recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Combo List

Combos are cards that you play together to buff each other. Most must be played in the same turn, but some cards buff their combo partner(s) wherever the card is in the deck. Combos target specific cards, which makes them different from Collection Buffs. Typically, the buffs for combos are much larger per card than the buffs that target multiple cards. See also the Secret Combos that are not described on the card ability.

Some of the combos are also part of the Achievements system and therefore provide an XP bonus and badge the first time it is played. The tables describe the cards involved in the combo, how the combo is played (together in same turn, same turn and adjacent, or anywhere in deck) whether there is an achievement bonus, and other details. Combos that receive a bonus even when played apart must be played together for the animation and achievement. If you play two combinations in the same turn, only one animation will be displayed (and only one achievement activated). For example, playing Odysseus with both Homer and Penelope will trigger either Homer Run (Homer) or High Fidelity (Penelope) but not both.

There are (very) many combos in the game. The combos listed here are the most interesting, they meet one or more of three conditions:

* Animation when you play the combo
* Included in the Achievements system
* At least 18 power per energy when used
Dracorex

## Ability

### Ability

**Reptilium Leviosa****(Draw)** If your deck has 8 or more Paleontology cards, your Paleontology cards in hand cost -1 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

With a bony head covered in spikes and knobs, when the **Dracorex** skull and some vertebrae were discovered by three amateur paleontologists in Iowa and donated to the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis in 2004, kids visiting the museum were invited to name the dinosaur. So of course they took inspiration from its weirdly similar fairy-tale counterpart: Dracorex, meaning “dragon king”. Its full title, *Dracorex hogwartsia* is even more fitting - meaning literally “dragon king of Hogwarts” - named after the famous school of witchcraft and wizardry.

The single specimen was of a young adult and measured approximately 3m long. While at the time the fossils were considered to be a unique dinosaur species, in 2007 it was suggested that the Dracorex, like Stygimoloch, might be a juvenile Pachycephalosaurus, a theory that was strengthened following a comprehensive study of its fossils in 2009 that theorises that their flat-domed skulls would grow into the domed skull of the adults. Although this theory has not been universally accepted, it’s unfortunately unlikely that there is such a dinosaur called the dragon king of Hogwarts - although we argue that sounds a tad more magical than Stygimoloch *(aka. 'the horned demon from the river of death'. Yikes!)*
Flores Man

## Ability

### Ability

**Nearly Complete****(Draw)** For every Paleontology card in your deck, this card gains +3 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Did man evolve from the humble hobbit? Not quite, but an early species of human from the island of Flores does make you wonder. At just over one metre tall, Homo florensiensis (AKA **‘Flores Man’**) is theorised to be either a relative of Homo erectus, an offshoot of an more ancient human ancestor or a diseased population of modern humans.

Like hobbits, they were small in stature but had large, flat feet. Unlike hobbits, they didn’t eat six meals a day or hang around with a legendary wizard (that we know of.) The small size of the Flores Man is thought to be a result of insular dwarfism, where isolated populations evolve smaller bodies due to limited resources and absence of predators.

'A facial reconstruction of Homo floresiensis' by Cicero Moraes et alii (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
EMF Reader

## Ability

### Ability

**Ghost Detection****(Draw)** If your deck contains Ghost, this card costs -2 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Day to day, this little gadget is used to diagnose problems with electrical wiring and power-lines. But the **EMF Reader** is perhaps best known for its place in the ghost-hunters arsenal, used to detect fluctuations in electromagnetic fields left behind by paranormal activity.

Why? Well, no one really knows. If ghosts exist, why would they emit electromagnetic fields? Some say it’s to do with thermodynamics - specifically, that energy cannot be destroyed, it can only change in form. When people die, their energy has to go somewhere - ergo, it goes into random electromagnetic storage. However, a number of electrical devices could set off an EMF reader, including laptops and microwaves. Does that mean your microwave is haunted? No. No it does not.
Fairy Longhorn Moth

## Ability

### Ability

**Feeling Out****(Play)** Your Beautiful Butterflies cards, wherever they are, gain +7 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

The Adelidae, also known as the **Fairy Longhorn Moth**, are a family of moths in the order Heteroneura. First described by Charles Théophile Bruand d'Uzelle in 1851, these moths have ridiculously long white antennae and wings with a metallic green shine to them.

When they fly together in the light of day, they give the appearance of fairies dancing atop of shrubs and bushes as they feed on the nectar from the flowers of herbaceous plants. Obviously, if you hate moths, you'll just see a big swarm of NOPE.

If moths are your thing though, you'll want to keep an eye out for this species between May and June, as that's when they come out to play.
Duct Tape

## Ability

### Ability

**Water Resistance****(Play)** Your opponent's Oceans and Seas cards, wherever they are, lose -15 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

The saying goes that if you can’t fix it with **Duct Tape**, you aren’t using enough Duct Tape. People of Ohio clearly agree – every year, they hold a festival dedicated to “Duct Tape, its enthusiasts and its wacky and fun uses.”

Before this versatile product existed, packages of ammunition sent to the military were sealed with wax. That all changed in 1943 when a mother of two Navy sailors proposed her idea of cloth tape to the president.
Dwarf Hotot

## Ability

### Ability

**Circled Eyes****(Play)** If played between two Life on Land cards, your Life on Land cards in hand gain +24 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

“It’s not a phase, Mom!” screams the **Dwarf Hotot** as she hops into her little room in the family warren and thumps her Doc Martin-clad back feet. It’s easy to mistake the tiny rabbit, the Dwarf Hotot, for a fan of the band Evanescence with their entirely white bodies and their black-rimmed eyes.

Weighing only 3 pounds and with its short stumpy ears, Dwarf Hotots are strictly a “fancy” breed of rabbit and are not used for meat or fur (which they shouldn’t, yells this bunny-keeping copywriter).

Dwarf Hotots are extremely friendly rabbits and are often kept as pets. They have been known to bond with their owners and if you’re really lucky, you might even see them binky - which is a mix of jumping and twisting their bodies, and rabbits do this to show how happy they are. Due to their size, Dwarf Hotots aren’t quite as energetic as their larger counterparts but they still love to play and look for any excuse to hop around. So, while they might look about emo, they’re actually pretty chipper - granted, they do like to jump about like they’re in a mosh pit.
Elf on a Shelf

## Ability

### Ability

**Observe and Report****(Play)** Your Santa Claus, Sinterklaas and Krampus cards in hand gain +25 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Ugh. As if it weren’t bad enough that we have cards featuring St Nicholas in all his resplendent Coca-Cola-concocted finery, we’re now featuring Elf-on-a-shelf. A grand festive tradition that dates all the way back to… 2005.

The subject of a book/marketing concept by Carol Aebersold and her daughter, ‘The Elf on the Shelf’ now makes $10M in annual sales. And given that the official merchandise is not a requirement for participation, it’s easy to see how this tradition will be with us for the long term. In short - Parents surreptitiously put the elf in a different place every morning, so the child believes the elf has gone to visit Santa overnight.

What does it do when it visits Santa? Well, it reports on everything that it’s heard and seen of course.

Sinister? You bet. Priming young children to be willing subjects of a surveillance state? No doubt. Making parents’ lives easier in the process?

Hell yes. Sign us up.
Fairy Ring

## Ability

### Ability

**Fairy Circle****(Play)** For every card with "Fairy" in its name in your deck, this card gains +20 Power.

## Did You Know?

If you ever happen upon a circle of mushrooms, it's probably for the best if you don't stand in the middle. According to Celtic folklore, this is a **Fairy Circle**, and any human who enters will be forced to dance with fairies until they are driven mad or die from exhaustion.

There's no scientific evidence to back this up, of course - fungi experts say this naturally occurring phenomenon simply happens when a mushroom spore falls in a favourable spot and grows a "mycelium" - the vegetative part of a fungus. From here, it spreads out an underground network of threads called "hyphae", causing new mushrooms to sprout up at the edges of the network. Still, you might want to avoid stepping in them just in case.
Fiddle-string Snake

## Did You Know?

The **Fiddle-string Snake**, or *Imantodes Cenchoa* as it's known to all the cool kids, is a species of rear-fanged snake, which means it must move its prey to the rear of its mouth to envenomate it. Its venom is only mildly poisonous to humans, but it's more than enough to deal with its diet of small lizards and frogs.

These danger-noodles have larger-than-average eyes which take up 26% of its head, giving it better sight than its cousins. They also have vertical slits for pupils which allow the snakes to look down, a distinct advantage if you live and hunt in trees.
Donatello

## Ability

### Ability

**Cowabunga!****(Play)** Your Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael cards, wherever they are, gain +25 Power until played. If your deck contains all three, give them an additional +25 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

With a full name like Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, you can see why the Italian sculptor opted for something more simple - **Donatello.** Just one name like Madonna or (Lady) Gaga. A real diva.

Working in Florence (then eventually Padua) in the early 1400s, Donatello was a typical Renaissance artist - thoroughly obsessed with the ancient Greeks and Romans. He was a master when it came to working with both bronze and marble and created one of the most famous sculptures of all time - the statue of David. It captures the biblical David right after defeating Goliath. He’s full of boyish charm and stands with a foot atop Goliath’s severed head. It was considered exciting at the time because it reimagined a scene from the Bible but with all the flair of an ancient Greek hero. The great sculptor Michelangelo would go on to create his own version of David as his own ode to Donatello.

Some of his other most famous works include a masterpiece in marble of St George and he had work commissioned by the Medicis (the Kardashians of renaissance Italy).

'David, Donatello, ca. 1440, Bronze, Museo del Bargello, Florenz' by Rufus46 (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Eight of Wands

## Ability

### Ability

**Quick Decisions****(Play)** Your Tarot cards in hand gain +30 Power this turn. **(Start)** Your Tarot cards, wherever they are, lose -10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In tarot, the suit of wands is associated with the element of fire, and so represents passion, willpower and creativity.

The **Eight of Wands** card shows eight staves flying through the air, travelling at maximum speed through the clear, sunny sky free of obstacles.

Upright, the card symbolises a sudden, positive growth and the quick decisions that come with that. Reversed, it might be a sign to adapt your strategy to navigate the obstacles that are halting your process.
Epic of Gilgamesh

## Ability

### Ability

**Surpassing All Other Kings****(Return)** For every History card you have played this game, up to a maximum of 18, your non- History cards, wherever they are, gain +2 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Dating all the way back to 2100 BC, the **Epic of Gilgamesh** is the oldest surviving piece of notable literature. The story features the world's first superhero, Gilgamesh, who paved the way for characters such as Hercules, and by extension, Spiderman.

Although most of the original text remains lost, there are two distinct versions of the document, the first written in Old Babylonian, (sometimes referred to after its first line, *"Surpassing all other kings"*), and the later Standard Babylonian version from 1300-1000 BC (*"He who saw the deep".*)

"He who saw the deep" is a twelve-tablet epic, telling the tale of the King of Uruk, Gilgamesh, who as a part-god, part-man, is oppressing his people. Warning: there are spoilers ahead, but for God's sake, it's been 4000 years.

For his crimes, the gods create an equal to Gilgamesh, Enkidu, who upon learning the ways of civilization, challenges Gilgamesh to a test of strength. Although Gilgamesh wins, the two end up best of pals, and travel together to kill Humbaba, a terrifying Demi-god, and later the Bull of Heaven, who has been sent to attack Uruk.

However, after the attacks, Enkidu suffers nightmares and visions of being taken by the Angel of Death. His condition slowly worsens until he dies, leaving Gilgamesh grief-stricken.

Now terrified of his own death, Gilgamesh searches for eternal life from the only immortals he knows, Utnapishtim and his wife Siduri, but proves a few times over that he was meant to be mortal, so he returns back home to Uruk.

'Tablet V' by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Eye of the Storm

## Ability

### Ability

**Peace Among Chaos****(Return)** All remaining cards in both player's hands **Lock** next turn.

## Did You Know?

The **Eye of the Storm** is a region of mostly calm weather at the centre of strong tropical cyclones and, basically, the evil mastermind of the whole operation.

It's roughly a circular area, typically 30–65 kilometres (19–40 miles) in diameter and is surrounded by the eyewall; a ring of towering thunderstorms where the most severe weather and highest winds occur.

The Eye of the Storm is pretty much the only peaceful part of the hurricane. It's getting through the eyewall that's the dangerous part, as is exiting the eye, again right through the eyewall.

But why does the Eye occur? Well, in a tropical storm, convection causes bands of vapour-filled air to start rotating around a common centre. Suddenly, a band of air at a certain 'radial distance' starts rotating more strongly than the others; this becomes the "eyewall" — the region of strongest winds that surrounds the eye in a hurricane. The lower the central pressure, the fiercer the storm, and the higher the winds

Watch out if you happen to be at sea during a storm; remember the saying, 'worse things happen at sea?'. Well, that's an affirmative in this case!

On land, the centre of the Eye is, by far, the calmest part of the storm, with skies mostly clear of clouds, wind and rain. Over the sea, however, it's possibly the most dangerous and terrifying. Inside the Eye, waves from all directions slam into each other, creating monster gigantic waves as tall as 130 feet (40 meters)!
False Dmitry I

## Ability

### Ability

**Popular Uprising****(Play)** If you are winning the round, your non-History cards in hand gain +20 Power permanently. **(Return)** If you lost the turn, this card loses -50 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

There’s mistaken identity and then there’s purposefully setting out to steal the Russian throne, which is what **False Dmitry I** did in 1605. Appearing in Moscow around 1600, Dmitry set about trying to convince everyone who would listen that he was the lost son of Ivan the Terrible. Somehow this actually worked and after claiming that his mother had helped him survive an assassination attempt as a child, many Polish nobles decided to jump on the Dmitry bandwagon and support his claim to the throne. Support then snowballed into Russia and in March 1605, his armies stormed Moscow and Dmitry became tsar.

Even stranger is that Maria, Ivan the Terrible’s widow, totally agreed with Dmitry’s entirely made-up backstory and this further legitimized his claim. He didn’t even look like your typical tsar - he slicked back his hair and stayed clean shaven, which is making him seem more and more like just some bloke who decided to rule Russia one day. Eventually, an uprising took place and everyone decided they were done with Dmitry. He tried to escape by throwing himself out of a window, which broke his leg, and he was later found trying to hide in a bathhouse.

Amazingly, he wasn’t even the last person to ever attempt this kind of “oh yeah, I’m totally the tsar” trick (there were two other pretenders) but he was the most successful. If you consider lasting 11 months before you’re eventually killed a success.
Frankenstein's Monster

## Did You Know?

**Frankenstein's Monster** came about as a result of appalling summer weather and boredom.

While holidaying in Switzerland alongside her new husband Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and his physician John William Polidori, the weather took a turn for the worse, confining them to their lodgings. To overcome the tedium, Lord Byron suggested they each write a ghost story. The result was an early version of *Frankenstein*.

**Frankenstein's Monster** is called this because Shelley never named him. So he took his creator's surname as his first name and chose his surname shortly after he looked in a mirror. In the novel, he gets a bit of a rough ride throughout being described as "thing," "spectre," and "ogre." The poor chap even referred to himself as a monster.

Mary said the idea came to her in a dream; remember - she grew up at a time where body snatching was a real job (if somewhat illegal). She is also rumoured to have visited the actual Castle Frankenstein while journeying up the Rhine. Interestingly, Johann Conrad Dippel, a former resident of the estate was involved in life-giving elixirs and body snatching. Whatever the true inspiration for the story was, it was groundbreaking and arguably the first true science fiction novel and all this from a 16-year-old woman.

## Fusion

 Żubroń | 6
Fog

## Did You Know?

"Go on then, CUE - tell me something interesting about fog." I hear you say. I mean, they're just low clouds, so I could direct you to the Clouds card and tell you to imagine that but on the ground and not in the sky.

Well, have you ever heard of La Garua, a fog in Peru that is not thick enough to obscure vision, but wet enough that you have to have your windscreen wipers on in the car?

AND, did you know that the Golden Gate Bridge was not originally meant to be orange? The orange came from the sealant they were using at the time, to be replaced with a black and yellow colour scheme later (imagine that!), but because of fog in the Bay Area they kept the orange for visibility

Oh, and I HAVE to tell you about the time that Sam Bartram, goalkeeper for Charlton Athletic, defended his goal for fifteen minutes after a soccer game was called off because the fog was too thick. He stood there in his box, alert and ready for opposing strikers, until a policeman came up to him and told him the game finished quarter of an hour ago.

CRAFTING CLUE BELOW!

- Moonbird?
Forget-Me-Not

## Ability

### Ability

**Remember Me?****(Return)** If you lost the turn, this card gains +60 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Perhaps not surprisingly, the unusual name of the **Forget-Me-Not** is shrouded in legend.

According to Greek mythology, Zeus had been busying himself naming *every plant ever*, and just as he was about to put his feet up and congratulate himself on a job well done, a little blue plant shouted “Forget-me-not!”

Perhaps feeling a bit lazy after what must have been a pretty busy day, he just decided to give the little flower that name, and then presumably turned the telly on and grabbed himself a beer.

However, there is also a medieval legend about the plant, in which a young Knight while out for a walk with his lady, reached down to the steep edge of the river to pick the little blue flowers for her. Tragically he fell, and the weight of his armour dragged him to his death. His last words were “Forget me not!” as he threw the flowers to his beloved, which she must have misconstrued as the name of the flower.

It makes sense then, that the flower has become known as a symbol for remembrance and everlasting love.
Electricity

## Ability

### Ability

**Charged****(Draw)** Gain +10 Power/Turn and gain +1:energy/turn: until this card is returned to your deck. If you have played **Electricity** this game, gain an additional +10 Power/Turn until this card is returned to your deck.

## Did You Know?

One rainy day in 1752, Benjamin Franklin stepped out into the storm with a kite attached to a key. As predicted, the electricity from the storm clouds transferred to the key and he got a shock. Franklin wasn’t the first to discover **Electricity** - that was scientist William Gilbert, who conducted experiments around the year 1600 and came up with the word ‘electricity’. But Franklin’s near death experience sparked excitement from the scientific community: everyone wanted to know more about electricity and how it could be practically applied beyond weather-related mishaps.

In 1831, Michael Faraday made history with his invention of the electromagnetic generator. By the turn of the century, electricity was powering homes, streets, telephones, telegrams, phonographs. Suffice to say, it was a dark day for candle manufacturers.
Eumaeus

## Ability

### Ability

**Virtuous of Me****(Play)** For every The Original Odyssey card in your deck, up to a maximum of 10, your The Original Odyssey cards, wherever they are, gain +3 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ is full of colourful characters, **Eumaeus** included. A loyal friend and swineherd, Eumaeus is the first person that the hero Odysseus meets upon his return to Ithaca.

Although he doesn’t know that the stranger who arrives at his home is Odysseus, he still gives the unknown man food and shelter. After Odysseus offers a bargain entailing that he be thrown off a cliff should he lose, Eumaeus delivers what is recognised as the earliest example of literary sarcasm.

In today’s language, it would sound something like this: “Oh yeah, I’m sure my reputation wouldn’t suffer *at all* if people found out I invited you into my home, entertained you as my guest and then murdered you.”
Dark Energy

## Ability

### Ability

**Large Scale Energy****(Draw)** A random card in your deck with a Base Energy of 9 or more costs -7 Energy for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

Add up all the matter tied up in stars and planets and you’ll find it only amounts to a shocking 0.5% of matter and energy in the universe. Add in the hydrogen gas between stars and planets and you’ll still only reach around 5%. So, what’s in the remaining 95%?

According to scientists, it’s made up of around 27% dark matter and 68% **Dark Energy**. Given that it makes up the majority of our universe, it would be good to know what this dark energy is actually made of. While we don’t know for sure, scientists hypothesise that this type of energy exerts a negative force that opposes gravity, causing the rate of expansion of our universe to accelerate over time.
Five of Wands

## Ability

### Ability

**Competition and Conflict****(Play)** If you are losing the round, two random opponent's cards in hand lose -15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The imagery on the **Five of Wands** says it all: five men appear to be fighting each other with wands, but on closer inspection, no one is winning or losing the fight. Sound familiar? Whether it’s with your family, your colleagues or a bunch of strangers on the internet, butting heads with people is never pleasant. If you’ve drawn this card upright, it’s a reflection of your current situation: instead of working towards a common goal, you’re running up against constant opposition.

Sometimes, these conflicts can make you feel like you’re in a WWE Royal Rumble with 30 wrestlers all vying for the championship belt; or like you’re in a chaotic Zoom meeting stuck on mute. The key is to rise above, embrace different opinions and strive to find common ground.
Fermentation

## Ability

### Ability

**Bubbling Away****(Start)** Your Dizzying Discoveries cards in hand gain +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

For those after-work drinks on a Friday or the midweek pint that keeps us going, we have **Fermentation** to thank. The term has its roots in the Latin word ‘fervere’, meaning "to boil," and was initially described by alchemists in the late 14th century. However, it wasn't until around 1600 that the chemical process of fermentation began to be the subject of proper scientific investigation.

Louis Pasteur, a French scientist, was the first to study fermentation in the 1850s and 1860s. He showed that fermentation was caused by living cells, but was unable to isolate the enzyme responsible for the process from yeast cells. Bad luck, Louis.

Finally, in 1897, German chemist Eduard Buechner extracted fluid from ground yeast and found that it could ferment a sugar solution.
Finnish Cemetery Tradition

## Did You Know?

Every year around three-quarters of Finnish families visit a cemetery around Christmas (usually on Christmas Eve) to leave candles for their deceased loved ones. It reinforces the idea that Christmas is a time for family. Though hundreds of people crowd around the same cemeteries at the same time, the atmosphere is quiet and reverential.

It does feel somewhat incongruous putting this card, a wonderful and dignified celebration of life and family, in the same collection as Caganer.
Fire Tornado

## Ability

### Ability

**Swirling Inferno****(Return)** Two random cards in your opponent's hand **Burn** (20) this round.

## Did You Know?

A **Fire Tornado** is the most hellish force of nature you could ever imagine (except the Sharknado, obviously). Also known as the fire devil, the force of an extreme wildfire can get so intense that it generates its own weather system, pulling up embers, ash, flames, dirt and debris into the brutal firenado and destroying everything in its path.

Some fire tornados can even generate their own thunderstorms, doubling the effect of the fire by adding more heat to the atmosphere. In 2018, a fire tornado from the Carr Fire in Redding, California was reported to have an estimated speed of 143 mph. That tornado was classified as an EF-3, the strongest ever recorded in California.
El Greco

## Ability

### Ability

**Get Him to the Greek****(Play)** Your Ancient Greece and Greek Mythology cards in hand gain +32 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, **El Greco** had a unique style that often-featured dream-like colours and elongated figures in complex positions. This style was so distinctive that historians and art buffs describe his work as belonging to no conventional school. The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, a painting that is three-and-a-half-metres wide and five metres high, is recognised as El Greco’s greatest masterpiece.

You probably don’t have to be fluent in Spanish to realise that the painter El Greco isn’t Spanish. His nickname is a reference to his Greek heritage, as the artist usually signed his full name, Doménikos Theotokópoulos, on his paintings in Greek letters. El Greco, meaning “The Greek”, is certainly less of a mouthful.
Epidemiology

## Ability

### Ability

**Highly Contagious****(Return)** Your opponent's cards, wherever they are, with 2 or less Base Energy or 7 or more Base Energy cost +1 Energy until played and your cards, wherever they are, gain +5 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

*Thank you to the Epidemiologists, Doctors, Nurses, Carers, Pharmacologists, and all the key workers around the world who have given their everything in 2020 to limit the impact of Coronavirus on us all.*

We had a bit of fun with the last cards of 2020. This was the year Hand-washing became a new thing somehow, and much of the year has felt like the end of days - so the K-T Extinction was an obvious choice.

However, if we weren’t already aware of the importance of **Epidemiology** in 2019, we certainly are now. It is the study of the causes and distribution of diseases and other health ‘events’ in global populations, and boy has it had *a year*.

But where did Epidemiology come from?

Well like so much of the world’s health systems, its foundations lie with Hippocrates, who first defined ‘epidemic’ (a disease ‘visited upon’ a population) and ‘endemic’ (a disease within a population). Another way of viewing this is ‘epidemic’ diseases occur at some times but not others, and ‘endemic’ diseases occur in some places but not others.

It wasn’t until the 16th Century, however, that we started to understand epidemics as being caused by ‘transmissible agents’. Between the Plague, Smallpox, Tetanus, and Cholera - there was ample material for study in the centuries that followed.

Sadly - as the year 2020 has shown - there is still much we don’t know. And thanks to increases in travel, only a handful of countries have not experienced cases of Coronavirus. As we all now know - this raised the status of Covid beyond an epidemic, and to a *pandemic*: defined by the WHO as ‘the worldwide spread of a new disease’.

## Trivia

* This card energy cost and power are 20 to celebrate New Year's Eve on 2020, the year of COVID-19 pandemic.
Diabolus in Musica

## Ability

### Ability

**Dance With The Devil****(Play)** If you have played The Chromatic Scale this game, your Horrible Halloween cards, wherever they are, gain +13 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

It goes by many names: the devil’s interval, the tritone, the triad or the flatted fifth. Its Latin moniker is **Diabolus in Musica**, which translates to “The Devil in Music”.

As this ominous name suggests, Diabolus in Musica is a unique combination of notes that creates an exceptionally eery atmosphere.

When Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi devised this three-note passage, he struck gold. Iommi played the tritone in the song “Black Sabbath” from the band’s self-titled first album. Some call that moment the birth of heavy metal.

Ever since, metal bands like Judas Priest, Metallica and Slipknot have all called upon the devil’s interval to create a sense of foreboding darkness. Slayer even named an album ‘Diabolus in Musica’ as a tribute to the tritone.
Doedicurus

## Ability

### Ability

**Shell to Pay****(Play)** Your Glyptodon, Giant Armadillo and Ocean Reptiles cards in hand gain +10 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The tail of the **Doedicurus** is probably the most metal thing of the Pleistocene era. We can only imagine having a mace and chain for a tail made this ancient armadillo terrifying to potential predators. The Doedicurus was one of the largest forms of glyptodont, a rotund animal with heavy armour and a carapace. A word of advice? Glyptodon’t get near the tail.
Falco Hawkfish

## Ability

### Ability

**Hawk-ward...****(Play)** Your Sea Birds cards in hand gain +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The Falco Hawkfish is a small fish found on tropical reefs.
It's up for debate how a frankly clumsy, bottom-dwelling species that looks like a brightly coloured American football with eyes managed to acquire the majestic name “hawkfish,” which stirs thoughts of a graceful, soaring bird. The name, however, is based on the fish’s tendency to perch on a rock or coral and swoop down onto any passing prey items, such as small crustaceans, that catch its eye.
Falco Hawkfish are Hermaphroditic. This species can change gender from female to male. When a male is needed, a female changes sex and takes on the role.

## Fusion

 Giant Isopod | 4
Edward Gorey

## Ability

### Ability

**Literary Nonsense****(Play)** If your deck contains at least 1 Horrible Halloween card, your Playtime cards, wherever they are, gain +13 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Sharp black lines, macabre tales and children’s stories that were often too scary for children. No, we’re not talking about Tim Burton, we’re talking about the Granddaddy of Goth, **Edward Gorey.** The American writer and illustrator wrote over 100 books and was also known for costuming, set design and just being a general spooky badass.

The strongest influence on his work is that of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Think top hats, lots of umbrellas and graveyards. Oh so many graveyards. Basically anything that would make a My Chemical Romance fan weak at the knees. It’s easy to see the impact Gorey’s work has had on people like Tim Burton, Lemony Snickett and Neil Gaiman with his funereal tales and morbid art. There’s a certain amount of humor about Gorey though that makes him a perfect fit for CUE!

One of Gorey’s most famous works is *The Gashlycrumb Tinies,* which is an illustrated alphabet book, where each letter is a child’s name and how they tragically die. Our favorites include “H is for Hector, done in by a thug” and “X is for Xerxes, devoured by mice.” We promise no Victorian children were harmed in the making of this card.
Emerald Swallowtail Butterfly

## Ability

### Ability

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

## Did You Know?

The Emerald Swallowtail is a beautiful creature, with the scales on its wings organised such that you will see different colours depending on your viewing angle. Either blue, yellow or, when mixed, the iridescent green from which it takes its name.

All of which might compensate for how it spends its youth. The Emerald Swallowtail caterpillar is well camouflaged... as bird droppings. In addition it emits a foul smell when threatened, so it probably never won a popularity contest.

CRAFTING CLUE BELOW!

- Time to scavenge for lions and eagles.
Ernest Shackleton

## Ability

### Ability

**Ernest Endeavour****(Play)** If it's the first turn of a round, this card gains +20 Power this turn and if this card matches the Arena, this card gains +20 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Irish-born British explorer **Ernest Shackleton** (1874-1922) gained fame and notoriety in 1916 after his ship, the Endurance, became trapped in ice during a voyage to the South Pole. He and his men were forced to leave the ship and set up camp on the sea ice nearby. The Endurance eventually sank after being crushed by strong ice floes and the crew, who had been camped out on the ice for just over a year were running out of options, so the team crammed into three smaller boats and made their way to the uninhabited Elephant Island, south of the Shetland Islands.

Once they arrived and with little hope of rescue, Shackleton and five others set off in a lifeboat towards South Georgia some 650 nautical miles away. They miraculously arrived after sixteen days at sea. Exhausted, and with no map, Shackleton and two other men improvised a route across the treacherous landscape. They arrived at Stromness whaling station 36 hours after setting off and started to arrange the rescue of the men. It would be another three months before the occupants of Elephant Island were rescued. But incredibly after almost two years stranded in the most inhospitable conditions, every member of the 28 strong crew survived.
Eastern Quoll

## Ability

### Ability

**Quoll Surprise****(Return)** If you lost the turn, your opponent gains +2:energy/turn: this round.

## Did You Know?

Perhaps one of the cutest creatures of Oceania, the **Eastern Quoll** looks like a cross between Bambi and a possum and is about the size of a small cat. What makes these creatures distinctive is those characteristic white patches that both the fawn and black coloured quolls have on their coats. Hey, polka dots are always in vogue!

These creatures are fairly solitary and will scent mark their homes to ward away intruders. When an animal dares trespass on its property, the eastern quoll will hiss, cough and make sharp shrieking sounds. If the intruder still doesn’t leave, the quoll will resort to drastic measures, chasing the home invader away and wrestling it with its jaws, all while standing on its hind legs.
Evaporating Gaseous Globule

## Ability

### Ability

**EGG****(Draw)** For every card with "Egg" in the name in your deck, your Space cards, wherever they are, gain +2 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

What came first, the star or the EGG? In a set of eerie photos captured by the Hubble Telescope in 1995, embryonic stars were seen emerging from EGGs - not the chicken variety, but a dense region of interstellar gas called **Evaporating Gaseous Globules**.

Measuring approximately 100 astronomical units in size, these Evaporating Gaseous Globules were found in the Eagle nebula, approximately 7,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens. The force of gravity pulls the gas cloud more tightly together as the EGG continues to draw in material from its surroundings. As the cloud density builds up, the globule grows ever hotter under the weight of the outer layers, and a protostar is formed inside the EGG.
Enki Catena

## Ability

### Ability

**All in a Row****(Draw)** Your Riding the Waves! cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power permanently. **(Return)** Your Riding the Waves! cards, wherever they are, lose -12 Power permanently. **(Play)** Your Ganymede card in hand gains +15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Not to be confused with famous French footballer Eric Cantona, the **Enki Catena** is a big crater chain on Ganymede, the largest moon in our solar system. Measuring 161.3 kilometres long, the chain of 13 craters is thought to have been formed by a comet that was blown apart by Jupiter’s gravity as it passed too close to the planet.

Astronomers suspect that, following this event, the 13 fragments of comet crash-landed onto Ganymede in quick succession, creating what looks like a perfect line of impact craters on the moon’s surface. Named after the Sumerian god of freshwater, Enki Catena was captured by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft on April 5, 1997.
Fimbulwinter

## Ability

### Ability

**Cold Adaptation****(Play)** If your deck has 2 or more Ice Age cards, your Norse Mythology cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In Norse mythology, **Fimbulwinter** wasn’t the kind of winter where you cosy up with hot cocoa and watch festive films. Seeing as Fimbulwinter precedes the end of the world (an event known as the Ragnarok), no one was really in the mood for carolling or ice-skating.

However, the myth may not be a myth at all, but rather a story inspired by the extreme weather events of 535-536, which resulted in a dramatic drop in temperature across Northern Europe. This climate may have even been followed by two large volcanic eruptions, according to archaeological findings in the area. With dust clouds causing crop failures and years passing with no summers, it’s not hard to see how people of the time assumed this ‘Fimbulwinter’ was a sign of the end times.
Dracula Parrot

## Ability

### Ability

**Ornithological Orthodontics****(Play)** Your cards adjacent to this lose -30 Power this turn and this card gains +60 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

It’s freaky enough that they talk back to you, now parrots have evolved to suck your blood?! Don’t worry, the **Dracula Parrot** isn’t a flesh-eater - far from it. In fact, this species mostly feeds on a particular type of fig.

It only gets its name from the black and red feathers that look a lot like the cloak worn by the famous vampire count. Still, if you do keep one of these as a pet and it starts saying “I vant to suck your blood”, call the vet, and maybe a priest.

Endemic to the rainforests of New Guinea, Pesquet's parrot (as it’s officially named) has a long lifespan of 20 to 40 years, which it typically spends eating figs or nesting in large hollow trees with its mate.
Dragon King

## Did You Know?

Where was the **Dragon King** during recent heat waves?! Given that he is a Chinese water god and dispenser of rain, it seems like someone was slacking off. Okay, so we all have our off days. Also, the Dragon King has a side hustle as a tutelary deity (a guardian or protector), so that might explain the downtime.

But Chinese folklore says that the Dragon King, also known as Long Wang, lives an opulent lifestyle in a beautiful palace under the sea, commanding an army of aquatic lifeforms. He feeds on fresh gemstones and can shapeshift between dragon and human form. When in his human body, he looks like a fierce warrior with a dark beard and red eyes.
Fram

## Ability

### Ability

**Break the Ice****(Play)** If it's the first turn of a round, this card gains +15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Before the Titanic, the Fram was the most famous ship in the world, it's just sad that Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet never did star in, 'Fram The Movie.'

The Fram was the quintessential polar exploration vessel and the hero of this story was a young Norwegian zoologist and explorer called Fridtjof Nansen, who planned to commit a ship purposely into the Siberian ice and let the transpolar current carry her across the North Pole.

The Fram was launched on the 26th of October 1892 and Nansen took her to The New Siberian Islands in the Easter Arctic Ocean. He froze the ship into pack ice and waited for the drift to carry the ship towards the pole. After 18 months and growing impatient with the erratic character of the drift, Nansen left the ship with a team of dogs and sledges and made for the pole.

They never quite made it and the Fram continued to drift westwards into the North Atlantic Ocean.

Despite not achieving his goals, the observations carried out during this period contributed significantly to a new type of Oceanography. Fram's drift and Nansen's sledge journey proved that there were no significant land masses between The Eurasian continents and the North Pole.

Although Nansen retired from exploration after this mammoth expedition, the methods of travel and survival he developed influenced all the polar expeditions over the next 30 years.

CRAFTING CLUE BELOW!

- Eat cuscus - just the one?
Edward England

## Ability

### Ability

**The Pearl and Fancy****(Draw)** Your Hidden Gems and Fancy Fashions cards in hand gain +13 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Times are tough for pirates with a conscience. Just look at **Edward England**: after sparing a man’s life, his entire crew raised a mutiny against him and marooned him on Mauritius.

Born Edward Seegar in Ireland, England originally served as a privateer in Jamaica. But the thug life chose England when he was captured by a pirate crew.

Eventually, England was granted captaincy of his own ship in 1718. However, after a botched attack on three ships belonging to the East Indies Company, two ships escaped and the captain of the remaining ship surrendered. England took mercy on the captain, but his decision to let him live didn’t sit well with his blood-thirsty band of pirates. After being marooned, England crafted a make-shift boat and sailed to Madagascar.

'An 18th century woodcut of Irish pirate Edward (Seegar) England.' by Charles Johnson: History and Lives of All the Most Notorious Pirates, and Their Crews (London, 1725) (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered) Image isolated, inverted and added to background
Euoplocephalus

## Ability

### Ability

**Broad Faced****(Draw)** Gain +3 Power/Turn permanently and this card costs -1 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Weighing around 2 tons, the **Euoplocephalus** was a genus of large herbivorous dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous era of Canada. It didn’t always have that name, though. Originally called the Stereocephalus, the creature was renamed in 1910 after scientists realised that name was taken (by an insect.)

In a world of deadly predators, the Euoplocephalus was well protected by fused bony plates and ridged spikes. This was the Fort Knox of dinosaurs - it even had armour on its eyelids! The only way that a predator could pierce this herbivore’s skin was to get it on its back and go for the soft, unarmoured belly. But even then, they would have had to dodge the Euoplocephalus’ spiked tail that it could swing like a club.
Fennec Fox

## Ability

### Ability

**Listen Up****(Return)** Your Going Underground cards, wherever they are, cost -2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

If you're a fan of big ears then look no further; this smallest of all the canids has ears that can grow to half its body size. **Fennec Foxes** live across North Africa in hot, sandy environments and those giant bat-like ears help them lose excess heat as well as find prey.

These community-minded critters live in small groups of around 10 individuals, feasting together on a range of hunted and foraged meals including small reptiles, eggs, rodents and insects. Like many animals adapted to desert life, they can go for a long time (potentially years) without drinking water, keeping hydrated by eating roots, berries, leaves and prey.
Emperor Tamarin

## Ability

### Ability

**Mo Money Mo Problems****(Play)** Gain +5:energy/turn: this round and your cards, wherever they are, lose -10 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

If you thought the moustache you grew in lockdown was impressive, you haven’t seen the **Emperor Tamarin.** Allegedly named for its resemblance to the German emperor Wilhelm II, the Emperor Tamarin is a species of small monkey native to the southwest Amazon Basin. When fully grown, this species of monkey weighs around 400 grams: for context, that’s the weight of a small loaf of bread, a football or two adult hamsters.
Euclid

## Did You Know?

Get ready for some school-based flashbacks because we're talking top ye-olde greek mathematical boffin **Euclid** (323–283 BC), THE FATHER OF GEOMETRY - and before you reach for some matchsticks to prop your eyelids open, we're going to take you through the headlines rather than attempting to take you through his theorems, constructions and mathematical proofs. Phew!

He wrote 13 books on mathematical logic, collectively known as the Elements. These books are widely agreed to be among the most influential works in human history, laying out the logical development of geometry, other branches of mathematics and exact sciences, the impact of which is immeasurable.

Influencing generation after generation of scientists including Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Kepler and Sir Isaac Newton. It is a testament to his brilliance that its contents can still be found in textbooks the world over today.
European Medicinal Leech

## Ability

### Ability

**Bloodletting****(Start)** A random card in your hand loses -10 Power until played and this card gains +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Headaches, gout, bruising, brain disorders: whatever your ailment, medieval doctors had one solution. Yup - you guessed it. Hirudo medicinalis, the **European Medicinal Leech**.

They may be small, but these little creatures have three jaws that resemble saws, on which are around 100 sharp edges used to pierce the skin. Once they’ve done that, they suck out the blood of their host while injecting anticoagulants. For a medicinal leech, being placed on a human is like being taken to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Because large adults can consume up to ten times their body weight with a single meal.

While the demand for leech treatment is rare today, there’s still enough to keep <link="https:>a few leech farms</link> open across the world. If you’re looking for a career change, leech farmer is certainly a unique profession.