recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
The Trial of the Axes

## Ability

### Ability

**One Shot****(Draw)** An opponent's random card in hand loses -40 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

After returning from a twenty-year stretch of hanging out in massive horses, fighting monsters and defying the wrath of *literal Gods*, Odysseus, in disguise, returns to his home, Ithaca, to find his house has been taken over by hordes of suitors seeking the hand of his wife, Penelope.

In the kind of weird challenge you only find in myths, legends and Disney movies, Penelope announces that she will marry the suitor who can shoot an arrow through a line of twelve axes using Odysseus’ bow.

One by one, the suitors attempt the challenge, and one by one, they fail miserably (you can see where this is going, right?) while Odysseus secretly reveals his true identity to Eumaeus and Philoetius outside, and asks them to fight with him against his traitors.

Odysseus, still disguised, then asks for the bow, and one of the traitors, Antinous, makes a *hilarious* joke at Odysseus’s expense, regarding wine and drunken centaurs. You know the one.

Obviously, Odysseus strings the bow easily and the first arrow he shoots glides through all twelve axes, while every woman in a mile’s radius swoons.

From here, the party takes a slight turn for the worst. We must assume that the joke really got to Odysseus, as his next arrow goes straight through Antinous’ neck.

Before they know what’s going on, the traitors find themselves trapped in the house and at the mercy of the man whose wife they were trying to seduce.

Understandably, they are terrified, and although they try to lie and fight themselves out of trouble, Odysseus is having none of it, shooting Eurmachus with an arrow, while his son, Telemachus, spears another traitor, Amphinomus.

More characters who’s names end in “us” meet their sticky end as a full battle now rages. Once Athena, the Goddess of War, conveniently gets involved, things end pretty swiftly.

And we thought *our* house parties got out of control.

CRAFTING CLUE BELOW!

- A path you might travel on your 12th anniversary?
Tongue

## Ability

### Ability

**Taste of Success****(Play)** Your Curious Cuisine cards in hand gain +15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

We use our tongues to eat, to talk and to swallow – but did you know that the **Tongue** is the only muscle in human body that works without any support from the skeleton? When we are born, we have around 10,000 tastebuds. When we’re young, these are replaced every two weeks. The older we grow, the less this happens – so, an older person might only have around 5,000 tastebuds. However, like the outside parts of the nose and the ear but unlike most other organs, the tongue will continue to grow well into old age.

Contrary to popular belief, we don’t have different “taste zones” on the tongue. In reality, the sides of our tongues are just more sensitive overall than the middle.
The Three Brothers

## Ability

### Ability

**Central Diamond****(Play)** If played between two Hidden Gems cards, your History cards, wherever they are, gain +24 Power this round.

## Did You Know?

In the 14th century, a guy called Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy (you know, the one who captured Joan of Arc and sold her to the English?) commissioned a jewel to be made as part of the Burgundian crown jewels. Known as **The Three Brothers**, the jewel consisted of three rectangular spinels around a central diamond.

When John the Fearless was assassinated, the jewel was inherited by his son. But in the century that followed, it changed hands between a string of medieval figures including German banker Jakob Fugger, Queen Elizabeth I, and King James VI and I. It was part of the English Crown Jewels from 1551 to 1645, after which it was sold and vanished from history, its fate remaining a mystery to this day.

'Miniature painting of The Three Brothers jewel' by Photograph by Peter Portner, Historisches Museum Basel (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Wave Rock

## Ability

### Ability

**Catch the Wave****(Draw)** Your Oceans and Seas cards in hand cost -1 Energy this turn.

## Did You Know?

When it comes to famous rocks, this one comes in a close second to Dwayne Johnson.
One of Australia’s most popular attractions,  **Wave Rock** is a 15-metre high, multi-coloured granite cliff shaped like a crashing wave, formed by water erosion over 2.6 billion years ago. Take a guided tour to this iconic natural wonder and you may even smell what the Rock is cooking – one of life’s greatest mysteries.
The Winds of Venus

## Ability

### Ability

**Acid Gust****(Draw)** Gain +5 Power/Turn permanently. **(Return)** Lose -5 Power/Turn permanently. **(Play)** Your Venus card in hand gains +38 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Venus is often called Earth’s “sister planet” due to the planets’ similarity in size and composition. However, when it comes to the weather, we can be thankful that we don’t experience **The Winds of Venus**.

It’s bad enough that the planet roasts at more than 450 degrees Celsius under a suffocating blanket of acid clouds. On top of that, the entire atmosphere of the planet circulates around super-fast, with winds reaching speeds of up to 300 km/h at the cloud tops. While Earth’s fastest winds are only 10-20% of the planet’s rotational speed, Venus’ winds move up to 60 times the speed of the planet’s rotation. If we were to colonise Venus, the only option would be to create floating cities above the cloud layer.
Veiled Chameleon

## Did You Know?

The Veiled Chameleon is among the most popular species of chameleon to have as pets. It's sometimes referred to as the Yemen Chameleon, because the species originated in the Arabian Peninsula, but it's also called the Cone-Headed Chameleon because... well, take a wild guess.

Apropos of nothing, if someone offers to show you the movie Coneheads, politely decline.
WASP 12b

## Ability

### Ability

**Soak Up the Sun****(Play)** If it matches the Arena, this card gains +30 Power.

## Did You Know?

**WASP-12b** is a planet outside our solar system orbiting the star WASP 12. So the nomenclators went with the daringly inventive addition of the letter b when naming this planet. Some might suggest this was low-effort on the part of the team, but come on, we've all had lazy Friday afternoons in the office. WASP (Wide Angle Search for Planets) is the name of the consortium that discovered it and it was the SuperWASP camera which first observed it.

**WASP-12b** orbits very close to WASP-12, taking a little over a day to orbit it, compared to the 365-day orbit the earth takes around the sun. It's also not very dense. coming in at 0.3 g/cm³ compared to the Earth which is 5.51 g/cm³.

Another difference **WASP-12b** has to Earth is that it absorbs way more of its sun's light than our planet does. Like, WAY MORE - 94%, to be exact, which gives the planet a chargrilled colour.

'Hubble Finds a Star Eating a Planet' by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Source: Flickr) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Triumphus

## Ability

### Ability

**Victory!****(Draw)** If your deck has 4 or more The Roman Empire cards and if you are ahead, this card gains +100 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

Could there be a more glorious occasion for the Romans to celebrate? **Triumphus**, or *Roman Triumph*, was a ceremony and rite in ancient Rome, serving to herald the success of a military commander in their victory.

As many things do, Triumphus started fairly modestly, with the successful general riding a chariot through Rome, keeping any captives and spoils from battle in tow. However as the Roman Republic reached its later stages, celebrations began to get out of hand due to increasing competitiveness between the military-political folks running the Empire, with the once-simple festivities now interspersed with several days of entertainment and *ludi* (games) for the public.

Evidently, the Roman Empire must have gotten something right with this, as it paved the way for *Triumphal Entry* in the Middle Ages. Who doesn't like a good party?
Van Fortress

## Ability

### Ability

**Van-dalism****(Draw)** An opponent's random card in hand and 3 random cards in either player's hands lose -15 Power each this round.

## Did You Know?

From ancient statues to war artifacts and stone-henge type structures, humans have found more than a few weird objects and structures buried underwater. However, few are as impressive as a 3,000-year-old castle that was found at the bottom of Turkey’s Lake Van. In 2017, divers discovered the remarkably well-preserved ruins of a fortress, consisting of walls that still reach up to 13 feet high and stonework that spans a kilometre.

Also known as the Van Citadel, archaeologists believe the **Van Fortress** was built by an ancient civilisation, the Kingdom of Urartu, between 9th and 7th century BC. Over the centuries, it’s thought to have been controlled by Armenians, Romans, Medes, Achaemenid and Sassanid Persians, Arabs, Seljuks, Ottomans and the Russians!
The Sun

## Did You Know?

The Sun will kill us all of course - in about 7.5 billion years when it absorbs the Earth. (For further cheery reading, try the 'Future of Earth' article on Wikipedia. Yikes.)

In the meantime though, the Sun is essential to all life, so let's be grateful. Its gravity holds the Solar System together, and it dwarfs everything within it (you could fit 1,000,000 Earths in the Sun for example). However, despite its size compared to us, it's really not that special. The Sun is just one of billions - possibly trillions - of stars in the universe.
Waterfall Nebula

## Ability

### Ability

**Trickle-Down Economics****(Draw)** Your Raging Rivers cards, wherever they are, cost -2 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

Worried about overcrowding when visiting Niagara Falls? Why not visit the Waterfall Nebula instead? At roughly 1,350 light-years from Earth in the Great Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, you’re bound to be the only one there. Known as Herbig-Haro 22 or HH-222 for short, the Waterfall Nebula has baffled astronomers for years and is one of the most bizarre structures ever seen in the universe.

What we do know is that the gaseous stream stretches out about ten light-years and emits an unusual array of colours. Some astronomers think it might be the outcome of the wind from a young star impacting a nearby molecular cloud. Whatever it is and however it came to be, it certainly looks like a postcard from heaven.

'Protostar HH-34 in Orion' by ESO (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Tori Katsu

## Ability

### Ability

**Curry On****(Play)** If you are winning the round, your Curious Cuisine cards in hand gain +15 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

**Tori Katsu** is a Japanese dish, which has become popular all over the world, consisting of chicken cutlets coated in panko breadcrumbs and fried until golden, then served over rice with an accompanying sauce. It’s making me hungry even just typing these words.

The dish started out not as a chicken dish at all but as a fried beef recipe in the 19th Century. Tonkatsu, or pork cutlets, was then first served in a European-style restaurant in Japan in 1899. Katsu (whether pork or chicken) was born out of yōshoku, which is Western-influenced Japanese cuisine that was particularly popular in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Tori Katsu is now served all over the world, being particularly popular in Hawaii, Australia, the US and the UK. More specifically, in the UK, it’s served with a curry sauce and is usually just referred to as Katsu Curry. If you ask the CUE team, they’ll tell you it’s absolutely delicious and that just looking at this card makes us all want some.
Topaz

## Ability

### Ability

**Handle With Care****(Draw)** If you are losing the round, this card loses -20 Power permanently. **(Play)** This card gains +40 Power.

## Did You Know?

**Topaz** is named for a small island in the Red Sea called "Topazos", where golden stones were found, mined, and sold throughout the ancient world. It's only much later down the line that it's discovered that they had actually found peridot, but the name stuck to another rock (after, I presume, much litigation under trades descriptions).

It is very easy to confuse the two, after all. **Topaz** can be found in a variety of colours - mostly it's blue or brown, but there are specimens of orange, red, pink, violet, yellow and green out there!

The chameleonic **Topaz** reared its head again in 1740, where a 1680 carat gemstone called the "Braganza Diamond" was found in Brazil and was thought to be the largest diamond ever discovered. That too was outed as "worthless" **Topaz** - but not before the Portuguese royal family had it set into their crown!
Tantalus

## Ability

### Ability

**Tantalising****(Draw)** This card **Burn**s (5) until played and your Zeus and Niobe cards, wherever they are, cost -1 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

With all the torturing that went on in the Underworld, they had to find obscure and creative ways to torment wrongdoers to keep it interesting. Case in point: **Tantalus**, a figure in Greek mythology who was made to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches.

The fruit forever eluded his grasp, and the water constantly receded before he could take a drink. It may not be as violent the stretching rack or bamboo under the fingernails, but it’s still a pretty horrible form of torture if you ask us.

So, what did Tantalus do to deserve this fate? According to the tales, he was a rich but wicked king of Sipylus who went above his station when he attempted to serve his own son at a feast with the gods. So, let that be a lesson to any human planning to cross the line between mortals and gods.
Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia

## Ability

### Ability

**The Good King****(Play)** If it's before Round 4, this card gains +35 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

In case the conversation dies around the dinner table this Christmas, break the silence by regaling guests of the story behind Good King Wenceslas. But be warned: it’s bizarre. The legend is based on the life of the historical Saint **Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia**.

After their father died, it was decided that Wenceslaus and his brother Boleslaus would rule over either half of the country. But Boleslaus didn’t love the idea, and assassinated Wenceslaus. Legend has it that his body did not bleed, and that miracles began to occur at his tomb.

Although he was regarded as a martyr and a saint, the Duke of Bohemia only became the King of Bohemia when Holy Roman Emperor Otto I gave him the title a few years after his death.
The Red Arrows

## Ability

### Ability

**Form Up****(Draw)** Your cards in hand gain +5 Power this turn, if you are not losing the round, your cards in hand gain an extra +7 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

**The Red Arrows** were established in 1965 as part of an effort to prevent every RAF squadron from wasting time with their own (costly) aerobatic display teams, and since then they have been showing off their considerable skills across the UK and around the world.

Famed for their tight formation flying and the red, white and blue vapour trails they leave in the sky. These not only serve to woo the crowds, but they also help the pilots judge wind direction and speed, which is unsurprisingly important when you're flying a jet plane one meter away from another.

Here's something to remember when standing below them admiring the display. A freedom of information (FOI) request revealed that the famous vapour trails are produced by pumping a mixture of coloured dyes and diesel into the jets exhaust.
The Multiverse

## Ability

### Ability

**In Parallel****(Draw)** A random card in your hand gains +11 Power permanently. **(Draw)** A random card in your opponent's hand loses -11 Power permanently. **(Play)** Your cards in hand gain +11 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In another universe, you just ate a sandwich. If you did just eat a sandwich, another you in another universe didn’t. This is a simplified explanation of **The Multiverse**: a hypothetical group of universes that comprise everything in existence: space, time, matter, energy. Oh, and that sandwich. Some physicists believe a collision of two parallel universes could be the explanation for how our universe came to be. Naturally, other versions of them in parallel universes don’t believe this.

Special thanks to Looophole for the winning suggestion, and a big thanks to everybody who voted.

Rest in Peace "Multiverse Buff When?" 2021 - 2021
Twin Paradox

## Ability

### Ability

**Return Trip****(Return)** This card gains +25 Power and costs -1 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Being born at near exactly the same time, you would think twins would age at the same time. And most do - when they both remain on Earth. But let’s say one twin from a pair is an astronaut who travels to a distant star at nearly the speed of light. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, time runs more slowly for the twin on the spacecraft than it does in Earth.

So, following that logic, the space-faring twin will be younger than the Earth-bound twin when they return home. However, there is no symmetry between the space-time paths of either twin. To get back to Earth, the travelling twin experiences a force in order to slow down and reverse direction. Therefore, the so-called **Twin Paradox** isn’t technically a paradox at all.

'Twin Paradox Acceleration Profile ' by D.H. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered) Applied over illustrative background
The Roman Army

## Ability

### Ability

**Phalanx You Very Much****(Play)** Your cards in hand gain +5 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

The Roman Army was, if we may channel our inner millennial for a moment, total squad goals. It was made up of around 30 legions, each containing between 4,000 and 6,000 soldiers.

Their signature formation was their version of the phalanx - squads would hold their giant curved shields together so they formed a shell around themselves, with gaps just big enough to push spears through.

When on the move, soldiers would march up to 20 miles a day in full armour whilst carrying weapons and equipment - definitely don't skip leg day.
Velvet Crab

## Ability

### Ability

**Fighter Crab****(Draw)** If your deck has exactly 1 other Crustaceans card, your other Crustaceans card loses -30 Power this turn and this card gains +30 Power permanently.

## Did You Know?

Like <link="https:>nitrous oxide can supercharge a car,</link> the **Velvet Crab** has specially-adapted paddle-shaped back legs that allow them to propel through the water at speed. And, despite its soft exterior, this species will raise its claws at any threat, even humans, rather than running away. That makes the Velvet Crab both Fast and Furious.

In fact, the crab’s piercing red eyes and aggressive nature have even resulted in a second nickname: the devil’s crab. And, as if that wasn’t scary enough, this bad boy tops the list of swimming crabs in size, boasting a carapace width of up to 100 millimetres and a painful nip to boot. While this species is apparently very tasty and often used in cooking, <link="https:>you wouldn’t eat family.</link>
Vibia Sabina

## Ability

### Ability

**Hadrian's Reign****(Play)** Your History of Heartbreak cards, wherever they are, gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

**Vibia Sabina** was a Roman Empress, wife and second cousin, once removed, to Roman Emperor Hadrian. When they married, Vibia was just a teenager, and Hadrian was between 6- 12 years older.

Ultimately, the marriage was a political one, and their relationship was far from plain sailing. For a start, Hadrian was clearly having a sexual relationship with Antinous, a male Greek servant that he was seen with more than his wife. Vibia enjoyed her status as empress and accumulated more public honours in Rome than any imperial woman since the first empress, Livia. Tragically, since Hadrian is thought to have treated his wife little better than a slave, some historians believe Vibia’s husband drove her to suicide.

'Partial view of a statue of Vibia Sabina' by Lessi (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Venus Flytrap

## Ability

### Ability

**Ensnare****(Draw)** An opponent's random card in hand **Lock**s this turn and this card gains +20 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

*Dionaea muscipula*, AKA the **Venus Flytrap** is one of the most deadly plants on the planet if you are a bug. I mean, look at the poor guy on the front of this card. Doesn't stand a chance. So long, fly.

What you might not know is that the plant you usually associate with the **Venus Flytrap** is actually one of a larger plant's flowers; a single plant can have upwards of 8 chompy flowers, each of the independently able to capture prey.

How does it do that? The flower sits with its mouth open, secreting nectar (and, in dark environments, changing colour to a brighter shade), to attract prey. When a poor unsuspecting bug comes to rest inside its jaws, tiny hairs inside can detect that something is ready to be caught and snaps the jaw shut.

These hairs are so finely tuned that they can tell if the prey is organic - if something nonliving gets caught inside, the jaw won't snap shut and it'll allow the wind to blow it away. You have to imagine this leads to a lot of **Venus Flytraps** biting down on themselves.

Once prey is caught, digestion begins - much like how your stomach breaks down food with acid, digestive juices fill the jaw and erode all the nutrients they can from the prey. After the trap has chowed down, it opens its jaw again and anything non-edible falls out.
Two of Cups

## Ability

### Ability

**Two Become One****(Play)** A random card in your hand loses -30 Power this turn and this card gains +30 Power.

## Did You Know?

If you got the **Two of Cups** in a Tarot reading, get ready to see the world through rose tinted glasses. The number one card for love and partnership, the Two of Cups represents the beginning of a new romantic relationship, or the deepening of an existing one. You and your partner are in sync, and you’re about to take things to the next level - whether that’s moving in together, getting engaged, having children or getting matching tattoos (nothing screams true love like matching tattoos.)

The imagery on the card shows a young man and woman, exchanging cups and pledging their love for one another. If there’s no one in your life you would want to exchange cups with, keep an open mind. A tall dark stranger might be on your horizon.
Thomas Veale

## Ability

### Ability

**Lost Treasure****(Return)** Your remaining Lost Treasures cards in hand cost -1 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

A cave seems like a fine place for a pirate to hide from the authorities. Well, that is, until the cave crumbles in on you, forever sealing you in a rubble of rocks with your unspent treasure.

That’s the fate that met **Thomas Veale**, one of four pirates who sailed up the Saugus River in the middle of the 17th century. After the four arrived in an area near Lynn, Massachusetts, they built a shelter to keep warm. But it wasn’t long before the authorities raided the shelter, arresting three of the pirates.****

****The fourth was Thomas Veale, who was hiding in a nearby cave. He may have escaped arrest, but when an earthquake caused the cave to collapse, he was buried alive with treasure that remains unrecovered to this day.****
Sputnik I

## Ability

### Ability

**Space Race****(Play)** Your opponent's Space cards in hand lose -40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Sputnik I was the first man-made satellite. It was launched by the Soviet Union on the 4th October 1957, and is considered to be the opening salvo of the Cold War space race.

Sputnik I was approximately 23 inches in diameter and weighed only 183.9 pounds. It's mission was to go up into orbit and send back radio signals to prove that it could, basically.

With three silver-zinc batteries on board, the expectation was that it would operate for two weeks. But it kept sending signals back for 21 days, as if to say "your move, America".

## Trivia

* This card is obtained from the Space Level Up Pack in Ranger level.
Tsingy de Bemaraha

## Ability

### Ability

**Where One Cannot Walk Barefoot****(Play)** Your cards adjacent to this lose -20 Power this turn. If it's after Round 2, your cards adjacent to this lose -40 Power and this card gains +60 Powerthis turn.

## Did You Know?

Like tigers and tidal waves, **Tsingy de Bemaraha** is an example of something in nature that looks cool, but can ultimately kill you in a second. Located on the west coast of Madagascar, these gigantic, razor-sharp limestone foundations are basically a naturally-occurring barbed-wire fence that biologists call a bio-fortress.

These breath-taking (but slightly murderous) limestone peaks began forming some 200 million years ago when layers of calcite accumulated at the bottom of a Jurassic lagoon, forming a thick limestone bed. Be warned: if the spikes don’t kill you, the animals will, as this region is home to Madagascar’s largest predator, the Fossa - not to mention over 60 different species of reptile, 15 species of bat and over 100 types of birds.
Typhon

## Ability

### Ability

**Reptilia****(Draw)** Your Reptiles cards in hand cost -1 Energy permanently. **(Return)** If you lost the turn, this card costs -3 Energy permanently.

## Did You Know?

Even if you aren’t afraid of snakes, you might still not feel totally comfortable around **Typhon**, a deadly creature in Greek mythology said to be so huge that his head brushed the stars.

In place of legs, he had serpents. According to legends, he had two hundred hands consisting of fifty serpent-headed fingers on each one – that’s a lot of snakes.

Typhon was known as the father of all monsters. So, it isn’t all too surprising that he married Echidna, who was considered to be the mother of all monsters.

As a volcano demon, Typhon’s favourite pastime was hurling red-hot rocks at heaven while fire boiled forth from his mouth. Each to their own, I suppose.
Tinkerbella

## Ability

### Ability

**Fairy Wasp****(Play)** If your deck has 4 or more Bugs cards, your cards in hand with "Fairy" in the name gain +20 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

At less than 1mm long, the **Tinkerbella** is one of the smallest insects in the world. Think even smaller than the head of a pin. They are a kind of fairy wasp which is an incredibly misleading name because we don’t think Peter Pan would have wanted to hang out with these tiny parasites.

The Tinkerbella are so small that when it comes time for a female to lay eggs, she actually does it inside of the egg of another insect (insection, if you will). She lays about 100 eggs inside there and once they hatch, they eat the egg’s original inhabitants. Gross.

While they do spend most of their lives under water in ponds and rivers, they do have tiny frilly wings meaning that they can fly. They’re also so small that you probably wouldn’t notice if one was buzzing by your ear right now. Ewww.

'Tinkerbella nana female' by John T. Huber, John S. Noyes, J. Read - Huber J, Noyes J (Source: Wikimedia Commons) is licensed under CC BY 3.0 (original image resized, cropped and altered)
Waste-to-Energy

## Did You Know?

You know what they say about one man's trash being another man's treasure? Waste-to-Energy uses garbage as the primary fuel for the generation of electricity. Typically, waste matter is burned in an incinerator with the resultant heat used to make steam which then drives a turbine to generate electricity; not quite what Marty Robbins was singing about.
Theagenes of Thasos

## Ability

### Ability

**Original Olympian****(Play)** If your deck has 5 or more Good Sports cards, this card gains +40 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

If winning three times in boxing at the Pythian Games, nine times in boxing in the Isthmian Games, nine times again at the Nemean Games and achieving 1300 other victories in lesser Games wasn’t enough, **Theagenes of Thasos** also felt the need to collect the Gold medal for the long-distance race at Argos.

One of Ancient Greece’s greatest Olympians, Theagenes was worshipped as a God after his death. When one of his rivals who had failed to beat him in a boxing match whipped his statue, it fell and crushed him to death. The statue was put on trial for murder and exiled by being thrown into the sea, which seems a bit unfair – they could have at least allowed the statue a defence lawyer.
Tintagel Castle

## Ability

### Ability

**Bottleneck****(Return)** Your cards, wherever they are, lose -50 Power next turn.

## Did You Know?

In 1233, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, gave three of his manors to his brother Henry III, in exchange a small piece of land on the Cornish coast. His brother was all too happy to make the trade: what did Richard want with an isolated, rocky island anyway? According to text written by Geoffrey of Monmouth, the ‘Island of Tintagel’ was the place King Arthur was conceived.

Soon after, Richard arranged for **Tintagel Castle** to be built on the site - a fortification notoriously difficult to storm, given that the only way to get to it was a narrow path.
The Bermuda Triangle

## Ability

### Ability

**Disappear****(Play)** Your Oceans and Seas cards in hand gain +18 Power this turn. **(Return)** Your Riding the Waves! and Awesome Aviation cards, wherever they are, cost -2 Energy this round.

## Did You Know?

Known as a tropical Twilight Zone, **The Bermuda Triangle** is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean that has been linked with the mysterious disappearance of ships, planes and people. Yet, despite its reputation, the Bermuda Triangle does not have a high incidence of disappearances. In fact, disappearances don’t occur at a higher frequency in this particular region than in any other comparable region of the Atlantic Ocean.

But, at least 15 – 20 ships or planes have gone missing here, some with no explanation and not a single trace of wreckage. However, it’s worth pointing out that the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean, the Milwaukee Depth, is located in the Bermuda Triangle. Human error, force of nature or something supernatural? You decide…
Ukrainian Spider Decorations

## Ability

### Ability

**Spider's Gift****(Play)** Your Gold, Silver and Venomous Creatures cards gain +12 Power this turn

## Did You Know?

In Ukraine, Christmas trees are adorned with spiders and web decorations. This is a custom that harkens back to an Eastern European folk tale.

A poor widow lived in a hut with her children. One day a pine cone falls on the earthen floor of the hut and grows into a pine tree over the summer and autumn months. With no money to decorate the tree, the family went to bed on Christmas Eve without adorning it. In the morning they found it covered in cobwebs and, when they opened the windows, the sunlight shone through. The rays miraculously turned the cobwebs into gold and silver and they were never poor again.
USS Arizona

## Ability

### Ability

**Dread Nought****(Draw)** A random opponent's card from each album in hand loses -18 Power for 2 turns.

## Did You Know?

It was the last of the Pennsylvania class of super-dreadnought battleships built for the United States Navy in the mid-1910s. **U.S.S. Arizona** was the U.S. Navy’s most heavily armed vessel and the largest ship in their fleet.

But, on the morning of December 7th, 1941, the Japanese unleashed a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, striking the ship with a 1,760-pound bomb that killed half of those on board the U.S.S. Arizona. The ship burned for two days after the initial explosion, with temperatures reaching as high as 4,430 degrees Celsius.

In March 1961, Elvis Presley performed a benefit concert at Pearl Harbor’s Block Arena that raised over $50,000 – a sum which helped to fund the build of the USS Arizona Memorial monument that spans the wreckage.
Weedy Sea Dragon

## Ability

### Ability

**Dragon Your Heels****(Play)** If you are losing the round, this card gains +25 Power.

## Did You Know?

The Weedy Sea Dragon is a close relation to the seahorse. Found only along the southern and western coasts of Australia these delicate-looking fish can grow up to 40cm in length.

Like the seahorse, it is the male that is responsible for childbearing. But unlike seahorses, Sea Dragons are pouch-less (gasp!) and have a spongy brood patch instead.

What's a spongy brood patch I hear you say? Well, it's an area on the underside of its tail composed of around 250 cup-like indentations. As the female transfers the egg to the patch it is fertilized and hey presto; 4 to 6 weeks later Daddy Sea Dragon is having sleepless nights and wondering if he'll ever be able to watch Spongebob in peace again.
Vietnamese Pot-Bellied

## Ability

### Ability

**Happiness, Satiety and Wealth****(Play)** If you are winning the round, this card gains +30 Power. **(Return)** If you won the turn, keep it permanently.

## Did You Know?

Thought to have originated in Nam Định province of Vietnam, the little bundle of joy known as the **Vietnamese Pot-Bellied**, the Lon-I or simply ‘the I’ is a small, round pig with an average weight of 50 kg and a height of around 36cm. Their large sagging bellies, turned up snouts, wrinkled skin and heavy sagging jowls make this species easy to recognise and even easier to love.

Making the shortlist for Animal Parent of the Year Award, the mother pigs “sing” to their babies when they nurse. That way, the piglets learn to recognise their mother’s voice, running to her when she calls. Later, they learn to communicate with a variety of squeaks, grunts, gurgles and even sneezes.
Thor-Delta

## Ability

### Ability

**Send Into Orbit****(Play)** Your Telstar 1 card in hand gains +82 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

The date is May 13th, 1960. **Thor-Delta**, son of Thor-Able, first of its name (Delta) has just launched from Cape Canaveral carrying NASA's Echo I, the first passive communications satellite to be placed into orbit. Will it succeed?

Not this time. After the second stage attitude control system failed, the vehicle was sadly destroyed. But that didn’t stop NASA from trying again, and just several months later, Thor-Delta came back strong to finish what it started.

On August 12th, 1960, Thor-Delta successfully launched the Echo I into orbit, and it didn’t stop there. This rocket would go on to launch the first British satellite, Ariel 1, and the first active direct-relay communications satellite, Telstar 1.
Verðandi

## Ability

### Ability

**That Which is Happening****(Play)** If you have played Urðarbrunnr this game, your Urðr and Skuld cards, wherever they are, gain +40 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Along with Urðr (meaning “fate”) and Skuld (meaning “future”), **Verðandi** is one of the three Norns - shadowy entities in Norse mythology responsible for the destiny of all people. Since Gods are subject to fate just like any and all beings, Norns are technically more powerful than the Gods themselves.

As you know, with great power comes great responsibility - in the Norns’ case, the responsibility of keeping yggdrasil (The World Tree) alive and well. While her two sisters represent the past and future, the name Verðandi is literally the present participle of the Old Norse verb "verða", and is commonly translated as "in the making" or "that which is happening/becoming". This relates to the Dutch word ‘worden’ and German ‘werden’ - both meaning “to become.”
Valley of the Kings

## Ability

### Ability

**Lifting the Curse****(Play)** If you have played Tutankhamun this game, your Egyptian Mythology cards in hand gain +14 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

The ancient Egyptians famously built tall monuments that towered above their cities. But they also spent a great deal of time creating vast underground mausoleums to house kings, queens, pharaohs, priests and other deceased members of the elite. This was a time before pyramids were built as tombs, and so being laid to rest in the **Valley of the Kings** was really the most honourable way to go.

Located in the ancient necropolis of Thebes, the Valley of the Kings has over 60 tombs – some of which contain over 100 different rooms! The Egyptians were big on preparing for death, and so these tombs were stocked with everything a good ruler would need for their journey to the afterlife: food, clothes, jewellery and, of course, a lot of booze.
Traffic Lights

## Did You Know?

Did you know that the average American spends 58.6 hours per year waiting at **Traffic Lights**? I can only speak for the motoring situation in the United Kingdom myself, but that feels like a lowball.

Then again, if you didn't spend 58.6 hours waiting at Traffic Lights, you'd probably spend that time *not being alive* because of the road accidents it'd cause.

The first-ever traffic light was installed in London, way back in 1868, where the smog was so thick that you'd be lucky if you even saw it. Westminster Bridge needed it due to an overflow of horse-drawn traffic, but it was too early for electronic signals - this was gas lit and manually operated by a police officer. It worked fantastically until a gas leak at its base caused it to explode and injure the police officer.

Nowadays, they're electronically controlled of course. The red, yellow and green coloured lights are chosen for very specific reasons (beyond the connotations of those colours, of course.) Red has a longer wavelength than other colours, so it can be seen from further away, which means that drivers can brake earlier, and yellow is the second most highly visible colour.

But the story of green is most interesting. On railroads in the early 20th Century, green originally meant "caution" (i.e., the job that yellow now does) and a white light meant "go". This changed when train accidents occurred due to drivers mistaking the stars in the night sky as "go" lights!
The Shard

## Ability

### Ability

**London Calling****(Play)** Your 20 Fenchurch card in hand gains +25 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Constructed of nearly 11,000 glass panels covering a total area of 56,000 sq metres, the Shard in London was designed by Renzo Piano - the architect responsible for the radical Pompidou Centre in Paris.

It is - until Britain officially leaves the EU - the tallest building in the European Union; and on the top (72nd) floor there is an open-air observation deck.

CRAFTING CLUE BELOW!

- A flat-out scary creature.
Ursa Major

## Ability

### Ability

**The Bear Necessities****(Play)** Your Ursa Minor card in hand gains +60 Power this turn.

## Did You Know?

Ursa Major, standing for "greater bear", contains one of the most identifiable sections, known as the Big Dipper. It is the third largest constellation and contains many messier objects (such as nebulas) and 13 stars with known planets.

## Fusion

 Phoenix | 18

## Trivia

* The quote "The Bear Necessities" is a play on "The Bare Necessities", a song from Disney's *The Jungle Book*, a movie about a boy who lives in a jungle and is friends with a black panther and a bear.
Tomoe Gozen

## Ability

### Ability

**Onna-bugeisha****(Play)** Your Feudal Japan cards, wherever they are, gain +10 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

An "Onna-bugeisha" was a female warrior in Feudal Japan. Usually, the men would fight, but in times of need, women would be called upon to take up arms.

**Tomoe Gozen** appeared in 14th-century literature, so she may not have actually existed. But historians consider her a real historical figure (or to at least have been inspired by one), and she is often hailed as one of the most fearsome samurai in Japanese history.

She was a remarkably skilled archer and swordswoman, but several depictions of her - including the one on the front of this card - show her wielding a tree trunk. At the Battle of Awazu in 1184, she is said to have collected the heads of several enemies (hopefully not with the tree trunk!)

That battle was part of the Gempei war, which took place between 1180 and 1185. During that conflict, she fought alongside her master, Minamoto no Yoshinaka, who was rebelling for control of the Minamoto clan. They would eventually lose that war, and **Tomoe Gozen** would go on to become a nun for the rest of her life.
Titan, Moon of Saturn

## Did You Know?

**Titan** is more than 'just a moon' - it's considered a candidate for microbial life, bearing the closest resemblance to our own planet. Titan is the only object in the Solar System (other than Earth) to have liquids on its surface, and as new maps of Titan show, it has a varied geography like our own.

Don't book your vacation just yet though - it's still a rather chilly -300° out there.
Tiger's Eye

## Ability

### Ability

**Thrill of the Fight****(Play)** Your Cool Cats cards, wherever they are, gain +13 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Learning about gemstones and minerals means exposing yourself to a wider geological vocabulary - that's a warning to you because it's about to get jargony in here.

**Tiger's Eye** is known for its silky lustre and gorgeous striations, which basically means its got lots of dark brown streaks in among its light-brown colouration, like a misfit mint humbug.

The stone is partly made of crocidolite, which is a form of asbestos, but it's quite safe. As it grows, the crocidolite is replaced with iron and quartz.
Tuxedo

## Ability

### Ability

**Suit Up****(Return)** If your deck contains Playing Cards, a random card in your hand costs -7 Energy until played.

## Did You Know?

In the world of men’s fashion, the **Tuxedo** takes the top spot for timeless attire. This elegant outfit consists of a suit jacket, suit trousers, a waistcoat and a tie. The invention of the Tuxedo is a bit of a contentious issue: some say it was Pierre Lorillard IV of New York City, while other historians swear down that it was King Edward VII who came up with the idea.

Either way, the guiding principle of the tuxedo is that its otherwise visible “working parts” be concealed or decorated. If you’ve ever wondered the point of the pocket square, it isn’t a fancy handkerchief, but a visual stimulus designed to take attention away from the stomach of the wearer!
Wally Funk

## Ability

### Ability

**She's Going To Fly****(Play)** Your Awesome Aviation cards in hand gain +20 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

In the 1960s, trailblazing American aviator **Wally Funk** became the youngest member of the Mercury 13, a group of 13 women tested and trained by a team of medical experts for the NASA astronaut program, but that wouldn’t be the last time she broke an age-related record.

Remember when billionaire Jeff Bezos blasted himself into the lower reaches of outer space in a rocket that resembled a penis? Well, Wally Funk was aboard the Blue Origin flight with him, becoming the oldest person ever to fly in space at the age of 82. Although William Shatner went on to break that record, Funk remains the oldest woman to travel to space.

Plus, since 1957, Wally Funk has accumulated over 19,600 hours of flying time, which is definitely more than Shatner.
VHS

## Ability

### Ability

**Rewind****(Play)** If you are trailing by 100 Power or less, this card gains +80 Power.

## Did You Know?

If you grew up after the extinction of the videotape, you probably aren’t impressed at the fact that one **VHS** cassette can contain up to 1,410 feet of tape. But when the Video Home System (or ‘VHS’) was invented, this analog format was down-right groundbreaking.

First created by Japanese brand JVC in the 1970s, VHS tapes vanquished their rival (the Betamax tape) to become the king of home entertainment. By 1987, 80% of the $5.25 billion VCR market in the U.S. alone was based on the VHS format. Even in 2005, 95 million Americans still owned VCRs and VHS tapes.

But, inevitably, the VHS went gentle into that good night as digitisation signalled the end of taping our favourite shows or storing embarrassing home videos in our basements.
Titan Triggerfish

## Ability

### Ability

**All Up In Your Grill****(Play)** Your opponent's cards in hand lose -8 Power this turn. **(Return)** Your opponent's remaining cards in hand lose -12 Power next turn.

## Did You Know?

Nicknamed the Moustache Triggerfish for its suavely styled facial hair, the **Titan Triggerfish** is both a lover and a fighter. As well as performing mating dances with their chosen one, this species will use its sharp teeth to inflict wounds on would-be intruders. This beautiful and often misunderstood fish is often found chilling in lagoons, crunching hard corals and shells like we do popcorn at the cinema.

Triggerfish get their name from the locking mechanism that holds their dorsal spine in place. Only when this trigger spine is moved can the main spine be lowered. When raised, this complex spine mechanism makes it difficult for a larger predator to swallow the Titan Triggerfish and allows them to slide into tight crevices to hide.
The Spruce Goose

## Did You Know?

Eccentric billionaire, film director, engineer, airline owner and aviator Howard Hughes, built the Hughes H-4 Hercules AKA **The Spruce Goose** at the behest of the US government, for the advancement of the war effort.

Since the outbreak of WWII Allied ships crossing the Atlantic were routinely destroyed by German U-boats. The US needed a way of safely transporting supplies and troops-to-and from Europe. Hughes was asked to design this plane of unparalleled size and load-carrying ability. Which he did, but just a little too late for it to see action owing to Hughes's notorious perfectionism, and the war ending. Done is better than perfect, Howard, any software developer will tell you that.

Typically it was the press that named this engineering wonder **The Spruce Goose**. The war had led to a shortage of important materials like metal and rubber. Because of this, the seaplane was made out of birch-wood. Press being press never like to let a detail get in the way of a good story, nicknaming it **The Spruce Goose** even though no spruce-trees were harmed during its development.
The Shapley-Curtis Debate

## Ability

### Ability

**Joint Discussion****(Return)** For every 2 Nebulae cards in your deck, your Nebulae cards, wherever they are, gain +3 Power until played.

## Did You Know?

Ah the greatest rap battles in popular culture - Eminem in 8 Mile, the Cabinet Battles in Hamilton, and **The Shapley-Curtis Debate. Okay, only one of these actually happened and it definitely wasn’t done via the medium of rap. But how cool would that have been?**

**At the Smithsonian on 26 April 1920, astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis came together to battle it out over whether spiral nebulae are <link="https:>small or just very far away.</link>**

**Shapley argued that the Milky Way made up the entire universe and that spiral nebulae were on the outskirts of our galaxy (ours being the only one in existence), whereas Curtis believed that each nebula made up its own galaxy and that the universe was much bigger than we thought. So Shapley was on Team Small (that these nebulae consisted mostly of gases) while Curtis was on Team Very Far Away (entire galaxies, separate from our own).**

**There was no clear winner on the night - each astronomer presented his case then there was a discussion at the end. It took until 1 year later for each man to write a response to his opponent’s argument. However if you really need to have a winner then from what we know now, Curtis was the champion - there are other galaxies out there and we are not the centre of the universe.**
Titanoboa

## Did You Know?

Can we get a holla from any reptile fans in the house? We present to you Titanoboa - 40 ft and 2000lbs of slithering prehistoric nightmares.

A fierce creature living in Colombia approximately 60 million years ago, it may seem terrifying at first but don't worry - its remains indicate that it actually had a very small appetite, and could survive on one crocodile a year! These were probably giant prehistoric crocodiles full of storable nutrients of course, but most of the year you'd be safe from being eaten - it might just crush you for sport instead.