recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Gribbles

## Ability

### Ability

**The Trouble with Gribbles****(Draw)** Your Tremendous Trees cards, wherever they are, cost -2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

They eat wood and poop clean energy: **Gribbles** are both a burden to seafarers and the key to a major biofuel breakthrough. Unlike termites that require thousands of microbes for digestion, these wood-munching crustaceans’ guts need no help to process a diet of driftwood. It is the only animal with a totally sterile digestive system, and scientists think studying how gribbles digest wood may help them develop clean ways to turn timber into fuel.

It’s thought that the enzymes used by gribbles to break down wood may be useful for producing sugar from non-food biomass like wood in an eco-friendly way. Of course, when your boat has just capsized by a hungry family of gribbles, you’ll hardly be celebrating leaps in science.
Griffon Vulture

## Ability

### Ability

**Hunted Down****(Play)** Your opponent's cards in hand lose -6 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Griffon Vultures have extremely keen eyesight - from the air, a vulture is able to spot a small carcass from four miles away. This is just as well, because their sense of smell sucks.

They are not to be confused with Rueppell's Griffon Vultures, an almost completely different species that is known for being the world's highest-flying bird - one collided with a plane at 37,000 ft just off the Ivory Coast in 1973.

CRAFTING CLUE BELOW!

- A passing sun.
Glyptodon

## Did You Know?

Fans of the Glyptodon have said that this car-sized mammal looks like a science experiment gone wrong; a terrifying hybrid between a turtle, a beaver and an armadillo. As if that doesn't sound delightful!

Roughly the same size and weight as a Volkswagen Beetle, "Glyptodon" refers to a genus of large, heavily armoured mammals of the subfamily Glyptodontinae rather than a single creature.
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

## Ability

### Ability

**A Marriage in Painting****(Draw)** For every Prominent Painters card in your deck, your History of Heartbreak cards, wherever they are, gain +2 Power until played and this card gains +5 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Messy fights, multiple affairs and two marriages: the relationship that **Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera** had was far from perfect, but it was certainly passionate.

The two artists first met when Kahlo joined the Mexican Communist Party and sought advice from the accomplished muralist, who was 20 years her senior. They fell in love and were married in 1929. Two years later, Frida captured their union in <link="https:>**a famous oil painting** that shows the couple standing together.

The duo painted each other for 25 years, but their relationship became pretty complicated. Diego sleeping with Frida’s younger sister certainly didn’t help things - but then again, neither did Frida sleeping with Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Despite their infidelities and eventual divorce in 1939, the couple remarried the following year.
Hadrosaurus

## Ability

### Ability

**Incredible Bulk****(Play)** Your Herbivores cards in hand gain +8 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

**Hadrosaurus** - whose name means “bulky lizard” - was a herbivorous dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period (80 million to 74 million years ago) in North America. Normally we blame rubbish creature names on the nebulous "The People Who Name Animals", but the gentleman who picked this name - Joesph Leidy - deserves special mention.

As well as phoning-in the name of this dinosaur ("Lizard, is it? Bit bulky? Leave it with me..."), Leidy was the first man in the world to use a microscope to solve a murder mystery. In 1846 he was asked to examine the shirt of a murder suspect, who claimed they were only chicken blood - one look under the microscope, and Leidy identified it as human.

Back to the Hadrosaurus though - it grew to lengths of 29 Feet (7-9 metres) and weighed about the average weight of a fully grown African elephant. Its most distinctive feature is its duck-billed mouth, which could hold up to 960 teeth!
Hagia Sophia

## Ability

### Ability

**Holy Wisdom****(Play)** If it's the first turn of a round, gain +1:energy/turn: this round. **(Return)** If you lost the turn, lose -1:energy/turn: this round and gain +15 Power/Turn next turn.

## Did You Know?

The **Hagia Sophia** used to be the largest cathedral in the world and has stood in its current form since 537. Originally it was the patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople and, apart from a short stint as a museum in the 20th century, it has been the **Hagia Sophia** Grand Mosque since 1453.

Like a lot of old buildings not only has its use changed many times over the years, the structure has too, with many additions and repairs being made in its extraordinarily long life. The building has been hit by earthquakes, caught up in wars and has been destroyed not once but twice by riots in 404 and 532.

Incredibly it includes eight green columns removed from the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Harald Hardrada

## Ability

### Ability

**Hard Ruler****(Draw)** If your deck contains exactly 6 History cards, give 6 random cards, wherever they are, +19 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

You’ve got to respect **Harald Hardrada**’s hustle. At the tender age of 15, he was already making history, fighting alongside his elder half-brother King Olaf II against the Danes in the battle of Stiklestad in 1030.

Sadly for Harald, he found himself on the losing side and had to flee. Later, he would be crowned king of Norway, but Harald wanted more. Believing that he was also the rightful heir to the English throne, he led an invasion of England. Although initially successful, Harald Hardrada was defeated and killed in a surprise attack by Harold Godwinson in the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. But what goes around comes around, and a matter of weeks later, Harold G was killed by the Normans at the Battle of Hastings.
Genetic Inheritance

## Ability

### Ability

**Gene-ius****(Play)** Your Pioneers of Science cards in hand gain +14 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Have you ever been told, "you look like your mother, but you've got your father's eyes?" Because if you have, you're Harry Potter and you ought to be searching for Horcruxes or something. But if someone has said something *like* that, about how you have your parent's features? That's **Genetic Inheritance** at work, my friend!

When your parents made you, their DNA got mixed and different traits combined to make a unique new form of DNA (and that's about as much as CUE dares to say on the subject. For more information, ask your Dad). This blueprint grew into you, and because it's made up of your parent's features, your DNA is a mix of them.

We call these 'hereditary traits', and they most obviously occur in physical features - eyes, hair colour, bone structure, that sort of thing. But lots of other weird things get passed down in your genes too, like the ability to roll your tongue, whether you sneeze when you look at the sun, or even if you can smell asparagus wee - cheers, Mum and Dad.
Giganotosaurus

## Ability

### Ability

**Dino Hunter****(Play)** Your opponent's Paleontology cards, wherever they are, lose -20 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

In the opinion of this researcher, there should be more names like Giganotosaurus - like Enormosaurus or Humongosaurus. Sadly it's not quite as gigantic as the name suggests, being beaten out by the less impressive-sounding Spinosaurus.
Harpies

## Ability

### Ability

**Half-Bird, Half-Human****(Draw)** For every Birds card in your deck, your Brilliant Human Body cards, wherever they are, gain +1 Power until played, and vice-versa.

## Did You Know?

Also known as the Mighty Hounds of Zeus, **Harpies** aren’t the kind of winged creature you invite to make footprints on your pie à la Snow White. Depicted as half-woman, half-eagle, harpies were notorious for their swiftness, their awful stench and their insatiable appetites. As if going to the Underworld to be punished for eternity wasn’t bad enough, wrongdoers were escorted there by harpies and tortured en route. But it wasn’t always this way.

Originally, it seems Harpies were wind spirits who were destructive by nature, just like the storms, hurricanes and whirlwinds they personified. But that wouldn’t be very exciting. So, ancient Greek writers riffed on the idea of harpies as monsters and the legend grew to portray them as the most disgusting beasts you can imagine.
HMT Empire Windrush

## Ability

### Ability

**Historic Voyage****(Draw)** Your History cards in hand gain +13 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The arrival of **HMT Empire Windrush** in Britain 1948 marked a key moment in Britain's history, changing its social landscape forever.
The ship's arrival at Tilbury Docks, Essex, on 21 June marked the beginning of the post-war mass migration and the start of British multiculturism.

Following World War II, Britain was lacking the labour-force to rebuild an ailing infrastructure so Clement Attlee's government invited labour from the Commonwealth to cover employment shortages in state-run services, facilitating the success of political projects that redefined Britain's society, including the newly formed National Health Service (NHS). The positive impact that more than 40,000 West Indian migrants had on Britain's post-war recovery and the social remodelling of a nation is immeasurable.

Originally called Monte Rosa, HMT Empire Windrush herself was a German cruise ship, later becoming a troopship for the German navy. At the end of the war, she became the property of His Majesty's government and acquired the initials HMT - His Majesty's Transport. Windrush eventually sank after leaving Port Said, Egypt on 28 March 1954.

In 2018 it came to light that many of the Windrush generation (1948-1970) had been denied access to basic amenities such as healthcare, accommodation, bank accounts and driving licences. Many were threatened with deportation despite being granted the right to stay in the country permanently. Forced to provide evidence and documentation that simply didn't exist, it made it impossible for many to prove their legal status as lawful residents of the UK.

As if this wasn't bad enough, it was later discovered that the UK Border Agency had destroyed thousands of landing cards, evidence that could have been used as proof of arrival. The scandal finally hit, causing the Home Secretary to resign with the government of the day promising to resolve the situation.

It is to Britain's shame that such a travesty occurred in such recent times. The Windrush scandal reeks of institutional failings and, let's be honest, institutional racism. A group of people locked out of the society they had lived in and worked in most of their lives by political machinations.

'HMT Empire Windrush' by Royal Navy (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Golden Tortoise Beetle

## Ability

### Ability

**All That Glitters...****(Play)** Your Hidden Gems cards, wherever they are, gain +12 Power until played. **(Return)** Your Bugs cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Perhaps the most regal of all the bugs, the **Golden Tortoise Beetle** belongs to the *Chrisomelidae* – a vast family of around 37,000 bugs who love munching on leaves. Also known as the Golden Ladybug, this dazzling beetle has a domed body with hardened covers that protect the bug’s flying wings.

Entomologists suspect this feature allows them to press themselves close to a leaf surface and hunker down when under attack from a predator. Like a tortoise, the beetle tucks all of its body parts in and withdraws inside its dome-like cover for shelter.

However, all that glitters is not gold – well, not always. You see, Golden Tortoise Beetles can change colour depending on the season or even their mood using the liquid beneath their transparent shell.
Harlequin Crab

## Ability

### Ability

**Upper Crust****(Play)** If your deck has 5 or more Crustaceans cards, this card gains +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Also known as the hitchhiker crab, the **Harlequin Crab** lives in harmony with sea cucumbers, making a home amongst the white tentacles of their mouths and gut cavities. It seems that sea cucumbers are happy for the Harlequin Crab to live rent-free inside of them in exchange for a simple clean-up operation that keeps the cucumber looking its best and the crab fed. And, since the crab only grows to 1.5 centimetres at its largest, it’s hardly a burden.

Found in tropical seas throughout the western Pacific and Indian Oceans, this species of swimming crab has a light brown body with large white dots which spread across its carapace. However, although they are swimming crabs by name, no one has ever seen the harlequin crab swim.
Gannets

## Did You Know?

Gannets are a breed of large seabird predominantly found in the British Isles - 40% of the world's population of Gannets are found in Scotland alone - and are the very definition of mouth-breathers. Their nostrils are located inside their mouths which (aside from raising all kinds of horrible questions with regards to illnesses) helps them dive into the water to catch fish more effectively.
Ground Cuscus

## Ability

### Ability

**Folivore****(Play)** Your opponent's Plant Life and Tremendous Trees cards, wherever they are, lose -60 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

Not to be mistaken for the North African side dish couscous, the **Ground Cuscus** is a slow-moving marsupial found on the islands of New Guinea, Yapen, Misool, Salawati and Aru. Most mornings, the Ground Cuscus undertakes its favourite activity: soaking up the hot sun outside its burrow.

Regarded as a solitary species, this creature is different from all other phalangerids (nocturnal marsupials), in that it appears as comfortable at ground level as it is in trees. When under threat, the Ground Cuscus stands up on its hind legs and lashes out with its forelimbs while barking and hissing furiously at its opponent. Making its home in caves and trees, this loveable rogue is also known as madaw, ket-ketm, or kñm in the Kalam language of Papua New Guinea.
Hallucigenia

## Did You Know?

As thin as a piece of hair, Hallucigenia is among nature's most bizarre animals. What an accolade.

These tiny sea creatures lived 500 million years ago, but in terrifyingly Godfather-esque plot twist all fossils appeared to be without heads. Over time, new specimens unearthed in Canada revealed the missing part, showcasing its strange face for the first time.

Scientists said the weird creature "looks completely surreal, like something from another world." which, err, it kinda was 500 million years ago...
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle

## Ability

### Ability

**Expendable****(Return)** If it's the first turn of a round, your remaining Radical Rockets cards in hand gain +15 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

A true millennial, the **Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle** (GSLV) project was born in the 90s. Developed by the IRSO, the 49-metre-tall GSLV is a three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle that has two solid strap-ons (behave…), a core liquid booster and a cryogenic upper stage

The aim was to build an Indian launch vehicle that could launch satellites high-up in the Earth's geosynchronous orbit – roughly 35,000 kilometres above the equator. Back in the ‘90s, the GSLV was little more than sketches on paper. But in 2001, the first development flight of the GSLV (Mk I configuration) was launched.

Sure, the payload failed to reach the intended orbit parameters, but mistakes are made to be learned from. As of 2021, GSLV was used in fourteen launches, with more launches planned.

'Payload Fairing with GSAT-6A being Integrated' by ISRO (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Glasswing Butterfly

## Ability

### Ability

**Fr-agility****(Return)** If you lost the turn, lose -15 Power/Turn next turn and if you won the turn, gain +25 Power/Turn next turn.

## Did You Know?

Well why didn't anyone think of this before? We're impressed by ornate stick insects and color-changing chameleons, but if you really want the latest in camouflage tech, turn to the Greta Oto. Otherwise known as the Glasswing Butterfly, it blends in with its environment by being largely invisible.

Quite how the wings achieve this requires an understanding of physics and biology some way beyond our paygrade (if you're into nanopillars and broadband anti-reflective properties, by all means look it up). However, despite looking incredibly fragile, the Glasswing can carry around 40 times it's own weight.
Georges Seurat

## Ability

### Ability

**Chromoluminary****(Draw)** If 6 cards in your deck are from different Albums, this card gains +30 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

A pioneer of the painting world, **Georges Suerat** was ahead of his time. He found that instead of mixing colours on a palette, he could place tiny dots of different colours next to each other on the canvas and allow the eye to blend the colours. He called this technique Divisionism; today, we call it Pointillism, and the concept is shared by computer monitors.

The dots in Seurat’s paintings work in the same way that pixels do on a screen. His iconic painting called Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was a whopping six feet and ten inches tall by ten feet wide. Considering the immense size and the painstaking process of painting with dots of colour, this masterpiece took Seurat nearly two years of non-stop work to complete.

'A Sunday on La Grande Jatte' by George Seurat (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under Public Domain (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Giant Pacific Octopus

## Ability

### Ability

**Arms Race****(Return)** This card costs -2 Energy until played and your Innovations of War and Machines of War cards, wherever they are, cost -2 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

One-tenth of a second. That’s all the time it takes for the Giant Pacific Octopus to change colour – a technique that is made possible by specialised cells in their skin called chromatophores. When danger strikes, their brain sends a signal to the chromatophores that tells them to change the colour and texture of their skin to match nearby rocks and coral.

A true master of disguise, the Giant Pacific Octopus can become nearly invisible when they feel threatened. Their name references their size, as the Giant Pacific Octopus grows bigger than any other species of octopus. The size record held by these amazing invertebrates was just over 9 metres in length and around 270kg in weight.
King of Pentacles

## Ability

### Ability

**Abundant Prosperity****(Play)** If you are winning the round, this card loses -50 Power and your other cards in hand gain +50 Power this turn. If you are losing the round, this card gains +50 Power and your other cards in hand lose -50 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Started from the bottom now you’re here. If you’ve pulled the **King of Pentacles** card in a Tarot reading, it’s a sign that your hard work has paid off and you’re ready to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Whether you’ve turned your party clown hobby into a profitable business or sold an intricate painting of your cat for a large sum of money, you didn’t get here by chance. You’ve found a formula for financial prosperity to keep you cushty in the future.

Of course, that’s only true if the card is upright. If reversed, the King of Pentacles might suggest you’re great at making money, but not the best at making it last. Let this be a warning that careful planning pays off.
George Orwell

## Ability

### Ability

**Ignorance is Strength****(Play)** If you are losing the round, your The Write Stuff cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power until played. If you have lost 2 rounds this game, gain +22 Power/Turn this round.

## Did You Know?

Born on June 25, 1903, Eric Arthur Blair worked a number of odd jobs in his career - from a stint as a police officer for the Indian Imperial Police to a high school teacher, a bookstore clerk, a propagandist for the BBC during World War II, a literary editor and a war correspondent. Of course, we know him best for his work as an author when he donned the pen name **George Orwell** and gave us such iconic literary works’ as Nineteen-Eighty-Four and Animal Farm.

Clearly dedicated to his craft, Orwell willingly got himself arrested for being "drunk and incapable" while investigating poverty for his memoir, in order to get a taste of prison and get closer to small-time criminals. Talk about method writing!
Harlequin

## Ability

### Ability

**New Roots****(Play)** If played next to Poison Ivy, your Poison Ivy card in hand gains +70 Power this turn. **(Return)** If you won the turn, your opponent loses -50 Power/Turn next turn.

## Did You Know?

Not to be confused with the fun-loving psycho-next-door from the DC Universe, the OG **Harlequin** was a wily servant with a chequered costume created in the Commedia dell’arte, the improv theatre of 16th-century Italy. Although the character's origins can be traced back to demon-like characters in French passion plays, the Harlequin trope evolved over the centuries.

Tristano Martinelli is the first actor known to have used the name ‘Harlequin’, which was later adapted to ‘Arlecchino’ for Italian audiences. His character boasted immense physical agility, intelligence and the ability to eat a lot of food quickly. By the time English pantomimes had adopted the trope, Harlequins were paired with clowns, which is probably why so many of us see clowns as evil.
Grog

## Ability

### Ability

**Diluted****(Draw)** Distribute this card's 100 Power evenly across the cards in your hand. They keep it until played.

## Did You Know?

**Grog** is now used to refer to a whole host of alcoholic beverages, but it was originally a drink made from water and rum, consumed en masse by the Royal Navy. Its name derives from the nickname of English naval officer Edward Vernon: Old Grog, after the coat of grogram cloth he wore. It was he who introduced the drink to his naval squadron in 1740.

On naval ships, fresh water would go stagnant, so beer or wine was used to make it both more palatable and less likely to kill the crew (always a bonus). Beer and wine needed a lot of storage space, however, and neither was readily available in the so-called 'New World', so after the British did their British thing and stole what we now know as Jamaica from the native population, rum eventually replaced other forms of alcohol as the drink of choice on the naval ships.

Giving rum to the sailors straight soon became a problem, for reasons not too hard to imagine. This was exacerbated by sailors *saving* their rum and drinking a large quantity at once, or using it as a currency, which led to sailors...drinking a large quantity at once.

Not ideal when you're trying to control a hunk of wood floating on a vast expanse of angry water.

So before long the rum was mixed with water - this ensured the sailors didn't get so drunk, and also meant it didn't keep as well so it couldn't be hoarded. A twice daily ration of grog soon became standard, once before noon and once at the end of the day. This persisted all the way up until 1970.

It is often claimed that the introduction of grog to the sailors' daily routine saved huge numbers of lives, due to the addition of citrus juice which helped combat scurvy. And make no mistake, scurvy was a real problem, killing more sailors “than all other diseases, disasters, and battles combined.”

(However, the order that Admiral Vernon put out, mandating sailors' daily allowance of grog only suggested the addition of sugar and limes to make the drink more palatable, and few men chose to spend their precious earnings on such an indulgence. It was only in 1795 when the Navy introduced lemon juice as part of the naval diet that incidences of scurvy really started to plummet.)

Grog has left a lasting effect on our booze-soaked lexicon. As well as coming to be used to refer to basically any alcoholic beverage, especially in Australia and New Zealand, it's also where we got the term 'groggy', for reasons that are probably all too clear for anyone who's spent an evening drinking rum.

It's also responsible for the British being known as 'limeys'; after the Spanish allied themselves with France, the Royal Navy began using West Indian limes as their citrus fruit of choice and thus came to be known as 'lime-juicers'.
Giant Devil Ray

## Ability

### Ability

**The Devil Fish****(Play)** If your deck contains The Devil (XV), your Deep Ocean cards, wherever they are, gain +22 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Don’t worry, this large marine ray isn’t any relation to the Prince of Darkness. In fact, the **Giant Devil Ray** gets its name from its cephalic fins, which are normally held tightly curled and look like horns, but are sometimes unfurled and used to funnel food like shrimp towards their wide mouths.

However, if you do find yourself possessed by one of these, get your local priest to dive a few thousand metres into the Mediterranean Sea and yell “the power of krill compels you.” Given their penchant for eating plankton, this just might work.

If not, best to just leave the devil ray alone - it already has tuna traps, trawls and swordfish nets to contend with, and the species is sadly classified as endangered.
Chrysler Building

## Did You Know?

A magnificent monument to Art Deco, the Chrysler Building was briefly the tallest in the world before the Empire State was completed in 1931 (it is still the tallest brick-and-steel building). While it was the Chrysler Corporation's headquarters for over 20 years, it actually belonged to Walter Chrysler himself.

The celebrated architect Le Corbusier described the building as "Hot jazz in stone and steel". Nice.
GRAIL

## Ability

### Ability

**Telemetry****(Play)** Your Space Technology cards in hand with 50 or less Base Power gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In 2012, NASA scientists embarked on a quest to uncover the moon’s internal structure and composition. Their holy grail? A dual spacecraft mission literally called **GRAIL** (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory), designed to make the most accurate gravitational map of the moon so far.

Using the technique pioneered by NASA’s Grace mission orbiting Earth, GRAIL mapped the moon’s gravity by measuring the push and pull between the twin spacecraft, named ‘’Ebb’ and ‘Flow’ respectively by two contest-winning fourth graders.

Ebb and Flow gathered data on the moon’s far side, even communicating with each other when Earth’s signal was obscured, breaking new ground in interplanetary teamwork. With their mission complete, Ebb and Flow bid farewell to their quest, gracefully crashing into a mountain near the lunar north pole.
Gigantic Wave in Perseus

## Ability

### Ability

**Energy Throughout Time****(Return)** If you won the turn, gain +1:energy/turn: permanently.

## Did You Know?

Scientists discovered this awesome huge wave which formed when two galaxy clusters grazed one another. The wave spans some 200,000 light-years, and has been billowing out from the contact point for nearly 2 billion years.

It's really difficult to fathom how big that actually is. Imagine if you turned on a light switch, then in two billion years time a friend who is the exact distance that light travels in that time, tells you they saw it turn on. Did that help? It probably didn't.
Haedong Yonggungsa Temple

## Did You Know?

Haedong Yonggungsa (pronounced as written) is one of South Korea’s most unique places of worship, with more than 600 years of history.

Originally known as Bomun Temple, it was in 1974 when head monk Jeong-am, while practising 100 days of intensive prayers, had a vision; the Goddess of Mercy, riding on the back of a large dragon, cloaked in a white gown showing a multicolour beam of light. This is exactly why you don't eat cheese before bed.

It was then that Jeong-am renamed the temple Haedong Yonggungsa, which means-Korean Dragon Palace Temple.
Goodtimes Virus

## Ability

### Ability

**Good Timing****(Play)** If it's the last turn of a round, your History of the Internet cards, wherever they are, gain +14 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

A warning that your account has been breached. A message from an ex titled “please call me”. A purchase receipt for something you didn’t buy. By comparison, an email with the subject line “Good Times!!” seems harmless.

But it turned out to be the exact opposite. The **Goodtimes virus** was a computer virus hoax that spread via chain-email during the early days of the internet. If an infected computer contained a hard drive, it could be destroyed, and if the virus was not stopped in time, the computer would enter an “nth-complexity infinite binary loop”, (a meaningless term), damaging the processor. Scary, but not quite as terrifying of the threat of waking up to a ghost on your bed if you don’t forward this email on to 20 people in the next five seconds.

In 1997, the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker collective claimed responsibility, citing the desire to prove how gullible internet users were at the time. Spoiler alert: we still are.
Chinese Alligator

## Ability

### Ability

**Muddy Dragon****(Return)** For every Mythical Creatures card you have played this game, your Ocean Reptiles cards, wherever they are, gain +4 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

If you’re going to be attacked by an alligator, pray that it’s a **Chinese Alligator** and not its gigantic American cousin. Growing to only around two metres in length, the Chinese alligator is one of the smaller species of crocodilian.

Also known as the Yangtze alligator, this reptile spends half of the year underground in burrows that it constructs next to ponds, using its head and front legs to dig into the mud. These burrows are more impressive than you might think, containing multiple rooms like a Dining Area, a Kitchenette and of course a Billiards Room (just kidding, that’s only for the upper class alligators).

According to Chinese literature, this species was thought to give Buddhist priests merit if they bought one, held it in captivity and released them.
Handfasting

## Ability

### Ability

**A Temporary Arrangement****(Play)** If played in the left slot, this card and the card adjacent to this gain +34 Power for 6 turns.

## Did You Know?

How much do you love your partner? Enough to bind your hands together with a cord, and quite literally tie the knot? That’s what the Celts did for thousands of years.

Known as **Handfasting**, this traditional wedding ceremony symbolised the joining of lives and the couple’s commitment to one another. During the ceremony, the couple’s hands were bound with a ribbon or cord made of leather that had been blessed by a priest or spiritual leader.

The words varied but followed the simple formula of *"I (Name) take thee (Name) to my wedded husband/wife, till death us depart, and thereto I plight thee my troth".* It's worth noting that Handfasting is no longer legally binding, so if you do change your mind, you can always cut the rope and run.
Hubble Space Telescope

## Did You Know?

Launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope can see just a little bit further than the naked eye.

Over 10 billion light years further.

Unfortunately, when it first launched, its 'eyesight' was blurry because of a manufacturing error. While this led to some underwhelming images, NASA Engineers had designed the Telescope to be repaired in space - so a mere 3 years later its eyesight was restored.

Now responsible for well over 1 million scientific observations and 13,000 journal articles, the Telescope was named after Edwin Hubble - the astronomer who confirmed that the universe is expanding.
Hel

## Ability

### Ability

**Give Them Hel****(Play)** If you have lost 2 rounds this game, your cards in hand gain +55 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

When your father is the trickster god Loki, you’ve got big shoes to fill – but **Hel** clearly had no problem living up to the standard he set. In Norse mythology, Hel is the goddess of death, and her kingdom was said to lie downward and northward.

However, while her brothers were violent monsters, Hel was arguably the most sympathetic of Loki’s children - her only original connection with death was her unsightly corpse-like appearance. Odin decided that Hel should be banished (because any child of Loki is a threat), but he did not place her in chains. Instead, she was given control over the dead and went on to play a key role in some of the most well-known stories in Norse mythology such as the prophecy of Ragnarok.
Grotesque

## Ability

### Ability

**That's Disgusting****(Play)** If your deck contains Gargoyle, this card gains +50 Power.

## Did You Know?

While you might immediately think “eugh, this must be horrible because it’s a word synonymous with repulsive things,” you’d be wrong. The **Grotesque** we’re referring to is the 16th Century style of architecture and decoration, which was very popular in Italy. Confusing right? Then let’s clear it up.

The style originally dates back to the Ancient Romans but became all the rage again in the 1500s after excavations of Roman palaces and houses revealed the exquisite decoration. The word comes from the Italian “grottesca” which means “in a cave” (think “grotto”), which is where some of these Roman ruins were found.

While the Italians got nostalgic for the Ancient Romans, key features you can look out for in Grotesque designs includes heraldic imagery, foliage, elegant figures and the occasional half-man-half-beast (just to mix things up a bit). These images were usually highly detailed and were filled with artistic licence where artists would flow from one image (a horse perhaps) into another (random plants and leaves). Sometimes it’s very beautiful and sometimes it’s very weird, which feels like the most CUE thing ever.
Hans Christian Andersen

## Ability

### Ability

**Father of Fairy Tales****(Draw)** For every Once Upon A Time card you have played this game, up to a maximum of 10, this card gains +8 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

As one of Denmark’s most iconic writers, **Hans Christian Anderson** likely wrote some of your favorite fairy tales. The remarkably sadistic Little Mermaid, the biggest tear-jerker The Little Match Girl and actual footage of this writer trying to get a good night’s sleep - The Princess and The Pea.

Anderson has been described as the inventor of “eventyrs” - which are the fantastic adventure stories we recognise as fairy tales today. He was also a bit of a rebel when it came to his writing style as Anderson wrote these the same way as they would be spoken (at the time at least). This made the stories more accessible because it didn’t really feel like you were reading a stuffy or epic tale, more like someone was just casually telling you a story.

He grew up poor but as he found success, he became a keen traveller and wrote many travelogues as well as his fairy tales. He was besties with Charles Dickens until he stayed with Dickens and his family for 5 weeks and eventually had to be asked to leave for overstaying his welcome. Anderson never understood why Dickens stopped writing to him after this and we promise not to tell him if you don’t.
Helix Nebula

## Did You Know?

The Helix Nebula is 650 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius. It's a planetary nebula, the remains of a star similar to our own Sun. As it slowly dies, the star emits dust which glows from the ultraviolet radiation coming from the star’s hot core.

The Helix nebula's insane appearance has earned it the extremely cool nickname of "The Eye of God."

NASA describes the Helix nebula as like "a dying star that is throwing a temper tantrum." Divas...
Harry Price

## Ability

### Ability

**Psychical Studies****(Draw)** If your deck has 3 or more Hoaxes and Cons cards, both player's Hoaxes and Cons cards, wherever they are, lose -5 Power permanently and this card gains +25 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Being a flamboyant psychic investigator with no real scientific training, it’s hardly surprising that **Harry Price **was a controversial figure of his time. The first celebrity ghost hunter, Price carried out sittings with countless mediums, opened his own National Laboratory for the scientific examination of psychic phenomena and wrote several books on the subject. But he is best known for his investigation into Borley Rectory, otherwise known as ‘The Most Haunted House in England.’****

****Conveniently, the unexplained activity in the house increased considerably after Price arrived - we’re talking spirit messages and objects thrown around the house by unseen hands. Curiously, when Price departed, so too did the phenomena. Now, we’re not saying Price faked it all for money and fame, but… the evidence doesn’t look good.****
Godzilla

## Did You Know?

Behold, the **Godzilla** constellation - a new constellation formed from gamma-ray-emitting stars. (And by 'new' here, of course we mean, 'several billion years old'.)

Most new constellations observed by the Fermi telescope come from distant galaxies far beyond ours with gigantic black holes at their centres – gigantic, but less gaping than the plot holes in 2019’s ‘Godzilla – King of the Monsters’. BOOM.
Harald Bluetooth

## Ability

### Ability

**Unify****(Draw)** Your Vicious Vikings cards, wherever they are, gain +18 Power until played. **(Return)** If your deck has 3 or more Vicious Vikings cards, your Science cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

His name was given to the well-known wireless technology, yet **Harald Bluetooth’s** story remains largely unknown. Spoiler - it’s got nothing to do with data sharing.

In the year 958, King Harald Gormsson replaced his father at the head of a vast kingdom covering today’s Denmark, parts of Norway, and Sweden. Although he was born Pagan, Harald converted to Christianity about two years into his reign, making him Denmark’s first Christian king. His conversion served both as an act of faith and a political tactic to protect Danish independence from Otto the Great's territorial expansion.

As for the technology, the name "Bluetooth" was chosen for the wireless technology as a symbol of unified communication, inspired by Harald's ability to Danish tribes together despite a rotten tooth that inspired his nickname.
Gargoyle

## Ability

### Ability

**It's Grotesque****(Draw)** All other cards in both player's hands lose -10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

How did a snarling monster’s head become a recurring feature across architecture? Ask the French.

According to an old legend, a dragon once lived in the river Seine. Known as La **Gargoille**, the dragon would swallow up ships and regularly flood the city. In the 7th Century CE, a priest came and made a deal with the locals that he would get rid of the monster if they converted to Christianity. So they did, and the beast was destroyed.

The monster’s head was then mounted to a church to warn off other dragons - kind of like a scare-crow, but for river-dwelling fire-breathing dragons. By the 13th century, Gargoyles had been adopted as a means of disposing of water, like modern day gutters, but with a monstrous twist.
Gharial

## Ability

### Ability

**Why The Long Face?****(Play)** If you are losing the round, this card loses -40 Power.

## Did You Know?

With a snout like a sniper rifle containing 110 interlocking teeth, the **Gharial** is well equipped to catch fish. Fortunately for us, they’re quite shy when it comes to human interaction and prefer to hide rather than attack.

Although their closest relation is the crocodile, Gharials are the only species in the Gavialidae family and sit on their own long branch of the crocodilian tree, which split from all other crocodilians more than 40 million years ago. During this time, they evolved to become the best parents of the reptile world. Females lay eggs in lots of nests close together, and when the eggs hatch, all the hatchlings are looked after by the mothers in a large reptile day-care centre.
Harlequin Shrimp

## Ability

### Ability

**Constant Movement****(Play)** If played in the left slot, your Around the Reef cards, wherever they are, gain +24 Power until played, if played in the middle slot, this card gains +40 Power permanently and if played in the right slot, your other Crustaceans cards in hand gain +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

You’re looking at the unofficial protector of the coral reef. While the reef offers a safe home for the **Harlequin Shrimp**, this bold crustacean does its part to return the favor. By snacking on parasites like the Asterina starfish, they keep the coral healthy.

To catch their prey, they hunt in pairs, with one shrimp snipping off the foot attachment of the starfish while the other pulls the prey until it’s lying helplessly on its back. With the coral safe and their bellies full, they can rest… until the next starfish scuttles along.

Not all superheros wear capes — some of them, like the Harlequin Shrimp, sport cream-coloured shells with psychedelic spots. In the marine world, bright colour = danger, so this flamboyant fit actually serves to keep the shrimp safe from predators.
Gregorian Calendar

## Did You Know?

The fact we call this the **Gregorian Calendar** is quite unfair on Julius Caesar. The Julian calendar included almost everything we have today, with the exception of… just 11 minutes a year.

But those minutes mount up. And after one and a half millennia, Easter was well on its way towards Christmas, Valentine’s Day had run off with Singles Day and everyone had started living backwards. Or something.

Anyway, it needed fixing, and so a scientist named Aloysius Lilius figured out a plan to get rid of all the time build-up every 400 years or so, by skipping leap years.

Being stubborn types (and Protestant), the English didn’t adopt the calendar until 1752 - when the calendar fast-forwarded 11 days to make up for the difference with other countries. This prompted Benjamin Franklin to note that “*it is pleasant for an old man to be able to go to bed on September 2 and not have to get up until September 14.*”
Gold Veil Angelfish

## Did You Know?

Hailing from the Amazon basin, this beautiful creature is now more commonly found in aquarium tanks around the world.

However, in case you are thinking of buying of few, **Gold Veil Angelfish** are very sensitive to water pH (the measure of acidity), preferring slightly acidic water. If you transfer it to water with even a slight difference in pH then there is a chance it will die from the change. (And if this information helps to save the life of even one Angelfish, then our work here is done. You’re welcome.)
Hadrian and Antinous

## Ability

### Ability

**Deified****(Return)** If you lost the turn, this card gains +25 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Although Emperor Hadrian was married, the fact that he didn’t get his wife pregnant at the time fanned the flames of gossip about him being a homosexual. Sleeping with his male servant Antinous probably didn’t help his case. Their love affair endured for years, and Hadrian brought his boyfriend as his Plus 1 to dinners and royal ceremonies.

If anyone was still none-the-wiser of the romantic affair between **Hadrian and Antinous**, the tragic and mysterious event of Antinous’ death would make it pretty obvious: Hadrian had temples built in his honour, placed statues throughout the Roman empire for his worship, named a city after him, held festivals in his honour and minted coins with his face on them.

'Ancient Roman bust of Antinous. Hadrian age' by Ricardo André Frantz (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Galileo Satellite System

## Ability

### Ability

**Never Get Lost****(Play)** Your Riding the Waves! and Awesome Aviation cards, wherever they are, gain +25 Power until played. **(Return)** If you lost the turn, gain +15 Power/Turn next turn.

## Did You Know?

If you’ve ever found yourself yelling at your phone when your GPS map says you’re in a river when you’re quite clearly on land, you’ll love the **Galileo Satellite System**. This is Europe’s £8bn global navigation system that has been designed to give users greater precision when tracking their location. Unlike the American GPS or Russian signals, Galileo remains under civilian control. What’s more, thanks to advances in technology, data from Galileo can be used to drones to driverless cars.

 *by Thilo Kranz/DLR (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered) Background Extended*
Green Dragon Crescent Blade

## Ability

### Ability

**Legendary Guandao****(Play)** If played next to General Guan Yu, your Legendary cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Wielded by the Chinese general Guan Yu in the 14th-century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the **Green Dragon Crescent Blade** has quite a fortuitous origin story.

Legend has it that the blade was being forged by a blacksmith when suddenly a green dragon passed by. For the dragon, it was a case of wrong place, wrong time, as for reasons that defy logic, the dragon’s body got cut up and became part of the blade, turning it into a magical weapon.

The story goes that the blade weighed 82 ‘catties’, with one catty equal to around 220 grams. That means the Green Dragon Crescent Blade would have weighed a whopping 18 kilograms. For context, a claymore only weighs 2kg.
Hurdia

## Ability

### Ability

**Rake-Like****(Draw)** If your deck has 2 or more Curious Cuisine cards, this card gains +30 Power for 3 turns.

## Did You Know?

One of the largest organisms in the Cambrian oceans, **Hurdia** was basically the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the arthropods - a jacked up, burly <link="https:>radiodont</link> with a killer physique. And just like Arnold, Hurdia had a whole arsenal of weapons at its disposal - two giant paddle-like appendages that it probably used to swim and rake-like frontal appendages which shovelled food into its mouth.

It had a huge head with bulging, compound eyes (think Arnie in Total Recall) that could spot its prey from a mile away. It also had a series of paired appendages on the body that were used for walking and grasping prey. Sure, Hurdia didn’t have a memorable catchphrase like “I’ll be back.” Given that it went extinct, perhaps “Hasta la vista, baby” is more apt, anyway.
Fukurokuju

## Ability

### Ability

**Lucky God****(Draw)** If you are winning the round, this card costs -3 Energy this turn and if you are losing the round, this card loses -15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

One of the Seven Lucky Gods in Japanese mythology, **Fukurokuju** is famous for having a really long head. That’s because Fukurokuju is supposed to be a wise old man, and you need somewhere to store all that wisdom.

Although he wasn’t in the original line up, Fukurokuju eventually replaced Kichijoten, the goddess of fortune, beauty and merit, as an established member of the seven. His name is an amalgamation of fuku, meaning 'happiness', roku, meaning 'wealth', and ju, which means 'longevity.' Those are three concepts we can all get behind. In artistic depictions, Fukurokuju is usually shown in the customary garments of a Chinese scholar, holding a cane with a scroll attached to it. He may also have a tortoise or crane by his side, as both animals symbolise longevity.
Hemlock Stone

## Ability

### Ability

**Differential Erosion****(Play)** If played in the middle slot, your cards adjacent to this lose -20 Power this turn and this card gains +60 Power.

## Did You Know?

According to a peculiar English legend, the Devil once hurled a rock at Lenton Prior to silence the prayers of the Lenton monks of Derbyshire, but missed, creating a mysterious monolith in a small country park. There’s a lot to unpack here - particularly the idea that Satan himself, the Prince of Darkness, made his lair near Castleton in Derbyshire. But how else do you explain the existence of the **Hemlock Stone**?!

Geologists argue that this stone is made of triassic Sherwood Sandstone, a kind of rock not found anywhere in the vicinity of the Devil’s supposed lair. But that still doesn’t explain how it got here. Standing 28-feet tall, the Hemlock Stone is likely a natural relic from a time when the area was more desert-like, some 200 million years ago.