recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Coelophysis

## Ability

### Ability

**Hollow Threats****(Play)** Your opponent's cards in hand lose -8 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

**Coelophysis** is a very well known early dinosaur; in fact, it's the oldest dinosaur that humans have discovered so far. Living around 216 to 203 million years ago, during the Late Triassic Period, it belonged to a group of mainly meat-eating dinosaurs called Theropods.

Scientists have discovered hundreds of skeletons of this meat-eater and have deduced that it was a lightweight hunter that looked a lot like a long-legged bird.

It was also swift and seemed to eat almost anything it could catch. Some of the skeletons found in New Mexico had the remains of what appeared to be smaller Coelophysis in their stomachs, suggesting it occasionally resorted to cannibalism.

Coelophysis was an unusual predator in that it lived in large herds, something that doesn't tend to happen in today's world. Although grazing animals such as wildebeest live in herds in modern times, no predators live and hunt in large groups. GOOD. One predator by itself is terrifying enough!
Clouds

## Did You Know?

Just when you think you've grasped the idea of gravity, along come **Clouds**. Despite the fact that they float in the sky, they can contain millions of tons of water that has previously evaporated from the earth.

Of course, not all clouds are made of water. If you're holidaying on Venus, for example, you'll need something more than an umbrella - as the clouds there are made of sulfuric acid.
Croquet

## Did You Know?

If you watched the Bridgertons playing **Croquet** on Netflix and thought “oh this looks like a fun version of mini-golf to play on my country estate” then this is the incredibly posh game for you.

While it’s quite difficult to pin down the origins of the game - there was a version played in France in the 1300s and then the version we know today likely began in Ireland in the 1800s - the first set of rules were put down in 1856. On top of that, there are several different versions, including Associated Croquet and Golf Croquet, but there’s even a variant called Gateball, which originated from Japan in the 1800s. It first reached the Olympics in 1900. You can see why it’s difficult to pin down where it started!

For whichever variant you’re playing, the rules generally involve taking a mallet and hitting a ball through a hoop which is pinned into the ground. Fortunately, unlike in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, the mallet is made of wood, not a flamingo, and the ball is made of wood or plastic, not a hedgehog. Although the Croquet scene in the Disney version is still hilarious to this day.
Dark Web

## Ability

### Ability

**Peer-to-Peer****(Play)** For each card in your opponent's deck with a Base Power of 50 or more, up to a maximum of 4, your cards, wherever they are, with 50 or more Base Power gain +4 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Are you ready to go down the rabbit hole and visit the **Dark Web**? We should probably give you some advice first because it’s dangerous to go alone!

First of all, do you actually know where you’re going because the Dark Web and the Deep Web are often confused. The Deep Web is literally just the parts of the internet that aren’t indexed by search engines. That includes things like emails, online banking, and even subscription services. So if you’re sure you want to keep going, let’s get deeper.

The Dark Web is a tiny fraction of the Deep Web. You need special software to access it and even when you get there you still might not find what you’re looking for. If you do make it, the Dark Web can be a dangerous place. It has marketplaces for all kinds of illegal activity including drugs, weapons, malware, and the stuff we’re too horrified to even mention. However, the Dark Web’s anonymity and constantly changing nature also means that it’s sometimes a useful communication tool for places where free speech isn’t so free.

Still, we’re much too scared to go poking around so we’re probably going to just stick to plain old Google!
Confractosuchus

## Ability

### Ability

**Broken Dinosaur Killer****(Draw)** Your other Paleontology cards in hand cost +2 Energy for 2 turns and, for every Paleontology card in your hand, this card gains +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Around 95 million years ago, a genus of Crocodyliform roamed in what is now Australia, crunching and munching on anything it could get its jaws around. It may have gone extinct, but at least **Confractosuchus** died doing what it loved: chowing down on an ornithopod dinosaur.

```
In 2010, the animal’s fossilised remains (a skull and postcranial skeleton sans tail or hind limbs) were discovered on Elderslie Station, near the north western margins of the Winton Formation. Not only is this the first evidence of a Crocodyliform eating a dinosaur, but the stomach contents of the predator represent the first recorded skeletal remains of ornithopods from the Winton Formation and may represent a new species entirely.

```
Dalmatian

## Did You Know?

These days, most of us associate the **Dalmatian** with Cruella DeVille’s ploy to capture 99 puppies. In case you were wondering, there are exactly 6,469,952 black spots in Disney’s “101 Dalmatians”.

However, back in the 1800s, this breed of dog had a very important job in the Fire Brigade. Due to their athletic build, energetic demeanour and ability to run at 37 miles per hour, dalmatians were originally used as sirens because they could keep up with horse-drawn carriages. Their barks would alert people of their presence and ward off anything that would spook the horses. When they aren’t on duty, dalmatians are very family-friendly; they can weigh anywhere between 45-70 pounds and live between 11-13 years.
Chocolate Hills

## Ability

### Ability

**Dry Patch****(Draw)** If you are losing the round, this card and a random card in your hand gain +25 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

You’ve heard about Strawberry Fields, but what about **Chocolate Hills**? A geological formation in the Bohol province of the Philippines, the Chocolate Hills are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season. When that happens, the hills look just like a thousand Hershey’s kisses, which inspired the name ‘Chocolate Hills’.

Sure, you can’t eat them (unless you love the taste of grass (disclaimer - don’t eat grass)), but you can go mountain biking or horseback riding through the area. The Chocolate Hills comprise over 1,000 symmetrical mounds that were formed by the uplift of coral deposits and erosion from rainwater. As one of Bohol’s most popular tourist attractions, it’s only right that the hills feature on the provincial flag.
Comfort Maple

## Ability

### Ability

**An Ancient Comfort****(Play)** Your History cards adjacent to this gain +18 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

If you’re looking for a cozy day out, look no further than the **Comfort Maple**. Located in the Comfort Maple Conservation Area in Pelham, Southern Ontario, this mighty tree is estimated to be around 500 years old.

Standing beneath its 40m wide crown you can listen to the wind rustle through the hundreds of leaves over you, while its 6m wide trunk reaches out its branches nearly 25m into the sky above. Looking at this beautiful old tree, it’s hard to think of what this tree has managed to withstand in the last 500 years.

However, there are some telltale signs that it’s had a bit of a hard time. In places, bricks have been used to fill cracks in the trunk and wires hold it up in places. But, 500 years will do that to you, I guess!

The tree was declared a heritage tree in 2000 but it’s been under conservation since the 1960s and, before that, was looked after by the Comfort family since the 1800s. So while the tree might be falling apart in a few places, it’s got lots of love and people who are determined to make sure it stays standing tall.
Deck Archetypes

This page outlines the basic approach to the important deck archetypes. Specific deck lists vary considerably and are influenced by factors such as energy rules, player attitude to skill versus luck, and the type of decks the player typically faces. Specific examples of each archetype will be linked from here (with upgrade paths) as deck examples are added to the site.

## Deck Structure

**Rainbow**

**Mutual Albums**

## Collection Oriented

Include hand buff here

**Mono album**

## Theme Based Example

* Theme or Mono Decks

* #Ocean
* #Paleo
* #Life on Land
* #Arts and Culture
* #History
* #Space
* #Science

## Statistics Conditional

**Tiny**

**Dwarf**

**Boxing**

## Disruption

**Drainflation**

**Debuff**
Dachshund

## Did You Know?

The Dachshund (whose name comes from the German for 'Badger Dog') was the first Olympic mascot, in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

We sometimes call it a 'Sausage Dog' - but originally this was the other way round, with Germans calling Frankfurters 'Dachshund Sausages'. It is believed that the term 'Hot Dog' was coined as a shorthand version of 'Hot Dachshund Sausages'. (But don't worry, there are no actual dogs in your sausages. We think.)
Cork Tree

## Ability

### Ability

**Sugar, We're Goin Down****(Play)** If you are losing the round, your cards in hand lose -15 Power this turn and your opponent loses -90 Power/Turn this turn.

## Did You Know?

If a **Cork Tree** doesn’t immediately trigger memories of writing Fall Out Boy lyrics on your schoolbooks, you clearly missed out on a generation-defining album. But that’s okay. Aside from being an emo icon, the Cork Tree has other things going for it.

As its name suggests, the Cork Tree is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers, cork flooring and the cores of cricket balls. Like old-school FOB track names, the Cork Tree is long, growing to average heights of 10 metres.

However, in the Portuguese town of Águas de Moura lies the largest cork tree in the world. Also known as the Whistler Tree, this 236-year-old tree stands over 14 metres tall and with a trunk that requires at least three people to embrace it.
Dionysus

## Ability

### Ability

**Drink and Be Merry****(Draw)** If you are winning the round, this card costs -3 Energy for 3 turns and if you are losing the round, this card **Lock**s for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

It isn’t a party in Ancient Greece until someone summons **Dionysus**, the Greek god of the grape harvest, wine-making religious ecstasy, festivity and ritual madness. Dionysus was the only Olympic god that had one mortal parent (his mother, Semele.)

Since Semele had been Zeus’ mistress, Dionysus was raised a girl by his aunt Ino to try and hide him from Zeus’ wife Hera’s wrath. But Hera was not fooled, driving Dionysus mad and causing him to wander the Earth.

Eventually, he was welcomed into Phrygia (in modern-day central Turkey) and gained a following of women called “maenads”, who would dance, sing, drink and play the tambourine wherever Dionysus went. He was also accompanied by satyrs, men with goat’s legs and an insatiable appetite for wine.
Chupacabra

## Ability

### Ability

**Eviscerate****(Draw)** All cards in both player's hands lose -10 Power until played and three opponent's random cards in hand lose -25 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Stories of the **Chupacabra** first emerged in Puerto Rico in the 1990s when reports came in that a terrible bipedal beast with large red eyes and spikes down its back was draining the blood of livestock – an act that earned it its name, which is Spanish for ‘goatsucker’. While the Chupacabra probably doesn’t exist, *something* was responsible for the attacks. A hoax? An alien? A demon-possessed dog on steroids? According to scientists, no – it’s just a mangy coyote.
Conophytum Pageae

## Ability

### Ability

**Lippy****(Play)** If your deck has 1 or more Fancy Fashions cards, your Fancy Fashions and Plant Life cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Is this the real life / Is this just plant-asy… When they aren’t getting together for a succulent rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, the **Conophytum Pageae** (AKA the Lips Plant) is finding ways to survive in harsh desert environments, thriving in the hot sunlight with little to no water.

Like all Conophytums, the plant spreads effortlessly, employing a clever "divide and conquer" strategy. It divides itself into multiple offshoots, conquering new areas and expanding its territory. Given the right conditions, one Conophytum Pageae can become a mound of pouting lips around 3-feet wide.

Native to Southern Namibia and South Africa, these strange-looking succulents grow daisy-like flowers in hues of pink or white from their “mouths”, anytime between autumn to early summer.

'Conophytum pageae (N.E.Br.) N.E.Br.' by PlantNet (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Carbon Neutrality

## Ability

### Ability

**Emission: Possible****(Draw)** Your Greenhouse Gases card, wherever it is, loses -52 Power and costs -6 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

You’ve probably heard the term “**Carbon Neutrality**” being slung around alongside phrases like “net zero emissions”. But what does it actually mean?

In theory, the concept is fairly simple. For all the greenhouse gases you put into the atmosphere, you must take out the same amount, resulting in “net zero” carbon dioxide emissions.

So, how can you offset your carbon emissions? Planting trees is certainly one of the most impactful solutions, as a fully grown tree can store 752 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. Other examples include building wind farms and supporting the production of renewable energy to replace the use of harmful power plants. While plenty of countries now have targets for carbon neutrality, Bhutan remains the world's only "carbon negative" country.
Coyote

## Ability

### Ability

**In Heaven's Name, What Am I Doing?****(Draw)** Your Roadrunner card, wherever it is, gains +20 Power until played and this card loses -30 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

They can run at speeds up to 65 km/h and jump horizontal distances of up to 4 metres. The **Coyote** is a formidable predator and certainly doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to hunting prey. Unlike its cousin the wolf, which attacks large prey from behind, the coyote approaches the prey head on, going straight for the jugular.

Often appearing in the tales of Native Americans, this clever creature has adapted well to the changing landscapes. Back then, they called the open prairies and deserts their home. Today, Coyotes roam America’s forests and mountains. Whether they do possess the skills to paint a photorealistic picture of a tunnel in the Southwest American Desert to trap a full-size roadrunner is, as of yet, unconfirmed.
D.B. Cooper

## Ability

### Ability

**Hijack****(Draw)** This card **Lock**s this round. **(Play)** For every Awesome Aviation card played by either player, up to a maximum of 18, this card gains +10 Power. **(Return)** Your Money, Money, Money cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Everyone knows the story of the mystery hijacker who jumped out of a plane on the way to Mexico City. But what happened to **D.B. Cooper and the ransom cash?**

**Here’s what we do know: the day before Thanksgiving, 1971, a non-descript man bought a ticket for Northwest Airlines Flight 305 with the alias ‘Dan Cooper’, which was later misread by a news reporter as ‘D.B. Cooper’. After exchanging hostages for money and parachutes, he leapt from the plane and disappeared forever. Or did he?**

**The list of suspects is long but inconclusive. In 1980, a boy discovered $5,800 of damaged twenties by the Columbia River, and investigators confirmed the bills were from the Cooper ransom. Sadly, the lead went cold, and the mystery remains the only unsolved hijacking case in FBI history.**
Ceratosaurus

## Ability

### Ability

**Horn Section****(Play)** Your Carnotaurus card in hand gains +25 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

***Ceratosaurus** nasicornis* was a large carnivorous dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period (161 million to 146 million years ago) in North America and Africa. Ceratosaurus actually means “horned lizard" on account of the prominent nasal horn and two extra horny bumps over both eyes. It grew to lengths of around 25 feet (6-8 meters). Unlike most carnivorous dinosaurs, it had a row of bony armour, called 'osteoderms', along its back.

The Jurassic carnivore also had exceptionally long fangs, making it look particularly fearsome, if a little toothy - and fierce carnivore it was too, gobbling up and devouring pretty much any living thing it happened across, including fish, aquatic reptiles, and both herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs.

Compared to the apex predators of late Jurassic North America, though, Ceratosaurus was pretty small in comparison, meaning it couldn't have hoped to win a standoff with a full-grown Allosaurus.
Crafting Guide

## Crafting

The crafter destroys 9 cards and gives you a new card instead. There are two broad types of crafting. The first is used to upgrade the rarity level of cards. The second is used to craft specific cards using a recipe, much like fusions but with only 9 cards.

## Crafting to Upgrade

Upgrade crafting creates a card at the next level up in basic cards, or a limited card from basic legendary cards. You can only put in duplicate basic cards (fusion ingredients or standards), you cannot craft away your last copy of a card.

Card rarity and collection you get out is based on only 7 cards from the 9 put in. So if you want a legendary, then you need to put in 7x (basic) epics. If you want a Reptiles card, then put in 7x reptiles. The 7 cards for collection do not have to be the same 7 cards for rarity. Note that the limited only collections do not have basics and therefore do not have basic legendaries to use for crafting. The best targeting you can do is by album - if you put in 7x Life on Land cards then you will get a Life on Land card out.

This is all summarised as the rule of 7

* 7x basic rares -> basic epic
* 7x basic epics -> basic legendary
* 7x basic legendary -> limited (can be rare/epic/legendary, but not common)
* Anything else -> basic rare

What for the other 2? Anything, but use commons to save your better cards. Higher level cards do not count, if you don't put 7 cards in of the SAME rarity, then you will get a rare. The best way to target specific limiteds and maximise your precious basic legendaries for multiple attempts is 5x legendary from same collection + 2 of any legendary + 2 commons from same collection (see Example 2).

### Example 1: Epic fusion ingredient, Jupiter

Jupiter is an ingredient in the fusion Sun and can be difficult to trade for. If you want to try and craft it instead, this is how you would do it. Jupiter is basic epic in Solar System so you need to put in: 7x basic rares with 7x solar system. Some options

* 9x Moon (rare from solar system)
* 5x Moon + 2x Circe + 2x Ceres - this is 7x rares (Moon/Circe) and 7x solar system (Moon/Ceres)

Jupiter is not guaranteed, either recipe gets a random basic Solar System epic.

### Example 2: Limited legendary, Eris

Eris is one of the many limited in Solar System. If you want to try and craft it, you need 7x basic legendaries with 7x solar system. Some options:

* 9x Earth (legendary from solar system)
* 5x Earth + 2x Orca + 2x Ceres - this is 7x legendary (Earth/Orca) and 7x solar system (Earth/Ceres)

Eris is not guaranteed, either recipe gets a random Solar System limited that could be rare, epic or legendary.

## Crafted Card Recipes

Certain cards are labelled "Crafted Card" in the centre. These are not available in packs but with recipes. They require only nine basics commons are rares (so far) and are generated with the crafting process. These are released as puzzles to solve initially so it might take several days after the card is available before the recipe is known.
Cuckoo Bees

## Ability

### Ability

**Social Parasite****(Draw)** If your deck has 3 or more cards with "Bee" in the name, those cards, wherever they are, lose -10 Power until played and this card gains +90 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Like their namesake, **Cuckoo Bees** are expert nest thieves, relying on the hard work of others to find a suitable spot for egg-laying. When a female cuckoo bumblebee spots a nest that she deems ripe for the taking, the goes in all stingers blazing and kills the queen. She then establishes herself as the new queen, being waited on by the host workers, and lays her own eggs to be reared by them.

In order to achieve this feat without suspicion, cuckoo bumblebees have evolved to look like their hosts, allowing them to take over the nests with ease. Raised to kill from day one, cuckoo bee larvae feed on the host’s babies. Through mimicry and murder, the cuckoo bumblebee secures the future of her species.
Central Bearded Dragon

## Ability

### Ability

**Soft Hiss****(Start)** If you are losing the round, your opponent's cards in hand lose -8 Power for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

Despite its name, the **Central Bearded Dragon** is not a dragon, and it doesn’t technically have a beard. But don’t write it off just yet: this lizard may not breathe fire or boast a beard like Gandalf, but it does have a mild venom that it uses to kill small prey - a trait that was only discovered in 2005.

Fortunately, its venom is harmless to humans, and the polite nature of the lizard makes it a popular pet - it even waves in a human-like manner when it sees a familiar lizard. As for its name, this comes from the scales that cover its neck. When the Bearded Dragon opens their mouth, the scales puff out, and when used as a mating call, the scales turn black - hence the beard.
Bisque Doll

## Ability

### Ability

**Historical Plaything****(Play)** If your deck has exactly 3 History cards, your Playtime cards, wherever they are, gain +25 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Are you in the market for a lifelike doll to haunt your nightmares? Get a **Bisque Doll**. With their matte, skin-like texture, glass eyes and wigs made from human hair (or goat hair if you prefer), these fashion dolls were all the rage in the late 1800s in France and Germany. During this time, they were designed to represent affluent women in modern clothes and were intended for children of wealthy parents to play with. Much later, the demand for childlike dolls overtook the market.

Until the turn of the 20th century, bisque porcelain was the most common material for dolls heads, before composite or celluloid became more common. Nowadays, a well-preserved antique bisque doll can bring a handsome sum - the most expensive doll ever sold went for £242,500.
Celestial Globe

## Ability

### Ability

**Starfield Reflection****(Draw)** For every Space card you have played this game, up to a maximum of 14, this card gains +5 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Greek space nerd Ptolemy was the first to outline the design of a **Celestial Globe** - a three dimensional map of the stars that would show the 48 constellations he had previously identified. His designs were likely used to make many physical models, but the earliest surviving celestial globe left was made by the Andalusian Ibrahim ibn Said al-Sahli in 1085.

Throughout the centuries that followed, globes like these were crafted to help people pinpoint the position of individual stars on any given day. If you’re wondering why the bottom half of most celestial globes is pretty sparse, it’s because both Western and Middle Eastern astronomers still had little access to the Southern hemisphere at the time. Instead, they often used this space to inscribe a message.
Cepheus

## Did You Know?

Cepheus is the 27th largest constellation and is named after the mythical Greek king of Aethiopia (the area we now know as North Africa).

It's notable because it contains S5 0014+81, a quasar hosting an ultramassive (!) black hole that is approximately 10,000 times larger than the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.

CRAFTING CLUE BELOW!

- Power? It's a gas!
Citrine

## Ability

### Ability

**Merchant's Stone****(Play)** Your Money, Money, Money cards, wherever they are, gain +23 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Typically associated with positivity and optimism, **Citrine** is the kind of gem you might want in your possession on Monday mornings. This quartz crystal varies in colour, but the best quality of citrine has a saturated golden hue with fiery orange flashes inside.

Surviving records show that Scottish men in the 17th century decorated their weapons with citrine, while upper-class Victorians wore elaborate citrine jewellery. In the Middle Ages, this crystal was known as “the merchant’s stone” or “the money stone”, because people back then believed those who wore it would attract wealth, success and prosperity.

Before you rush to buy some, it’s worth noting that natural citrine is pretty rare, and most crystals sold as citrine are fake.
Charles Dickens

## Ability

### Ability

**Great Expectations****(Draw)** If it's after Round 3, your cards in hand gain +35 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

He penned A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and many, many other classics – but what many don’t know about **Charles Dickens** is that he was a lowkey action hero in his own right.

According to one story, Dickens was on a train that derailed over a bridge but fortunately, he was in the only first-class carriage that didn’t fall to the river below. As well as finding the key that freed his friends from their carriage, he went to the carriages below and gave water to those in need.

Next, Charles “The Rock” Dickens climbed back into the dangling carriage and grabbed his coat, where he was storing the instalment of ‘Our Mutual Friend’ that he had been carrying to take to his publishers.

But perhaps the most badass thing about Dickens was his contribution to social reform. Oliver Twist in particular highlighted the plight of children in workhouses up and down Britain and brought these injustices into the public conversation. He also did plenty of charity work to directly support those children.
Charon

## Ability

### Ability

**Moon of Pluto****(Draw)** Your [[Pluto, Dwarf Planet]] card, wherever it is, gains +23 Power and costs -7 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

With a radius that measures half of Pluto, **Charon** is the largest of the planet’s moons and the biggest known satellite relative to its parent body. First discovered in 1978 at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C by astronomer John Christy, Charon was originally known by the temporary designation S/1978 P 1. Soon after, Christy suggested the name ‘Charon’, because it was a scientific-sounding version of his wife Charlene’s nickname “Char”.

His colleagues weren’t big on the name, so proposed ‘Persephone’ instead. But Christy stuck with Charon after realising it coincidentally referred to a Greek mythological figure of the same name who is closely associated with the god Hades or Plouton – known to the Romans as Pluto.
Diamond Blenny

## Did You Know?

Its head is slender, its snout is pointed. Its first dorsal fin has a dark spot surrounded by a gold ring that gives the impression of the crown. The **Diamond Blenny** is a species of labrisomid blenny, native to the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Named after its appearance, the lower body of the diamond blenny has pale spots and a row of around eight dark, white centred diamonds.

But these blennies should take care not to flash their bling too much: at an average length of 6 centimetres once fully grown, this is a very small fish, and a welcome snack for an opportunistic predator. When in danger, the diamond blenny makes use of giant anemones as a hiding place.
Denny

## Ability

### Ability

**Interspecies****(Draw)** For every 2 Paleontology cards in both player's decks, this card gains +6 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

🎵 I just took a DNA test / turns out / I’m 100% … the only first-generation hybrid hominin 🎵

Meet **Denny**, a 13-year old mixed-heritage mystery girl whose 90,000 year old fossil specimen was discovered in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains, Russia.

It turns out that families with mixed parents in the Stone Age were more common than we once thought, and the fossil remains of Denny is the first direct evidence of interbreeding between two different human species - Denisovans and Neanderthals. Even Denny’s dad’s genes were found to have fragments of Neanderthal DNA.

This discovery led to the theory that Neanderthals and Denisovans didn’t go extinct, they just assimilated through sex into the new dominant species of Homo sapiens.

'Reconstruction of Neanderthal woman (makeup by Morten Jacobsen)' by Bacon Cph (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 2.5 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Corgi

## Ability

### Ability

**The Royal We****(Return)** Your Dogs and Unruly Rulers cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Look at its adorable ears, nose, stumpy legs and little pink tongue. This eager looking critter scores and 11 out of 10 on the cutie-meter.
There are two types of corgi registered with The Kennel Club. Its partner in crime is the Cardigan Welsh Corgi.

The **Corgi** was originally bred as a compact animal to herd cattle, nipping at their heels to keep them moving. Their origins are much debated, but those who research such things have traced them to Flemish weavers arriving in Wales from around the 10th century. Quite what Flemish weavers needed with a herding dog is anyone's guess, but depending on the actual time-period their ancestors could have been Deutsche Bracken or Dachshund breeds.

The breed is incredibly popular not least in part to Queen Elizabeth II (the sequel) who has owned more than 30 corgis, all descended from her first **Corgi**, Susan, who was a gift for her 18th birthday. The Queen was so **Corgi** obsessed she had 13 at the same time! More recently the breed got more devotees after the appearance, disappearance and reappearance of Cheddar on TV show Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Cello

## Ability

### Ability

**Perfect Fifths****(Return)** If your deck contains exactly 5 Instrumental cards, your Instrumental cards, wherever they are, gain +7 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

The **Cello** might be one of the saddest instruments in the orchestra. Its warm and deep tones are the perfect addition to any string quartet or orchestra, although it still sounds beautifully melancholic when played solo, too.

Part of the violin family, it first appeared in the 1500s, with its name coming from the Italian “violoncello”, which just means “little violone” or a smaller double bass. If you’re unfamiliar with string instruments, it’s played with a bow and, due to its size, it rests on the floor in front of the cellist. I mean, you could try resting it on your shoulder like a violin, but you’d do yourself an injury.

Today, we’re lucky to have some incredibly skilled cellists, including the likes of Yo-Yo Ma. Or, if you’ve watched *Wednesday* already, you might be just as in love as we are with Finnish metal band Apocalyptica's cover of “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica. And if you haven’t heard it, <link="https:>now is the perfect time to do so</link>. Or, if you’d prefer something lighter, you might have heard the Vitamin String Quartet playing a variety of pop covers in *Bridgerton*, including Robin’s “<link="https:>Dancing on my Own</link>.”
Concorde

## Ability

### Ability

**Breaking the Barrier****(Play)** If you are winning the round, this card gains +20 Power.

## Did You Know?

Concorde was a supersonic passenger airliner, one of the few passenger jets with the capability to reach over Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound). It still holds the record for a Paris to New York flight, of 2 hours 53 minutes - and a famous slogan for the plane was 'Arrive before you Leave' because if you travelled West the local time where you landed really could be earlier than when you took off!

The 'e' at the end of Concorde was diplomatically problematic, as it was the French spelling. The whole project was a British/French collaboration, and so at one point UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had the 'e' officially removed - only for the Technology Minister to change it back in 1967.
Crested Auklet

## Ability

### Ability

**Fringe Science****(Play)** Your Science cards in hand with 19 or less Base Power gain +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Much like a hood ornament, the tuft of hair above the **Crested Auklet's** beak marks it out as a creature of distinction. They certainly have the distinction of being one of the few creatures with multiple collective nouns - it is equally valid to call them a "raft", and "colony" or a "loomery" of Auks.

It partakes in the practice of alloannoiting - they secrete a citrus-like scent, through their back feathers, which they smear on their partners during courtship. This writer's days of having lemon with his fish and chips are OVER.
Buffing Collections: Life on Land

An important element of deck building is to include cards that buff other cards in your deck, either decreasing their energy cost or increasing their power. The strongest buffs apply to all the eligible cards wherever they are in your deck. If there are several cards buffing the same collection (or album) then the cards in that collection can be very powerful.

This table does not include cards that just buff for a turn where the buff card is played or drawn. Instead, they must apply either to all the cards in the deck (wherever they are) or at least to the five cards in hand for multiple turns or until they are played. See the separate page of album buff cards and buffs for collections in other albums.
Convergent Evolution

## Ability

### Ability

**Arriving at the Same Answer****(Draw)** If your deck has 6 or more Life on Land cards, your Paleontology cards, wherever they are, gain +16 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

On the outside, a dolphin, a fish, and a penguin look very similar, and the extinct marine reptiles known as ichthyosaurs look much like a fish as well. They all have a pointed snout, smooth tapered bodies to create less drag in the water, some combination of flippers and fins, and most have a tail with a fin for water propulsion.

Likewise, a bat, a robin, and a pterodactyl look very similar, because they all have bodies adapted for flight. But we can tell that these animals are not closely related, because all of their internal anatomy shows they are members of completely different groups. A dolphin is a mammal, a penguin is a bird, an ichthyosaur is a reptile, and a fish is not closely related to any of these. Likewise, a bat is a mammal, a robin is a bird, and a pterosaur is a reptile.

In both of these cases, convergent evolution has sculpted their bodies so they are well adapted for a particular function like swimming or flying, yet these animals are not closely related. Convergent evolution is a common thing in nature, because there only so many ways to build a fast swimmer or an aerial flyer.

Learn more at donaldprothero.com.

Donald Prothero has taught college geology and paleontology for 35 years at Caltech, Columbia among others. He earned his B.A. in geology and biology from the University of California Riverside in 1976, and his M.A. (1978), M.Phil. (1979), and Ph.D. (1982) in geological sciences from Columbia University.

He is the author of over 40 books and over 300 scientific papers, mostly on the evolution of fossil mammals (especially rhinos, camels, and horses) and on using the earth's magnetic field changes to date fossil-bearing strata. He has also been on the editorial boards of journals such as Geology, Paleobiology, Journal of Paleontology, and Skeptic magazine.

In 2015 he received the Joseph T. Gregory Award for service to vertebrate paleontology and in 2016, he received the "Friend of Darwin" award from the National Center for Science Education.

He has been featured on numerous TV documentaries, including Paleoworld, Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, Prehistoric Monsters Revealed, Monsterquest, Prehistoric Predators: Entelodon and Hyaenodon, Conspiracy Road Trip: Creationism, as well as Jeopardy!
Chinlone

## Ability

### Ability

**Teamwork****(Play)** Your Birman and Good Sports cards in hand gain +15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

You know when you lose in a sport and someone says, “it’s the taking part that counts”? In **Chinlone**, the traditional sport of Myanmar and Burma, that’s actually true.

This non-competitive sport favours style, form and creativity. Also known as Caneball, Chinlone is a team activity that combines sport and dance. Yes, you read that right: while the rest pass the ball around, one player goes into the middle alone and must create a dance of different moves strung together. If the ball drops to the ground during this time, the play should start again.

The word “Chinlone” means rounded basket, which makes sense because the ball they play with is made from rattan and makes a satisfying basket-like sound when touched.
Deer Mouse

## Ability

### Ability

**Deer Mouse? That's a Mouse Deer!****(Play)** Your Chevrotain card in hand gains +45 Power this turn. **(Return)** Your Chevrotain card, wherever it is, costs -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

Not to be confused with the Mouse Deer, the **Deer Mouse** is a small rodent that weighs no more than 25 grams. That’s about the same weight as a AA battery! Sure, two of these mice won’t power your Xbox controller, but they do have their own special qualities.

As well as being adorable, the deer mouse is an important seed disperser, helping a range of plant spores of mycorrhizal fungi survive. In case you wondered, that’s beneficial fungi that grows in association with plant roots to help them thrive.

And if you didn’t find that impressive, a study in 1999 reported an adult deer mouse travelled 1200 metres in 24 hours. Considering most mice only travel 25 feet from their home to find food, that’s good going!
Chronophotographic Gun

## Did You Know?

Who knew the ancestor of the modern camera was a gun?! The **Chronophotographic Gun**, to be precise.

In 1882, French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey built this device to capture photographs of animals in order to study their physiology. Marey’s photographic gun had a revolving cylinder with photographic plates, so he could shoot through 12 frames a second. Fun Fact: this is the same French scientist who conducted the study about cats landing on their feet.

He may not have been totally right about cats, but Marey’s chronophotographic gun influenced innovations that brought us the motion picture camera. Still, when filming animals in their natural habitats, pointing a gun-shaped object at them isn’t a great look.

'Chronophotographic gun-CnAM 16955' by Rama (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Curled Octopus

## Ability

### Ability

**Take the Bait****(Play)** Your Crustaceans cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

It may also be known as the lesser octopus, but don’t underestimate the **Curled Octopus**. When feeding on crabs, the octopus immobilises its prey by puncturing its eyes or boring its shell carapace and injecting toxins directly into the soft body of the crab, paralysing it entirely. The digestive enzymes in the saliva of the octopus then break down the muscles within the crab’s body, allowing the carapace to be easily removed. Truly horrifying.

During the day, the curled octopus is elusive, spending most of its time hiding in the crevices between rocks with its tentacles curled up for naptime. Found in the northeast Atlantic, ranging from Norway to the Mediterranean, this shallow-water species lives at a depth of up to 150m.
Cuneiform

## Ability

### Ability

**Early Signs****(Draw)** Your Documented cards, wherever they are, gain +16 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If not for **Cuneiform**, you might not be reading this. The oldest form of writing in the world, Cuneiform was first used around 3400 BC in ancient Mesopotamia. All you needed to get going was a reed and some clay - both of which were freely available in the rivers alongside the Mesopotamian cities.

Like the Wingdings of the Old World, Cuneiform is distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets. In fact, the word itself comes from Latin ‘cuneus’ meaning ‘wedge’, referring to the shape made each time a scribe pressed their stylus to the clay. A predecessor to Egyptian hieroglyphs (and, realistically, all forms of writing), Cuneiform continued to be used until the first century AD.
Charades

## Ability

### Ability

**Guess What?****(Start)** Your Instrumental cards in hand gain +5 Power until played. **(Play)** If played next to any Stage and Screen card, your Stage and Screen cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power until played. **(Return)** Your The Write Stuff cards, wherever they are, gain +8 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

You know it’s Christmas when your aunt Helen is tipsy on prosecco miming the tragic events of the Titanic in your front room. That’ll be **Charades**, the 18th-century parlour game invented by the French and embraced by Victorian Britain as a slice of after-dinner entertainment.

J.M. Barrie, Charlotte Bronté and H.G. Wells were all fans of charades, the latter even dressed in a white sheet and moved up and down the room to symbolise “God moving in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.” Maybe stick to books next time, Herbert.

Originally, charades were riddles like these, where each syllable of the answer was described enigmatically as a separate word. Eventually, the game evolved to become ‘acting Charades’, a mime game where only non-verbal communication is allowed.
Confucius

## Ability

### Ability

**Word to the Wise****(Draw)** Your Seven Sages of Ancient Greece cards, wherever they are, gain +21 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

This often misinterpreted philosopher and politician was born in Lu, East China 551 BC.

Confucius's principles shared many attributes with Chinese traditions and beliefs and he was a proponent of family values including respect for elders, ancestral veneration, and for wives to respect their husbands. It's not clear if this worked both ways, but all-time top 10 moral platitude "Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself" would suggest it may have.

The impact of Confucius goes way beyond fortune cookies, influencing politics and philosophy to this day. Confucius's teachings relied on reasoned argument, but are often conveyed through allusive or oblique statements allusion and tautology. To understand his writings context and close examination are essential.

Interestingly Confucius's family have the longest recorded (surviving) lineage in the world today at 83 generations. (March 2020) According to the Xinhua News Agency, the Confucius family tree has more than 1.5 million members.
Christmas Cactus

## Did You Know?

Two words: **Christmas Cactus**. Name a better combination. We’ll wait.

This winter-flowering houseplant is the perfect gift for your friend who can’t seem to keep a plant alive (or yourself, if you’re that friend.) Known scientifically as ‘Schlumbergera’, this small genus of cacti has six to nine species, and they’re all native to the coastal mountains of south-eastern Brazil. Despite being a cactus, this plant thrives in cooler temperatures, so should be kept well away from fireplaces.

They’ll need daylight to bloom, but it’s important for Schlumbergera to get her beauty sleep – especially in the early days. During this time, horticulture experts say these cacti need 14 hours or more of continuous darkness for their flower buds to set.
Chiron

## Ability

### Ability

**Teach Them a Lesson****(Draw)** This card loses -60 Power until played and your Heracles, Achilles and Phoenix cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Behold, **Chiron**: a centaur with the head and upper body of a man… and the legs… of a man. Oh, and the back legs and behind of a horse. Since most centaurs have the entire lower body of a horse, Chiron had a higher status among them.

As the son of the Titan god Kronos and the nymph Philyra, it’s no surprise that Chiron was the wisest and justest of all the centaurs in Greek mythology. So, instead of being a violent creature, Chiron took responsibility for training the demigods.

Although he was immortal, Chiron agreed to give up his life after being brutally wounded in exchange for the freedom of Prometheus. Zeus rewarded this by giving Chiron a place in the stars as the constellation Centaurus.
Dewdrop Spider

## Ability

### Ability

**Web Invader****(Draw)** Your History of the Internet cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

What can I say - it’s a great web. But I’m gonna be honest. I didn’t make it. I may have stolen it from another spider. What? Is that so wrong? Let he who is without sin spin the first web, or whatever the Bible said.

We **Dewdrop Spiders** are just opportunistic - when we see a perfectly good web created by an orb-weaver, we move in. Okay, we sometimes feed on the small trapped insects that the host doesn’t eat. But hey, Waste Not, Want Not, right? And yes, sometimes we wait until the host spider is vulnerable and we attack and feed on it. But isn’t that what Eat the Rich means? Humans talk a big game, but they judge us for doing what they could only dream of.
Dakosaurus

## Did You Know?

Hailing from the late Jurassic period, the **Dakosaurus** takes its name from the Greek dakos (“biter”) and saurus (“lizard”). Pure nightmare fuel for fish of its time, Biter Lizard differed from other prehistoric crocodiles in that its head resembled that of a T-Rex. When the skull of a Dakosaurus was discovered in 2005, it was so fearsome that it was dubbed “Godzilla”, and palaeontologists agreed it represented “the most drastic evolutionary change in the history of marine crocodiles.”
Chaos Theory

## Ability

### Ability

**Butterfly Effect****(Play)** Your Beautiful Butterflies cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

One day in 1961 the meteorologist Edward Lorenz was trying to predict the weather using recursive equations (basically, an equation that takes into account the results of the last time the equation was solved). In doing so, he discovered that weather patterns could be very different depending on minute changes to the data his equations were given - **Chaos Theory** was born.

**Chaos Theory** is the notion that the consequences of our actions can be wildly different depending on how they occur. Lorenz's equations had wildly different results with tiny changes and, theoretically, so do the actions we take.

To give a very basic example; imagine you're about to eat a Jaffa Cake\*. You could simply take a bite out of it, and the future would play out one way. But what if you decided to nibble the edges and extract the orange jelly inside, as I like to do? **Chaos Theory** suggests that an entirely different set of events could happen - and while those outcomes may seem random, they might not actually be.

Everything is governed by the laws of physics, thermodynamics and so on, so everything is theoretically predictable. It may take an equation so vast and so beyond the scope of human understanding, but if you somehow had a way to account for every single minute variable affecting an action, you could determine the future. Theoretically, of course.

* if you know, you know.
Codex Leicester

## Ability

### Ability

**Under the Hammer****(Start)** Your cards with "Da Vinci" in their name in hand cost -3 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

In 1994, Bill Gates was about to become the richest person in the world. With all those billions burning a hole in his pocket, Gates decided to splurge on Leonardo da Vinci’s “**Codex Leicester**” for $30.8 million. That’s a lot of money for an ancient notebook – but this isn’t just any ancient notebook.

The 72-page document was written between 1506 and 1510 and contains a collection of scientific writings on astronomy; the properties of water, rocks, and fossils; air, and celestial light. Among these writings is speculation that the pale glow on the dark side of the crescent moon is caused by sunlight reflected from the Earth. So, technically, Leonardo described the phenomenon of planet shine a hundred years before astronomer Johannes Kepler proved it.

What the book didn't contain was the key to making Windows Vista good.