recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Sister Rosetta Tharpe

## Ability

### Ability

**Bound for Glory****(Draw)** If you are tied or winning the round, gain +34 Power/Turn for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

Recognised as the originator of pop gospel and a populariser of the electric guitar, **Sister Rosetta Tharpe** began performing songs at the age of six for her local church. Back then, she was known as Little Rosetta Nubin, and was already considered a musical prodigy.

At 23, Tharpe made her first record: four sides for Decca Records backed by Lucky Millinder’s Jazz Orchestra. They were instant hits, establishing Tharpe as an overnight sensation. Soon, she was playing to crowds with Cab Calloway at Harlem's Cotton Club and Carnegie Hall.

Tharpe’s career spanned decades, inspiring greats like Dylan and Presley, and she continued to tour until her death in 1973. In 2018, Sister Rosetta Tharpe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influence category.
Satyr

## Ability

### Ability

**Prominent Horns****(Play)** Your Triceratops, Ankole-Watusi Cow and Horned Ghost Crab cards, wherever they are, gain +16 Power permanently. **(Return)** Your Mountain Goat card, wherever it is, costs -4 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Like Tyrion in Game of Thrones, the **Satyr** had two major traits: they drank, and they knew things. The companions of Pan and Dionysus, these wine-guzzling creatures had male torsos and goat legs, although older depictions show them with horses’ tails and ears. In Greek mythology, Satyrs are often associated with the male sex drive, since their time was mostly spent roaming the mountains and woods looking for love.

When they weren’t lusting after women, they entertained Dionysus (the god of wine) with music and dancing. Although they have a reputation as the original party animals, there was a method to the madness. Satyrs were said to be so talented with musical instruments that they could produce hypnotic tunes that forced people to join their revelry.
Nuestra Señora de Atocha

## Ability

### Ability

**Treasure Galleon****(Play)** Your cards, wherever they are, with 8 or more Base Energy gain +32 Power until played. **(Return)** Your cards, wherever they are, with 8 or more Base Energy cost +2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

In 1622, Spanish galleon **Nuestra Señora de Atocha** set sail for Spain laden with gold, silver, pearls, and other goods from colonies in present-day Columbia, Panama, and Cuba. But the galleon soon met the sea floor when a hurricane sank the vessel near Florida.

Several centuries later, Mel Fisher - a chicken farmer turned treasure hunter - found the Spanish shipwreck, valued at $450 million. Fisher’s motto was “Today’s the Day”, and that it certainly was when he and his treasure-hunting family recovered what was known as “The Atocha Motherlode*, comprising 40 tons of gold and silver, 114,000 Spanish silver coins, gold coins, ingots and several Columbian emeralds.*

In 2014, Nuestra Señora de Atocha was added to the Guinness Book of World Records for being the most valuable shipwreck to be recovered.
Sinbad the Sailor

## Ability

### Ability

**Seven Voyages****(Draw)** If your deck has exactly 7 Riding the Waves! cards, this card gains +65 Power this turn. **(Return)** Your Riding the Waves! cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Everyone knows **Sinbad the Sailor**. (No, not the one who <link="https:>starred in ‘Shazaam’</link> before that timeline was destroyed.) We’re talking about the daring protagonist from the Arabian Nights stories.

Set in Baghdad during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid from CE 786 to 809, Sinbad’s adventures are included in the first European translation of the Nights - Antoine Galland's ‘Les mille et une nuits.’

Oddly enough, in Arabic translations of the Arabian Nights, Sinbad is absent. To add confusion, the name ‘Sinbad’ comes from the Persian ‘Sindbad’ meaning “Lord of the Sindh River.” Whatever the origin, one thing’s for sure: this hero didn’t stumble upon his fortune by chance. In his seven voyages, Sinbad encounters everything from man-eating apes to giant birds and somehow survives it all.
Sir Walter Raleigh

## Ability

### Ability

**Man of the World****(Play)** Your cards, wherever they are, gain +5 Power until played. **(Return)** Your Earth and Exciting Exploration cards, wherever they are, cost -2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Smokers in the UK can thank (and curse) **Sir Walter Raleigh** for introducing tobacco to England after several expeditions to America.

This statesman, writer and explorer was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. After knighting him, she appointed Sir Walter Raleigh captain of the Queen’s Guard in 1587. Legend has it that Raleigh once even doffed his cloak and laid it across a puddle for the queen to step across.

With a charter from the queen, Raleigh sponsored the first attempt to found a permanent English settlement in the New World (America). But things turned sour after a failed quest for El Dorado. Accused of treason by Elizabeth’s successor, James I, Raleigh was imprisoned in the Tower of London and eventually executed.
Schrödinger's Cat

## Ability

### Ability

**Dead or Alive?****(Draw)** If you have played a Cute Cats card this game, your Cute Cats cards in hand gain +28 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Failed veterinarian Erwin Schrödinger\* came up with his famous thought experiment while in discussion with Einstein (so we can credit him with an assist here).

Schrödinger intended for it to debunk what he saw as an absurd interpretation of quantum mechanics, but it has since been understood by ignoramuses like me the world over as How Quantum Mechanics Actually Works.

If you haven’t come across **Schrödinger’s Cat** before, it goes like this. (I may be paraphrasing.)

**Get hold of a cat.** Preferably one you have no emotional attachment to, or better still one that committed some kind of crime against you or your loved ones.
**Stick said cat in a box.** Don’t close it yet - there’s more to go in.
**Pop to your local 7 Eleven** and ask for a barrel of their finest radioactive material. Once you’ve smoothed things over with the police and/or military, add a few drops of said radioactive material to your cat-in-a-box. (Not the whole barrel, you monster.)
**Hook up a Geiger counter** to an amplifier and some gun powder, and maybe some poison for good measure. The important thing is that when someone comes to visit you later, they have a **lot** of questions.
**Now close the box.**

Voilà. *Your cat is now both alive and dead at the same time.*

Whatever you do, don’t ever look inside the box, as that might tip the poor thing into the ‘just dead’ category. Better just to leave it unobserved. Maybe start looking for a new house.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Quantum Mechanics.
Roman Roads

## Ability

### Ability

**All Roads Lead to Rome****(Play)** Your The Roman Empire cards in hand gain +22 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The Romans came up with a solution to their problem of being unable to transport their army and their trade around the Empire by reinforcing the pathways they would take with gravel and stone, thereby inventing the road (and, by extension, road rage).

What made their roads special were their construction - they were straight, so as to follow the shortest possible distance between two points, and they were cambered with ditches at the sides so the rain would flow off of them.

You may have heard the phrase "all roads lead to Rome" and this was actually the case - all their roadways emanated outwards from the capital. They stretched out as the Empire grew, and when they reach Britain they laid down nearly 1000 miles of road so the could quickly get around to keep the British in check.

That 1000 miles did not include the M25, which spares the Roman Empire of the ire of tens of thousands of British motorists on a daily basis.
Rube Goldberg Machine

## Ability

### Ability

**Self-Operating****(Play)** If you have played Fiddle-string Snake this game, your Ingenious Inventions cards, wherever they are, gain +9 Power until played. Repeat for Toucan and Zippo Lighter.

## Did You Know?

A marble moves down a tube to trigger a clock to tick backwards for 5 seconds causing a toothbrush to fall into a toothpaste-filled bucket which then tips the toothbrush into your hand. If you’ve still got any sanity left after reading that, we salute you. It’s a (made-up) example of a **Rube Goldberg Machine**, akin to the type you see in Wallace and Gromit, Back to the Future or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Named after cartoonist Rube Goldberg who often drew these devices in his cartoons, chain-reaction type contraptions are intentionally designed to perform a simple task in the most convoluted way. Every year, the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh holds The Chain Reaction Contraption Contest for high school teams to compete in building their very own Rube Goldberg machines.
Sauroposeidon

## Ability

### Ability

**Towering Tall****(Play)** All other cards in both player's hands with 60 or more Base Power lose -50 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

**Sauroposeidon** was a HELLA tall dinosaur named after the Greek god of the sea, and while no full fossils exist, it’s thought to have reached up to nearly 60ft in height! According to its discoverer, Richard Cifelli, “It’s arguably the largest creature ever to walk the earth” - although the title of Biggest Dino Ever is typically given to Marrapunisaurus or Argentinosaurus, we might never know for certain thanks to the incompleteness of the fossils.

Speaking of, it wasn’t until five years after their initial discovery in 1994 that they were recognised formally as dinosaur bones - they were so shockingly enormous they were misclassified for years as petrified wood!
Siege Tower

## Ability

### Ability

**Tower Defence****(Draw)** Your cards in hand gain +32 Power and cost +2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

The introduction of the **Siege Tower** was a game-changer in siege warfare. It allowed attacking soldiers to climb onto battlements and storm a fortress. It provided crossbowmen and archers with a better position to shoot from. It gave soldiers on the ground cover from above. Imagine if it had provided the catering too!

They varied in size and construction (some up to 135 feet tall!) and were usually so heavy that soldiers needed oxen to carry them forward. There was just one problem: since these megastructures were made of wood, they were susceptible to fire. If defenders could set fire to the towers before they could be put to use, the towers and the soldiers inside were goners. They were also the target of stone catapults but had projectiles built-in for retaliation.
Scylla

## Ability

### Ability

**A Rock and Hard Place****(Play)** Your Charybdis card, wherever it is, gains +20 Power permanently and all Life on Land cards in both player's hands lose -38 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Greek Mythology's deadliest sea monster, **Scylla** is described in the Odyssey as a big ol’ beast with twelve feet and six serpentine heads. Any ship that dared cross the Straights of Messina could be torn apart by Scylla – but she wasn’t always a hideous monster. Apparently, she was once a beautiful nymph loved by the sea God Glaucos, but her jealous rival Circe transformed her into a frightening mishmash of nightmares. Blessed are those who were ugly in Greek mythology.
Royal Penguin

## Ability

### Ability

**By Royal Decree****(Play)** Your Unruly Rulers cards in hand gain +50 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Royal Penguins are found in the cold waters off Antarctica feeding on krill (small crustaceans), fish and squid.

They get their regal title from the yellow plumes that run from their forehead and along the sides of the head. Eudyptes schlegeli (fancy Latin name) is probably a subspecies of the Macaroni Penguin and they have been known to interbreed from time to time.

These majestic birds were brought to the brink of extinction in the latter half of the 19th century because of the insatiable demand for oil to power machinery, lights and even make soap. Fortunately, in 1959 The Antarctic Treaty made it illegal to harm, or in any way interfere with, a penguin or its eggs allowing the population to stabilise. Today, their biggest threats are global warming and overfishing.

## Fusion

 Rockhopper Penguin | 4
Siamese Crocodile

## Ability

### Ability

**Soft Belly****(Play)** Your Ocean Reptiles cards, wherever they are, gain +28 Power until played. **(Return)** If you lost the turn, your Ocean Reptiles cards, wherever they are, cost +2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

When conservationists ventured into the dense jungles of the Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia and Thailand, they made an incredible discovery. Despite being driven out of 99% of its former range, one of the world's rarest and most threatened species of crocodilians was still thriving in this region - the **Siamese Crocodile**.

Despite its elusive nature, conservation efforts have revealed the female to be an incredibly hard-working creature. In the wild, she uses scraped up plant debris mixed with mud to build mound-nests, incubates her eggs, and then helps her offspring break out of their shells before carrying them to the water in her jaws. Clearly, the Siamese Crocodile is a survivor, she’s not gon’ give up, she’s not gon’ stop, she’s gon’ work harder.
Schuylkill River

## Ability

### Ability

**Thunder Gun Express****(Play)** For every round completed this game, your Common Stage and Screen cards, wherever they are, gain +7 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If you happened to catch <link="https:>Frank Reynolds</link> ’ tour of the Schuylkill River, you’ll know that it's home to many weird fish-like creatures, and is also the depository of all of the unsolved crimes and murders in Philadelphia. Apparently. Spanning an impressive 135 miles, traversing five counties in Pennsylvania, the Schuylkill River got its current name from Dutch settlers who stumbled upon its hidden mouth, concealed by thick vegetation near League Island on the Delaware River in the 1600s.

Despite the whole murders thing, 'kill' actually signifies "creek," while 'schuylen' translates to "to hide" (still sounds pretty sus though). Prior to its renaming, the river was known as Ganoshowanna, meaning "falling water," by the Lenape tribe who once resided in the region that is now West Philadelphia.
Sand Tiger Shark

## Did You Know?

Brace yourself for this one because it's kind of gross.

Ready?

Alright, let's do this. When a **Sand Tiger Shark** is pregnant, the most developed embryo (i.e. baby shark, but nothing like the cute version in the song) eats its siblings while still inside the mother. This is also known as 'intrauterine cannibalism', or 'eww that's disgusting'.
Sirius

## Ability

### Ability

**I Did My Waiting...****(Draw)** This card **Lock**s for 12 turns and your The Occult cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Known as the “Dog Star” due to its prominence in the constellation Canis Major, **Sirius** is the brightest star in the night sky and will continue to be for the next 210,000 years. Given its brightness and proximity to earth, it’s no surprise that Sirius has been an object of wonder throughout human history.

Associated with the gods Osiris and Sopdet, the Ancient Egyptians noted that Sirius rose just before the sun each year, immediately prior to the annual flooding of the Nile River. For the Greeks, the rising of Sirius was known as the “dog days” (the hottest, and most uncomfortable days of summer) while to the Polynesians it marked winter and helped sailors navigate around the Pacific Ocean.
Southern Cassowary

## Ability

### Ability

**Get-Out Claws****(Return)** If you are losing the round, this card gains +25 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

The **Southern Cassowary** is a mysterious species... while all birds are descended from dinosaurs, the enigmatic cassowary is thought to be far more similar to its ancestors than other bird species.

With a large body and fierce claws, these flightless birds, who are weirdly also really good at swimming, have 'casques', which are helmet-like structures on top of their heads - many dinosaurs are believed to have had casques too, like the Parasaurolophus, making them look totally fierce.

Another thing the southern cassowary shares with dinosaurs is its booming call, which carries miles and miles through the dense foliage. The call is loud, deep and rumbling and the frequency is so low that some parts can't be heard by humans!

Scientists believe the sound and projection is likely to be amplified through its impressive-looking casque. The purpose of the bird’s cool looking helmet is still up for debate; some believe it's to protect its head as it runs through the tangled forest, while others say it's purely for show and reflects the animal’s dominance. About to start strutting through our own neighborhood leafy streets in a helmet now...
Savannah Cat

## Ability

### Ability

**Little Big Cat****(Draw)** Your Common and Rare Cool Cats and Common and Rare Cute Cats cards, wherever they are, gain +24 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Since 2006, **Savannah Cats** have held the Guinness record of world’s tallest domestic cat, measuring 17 inches at the ear. But don’t be intimidated: under their muscular bodies and spotted coats of their wild ancestors, Savannah cats are friendly, loving pets. However, if you also intend on keeping fish, hamsters and birds, getting a Savannah cat is a recipe for disaster - or success, depending on whose side you’re on.

Being a cross between a Serval and domestic cat, this breed has strong hunting instincts. In the UK, anyone who wants to adopt a first generation (F1) Savannah cat will need a Dangerous Wild Animal Licence. If you’re less Joe Exotic and more a casual cat lover, it’s best to opt for a second, third or fourth generation Savannah cat.
Saturn Hexagon Storm

## Ability

### Ability

**Hexed****(Draw)** Gain +6 Power/Turn permanently. **(Return)** Lose -6 Power/Turn permanently and your Saturn card, wherever it is, costs -4 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

First discovered in 1981 by the Voyager mission, **Saturn’s Hexagon Storm** is a complex cloud pattern that sits at the north pole of the ringed planet. At the centre of this unique six-sided jet stream is a massive hurricane with an eye about 50 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth.

On our planet, hurricanes tend to last for around a week. On Saturn, this hurricane has been going on for decades – or centuries, for all we know. The intricacy of the layers above it show how complex Saturn’s atmosphere and weather systems are – in fact, recent research from the Cassini spacecraft’s mission to Saturn in 2004 suggests that the hexagonal vortex could actually be hundreds of kilometres tall.

'Storm pattern around the north pole of Saturn' by Stephen Wolfram (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Saturn V

## Ability

### Ability

**Power Behind Progress****(Play)** Your Lunar Module 'Eagle' card in hand gains +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Saturn V is the model of rocket that took Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (and Michael Collins, close enough) to The Moon.

It debuted in 1967 in the unmanned Apollo 4 mission, and one additional test flight later, NASA cleared it to carry those men into space. If that were me I'd have wanted slightly more assurance than two prior flights, but I suppose that's what separates the astronauts from the normal people.

The Saturn V made 13 missions to space all together. At nearly 36 stories tall and weighing almost as much as 400 elephants (almost 3 million kilograms!), it is still the largest and most powerful rocket mankind has ever sent into orbit.
Singapura

## Ability

### Ability

**Singapurrrrrra****(Return)** If your deck has 1 or more Musically Minded cards, your Cute Cats cards, wherever they are, gain +11 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Although the **Singapura** is one of the smallest cat breeds, their personalities are larger than life. Extroverts by nature, this breed is hyper-playful and full of energy. They’re also known to be extra curious, following you everywhere to discover new areas to explore and new items to make their playthings (pens, keyboards and important documents are no exception!)

Their species name suggests that they come from Singapore, but a fact-finding mission in 1987 revealed that these cats actually originated in the U.S. Still, that didn’t stop the government of Singapore from naming the breed a national living treasure in 1991. If you’re looking to adopt a Singapura, be prepared to see a lot of it: these cats have a tendency of sticking to their owners like glue once bonded.
Rosette Nebula

## Ability

### Ability

**Consolation Prize****(Return)** If you lost the turn, gain +40 Power/Turn next turn.

## Did You Know?

No prizes for guessing why this is called the Rosette Nebula!

A measly 5000 light-years away from Earth, in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way, this nebula was something of a mystery - see that massive hole in the middle? It's not as big as the age of the stars within suggest it should be.

The reason is a matter of perspective - scientists modelled various nebula expansions in 2018, and the one that matched what the Rosette Nebula looks like was shaped like a thin disc. Because we look at the nebula side-on, we originally missed that detail. D'OH!

* It's called the Rosette Nebula because it's shaped like a rosette. Very obvious... unlike the fact you can click this here sentence for a nice surprise!

## Trivia

* The CUE Code "VERYOBVIOUS" gives you 10000 Coins (see others at: CUE Promotional Codes).
Saturn

## Ability

### Ability

**Saturn and Titan****(Play)** Your Titan, Moon of **Saturn** card in hand gains +20 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Yes, yes - Saturn is “the one with the rings”. But don’t forget that Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune all have rings as well, and they don’t make a big deal about it.

Despite having nearly 100 times the mass of earth, Saturn is the only planet less dense than water. This means that if you put it in the bath, it would float. It would also spoil your bathtime.

Some of Saturn’s 62-or-more moons are so fascinating that they should be a collection in their own right. We’ll speak to management about it.
Solar Power

## Did You Know?

Solar Power is a widely used clean source of energy. Solar panels (or 'Photovoltaic' panels) work by catching photons sent from the sun in beams of light, and converting them into a flow of electrons to create an electrical current. This current is then bounced between two sheets of silicon, which directs it into an electrical circuit and turns it into useful energy.

TL;DR: the sun shines on panels, SCIENCE happens, you get electricity.
Saffar

## Ability

### Ability

**Orbital****(Draw)** Your Exploring the Stars cards in hand gain +5 Power for 5 turns.

## Did You Know?

Jupiter might be the big fish in the pond of our solar system, but approximately 44 light-years away from the Sun in the constellation of Andromeda is a gas giant that is 1.36 times as large and 0.74 times as massive as Jupiter.

Formally named ‘**Saffar**’ after the 11th-century astronomer Ibn al-Saffar, Upsilon Andromedae b orbits closer to its star than Mercury does to our sun. With an orbital period of 4.6 days, years on Saffar whoosh by.

In fact, by the time Earth has completed a full year, the planet will have completed just over 79 orbits of its star. Discovered in June 1996 by Geoffrey Marcy and R. Paul Butler, Saffar is one of the first “hot jupiters” to be discovered outside our solar system.
Roald Amundsen

## Ability

### Ability

**Pole to Pole****(Return)** This card loses -30 Power and costs +3 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Considered by many the greatest explorer of all time, **Roald Amundsen** was the first to reach the South Pole. However, this now-legendary expedition was the result of a last minute change of plans. Originally, Amundsen had dreamed of being the first to reach the North Pole. Those dreams were dashed by explorers Peary and Cook, who (allegedly, at least) got there just *days* before Amundsen set out on his trip. The lesson here? When things go South… go South!

'Amundsen's face in a black and white photo' by No Credit (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)

CRAFTING CLUE BELOW!

- We're bowled over by your progress! (the next destination's out back)
Spaghetti Tree

## Ability

### Ability

**Savoury Sapling****(Play)** One of your random Tremendous Trees cards and one of your random Curious Cuisine cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In 1950s Britain, pasta was not an everyday food. In fact, spaghetti was mostly known from its tinned variety and considered to be an exotic delicacy. So, when BBC’s Panorama showed a family in southern Switzerland “harvesting” spaghetti from the **Spaghetti Tree** with a voice-over report from serious broadcaster Richard Dimbleby, a lot of people fell for it.

“One of the mildest winters in living memory has resulted in an exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop,” claimed the report. Sure, the programme aired on April 1st, but hundreds of people still called the next day to ask for more information about spaghetti cultivation. In response, the BBC told them to "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best".

'Spaghetti' by Jordbeeer (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Rose of Jericho

## Ability

### Ability

**Resilience****(Return)** This card gains +12 Power permanently and if you lost the turn, this card gains +32 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Are you the type of person who loves plants but can’t keep one alive for love nor money? The **Rose of Jericho** could be for you. Also known as the Resurrection Plant, the Rose of Jericho grows in dry deserts where it can survive for years without water.

Keep it in a dark cupboard à la Harry Potter and it could still revive in water. After bathing for four hours, it’ll perk up like you never locked it away. Of course, we wouldn’t recommend this approach – not only for the plant’s sake, but because the Rose of Jericho is associated with the spirit of thunder and lightning, and you don’t want to get on their bad side.
Sarcastic Fringehead

## Ability

### Ability

**Snark Attack****(Play)** Your opponent's cards in hand lose -10 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Have you ever been in a social situation where two people are trying to win everyone's attention by being louder than each other? The **Sarcastic Fringehead** (which, we swear, is the real name The People That Name Animals gave it) takes big mouth contests to the next level.

You see, while it's fun to think that the creature's name originated from some biology student making fun of a sardonic and questionably coiffed professor, the "Sarcastic" part comes from the Greek "sarkasmós", meaning to bite or tear.

**Sarcastic Fringeheads** can open their mouths WIDE - they extend outwards as they open their jaw. Males compete for mating partners by opening wide and pressing their mouths against those of other males - the largest mouthed one asserts his dominance.
Scarlet Macaw

## Ability

### Ability

**Red Letter Day****(Play)** Your Red-necked Tanager card in hand gains +25 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The **Scarlet Macaw** is a type of large parrot that belongs to the group of Neotropical parrots.

This bird has got SASS. It's mouthy, cheeky and stunning to look at with large solid swatches of red, blue, and yellow.

Found in Mexico and Central and South America, they inhabit rainforests, woodlands and forested areas near rivers. Sadly, habitat loss due to deforestation and illegal collecting from the wild due to the pet trade is responsible for the sharp decline in the number of scarlet macaws.

This bird is highly intelligent and will mimic human speech, so beware! They're a sociable bunch and as a pet can be taught words or phrases easily. Just like kids, they're always listening and will mimic the people they're closest to, so don't go moaning about your mother in law with your scarlet macaw in the room or she might get a regurgitated parrot version at a later date...
Robert Louis Stevenson

## Ability

### Ability

**Treasure Island****(Play)** If your deck has 6 or more Plundering Pirates cards and 6 or more Lost Treasures cards, give them, wherever they are, +15 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Ah, **Robert Louis Stevenson**: without him, we wouldn’t have so many classic works of literature - not to mention, the sleeping bag. Yup, our guy Robby Lou really did that. Well, kind of. In ‘Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes’, Stephenson describes crafting a “sleeping sack” which was “six feet square” and made of “green waterproof cart cloth without and blue sheep’s fur within”.

Despite almost dying from malaria and battling with tuberculosis, Robert Louis Stevenson came back from his ill health to write some of his most iconic works like Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Sadly, he died while opening a bottle of wine from a brain haemorrhage aged 44.
Salema Porgy

## Ability

### Ability

**Trip and Fall****(Draw)** Your cards in hand lose -17 Power permanently. **(Return)** Your remaining cards in hand gain +44 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

Lurking in the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean and even Great Britain is a species of sea bream that you wouldn’t want to be served with chips. Known in Arabic as “the fish that makes dreams”, the **Salema Porgy** can give anyone who eats it a hyper-intense hallucinogenic trip.

Like magic mushrooms, the fish were once used as a recreational drug by the Roman Empire – but we wouldn’t recommend trying this at home. In 1994, a man had his French Riveria trip ruined after eating one of these. For 36 hours, he suffered muscle weakness, vomiting and had visions of screaming animals. Researchers suspect that this species of fish ingests particular algae or phytoplankton which renders it ichthyoallyeinotoxic – a word which means “hallucinogenic fish inebriation”.
Seven of Swords

## Ability

### Ability

**Art of Deception****(Play)** If you have played no Arts & Culture cards this game, your Arts & Culture cards in hand gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

You wouldn’t steal a handbag. You wouldn’t steal a car. And you certainly wouldn’t illegally download a movie. But if you have, be careful. You might have gotten away with it for now, but if you’re unlucky, someone will stumble upon your secret and it’ll be over for you.

The **Seven of Swords** is all about betrayal, deceit, trickery and lies: the imagery shows a man sneaking away from a military camp with five swords in hand, looking over his shoulder smugly as he slips away unnoticed.

On the flip side, this Tarot card reversed signals self-doubt and imposter syndrome. Now is the time to confront yourself and put that doubt to bed: you’re absolutely definitely capable of stealing a sword, or, at the very least, a movie!
Scimitar Cat

## Ability

### Ability

**Tusk Force****(Draw)** Your Rare and Epic Paleontology cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Also known as the **Scimitar Cat**, the Homotherium was about the size of a modern-day lion. They had long forelimbs, short powerful hind limbs and a lynx-like tail.

A rare cousin of the sabre-tooth cat, the American Scimitar Cat was an apex predator who preyed on anything it had the confidence to take on – even mammoths and mastodons weren’t off the table. These ferocious beasts skulked around in the daytime with their packs, seizing on the opportunity to chase prey at breakneck speed.

They were the second largest species of cat to live in Yukon during the Ice Age, weighing around 200 kilograms, and possessed enormous fangs and excellent vision. In short, a hungry Scimitar Cat was Bad News for any animal in the vicinity.
Snæfellsjökull

## Ability

### Ability

**Journey to the Center of the Earth****(Play)** If played between two Natural Monuments cards, your Volcanoes cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

It’s long been considered one of the world’s ancient power sites and has been a source of mysticism for centuries: for an inactive volcano, **Snæfellsjökull** is a hotspot - especially for superstitious tourists. Jules Verne might have had something to with that, choosing the Icelandic volcano as the entrance to a fantastical subterranean world in his novel ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth.’

If you do find the entrance to the hollow earth in this 700-000 year old stratovolcano, be warned: you might face cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes, an underground ocean and living prehistoric creatures at the core. If that’s a bit too intense for your liking, stay on the surface and appreciate the stunning landscapes including black and golden beaches and breathtaking cliff formations.
Space Launch System

## Ability

### Ability

**High Payload Capacity****(Play)** Your Radical Rockets cards, wherever they are, with 5 or more Base Energy gain +18 Power until played. **(Return)** Your Exploring the Stars cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

It’s designed to be the most powerful rocket in history, capable of carrying humans and cargo beyond low Earth orbit. The **Space Launch System**, or SLS, is like a giant rocket on steroids. NASA is building it to take us back to the Moon and eventually to other destinations - Mars, Neptune - hey, maybe even <link="https:>**Pandora.**

Before you start <link="https:>**brushing up on your Na’vi**, the SLS has a few launches planned - namely, the Artemis missions, the first of which took place in November 2022, producing a maximum thrust of 8.8 million pounds. For reference, that’s 15 percent more powerful than the Saturn V - plus, it wasn’t <link="https:>**built by a nazi**, which is always a nice bonus.
Robin

## Did You Know?

As you may know, the Victorians gave us many of our modern Christmas traditions, including pretty important stuff like Christmas cards, gift-giving, mince pies and the Christmas Cracker. But spare a thought for the poor Robin, who during Victorian times was used to decorate people's hats.

To be fair - the same was true for quite a few other birds, and at least the Robin went on to become the National Bird of Britain.

In other news - research suggests that the most common cause of death among Robins is being killed by cats.

## Trivia

* This card is available on Christmas specials.
Saag

## Ability

### Ability

**Leafy Greens****(Draw)** If your deck has 2 or more Plant Life cards, your Curious Cuisine cards, wherever they are, gain +16 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

**Saag** paneer, sag aloo, sarson ka saag - three dishes that prove spinach can be more than rabbit food / Pop-Eye fuel. The word itself is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘shaak’ (śāka) meaning leafy green vegetables, since these are the primary ingredient of saag dishes. Along with spinach, you might use fenugreek, mustard greens, collard greens, basella and dill. In some recipes, you’ll chop these leafy greens and cook them, while others will be creamed with coconut milk. Common spices used include cinnamon, cloves, ginger, chilli, garlic, coriander and cumin.

During mustard growing season, green fields of Punjab and North India are covered with ‘sarson ke phool’, the yellow mustard flowers. Green leaves of mustard are then cooked like spinach and turned into a delicious saag dish.
Sappho

## Ability

### Ability

**Words Which I Command****(Draw)** If you have played **Sappho** this game, your The Write Stuff cards, wherever they are, gain +28 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Only seven percent of her work has survived - and yet, twenty six centuries later, **Sappho’s** literary reputation lives on. A renowned lyric poet from ancient Greece, Sappho broke into the male-dominated world of literature with her sensual poetry that focused on the passion of human relationships.

Men are not mentioned by name in the surviving 600 lines of Sappho’s work - but many women are. The term “lesbian” comes from the fact that Sappho’s work centred around female relationships and because she hailed from the Greek island of Lesbos. “Sapphic” is also used today to describe relationships between women.

Some scholars think that Pope Gregory VII was involved in destroying her work, as the Catholic Church called her poems “obscene” and ordered her entire collection to be destroyed in 380 C.E.
Snailfish

## Ability

### Ability

**Deep Sea Antifreeze****(Draw)** This card **Lock**s for 2 turns. **(Play)** This card gains +40 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Neither its name nor its appearance would make you think this creature is hardcore. But don’t be fooled: the **Snailfish** is a born survivor, breaking records for its deep sea lifestyle.

Until recently, scientists believed that conditions below 8,200 metres were too extreme for fish to survive. However, Australian and Japanese researchers discovered a snailfish at a record-shattering 8,336 metres in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, south of Japan. To the Reddit user who asked, that’s 641,231 bananas deep.

For such a deep-sea dweller, the snailfish looks pretty normal, too. Pectoral fins are the snailfish’s primary means of locomotion, but they’re super delicate. In some species such as the antarctic Paraliparis devriesi, the pectoral fins have an expanded somatosensory system, including a taste bud.
Sharovipteryx

## Ability

### Ability

**Maria Sharovipteryx****(Draw)** Your Tennis card, wherever it is, costs -1 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Hailing from the Mid Triassic period of Kyrgyzstan, the **Sharovipteryx** was not your average reptile. With a membrane connecting its torso and hind limbs, this unique creature could glide between the trees of its forest home with ease. However, today’s flying lizards, flying snakes and sugar gliders are nothing like the Sharovipteryx in terms of anatomy and gliding style.

According to one palaeontologist, this evolutionary oddball’s ancestors would have had to start out as climbers with enormously elongated back legs that they would use to jump from tree to tree. Although it was named Podopteryx in 1971 by Aleksandr G. Sharov, it was later renamed Sharovipteryx mirabilis, a name meaning “Sharov’s wonderful wing”.
Sight

## Ability

### Ability

**Perfect Sense****(Draw)** If your deck contains Touch, this card gains +20 Power this round and your Touch card, wherever it is, costs -5 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

It’s such a big part of everyday life that half of the human brain is dedicated to it. **Sight**, also known as visual perception, is the brain’s ability to receive, interpret and act upon visual stimuli through the light that enters our eyes. When the light hits the retina, special cells called photoreceptors turn the light into electrical signals that that travel through the optic nerve to the brain. The brain translates these signals into the images you see.

It’s no surprise that such a complex system as the human eye requires over two million working parts – but what is surprising is that newborn babies see everything upside down until the brain learns to process everything the right side up.
Snow Leopard

## Did You Know?

Snow Leopards are often called the “ghosts of the mountain” because they are so rarely seen and spend most of their lives in solitude living an elusive existence in the mountains of Central Asia. Most active at dawn and dusk, the Snow Leopard hunts on prey of ibex, argali and blue sheep (which, apropos of nothing, is a great name for a country music band.)

The fur on a Snow Leopard's stomach is nearly five inches thick to help them survive in cold, harsh mountain climates. See, everyone needs a little extra 'winter padding...'
Sobek

## Ability

### Ability

**Crocodile Rock****(Play)** Your Mugger Crocodile, Saltwater Crocodile and American Crocodile cards in hand gain +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Usually depicted with a crocodile’s head, **Sobek** was a god of the Nile who brought fertility to the land. First mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, Sobek is thought to have arisen from the primaeval waters of Nun to create the world and made the Nile from his sweat. While that’s impressive, it puts us off swimming in it.

Sobek's role was to protect the Egyptian army, the pharaohs, and the ancient Egyptian people from evil magic. So, naturally, the people of ancient Egypt worshipped Sobek to appease him (and crocodiles in general.) Many crocodiles have been found buried in Egyptian tombs in his honour, and this deity continued to be worshipped until the Roman period.
Siberian Chipmunk

## Ability

### Ability

**Chipmunk Cheeks****(Draw)** Gain +9 Power/Turn until this is returned to your deck.

## Did You Know?

The phrase “biting off more than you can chew” doesn’t really apply to the **Siberian Chipmunk**. Despite its small size, this cute critter has large, extendable pouches in its cheeks, which can grow to be three times the size of its head!

Weighing an average of 100 grams, the Siberian chipmunk would balance the scales with just two boiled eggs. It could probably even fit those boiled eggs in its cheeks, but it would prefer pine seeds, grains, fruit, insects or even small birds and reptiles from time to time. In Russia, these chipmunks eat 50% of forest nuts!

Siberian chipmunks usually live solitary lives, but during the winter, they create a burrow which they share with another chipmunk.
Sally Lightfoot Crab

## Ability

### Ability

**Walking on Tiptoes****(Play)** If you are winning the round, your cards, wherever they are, gain +15 Power for 2 turns. **(Return)** If you lost the turn, all remaining cards in both player's hands lose -15 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Think you’ve got moves? We challenge you to a dance off with the **Sally Lightfoot Crab**. Your coastal crab opponent understood the assignment, rocking up in a brightly coloured carapace. As they grow and moult, this species only gets more colourful - so you had best come prepared.

Named after a Caribbean dancer, this crab has ten legs that gives it exceptional agility and the ability to hop, skip and jump on water. Her favourite song? <link="https:>Crab Rave</link>, d’uh.

When danger strikes, Sally (we’re on first-name basis now) can move swiftly to safety in four directions. Found in the rock pools, lava crevasses and shallow waters of the Galapagos islands, this species also has a part time job cleaning sea iguanas.
Shinkansen 0 Series

## Ability

### Ability

**Bullet Train****(Draw)** Your Science cards in hand gain +25 Power until played. **(Return)** For every round completed this game, your non- Science cards, wherever they are, lose -10 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Revered by rail enthusiasts as the most beautiful train ever built, the **Shinkansen 0 Series** were the first generation “bullet trains” built to run on Japan's Tōkaidō Shinkansen high-speed line. On October 1st 1964, it began service - just in time for the first Tokyo Olympics.

Previously, the conventional Limited Express service took six hours and 40 minutes from Tokyo to Osaka - but with the launch of the Shinkansen 0 series, the journey took just four hours. By 1965, they got it down to a speedy 3 hours and ten minutes.

Back then, the Shinkansen trains were white with a blue stripe running along the windows and bottom. Today, Japan’s bullet trains come in a range of designs - there’s even a <link="https:>Hello Kitty Shinkansen</link> - because of course there is.

'0 series shinkansen unit R67 for the Kodama 638 service at Higashi-Hiroshima Station' by ナダテ (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Sons of Liberty

## Ability

### Ability

**No Taxation Without Representation****(Draw)** Your cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

Founded by Samuel Adams (he was more than just a beer) in 1765, the **Sons of Liberty** were ‘secret’ only inasmuch as it was sensible not to go round wearing ‘I’m a revolutionary’ badges while the redcoats were in town.

The British government were in the process of imposing taxes on the colonists in America, but those colonists had no one representing them in the British Parliament. Thus the motto that the Sons of Liberty adopted was “No Taxation without Representation”.

It was the Bostonian branch of the organisation that was responsible for the Boston Tea Party - which to this day brings a tear to the eye of any Englishman. So. Much. Wasted. Tea.

Notable Sons of Liberty include Paul Revere, John Hancock, Hercules Mulligan, and… well - all of them really. They were instrumental in founding the U.S.A.
Sir Isaac Newton

## Ability

### Ability

**The Gravity of the Situation****(Play)** Your Black Hole card in hand gains +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

If you had to guess who we are talking about based on the words 'apple' and 'head' then you probably say William Tell (probably to wind us up) but I'd hazard a guess the next one would be Isaac Newton. Legend has it that Isaac was sitting under an apple tree when he was hit on the head by falling apple, suddenly dropping him into montage-scene with flying fruit, numbers and formulae whizzing by, and hey presto - the law of gravity was born.

There’s little evidence to suggest that fruit actually struck the great man's noggin, as Newton himself never mentioned it. This apocryphal event first came about in William Stukeley's biography of Newton a month after his death. However, the event did inspire him to eventually develop his law of universal gravitation as he had observantly noticed that the apple fell to the ground rather than up into the sky or sideways into the privy window.

Although known for being a monstrous ego, it's worth saying at this point that many before him had noticed that apples fell to the ground, but they hadn't really thought about why and then gone on to understand it through mathematics and physics.

Isaac Newton's achievements were many and varied he changed the way we understand the Universe, he even has a claim to inventing calculus. Exalted and admired in his own lifetime his legacy is huge, playing a major role in western societies acceptance of science over religion.
Skeleton

## Ability

### Ability

**Spooky, Scary****(Return)** If your deck has 6 or more Paleontology cards, your Brilliant Human Body cards, wherever they are, gain +24 Power next turn.

## Did You Know?

Under your skin, holding everything together and making the mechanics of your body function properly is a structure consisting of over 200 bones.

Of course, most of us don’t think about the human **Skeleton** on a daily basis – and yet, if even the smallest bone were to break, none of those around it could do their job properly.

Here’s where it gets crazy: babies are actually born with around 300 bones. We don’t lose them as we grow older – instead, tiny bones fuse together to form the larger bones of the skeletal system.

Unlike the catchy children’s song suggests, not all bones are connected. The hyoid bone in your throat is the only bone in the body that doesn’t connect to a joint!
Sir Kay

## Ability

### Ability

**Eternally Cold****(Play)** Your cards adjacent to this lose -25 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Disney’s ‘The Sword in the Stone’ gets **Sir Kay** all wrong. In the animated film, he’s depicted as a bumbling fool who forgets his sword. But in the original Arthurian legends, he was King Arthur’s foster brother, bestie and one of the first knights of the round table.

As well as being a fierce warrior who helped defeat the giant of Mont Saint-Michel and fought alongside Arthur in battles, Sir Kay had the brains to go with the brawn. Apparently, during King Arthur’s reign, Kay was the only person in Britain who could solve algebra word puzzles. Still, he did have an unpredictable temper, and that fatal flaw would tarnish his reputation for centuries to come.