recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Skuld

## Ability

### Ability

**That Which Should Become****(Draw)** If you have played Urðarbrunnr this game, your Urðr and Verðandi cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If you thought your crochet scarf was impressive, wait ‘til you hear about **Skuld**. In Norse Mythology, Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld were ‘Norns’ - female beings who create and control fate. Skuld is the youngest of the three; her name means “what shall be”, representing the future while the other Norns embodied the past and present.

Together, they sat under the World Tree, spinning threads of destiny to create a tapestry of fate for all beings. Unlike in Greek mythology, the destiny woven by the Norns isn’t final and unchangeable. In the Norse model of destiny, there’s much more room for the individual to shape their own fate. That being said, no one wants to be the one to tell a Norn she’s got to un-weave several rows of the tapestry and start again.
Siphonophore

## Ability

### Ability

**Siphon Off Four****(Draw)** Your cards in hand lose -4 Power until played and this card gains +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Here’s the thing about the giant **Siphonophore**. It’s not a singular creature, but rather, a huge collective of tiny organisms that make up the species.

Arguably the world’s best synchronised swimmers, each organism in the Siphonophore has its own duties such as feeding, reproducing and defending the colony (who drew the short straw?)
Sapphire

## Ability

### Ability

**True Blue****(Play)** Your Kenai River card in hand gains +35 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Sometimes we research a subject for CUE and fall into an existential hole. **Sapphires** are gemstones that are most often associated with the colour blue, but they can also be found in a variety of colours including pink, yellow, green, teal, red and orange.

Hey, do you know what a red Sapphire is called? A RUBY. A thing for which we already have a card. You see, the different colours are caused by differing amounts of the mineral corundum; apart from that, they're basically the same rock.

I mean, what else have we covered twice on CUE cards? Surely everything is made of atoms, or cells, in some weird configuration - is there any point in us going on? What are we doing here? What the he-

Ahem.

You know what is cool about Sapphires though? It's extremely durable. it rates a 9/10 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness (which is somewhere between Diamond and Jason Statham), and because of its relative opacity, it's used to make glass scratch-resistant. The Apple Watch Series 3, for example, has a sapphire-infused screen.
Shikigami

## Ability

### Ability

**Conjured Beings****(Draw)** Your Japanese Folklore cards in hand gain +26 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

On the surface, paper dolls are a cute and crafty decoration, and certainly not something to be afraid of. That is, until you learn about the **Shikigami**, a spirit in Japanese legend that often takes the form of a neatly-folded paper mannequin.

If you want to use a Shikigami to do your dark biddings like stealing or spying, you’ll need to master the art of “Onmyoji” - a system of natural science, astronomy and magic that developed independently in Japan based on Chinese philosophies.

Then you’ll need to perform a ceremony to summon the Shikigami. If you’re powerful enough, you might be able to get these spirits to possess physical objects, animals and even humans, but if you’re careless, there’s a chance your shikigami will break free and gain its own consciousness.
Sheer Hulk

## Ability

### Ability

**Hulk... Repair?****(Play)** If you are losing the round by 40 Power or more, a random other Riding the Waves! card in your hand gains +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

No, not the lawyer-turned-superhero Jen Walters. We're talking about a **Sheer Hulk** - a floating crane used in the good old days of sailing ships to hoist the lower masts into place during construction or repair. These cranes were used in the Royal Navy in Britain from the 1690s until the early 1800s, and later adopted by the French. Most sheer hulks were decommissioned warships - in fact, only three purpose-built sheer hulks were ever constructed.

Booms known as sheers were attached to the base of a hulk's lower masts or beam. Blocks and tackle were then used to place or remove the lower masts of the vessel under construction. Erecting these lower masts without the assistance of a sheer hulk (or a She Hulk, for that matter) was extremely difficult.
Selma

## Ability

### Ability

**Sea Snakes****(Play)** Your Nāga and Bakunawa cards in hand gain +15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

When you’re a 40-foot lake monster rumoured to live in Lake Seljordsvatnet, Norway, scientists need to use a special tool called the Co-Operative Monster Eel Trap (COMET) to find you. Despite many sightings of the creature known as **Selma** over the years, no monster was caught in the eel trap when biologists tried in the year 2000. But they did get some interesting sonar readings.

Speculations as to what Selma really is range from giant catfish to prehistoric relic, and while reptiles aren’t thought to be capable of living in such icy cold waters, some people think that Selma - whatever she is - has evolved to survive in this harsh environment. In any case, we like to think of Selma as Nessie’s Norwegian pen-pal.
Slender Glass Lizard

## Ability

### Ability

**Slend a Hand****(Draw)** A random card in your hand gains +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

You’d be forgiven if you screamed “snake” at the sight of a **Slender Glass Lizard**: the two do look an awful lot alike. Both have long, cylindrical bodies, scaly exteriors, forked tongues and no legs. If you happen to be a rabbit and are faced with a legless reptile, we hope for you it’s a slender glass lizard. Unlike snakes, these reptiles can’t unlock their jaw to swallow an entire mammal, so you’re probably safe (for now.)
Southern Short-tailed Shrew

## Ability

### Ability

**Venomous Spit****(Play)** Your Venomous Creatures cards in hand gain +12 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The definition of a venomous creature (which, yes, we're well aware we haven't completely adhered to in this collection, please stop emailing) is that the creature can deliver venom or poison via a bite or sting. The **Southern Short-tailed Shrew**, found in the south-eastern United States, barely qualifies.

It's your basic, not-particularly-interesting shrew in most regards, apart from its size (they're typically only 2-4 inches long, from nose to tail). Its saliva contains a poison that can kill a mouse - not fatal to humans in the quantity it can deliver in a single bite, but enough to cause severe pain.
Sir Lancelot

## Ability

### Ability

**Unrivaled Swordsman****(Play)** Your opponent's cards in hand lose -15 Power this turn. **(Draw)** Your Guinevere card, wherever it is, costs -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Raised by the Lady of the Lake (which must have been a logistical nightmare), **Sir Lancelot** went on to become one of the great Knights of the Round Table and a personal friend of King Arthur.

And by ’friend’ here, we specifically mean ‘person who will have an adulterous affair with your wife’.

Yes, for all the fighting seven lions and the slaying dragons and the daring rescues and the tournament triumphs, we mostly remember Lancelot as the guy who betrayed his best mate and King with Queen Guinevere.

'"How Sir Launcelot fought with a fiendly dragon." From The Romance of King Arthur (1917).' by Arthur Rackham (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Silver Fox

## Did You Know?

Its name is often used in reference to attractive older gentlemen, but the **Silver Fox** is a creature in its own right. Well, sort of – in fact, the silver fox is actually a melanistic form of red fox, meaning it has an increase of dark pigment in its fur that results in a glossy black or blue-grey coat. Sadly, its unique fur has made the silver fox the target of hunting, and so their population continues to fall as a result.

To catch prey, silver foxes use different hunting strategies depending on the situation. For smaller mammals, the foxes adopt a “mousing position” that allows them to locate prey based on sound. When the prey escapes to a burrow, they lie in wait for the prey to re-emerge.
Sir Bedivere

## Ability

### Ability

**Tis But A Scratch****(Return)** If you won the turn, gain +4 Energy and if you lost the turn, your The Holy Grail card, wherever it is, costs -4 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

**Sir Bedivere** may have been a Knight of the Round Table, but that didn’t stop him being a bit of a dogsbody for everyone (including, at one point, an actual dog).

He nobly helped Culhwch in his impossible tasks.

He bravely assisted Arthur in taking the cauldron of Diwrnach.

He heroically gave a hand to Cavall in hunting the boar Twrch Trwyth.

He chivalrously played second fiddle to Sir Kay in fighting the Giant of Mont Saint-Michel.

Then, in his most notable escapade, Sir Bedivere is the Knight who… gives Excalibur *back* to the Lady of the Lake.

And he didn’t even get a refund.

'King Arthur Sir Bedivere throwing Excalibur into the lake' by Walter Crane (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Snow White

## Ability

### Ability

**Poison Apple****(Play)** If your deck has 2 or more Curious Cuisine cards and 2 or more Venomous Creatures cards, your opponent's cards in hand lose -28 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Skin as white as snow, hair black as ebony and lips red as blood. Sounds like either a fairytale princess or someone who’s not feeling too well. Of course, it’s **Snow White!** While we’re all familiar with Walt Disney’s classic movie, the story is much much older and comes from our old pals, the Brothers Grimm, who first put the tale to paper in 1812.

If you’ve lived under a rock and don’t know the story of Snow White, a queen wishes for a very monochromatic baby and \*poof\* there she is. Of course, it’s a fairy tale so the mum has to die and the dad has to remarry. But the evil stepmother (they’re always so evil, those fictional stepmothers) asks her magic mirror “who’s the fairest of them all” and that shady mirror is like “not you, witch!” It reveals Snow White instead and the evil queen is LIVID.

There are all manner of ways the queen tries to off her. She pays a huntsman to bring her the girl’s heart, but he can’t do it so sends her into the woods where Snow White meets seven dwarves who offer to protect her. Then the queen tries, tries and tries again, using a deadly corset, a vicious hairpin, and then eventually a poison apple. The dwarves watch over poor dead Snow White in a glass coffin before a prince rocks up and kisses her back to life. (Consent issues, we know.)

It’s dark, it’s spooky, it’s got an evil queen who just won’t quit. While there are several (and we mean several) different versions, we’ve captured the basics, but we definitely recommend picking up a copy of the Grimms’ tale and enjoying a classic creepy fairy tale.
Set

## Ability

### Ability

**Game, Set and Nephthys****(Play)** Your Nephthys card in hand gains +47 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Order is overrated. What the world really needs is chaos, warfare and crazy desert storms! Peace was never an option for **Set**, the Ancient Egyptian god and patron of the 11th nome, or province, of Upper Egypt.

Feared by men and gods alike, Set killed his own brother Osiris and was really awful to the child of Osiris’ sister, Isis. Yet, in the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt, Set was actually pretty benevolent - his name was used in love spells and was believed to have saved the sun god Ra from an evil serpent, allowing for the sun to rise the next day. However, by the time of the New Kingdom, Set came to be known as a power-hungry brother-killer. After all, every story needs a villain.

'Set' by Jeff Dahl (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Socrates

## Did You Know?

Born in 470 BC and considered the father of Western Philosophy, Socrates was famed for his fantastic debating skills. Wild stallions couldn't keep him away from a good debate. His disregard for the gods made him unpopular, and he was put on trial for corrupting the minds of the youth, eventually being sentenced to death by poisoning in 399 BC.
Phanes

## Ability

### Ability

**First Born****(Play)** If it's the first turn of a round, this card gains +26 Power this turn. **(Play)** If it's Round 1, this card gains +26 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Ever wonder how your soul got to be in your body? According to the ancient Greeks, it was the doing of **Phanes** - the primaeval God of creation, procreation, the generation of new life, fertility, light and the first ruler of the universe.

The myth goes that Phanes emerged from a void and gave birth to the universe. Some stories say that Phanes passed his power to Gaia or Nyx, and one of them passed it on to Uranus, then Kronos, then Zeus. However, another myth suggests that Zeus ate Phanes to absorb his vast cosmic power.

Given what we know about Zeus, that doesn’t seem totally out of character. After all, Zeus did eat his wife, Metis, and swallowed all of his children to pre-empt their takeover.
Rock Hyrax

## Ability

### Ability

**Rock Crevice****(Play)** If played between two Natural Monuments cards, gain +11 Power/Turn permanently.

## Did You Know?

The **Rock Hyrax** is full of surprises. Despite its guinea pig-like appearance and resting angry face, this little fluffy mammal is actually a cousin of the elephant. Not close cousins, for sure, but close enough to make small talk at large family gatherings.

Just like an elephant, the rock hyrax (aka Dassie, Cape hyrax or rock rabbit) has strong molars to grind up plant food and two large incisor teeth that grow out to be tiny tusks, just like an elephant’s.

If you thought that was unexpected, the Rock Hyrax also has a <link="https:>complex song</link> that can last for several minutes and serve a territorial purpose, a bit like bird song. Researchers recently discovered that hyraxes from different regions even use local dialects in their songs!
Roy Chapman Andrews

## Ability

### Ability

**Indy Flick****(Return)** If your deck contains Dinosaur Eggs, this card gains +43 Power until played and if your deck contains The Ark of the Covenant, this card costs -2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Born January 26th 1884, **Roy Chapman Andrews** was an American explorer, adventurer, and later the director of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He may even have been the inspiration for Indiana Jones, but his career had humble beginnings.

Eager to get his foot in the door at the museum, Andrews offered to mop the floors in the taxidermy office. He got his wish and his hard work and enthusiasm paid off when he was finally granted a full-time job as a taxidermist. Early in his career at the Museum, Andrews spent time in the field—or rather, at sea—studying whales.

Much later, during an expedition to Mongolia’s Gobi Desert in 1923, Andrews and his team found the first dinosaur eggs known to science!
Ross 128b

## Did You Know?

Ross 128b is an Earth-sized planet in its sun's habitable zone. Believed to be rocky and of a temperature suitable for liquid water, it could support human life when we finally decide we've had enough of this rock. And it's pretty close too - it's one of the nearest exoplanets to Earth at only 11 light-years away!
Sisyphus

## Ability

### Ability

**Cheating Death****(Draw)** If you are losing the round and if this is the only Greek Mythology card in your deck, gain +40 Power/Turn this round. **(Play)** If you are losing the round and if this is the only Greek Mythology card in your deck, this card gains +150 Power and if you have played **Sisyphus** this game, lose -100 Power/Turn permanently.

## Did You Know?

When faced with death, you have two options: accept your fate and go towards the light, or cheat death and live to fight another day. **Sisyphus** did the latter - not once, but twice, living up to Homer's description of him in the Iliad as "the most cunning of men.”
Little did Sisyphus know that there are worse fates than your life ending. After he trapped Thanatos in his own chains and tricked Persephone into letting him return, the founder and first king of Corinth was finally sentenced to eternal fruitless labour in Tartarus for his presumption.

Poor Sisyphus was forced to <link="https:>roll a huge boulder up a hill</link> only for it to roll down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for all of eternity.
River of Heaven

## Ability

### Ability

**Connecting Heavens****(Draw)** If your deck contains The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, your Chinese Folklore cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power until played. **(Play)** If played between two Space cards, your Space cards adjacent to this gain +20 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

You can’t swim in it, and you certainly won’t catch any fish in it, but the **River of Heaven** is still the best river in the world. Although, technically speaking, it isn’t actually a river, and it isn’t in this world.

In Chinese folklore, River of Heaven or ‘Celestial River’ refers to the Milky Way, and plays a central role in the myth of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. This 2600-year old legend tells of the romance between Zhinu (the weaver girl) and Niulang (the cowherd). Their love is not allowed, and so they are forced to stay on opposite sides of the heavenly river. On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, a flock of magpies form a bridge to reunite the lovers for a day.
Scarlet Elf Cup

## Ability

### Ability

**Elfin Picnic****(Play)** If played next to any Mythical Creatures card, your Under the Microscope and Funky Fungi cards, wherever they are, gain +26 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

You can’t throw a woodland party without a **Scarlet Elf Cup**. Found growing on dead/decaying wood, this bright red fungus makes the perfect receptacle for a fairy punch. Then again, if an elf offers you a drink in the woods, you should probably decline. Still, this funky fungus is still a sight for sore eyes and a source of food for rodents and slugs.

While Scarlet Elf Cup fungus is edible for humans, its earthy flavour isn’t for everyone. The texture isn’t like your typical mushroom, but they do cook well and can be used in stews if you’re into it. Eating aside, this fungus has been used as a medicine by the Oneida Native Americans to stop bleeding and promote healing.
Sea Sheep

## Ability

### Ability

**Green with Envy****(Play)** Your opponent's cards in hand with 41 or more Base Power lose -30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Is it a sheep! Is it a cow?! No, it's Costasiella kuroshimae (or **'Leaf Sheep'** for short. This ADORBZ little sea slug, whose beady eyes and cute little feelers make it look like a cartoon sea sheep or a Pokemon, feeds on algae.

With adorable blushing cheeks straight out of a Disney movie and beautiful plumage all over its body, like a small foliage of leaves, it can grow up to 5 millimetres (0.2 inches) long.

Sea Sheep also have a strange similarity to leaves, in that they can photosynthesise through kleptoplasty. While eating algae, some sacoglossan Sea Sheep retain the chloroplasts to create their very own energy.

Just like leaves, these sea slugs also come in many different shapes and colours. Our favourite one is green and looks exactly like an artichoke and... hang on, does that mean artichokes are cute too?

## Fusion

 Algae | 7
Robert Burns

## Ability

### Ability

**We Hae Meat****(Draw)** If your deck contains Haggis, an opponent's random card in hand **Burn**s (20) for 4 turns.

## Did You Know?

Even if you aren’t Scottish, there’s a good chance you’ve joined in on a chorus of Auld Lang Syne before. It is, after all, the third most popular song in the English language, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. But did you know it was the G.O.A.T of Scots poetry, **Robert Burns**, who wrote it?

Celebrated worldwide, Robert Burns certainly had a way with words. Whether he was writing about a house, a louse, a mouse or a haggis, he found a way to attach human emotion to his subject matter and craft charming poems that were instantly recognisable. When his body was exhumed in 1815, Burns’ skull was found to be bigger than average. You know what they say, big head, big brain!
Red-shanked Douc

## Ability

### Ability

**Queen of Primates****(Play)** Your Primates cards in hand gain +10 Power this turn. **(Return)** Your Primates cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

You know what they say about respecting your elders? Well, if any elder deserves your respect, it’s the **Red-shanked Douc**, a majestic species of Old World monkey and the most colourful of all primates. These monkeys are arboreal and diurnal monkeys, which means they eat and sleep in the trees of the forest, occasionally nipping down to ground level to drink water and eat dirt.

Sadly, due to deforestation in Vietnam and Laos where they live, this species is in danger of extinction. If you needed another reason to respect it, this breed of monkey is considered the “Queen of primates” due to its distinctive and unique appearance. That’s Her Royal Highness Red-shanked Douc to you, peasant.
Saltwater Crocodile

## Did You Know?

Let's get the gory bit over with quickly; this is the animal most likely to eat a human, so give them a wide berth, understood? Ok, good- let's move on.

Earth’s largest living crocodilian is the Saltwater Crocodile. An average-size male reaches 17 feet and 1,000 pounds but can reach up to 23 feet long and weigh 2,200 pounds.

Salties are excellent swimmers and have often been spotted far out at sea. This is a predator you just don't want to mess with; they lurk patiently beneath the surface near the water's edge, waiting for potential prey to let their defences down for a few seconds.

Their deadliest attack is known as the death roll, which isn't a WWE Superstar's signature move but which is basically designed to throw their prey off balance so the Salties can get their wicked way and drag them under.

The beady-eyed cunning salty will watch from the murky waters then stage a ghastly ambush. Without any warning whatsoever they explode from the water, grasping their victim, and dragging it back in, rolling their bodies underwater disorientating the prey, making it easier to consume...

What was that we said about getting the gory bit over with quickly? Sorry, it was all gory. Just don't mess with salties, yeah?
Raijū

## Ability

### Ability

**Thunder Punch****(Return)** If your deck contains Thunderstorms, gain +3:energy/turn: this round.

## Did You Know?

Raijin, god of thunderstorms in the Shinto religion, is feared for his demonic face and his appetite for children’s belly buttons. But even a powerful thunder god needs a fur baby for warmth and companionship.

Enter **Raiju**, a white and blue wolf wrapped in lightning that accompanies the thunder god. Look familiar? You might be thinking of Manecentric, an electric-type Pokemon that is based on Raiju.

Some believe that it is not Raijin who is fixated with belly buttons, but his pet wolf, who seeks shelter in them during a storm. This prompts Raijin to wake the creature up by shooting arrows in his general direction, harming the person/temporary-wolf-bed in the process. If you’re superstitious, you might want to sleep on your stomach during a storm.
Shakespeare's First Folio

## Ability

### Ability

**Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies****(Play)** 2 of each of your random Weird World, Documented and Battle! cards, wherever they are, gain +25 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Ah, Shakespeare - the man, the myth, the legend. But without the efforts of his actor buddies, some of his most iconic plays including Twelfth Night, The Tempest and Macbeth may have been lost to the sands of time. Fortunately, John Heminges and Henry Condell compiled 36 of his plays into a collection titled Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies.

Fast forward 400 years and **Shakespeare’s First Folio** (as it's better known) is considered the most important book in English literature. However, of the 750 copies printed, only 235 are known to remain. If you want to get your hands on one, a <link="https:>rare books dealer in London</link> is selling a copy of the First Folio, along with a few other editions and Shakespeare's poems for a cool $7.5 million.
Sally Ride

## Ability

### Ability

**Ride, Sally Ride****(Play)** Your Radical Rockets cards in hand gain +35 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Dr. **Sally Ride** was finishing her studies at Stanford University with a degree in physics and astrophysics and was looking for a job when she saw a NASA ad in the newspaper. When she looked at the qualifications she said to herself, “I’m one of those people,” she told The New York Times in 1982.

In her early days at NASA, Dr. Ride did some extremely cool stuff, including training in parachute jumping, water survival, weightlessness and the huge G-forces of a rocket launch. Ride also casually learned to fly a jet plane. These things were never on our bucket list but now kinda are.

Ride flew on the shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983, and a second mission in 1984. At 32, she was also the youngest American EVER in space.

She later became the only person to sit on both panels investigating the catastrophic shuttle accidents that killed all astronauts onboard - the Challenger explosion in 1986 and the Columbia crash in 2003.

What a woman.

'Sally Ride was the first American woman in space.' by NASA; retouched by Adam Cuerden (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)

## Trivia

* The quote "Ride, Sally Ride" is a reference to the song "Ride Sally Ride" by Al Green.
Spanish Armada

## Ability

### Ability

**Fleeting Fleet****(Play)** For every Riding the Waves! card in your deck, this card gains +6 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

In 1588, Philip II of Spain sent The **Spanish Armada** - a naval force - to join up with a Spanish army coming from the Netherlands and invade Protestant England, with the goal of overthrowing Queen Elizabeth I, replacing her with her Catholic cousin Mary (Queen of Scots) and reinstating Catholicism.

If this had all gone to plan, perhaps there would never have been a British empire, no East India Company, no imperial exploration or colonisation. The makeup of our world today would look drastically different.

But the Armada failed to join up with the army, and after a fatal blow from the English in the open seas near Calais, the Armada was forced to retreat via the turbulent North Sea. Almost half of their fleet was lost en route home.
Silver Arowana

## Ability

### Ability

**Get Schooled****(Play)** Your Feisty Fish and Fabulous Fish cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In 1829, zoologist Georges Cuvier officially recognised a new species of fish. Covered in pearlescent scales, the **Silver Arowana** is of the genus “Osteoglossidae,” which means “bone-tongues” in Greek. Why the name? These fish have teeth on their tongue that bite against teeth on the roof of the mouth.

Revered for their looks and predatory behaviour, Silver Arowanas are native to the Amazon drainage system and the western Orinoco, Rupununi and Essequibo systems of the Guianas. Often referred to as Dragon Fish or Monkey Fish, the typical size of a Silver Arowana in captivity is almost 3 feet long when fully grown! Being so massive and having quite an aggressive temperament makes this species quite a handful as a pet, even for the most well-versed fish owners.
River Styx

## Ability

### Ability

**Boundary Beck****(Play)** If played between any Life on Land card and any Arts and Culture card, your cards in hand gain +16 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

If you’re looking for a dark and dreary vacation, how about a cruise along the **River Styx?** The river between the world of the living and the world of the dead in Greek Mythology, this is the place to be if you’re on your way to Hades.

We hope you brought a penny for the ferryman though because if you want to cross, you need to tip our (very) old pal, Charon. And you better pay because if you can’t afford it, Charon will turn that boat around and you’ll be forced to wander the banks of the river as a wraith for all eternity!

Once you’re on the ferry, you’ll discover that the river itself has many magical properties. Not only is it a handy thing to make oaths on (which had pretty severe consequences if you broke this in Homer’s The Illiad and The Odyssey) but you could also dunk your babies in it to make them immortal. That’s what Thetis did with baby Achilles. Unfortunately, she held him by the heel, therefore missing a bit and resulting in the origin story of the “Achilles’ heel.”
Simon Forman

## Ability

### Ability

**Reputation in Tatters****(Return)** If you are losing the round, this card costs +3 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

The story of **Simon Forman** is strange, to say the least. As an amateur astrological physician, Forman divined knowledge from the positions of the stars to diagnose and prescribe for all manner of pain: from broken hearts to indigestion. He even built a thriving practice offering his astrological health services, with treatments like bloodletting being given according to planetary positions.

Oddly enough, Forman even accurately predicted his own death. In September 1611, he told his wife he would die the following Thursday night. And, sure enough, after taking a boat out onto the River Thames, Forman collapsed from a heart attack. Five years later, Simon Forman was implicated in the murder of English poet Thomas Overbury, who had been given poison by one of Forman’s patients.
Shuriken

## Did You Know?

**Shuriken** (meaning 'hidden hand blade') are also known as throwing stars, and were used by both Samurai and Ninjas. Sure, they were sharpened so they could pierce skin, and sometimes coated with poison to ensure their death - but their primary use was as a *distraction*. For example, they would be thrown in order to wound a target but continue flying, so that the victim didn't realise what had happened.

Ownership of Shuriken is now illegal in some countries, including Canada, Germany and the UK.
Solar Golden Arches

## Did You Know?

The awesome sight of massive golden arches on the surface of the sun, observed in April of 2017, was caused by charged particles spinning along magnetic field lines and forming a connection between regions of opposite polarity (and not because McDonalds has opened a branch there).

'Solar Golden Arches' by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Source: Flickr) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Osaka Castle

## Did You Know?

Construction on Osaka Castle began in 1583 under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who intended for it to become an icon of a unified Japan.

However, it ended up being destroyed by Tokugawa troops 32 years later...

```
...but was later rebuilt by Tokugawa's heir...
...only to be struck by lightning and destroyed again in 1660...
...and then struck by lightning again and burned down in 1665...
...and then rebuilt by the Bakufu in 1843...
...and then burned down by anti-Bakufu Imperial Loyalists in 1868...
...then rebuilt in 1931, before...
...World War II bombing raids in 1945 damaged much of the building...
...ahead of finally being restored in 1997.

```

Even if it isn't a symbol of a unified Japan, it surely symbolises the determination of the human spirit.
Sir Balin

## Did You Know?

With a name that’s one letter and an apostrophe away from “Sir Ballin’”, one might assume that this Arthurian knight was a badass. And they wouldn’t be wrong: often depicted with two swords, **Sir Balin** worked for Arthur before the formation of the Knights of the Round Table.

Unfortunately, slaying the Lady of the Lake didn’t sit too well with Arthur, and so Balin was imprisoned for his crime. While in jail, Balin was visited by a mysterious woman bearing a sword that she claimed only the most virtuous knight in Arthur’s court would be able to wield. Balin drew the sword easily. However, just weeks after his release, Balin and his brother destroyed each other in single combat. Bad luck, Balin.
Sei Whale

## Ability

### Ability

**Cetacean Speed****(Play)** Your cards with "Whale" in the name, wherever they are, gain +26 Power for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

In 1848, officers and crew aboard the HMS Daedalus saw what they described as an “enormous serpent swimming with its head four feet above the water and roughly another sixty feet of the creature extending back in the sea.” A terrifying experience, and one that remained a mystery for almost 170 years.

Finally, in 2015, the most likely explanation was uncovered: it was a **Sei Whale**, the third largest whale species after blue whales and fin whales. Although it can reach up to 64 ft in length, it’s much more slender than its cousins, so you can see why the crew mistook it for a serpent.

As well as its size, Sei Whales are thought to be among the fastest of baleen whales, reaching speeds 25 km/h when under threat.
Sidney Reilly

## Ability

### Ability

**Ace of Spies****(Play)** If your deck has 4 or more Espionage cards, your Playing Cards and Espionage cards in hand gain +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Born Sigmund Rosenblum, **Sidney Reilly** is often called the “Ace of Spies” and is thought to be the inspiration behind James Bond. An expert assassin and a master of disguise, some sources say he possessed eleven passports and a wife to go with each!

As a bitter opponent of Russia’s radical Bolshevik government, Reilly was hired by MI6. Although they knew he was a crook, the secret service recognised his genius as a spy. Reilly’s plot to overthrow the Bolshevik leadership failed, but he was awarded the Military Cross for his undercover operations in Moscow. Although Reilly faked his death in Odessa, Ukraine and made it back to London, the first “superspy” of the 20th century was lured back to Russia and finally executed by Stalin in 1925.
Sea Spider

## Ability

### Ability

**Wanna-Be****(Draw)** Your Bugs and Venomous Creatures cards, wherever they are, gain +14 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

OK - Two things wrong with this card, straight out of the gate.

Firstly - **Sea Spider** doesn’t really do justice to the variety of Sea Spiders out there. For example, the Southern Ocean Giant Sea Spider is up there with the Goliath Bird-Eater for size, and lives deep on the ocean floor. Whereas other *pycnogonids* (how’s that for a name?) grow to a mere 2mm, and live in the shallows.

Secondly… they aren’t Spiders at all. So if you’re an arachnophobe, breathe easy.
Soyuz

## Ability

### Ability

**Union****(Return)** Your Radical Rockets cards, wherever they are, cost -2 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

Named after the Russian word for “union”, **Soyuz** rockets are the longest-serving route to space. Like a lifeboat, a Soyuz rocket is always attached to the International Space Station for emergency use to get back to Earth.

After launch from Earth, a Soyuz capsule only takes nine minutes to reach space. That’s enough time to make a good cup of coffee and watch one 61th of the Lord of The Rings trilogy.
Siberian Musk Deer

## Ability

### Ability

**Fangs A Lot****(Return)** Your Vampire Bat and Count Dracula cards, wherever they are, gain +50 Power until played and your Count Dracula card, wherever it is, costs -2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

To the **Siberian Musk Deer**, home is where the heart is. Highly territorial in nature, this creature will rub its scent against the trees and stones surrounding its home to let others know they’re trespassing on private property. Unusually for deer, the males do not have antlers but that lack of badassitude is compensated for by the creature’s extremely long canine teeth (which both genders have).

The Siberian musk deer is a small member of the deer family; it weighs between 7 and 17kg and stand around 60cm tall. Being so little allows the deer to hide from predators in openings within the rocky terrains where they live. It also gives them the ability to run exceptionally fast when faced with the threat of danger.

As their name suggests, the Siberian musk deer lives in the snowy forests of southern Siberia, but they’ve also been spotted in parts of Mongolia and the Korean peninsula.
Samuel Bellamy

## Ability

### Ability

**Prince of Pirates****(Return)** Your Plundering Pirates and Lost Treasures cards, wherever they are, gain +26 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

For someone who didn’t set out to be a pirate, **Samuel Bellamy** sure was good at it. In just one year, Bellamy captured 53 ships and plundered $140 million worth of treasure, dividing it equally among his crew. Known as the Robin Hood of the Seas, Bellamy was said to be a fair and democratic pirate - a slight oxymoron, but then again, he only turned to piracy from privateering to avoid returning home in debt.

Instead, Bellamy launched a mutiny, raised the black flag and sailed triumphantly around the Caribbean and the Atlantic. They soon became the richest pirates ever, but the sea is a cruel mistress. En route home, Bellamy and his crew met their end when a storm plunged their ship into the deep, taking the treasure with it.
Ring Nebula

## Ability

### Ability

**Nice Ring to It****(Play)** Your Rings of Saturn card in hand gains +50 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The most famous sight of a dying star, and the closest dying star to Earth, the Ring Nebula was discovered in 1779.

In the centre of the nebula is the ‘white dwarf’ which is a tiny dot in the centre and the star’s hot core. A huge, diffuse set of hydrogen shells surround it, showing recently blown off material as the star continues to die.

Best observed during August, M57 is around 2,000 light- years away in the constellation ‘Lyra.’ The good news is you can spot the Ring Nebula with moderately sized telescopes. (\* if you, err happen to have a moderately sized telescope lying around). On Earth, astronomers can see the ring of the nebula face-on because of the way it’s tilted.

Upon observing it, Charles Messier wrote: “It is very dull, but perfectly outlined; it is as large as Jupiter and resembles a planet which is fading.”
Short Beaked Common Dolphin

## Ability

### Ability

**Classic Cetaceans****(Play)** Your Bottlenose Dolphin card in hand gains +45 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

They use tools, communicate with each other and even solve problems. Some scientists say that they’re even smarter than many primates. But don’t worry, the **Short Beaked Common Dolphin** isn’t about to take over the world (yet.)

However, they do have some impressive abilities. When hunting as a school, this species has been known to blow bubble nets to catch fish. That might not seem smart, since bubbles reflect sonar signals, making the fish hard to detect. But short beaked common dolphins use a clever mathematical trick to get around this.

To test this theory, researchers generated dolphin-like sonar clicks in a tank with a steel sphere hidden in a bubble cloud. By adjusting the breadth of the clicks and amplifying the weaker echo, they could distinguish the steel sphere from the bubbles.
Shi Pei Pu

## Ability

### Ability

**Immaculate Deception****(Play)** Your Chinese Folklore cards in hand gain +20 Power until played. **(Return)** Your opponent's remaining History cards in hand **Lock** next turn.

## Did You Know?

Did you hear the one about the French diplomat who had a 20-year affair with a Chinese opera singer? The diplomat was one Bernard Boursicot, and the opera singer was **Shi Pei Pu.**

Here’s where it gets crazy: Boursicot did not realise that his secret lover was actually a man pretending to be a woman, nor that he was being seduced by a spy who had lured him into a honeypot trap to participate in Chinese espionage.
Robert Falcon Scott

## Ability

### Ability

**No Return****(Return)** This card costs -6 Energy and loses -100 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Captain **Robert Falcon Scott** led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: The Discovery Expedition, and the Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole, which he and his crew tragically did not survive. Scott may not have been the first to explore the South Pole, but the tale of the ill-fated expedition is still remembered throughout the world. What’s more, then the crew was found, they had in their possession the first ever Antarctic fossils to be discovered.

It was Scott who recorded the final words of Captain Oates, who in an act of heroism walked to certain death to improve his companions’ chance of survival. On leaving, he said, “I am just going outside, and may be some time.”

'Captain Robert F. Scott writing in his diary' by Ponting, Herbert George, photographer; Ponting, Herbert George (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Shakshuka

## Ability

### Ability

**Shak It Up****(Play)** If your deck has 9 or more cards with "Egg" in the name, your cards with "Egg" in the name, wherever they are, gain +16 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

The dish’s name means “all mixed up” due to the hodge-podge of ingredients. Ironically, the history of the **Shakshuka** is just as messy. Some historians say it originated in Yemen, while others claim it came from the Ottoman Empire. What we do know for sure is that the Shakshuka became a popular dish for North African immigrants arriving in Israel.

Given the financial hardship they suffered, a hearty dish consisting of cheap ingredients like eggs, peppers and bread became a household favourite. It’s also relatively easy to cook and served in the pan, saving on dishes (yass.) While there are many variations of the recipe, the classic Shakshuka is made up of eggs cooked in tomato sauce and peppers and served with bread for dipping.
Slow Loris

## Did You Know?

The Slow Loris is the ultimate poster child for how appearances can be REALLY DECEPTIVE. The Slow Loris may appear cute and cuddly with its round bushbaby eyes and thick soft lovely fur, but don't be fooled - it has a venomous bite. It primes for delivery by licking a gland under its arms (gross!); the secretion combined with saliva creates a poisonous venom with a bite that is so potent that there is no known cure.
Shamrock

## Ability

### Ability

**Lucky?****(Play)** If played next to Tuxedo and Playing Cards, give them and this card +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Synonymous with the Emerald Isles, religious tales say that Saint Patrick used the **Shamrock** and its distinctive three leaves to teach the Irish people all about the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But here’s a curveball: unlike the thistle of Scotland or the red rose of England, there is no plant actually called “shamrock”.

The word actually comes from the Irish ‘seamrog’, which means “little clover”. While botanists spend their time debating over the specific species of the shamrock, people with way too much time on their hands are spending their days searching for shamrocks with four leaves. Since only one in around 10,000 clovers have four leaves, finding one is said to be extremely lucky.
Sir Tristan

## Ability

### Ability

**The Course of True Love****(Return)** Your Holy Grail card, wherever it is, costs -3 Energy permanently. **(Play)** Your Iseult card gains +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

When we think of Arthurian legends, **Sir Tristan** isn’t usually the first to come to mind. But this noble knight could hunt, joust, dance and even play the harp. How many of us can say the same?!

A contemporary of King Arthur and a Knight of the Round Table, Sir Tristan was the nephew and champion of King Mark of Cornwall and the son of Meliodas, King of Lyoness. However, he is best remembered for his love affair with Iseult of Ireland who was, awkwardly, the wife of Mark of Cornwall. In the prose ‘Tristan’, the protagonist is stabbed in the back by King Mark with an enchanted lance mid-way through a harp performance to Iseult under a tree.
Robin's Egg Nebula

## Ability

### Ability

**Fill Your Basket****(Play)** Your cards with "Egg" in the name in hand gain +33 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The **Robins Egg Nebula** - or, NGC 1360, as it’s officially known - was discovered in January 1868 by the German astronomer Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke. You’ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelette - and in the case of the Robin’s Egg Nebula, the ‘eggs’ was a binary star comprising an O-type star and a white dwarf, less massive but much hotter than the Sun.

When the binary star “cracked” at the end of its life, reddish matter is believed to have ejected from the star like the space equivalent of yolk. Sadly, the result isn’t a delicious breakfast for lost astronauts but rather a cosmic cloud with a blue-green hue produced as electrons recombine with doubly ionised oxygen atoms.
Romulus and Remus

## Ability

### Ability

**Raised by Wolves****(Draw)** Gain +4 Power/Turn permanently. **(Play)** Your Lupus, Atlantic Wolffish and Dire Wolf cards in hand gain +50 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

In Roman mythology, **Romulus and Remus** were the sons of Mars, the Roman God of War. Raised by a she-wolf after being dumped in a river by the fearful king, they grew up and travelled to a hilltop in Italy, where they began building a city.

After Remus laughed at his brother’s attempt to build a wall, Romulus killed him (sorry Remus.) With his twin out of the picture, Romulus founded the city of Rome, naming it after himself.
Sarchosuchus

## Ability

### Ability

**Sarch-asm****(Play)** If you are losing the round, this card gains +30 Power permanently. **(Return)** If you won the turn, this card costs -7 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

**Sarcosuchus** was by far the biggest crocodilian that ever lived, making modern crocs, caimans, and gators look like insignificant little lizards by comparison.

Unlike modern crocodiles, which reach their full adult size after around 10 years, **Sarcosuchus** seems to have kept growing throughout its lifetime with the largest specimens reaching 12 meters (40 ft) in length, compared to about 7.5 meters (25 ft) max for the saltwater croc (the biggest crocodilian alive today)!

What made **Sarcosuchus** truly impressive was its weight - these creatures could reach up to ten tons.

Sorry, did I say impressive? I meant horrifying.

## Trivia

* This card is obtained from the Palaeontology Level Up Pack in Master Scout level.
Rosalind Franklin

## Ability

### Ability

**Diffracted Glory****(Draw)** Three random cards in your hand cost -2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

**Rosalind Franklin** is best known for the honour denied to her: the 1962 Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA. If not for her famous Photograph 51 (taken using X-Ray diffraction), Watson and Crick wouldn’t have won the prize for their research on the “double helix” which they reportedly “forgot” to credit her for. What’s more, if not for her early death, Franklin would have eventually picked up the Nobel Prize in 1982 for her work on molecular structure of viruses awarded to her (male) colleague. Ouch.