbia’s Serranía de la Macarena national park, in the province of Meta. Some call it the River of Five Colours, others know it as simply “liquid rainbow.”

So, what causes this other-worldly phenomenon? It turns out that the colours are produced during the reproductive process of the aquatic plants in the river. When the wet season is in full swing and the river runs high, the sun can’t hit the plants below. During the dry season, the plants don’t get enough water. Catch the Caño Cristales between the two and you’ll see something that happens nowhere else in the world.
Caribbean Reef Octopus

## Ability

### Ability

**Master of Disguise****(Draw)** If your deck has 3 or more Espionage cards, your Oceans and Seas cards, wherever they are, gain +30 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

It may be small, reaching only 5 to 12 cm in size, but the **Caribbean Reef Octopus** is one of the most intelligent invertebrates in the ocean. Challenge this cephalopod to a game of hide and seek and you may never find it at all.

Why? Because, like other cephalopods, the Caribbean Reef Octopus can use cells called chromatophores to change its colour almost instantaneously to blend in with its surroundings. Not only that, but the octopus’ incredible control of its skin and muscles means it can change its texture to match whatever object it’s camouflaging with. It could be right in front of you sat on a rock and you’d be none the wiser!
Abyssinian

## Did You Know?

When it comes to the history of the domestic cat, the **Abyssinian** has had a front-row seat. One of the oldest types of cat in existence, the breed is named after Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), where it is thought to have originated.

From its origins in antiquity, it has maintained relevance in the modern day; shout out to an Abyssinian named Cinnamon, the first domestic cat to have its entire genome published.

For a cat, the Abyssinian possesses very dog-like characteristics such as a desire for affection and dependence on humans. That would explain why the Abyssinian usually ranks in the top five most popular cat breeds in the world. Due to their extroverted and playful demeanour, Abyssinians are known as the Clowns of the Cat Kingdom – of course, their claws probably restrict them from making balloon animals.
Battle of Bach Dang (938)

## Ability

### Ability

**History Repeating****(Play)** For each History card you have played this game, up to a maximum of 15, give your History cards in hand +1 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

When you don’t succeed at first, try and try again. Then keep trying, for over a thousand years. That’s what the Vietnamese people did to achieve their independence from China, and after more than one thousand years of Chinese occupation, they finally did it. It all culminated in the **Battle of Bach Dang** in the year 938 AD.

Feeling confident, the Southern Han state of China sent a fleet to the Bach Dang River to meet a fleet led by Ngô Quyền (a Vietnamese monarch). Little did they know, Ngô Quyền’s force had already set up sharpened stakes on the river bed. The two sides fought on the river, but eventually, the Vietnamese forces lured their enemy into their underwater trap, destroying their army and Southern Han never attacked the Vietnamese again.
Caracal

## Did You Know?

The pin-up of the wild cat world, the Caracal has a sleek body and beautiful reddish-brown fox-like fur. The pièce de résistance though are the long tufts of black fur at the tops of the ears, which twitch to communicate with other species.

Sometimes referred to as a Desert Lynx. Caracal is not only beautiful but it's among the fastest of the small cats - they've been clocked at 50 miles per hour!
Bertrand Russell

## Ability

### Ability

**First Principles****(Play)** If it's the first turn of a round, a random card in your hand loses -20 Power and gains +40 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

With an IQ of at least 180, it’s fair to say that **Bertrand Russell** was an incredibly intelligent man. A philosopher, logician and mathematician, Russell wrote the essay ‘On Denoting’, which has been described as one of the most influential essays in philosophy in the 20th Century.

Here’s the “TL;DR” on his works: Russell believed that the goal of both science and philosophy was to understand reality, not simply to make predictions. He wrote that the physical world around us is just an abstract structure - and his works were so influential that he went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

This man is responsible for not only destroying the foundations of mathematics but for rebuilding them too. The Russell Paradox shook the core of academia in 1903 by challenging the axioms that mathematics were based on by suggesting that the set of all sets could not contain itself. The analogy Russell used is this;

If a barber is “the person who shaves the beards of men in a village that do not shave themselves”, does he shave himself? If he shaves himself, he ceases to be the barber; but if he doesn’t shave himself, he fits into the group of people who should be shaved by the barber, so he *has* to shave himself, right?

As if to make up for breaking everyone’s brains with logic, in his 1910 book Principia Mathematica, he casually proved that 1+1=2. But even though ol’ Berty proved the rules, he didn’t always play by them. In fact, on two occasions, he was arrested and jailed for political activism.
Antimony

## Ability

### Ability

**You're Not Alone!****(Play)** This card loses -17 Power permanently and the card opposite this loses -17 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Don’t be deceived by its looks, Antimony is not a metal and is in fact classified as semi-metallic or a semi-metal which means it overlaps at the bottom of the Conduction Band and the top of the Valence Band (which is basically a scale to determine the electrical conductivity of the solid).
It’s predominantly used in car batteries as an alloy with lead (it makes it stronger) and some ammunition. Pewter used to make drinking tankards also contains Antimony, which is mildly alarming as it has a similar toxicity to arsenic.
Black Brant

## Ability

### Ability

**Sounding Out****(Play)** Your Musically Minded and Instrumental cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

How are energy and momentum transported between different regions of space that are magnetically connected? To answer this question, NASA Wallops Flight Facility just north of Bermuda launched the **Black Brant** XII rocket, carrying a KiNET-X payload. The Black Brant XII comes from a long line of Canadian designed sounding rockets originally built by Bristol Aerospace. Over 800 Black Brants have been launched since their creation in 1961; this type of rocket remains one of the most popular sounding rockets ever built. Fast forward to 2021. Two vapour clouds from Black Brant XII’s payload will generate a magnetic field perturbation and electrons will be energised, according to NASA's breakdown. Those clouds will help scientists to study atmospheric winds in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere.
Battle of Waterloo (1815)

## Ability

### Ability

**I Feel Like I Win When I Lose…****(Return)** If you lost the turn, gain +120 Power/Turn next turn.

## Did You Know?

When Napoleon surrendered at the **Battle of Waterloo**, he couldn’t have imagined that, almost 160 years later, a Swedish group would sing about it in their entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. And to be fair, he probably had a lot on his mind. After all, this was a battle that brought an end to a 23-year war - a battle that concluded France’s attempts to dominate Europe.

Fought near Waterloo village, Belgium, it pitted Napoleon's 72,000 French troops against the duke of Wellington's army of 68,000 soldiers aided by 45,000 Prussians. Napoleon stans clearly couldn’t conceive the idea that their leader would lose, so came up with this bizarre myth that suggests the only reason for the loss was Napoleon’s haemorrhoids, which kept him from surveying the battlefield that morning.

## Playing Notes

This card can be used strategically in different ways. Play with cards like Hippocrates or after Cheese Rolling to increase your chance of triggering the ability. This card is particularly helpful if you are targeting specific rounds because you can play it on turn 3 of one round to get the benefit as a head start for the next round.
Behemoth

## Ability

### Ability

**Behold Now****(Return)** All remaining cards in both player's hands with 80 or more Base Power gain +50 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

We may throw its name around to describe pretty much anything that’s large in size, but **Behemoth** is actually a being in its own right. Originating in the biblical Book of Job, this beast is a “chaos monster” that God made at the beginning of creation along with another monster called Leviathan.

Most interpretations of Behemoth say its appearance is like that of an animal of the natural world – most commonly, the hippopotamus, but it’s also been interpreted to look like the elephant, the crocodile and the water buffalo. According to Jewish legend, Leviathan and Behemoth will battle each other at the end of time, but then their mighty Creator will take his mighty sword and slay them both. #FATALITY
Berserkers

## Ability

### Ability

**Blood Rage****(Play)** This card loses -12 Power this turn. **(Return)** This card gains +26 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

During the Viking Age, “warrior shamans” fell into two groups: **Berserkers** (from the Old Norse word berserker meaning “bear shirts” and Úlfhéðnar (Old Norse for “wolf skins”). The berserkers are said to have fought in a trance-like fury, which later gave rise to the English word ‘berserk’, meaning “furiously out of control.”

Some authors of Norse mythology suggest the berserkers drew their power from the bear and were all part of some wild bear cult, which was once prominent across the northern hemisphere. A few scholars even suggest berserkers could shapeshift into actual bears. One of the more hotly contested theories is that the berserkers didn’t use bear magic, but ingested a hallucinogenic mushroom, commonly known as fly agaric, just before battle to induce their trancelike state.
Capybara

## Did You Know?

The **Capybara** is the largest rodent in the world. At 50-60 centimeters tall and 110-130 centimeters long, adults are about the size of a medium sized dog. But you wouldn't want them as a house pet, as they are known to indulge in an eating behaviour called *coprophagia*.

Before we go any further, let me just clarify that they do this because it helps them to digest their food more efficiently. Their diet is primarily leaves, so they need more 'texture' in their food intake.

Which doesn't change the fact that **they eat their own poop**.
Blue Dragon

## Ability

### Ability

**Surface Tension****(Return)** An opponent's random card in hand **Lock**s next turn and your opponent's cards, wherever they are, lose -4 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Although it’s nicknamed the **Blue Dragon**, the blue glaucaus doesn’t breathe fire. In fact, unlike similar species, the Blue Dragon isn’t venomous by itself. This rare type of sea slug does, however, collect explosive cells from its favourite prey (the Portuguese Man o’ war) and stores them within its own tissue to protect against predators. They may look soft and squishy, but if you were to pick a blue dragon up, you might get a nasty sting.
Black Guillemot

## Ability

### Ability

**Volcanic Settler****(Play)** Your Volcanic Eruption card in hand gains +50 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Let me tell you about the volcanic island of Surtsey. It's a few miles south of Iceland, and was formed in 1973 when an underwater volcano pushed the earth up so high that it formed a landmass. It's likely that the island, created in such a violent and volatile manner, will disappear back into the ocean within the next couple of years.

What I'm trying to say is that you wouldn't want to live there, but the **Black Guillemot** thought otherwise - they were among the first species to begin breeding on the island.

The **Black Guillemot** is known for being fussy about which direction they hold fish in their bills. Ornithologists studied the behaviour, but haven't come to a conclusion as to why they do - it could be that it's similar to the way humans are left- or right-handed.
Cyonids

**A curious but reclusive people, not much is known about the Cyonids. Although not fey beings themselves, their culture and known history is closely intertwined with Cyonid often settling near places that bridge the gap between the Material Plane and the Feywild. Many have speculated just where the Cyonid have came into being. The two prominent theories being that they are an experiment by an Archfey, or simply a fey's pet that had evolved through the powerful magicks of the Feywild.**

#### **Cyonid Appearance**

**Although rarely seen, there have been some accounts of what they look like. Often described as short as a halfling and twice as plump, it seems most Cyonids are around 3ft tall. Not many have been seen but it appears that their fur is similar in colour as the raccoons of the Material Plane, though there are rumors of spotting Cyonids with brown, white, red, and golden fur, with any number of patterning.**

#### **Cyonid Names**

**Because of their reclusive nature, not much is known about the Cyonids  true names, which are believed by many to be their Feywild name and Sylvan in nature. However, from the brief encounters with them, it seems they tend to adopt the names of the people around them, often taking on an elvish or gnomish sounding name.**

#### **Cyonid Traits**

**Cyonids  have many traits that are tied to their connection to the Feywild.**

**Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.**

**Age. Cyonids mature around 4 years old, and most live to 250 years old. There are rumors that they can live to over 1000 years old.**

**Alignment. Much like the Fey they spend most of their time with, Cyonids  are quite curious and love to play tricks on each other and outsiders. They are typically chaotic creatures, with good and evil spread equally among them.**

**Size. Most Cyonids  are around 3 feet tall and average about 60lbs, often having round, plump bodies. Your size is Small.**

**Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 feet.**

**Lesser Darkvision. Often enjoying dawn and dusk, Cyonids  have become somewhat accustomed to dim light. You can see in dim light within 30 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.**

**Cyonids  Cunning. You have advantage on all Intelligence, and Charisma saving throws against magic.**

**Poison Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.**

**Reclusive Nature. You have proficiency in the Stealth skill.**

**Innate Spellcasting. You know the vicious mockery cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the charm person spell once per day. When you reach 5th level, you can also cast the pass without trace spell once per day. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.**

**Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan.**

**Credit: Remko Troost**
Candles

## Ability

### Ability

**It's Lit****(Play)** If you have played Zippo Lighter this game, this card gains +45 Power. **(Return)** If you have played Zippo Lighter this game, your opponent's remaining cards in hand **Burn** (25) until played.

## Did You Know?

You know what goes well with birthday cakes? Sticks of burning whale fat. That’s what the earliest surviving **Candles** of Han China, around 200 BC, were made from. Evidence shows that in India, candles were being made around the same time from a residue of boiling cinnamon, which is definitely more appetising than whale blubber.

However, according to the history books, it was the Ancient Greeks who first combined cake with candles. The idea behind this was to represent the glowing moon in honour of Artemis, the Goddess of the hunt and the moon. It only became a birthday tradition to top the cake with an increasing number of candles in the 1700s, as every candle represented another passing year.
Calculus

## Did You Know?

The bane of high school maths students everywhere, Calculus has a bad rep. However, in a universe where everything is moving, a branch of mathematics devoted to rates of change is essential.

The applications of Calculus are far-reaching - from how to construct a sports arena to planning the launch of a satellite… and really important things like realism in video games.

At this point in 2020, however, you are most likely to stumble across calculus in the field of pandemic modelling. So even if we hated it in high school, let’s be thankful to Newton and Leibniz - the founders of Calculus.
Buffalo Bill

## Ability

### Ability

**Put on a Show****(Draw)** Your Legends of the Old West cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power for 4 turns and if you are losing the round, gain an additional +25 Power for 4 turns.

## Did You Know?

Without **Buffalo Bill**, there most likely wouldn’t be this Legends of the Old West collection. In touring the show *Buffalo Bill’s Wild West* around the world, he turned the stories of ‘cowboys and Indians’ into a mainstay of entertainment - blurring the lines of fact and fiction considerably in the process.

The show was such as huge success - with stars such as Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, and Sitting Bull (not actors… the actual people) - that it even managed to draw Queen Victoria to her first public performance in 20 years since her husband died. She enjoyed it so much she had a repeat commissioned for her Jubilee.

By 1900 Buffalo Bill was considered the most recognisable celebrity on Earth. But away from these achievements, it’s worth bringing attention to his progressive views, and his willingness to go on the record with them.

```
   - He fought to abolish slavery - perhaps not surprising given that his father was stabbed (later dying from his wounds) for speaking out against slavery.

```

```
   - He was a conservationist, advocating for a dedicated hunting season.

```

```
   - He was an advocate for Native Americans (even if they were the ‘villains’ in his shows), explaining, “Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government."

```

```
   - And on the topic of suffrage, he was - and sadly, still is - ahead of his time: “What we want to do is give women, even more, liberty than they have. Let them do any kind of work they see fit, and if they do it as well as men, give them the same pay."

```

Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that from Buffalo Bill either, but there we go.
Apus

## Ability

### Ability

**Bird of Paradise****(Play)** If your deck has 3 or more Space cards, your Birds cards, wherever they are, gain +15 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

When dried skins of birds of paradise were first brought to Europe, they were described as having no feet. An error of course, but one that persisted long enough for a constellation to be named “**Apus**” meaning “without feet” because it looked (very slightly) like a bird of paradise.

Covering an area of 206 square degrees, Apus ranks a lowly 67th among the 88 constellations of the night sky. It was first depicted on a celestial globe in 1598 by Petrus Plancius and charted on a star atlas by Johann Bayer in his 1603 Uranometria. All of the five brightest stars within the Apus constellation have a reddish hue - the biggest of all being an orange giant thought to be around 48 times the diameter and 928 times the luminosity of our sun.
Bennu

## Ability

### Ability

**Rise In Brilliance****(Play)** For every round completed this game, your Birds cards, wherever they are, gain +5 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

“He Who Came Into Being By Himself”, “Lord of Jubilees”, or “**Bennu**” to his mates, Bennu was intrinsically involved in the creation of the world - as Ra’s Ba (to only his close mates) and enabler of Atum’s creative powers, Bennu was also linked with Osiris, as another symbol of rebirth. It’s even thought that he was the inspiration behind the phoenix!

Although Bennu is depicted now as a giant gray heron, it hasn’t always been this way. It’s originally thought that in the ancient Pyramid texts he was possibly known as a kingfisher, but remains of a very fearsome sounding human-sized heron have been found, likely to be the deity’s real life model.
Bran Castle

## Ability

### Ability

**Lair of the Count****(Play)** Your Count Dracula card in hand gains +65 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Situated on a cliff at an elevation of 762 metres, **Bran Castle** in Transylvania is often associated with the dark myth of Count Dracula, a blood-sucking vampire who could give Edward Cullen a run for his money. Completed by 1382, in record time, Bran Castle was originally built to defend Transylvania’s border and included a customs station.

In Bram Stoker’s famous gothic horror novel, Count Dracula lives in a creepy castle perched high above a valley. The resemblance to Bran Castle is uncanny, yet Stoker never actually visited the castle or even set foot in Romania.

Still, you probably wouldn’t want to stay overnight in Bran Castle and, even if you wanted to, the castle is now a private museum.
Bodybuilding

## Ability

### Ability

**Pump it****(Play)** If your deck contains Atlas and Weightlifting, your cards in hand gain +9 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

A quick look at statues from ancient Greece should tell you that **Bodybuilding** isn’t brand new. Long before the days of steroids, supplements and gym bros asking how much you bench, people were lifting weights to build muscle and gain strength. Back then, people lifted stones of various sizes in their quest for body transformation. But it wasn’t until the early 20th century that the sport shifted to focus largely on aesthetics.

For modern bodybuilding as we know it, we have professional strongman Eugen Sandow to thank. Sandow wasn’t just a big guy who could lift heavy things - he had the chiselled physique to boot. Sandow influenced a new generation of weightlifters and hosted the world's first major bodybuilding competition in 1901.
Brown Dwarf

## Did You Know?

Get the violins out, because Brown Dwarfs are often called 'failed stars'. They are too small to fuse hydrogen-like normal stars, but they are too big to be considered planets so they just kind of sit in a cosmic limbo, forever.

At least they're not alone out there - it's estimated that there are 25 billion Brown Dwarfs out there - it's just very hard to see them.

'Powerful Auroras Found at Brown Dwarf' by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Source: Flickr) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Black Rain Frog

## Ability

### Ability

**Super Squat****(Play)** If your deck contains Weightlifting, your Good Sports cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

When we’re cranky, we’ll huff, slam some doors and play “One Step Closer” by Linkin Park VERY LOUDLY. When the **Black Rain Frog** gets grumpy, it’ll puff up like an angsty black balloon. And if you do a quick Google image search, you’ll notice that almost every picture is a frog balloon because these little guys get mad a lot.

The Black Rain Frog hails from the southern coast of Africa and is a burrowing frog, meaning they prefer to lurk underground rather than hang out round the lily pond like their other froggy relatives. They’re solitary beasts, however when mating season comes along, they will venture out of their burrows to find a wee friend. During this time, the female frog will secrete a sticky substance on her back so that the males don’t fall off. A truly classy lassie.

Fun fact - the Black Rain Frog’s young do not have a tadpole stage but emerge from their eggs as a teeny tiny version of the adult. In this stage, they’re called froglets. And, yes, they’re still mad at you.
Baseball

## Ability

### Ability

**Home Run****(Play)** Your cards in hand with 4 or less Base Power gain +27 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

**Baseball** may be America’s national pastime, but historians can’t say for sure who first invented it. What we do know is that, in 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional baseball team, with eleven other teams following in their footsteps later that year.

Despite its uncertain origins, the bat and ball game has grown to become a global sport. When it comes to world records, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth are the only players in Major League Baseball that have hit more than 700 home runs. Opened in 1912, Boston’s Fenway Park is the oldest MLB stadium, and it’s also the smallest stadium being used by an MLB baseball team – the Boston Red Sox.
Bhangarh Fort

## Ability

### Ability

**Casted Shadow****(Return)** Your remaining cards in hand lose -15 Power next turn.

## Did You Know?

Welcome to **Bhangarh Fort**! The time is approximately 4pm, so we’ve got another couple of hours maximum before we have to get the HELL OUT OF HERE. No big deal or anything, but the locals say anyone who ever managed to go inside the fort at night never returned to tell the tale.

Located in Rajasthan, this 16th century fort was built by Bhagwant Das for his son Madho Singh. According to one story, a wizard versed in black magic fell in love with a Bhangarh princess who lived in the fort. One day, he followed her and offered her a love potion. She said no, and threw the potion onto a rock that rolled onto the wizard, crushing him to death. That’s one way to get your heart broken!
Battle on the Ice

## Did You Know?

Did the Russian forces led by Alexander Nevsky and Teutonic Knights fight each other on the frozen surface of Lake Peipus in 1242? Yes. But did the ice crack under the weight of the armour, causing knights and crusaders to drown? <link="https:>No. You’re wrong. It’s fiction. It’s an urban legend that never happened. It’s false.</link>

That’s according to historians, who say that accounts from the Battle on the Ice have been embellished to sound more dramatic. There are varying accounts of how many fighters each side had, but the Russian account says 10,000 to 12,000 knights were gathered on one side, facing 15,000 to 17,000 of Nevsky’s soldiers. In the end, Nevsky’s forces emerged victorious, marking an end to the Crusaders’ campaign against the Orthodox Novgorod Republic.
ADEOS II

## Did You Know?

Advanced Earth Observing Satellite ‘Part Deux’. As its name suggests, it’s the second catchily named **ADEOS** and was an attempt to continue and improve on the work of its predecessor.

Launching in December 2002, this Japanese satellite was designed to monitor the water and the energy cycle, biomass in relation to the carbon cycle and climate change. ADEOS II had a tragically short working life, as it went silent on 23 October 2003 after a solar panel failure. Scientists gave up attempts to revive it and finally had to say adios to ADEOS.
Borzoi

## Ability

### Ability

**Let Me Do It For You****(Draw)** If you are losing the round, your other Life on Land cards in hand gain +24 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Two sad eyes and miles of snout make the **Borzoi** breed look like they’re carrying hefty emotional baggage - and they kind of are. Originally bred in Russia to hunt running game like wolves and foxes, the Borzoi’s speed allowed them to catch prey successfully. In fact, their name comes from an archaic Russian word that means ‘fast’. Sadly, the breed almost went extinct during the Russian revolution when many were killed for their association with Russian aristocracy.

Thankfully, the Borzoi population bounced back, but they’re still a pretty rare breed. And it turns out, they have other uses beyond hunting. For example, if you’re ever struggling to grab that last Pringle in the tube, you’ve got a long-nose boi who can <link="https:>do it for you.</link>
Bunbuku Chagama

## Ability

### Ability

**The Great Performing Raccoon Dog****(Play)** If you have played Tanuki this game, your Tanuki card, wherever it is, gains +75 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel & Gretel, Goldilocks & the Three Bears - these fairytales are mid when compared with the **Bunbuku Chagma**. In this unusual Japanese fairytale, an old man spots a tanuki (a raccoon dog) stuck in a trap. The man frees the tanuki, and in return, the tanuki uses its shape-shifting powers to turn itself into a teapot.

When the tanuki (in teapot form) starts walking a tight-rope to the tune of some music, crowds start piling in and paying admission fees to see this magical roadside circus act. In a strange twist of fate, the man becomes rich from the tightrope-walking teapot tanuki.

The moral of the story? Help trapped animals and be kind to your kettle - it might just be a shape-shifting raccoon dog.