Before previews for Wilds of Eldraine officially begin, I thought it would be fun to do another of my Duelist-style teasers where I give tiny hints of things to come. Note that I’m only giving you partial information.
First up, here are some things you can expect:
• a new type of token (at least done as a cohesive theme)
• a card that can activate to copy enchantments
• Adventures on a new permanent type
• an artifact that has two different artifact subtypes normally associated with artifact tokens
• a creature type from Alpha gets a draft archetype
• fairy tale Sagas
• multiple legendary Foods
• a new card with a lobotomy effect
• a creature with two triggers, one for artifacts entering the battlefield and one for enchantments
• a new mechanic that batches together three items that have been in the game since Alpha but never batched before
Next, here are some rules text that will be showing up on cards:
• “If a permanent entering the battlefield causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.”
• “Look at the top twenty cards of your library.”
• “it produces three times as much of that mana instead.”
• “Sacrifice all Reflections you control.”
• “Creatures you control with +1/+1 counters on them have all activated abilities of all creature cards exiled with CARDNAME.”
• “have base power and toughness 4/4 and flying.”
• “exile up to one other non-Fox creature”
• “Land creatures you control”
• “Whenever you tap an untapped creature an opponent controls,”
• “X is 2 plus the number of cards in your graveyard that are instant cards, sorcery cards, and/or have an Adventure.”
Here are some creature type lines from the set:
• Creature – Mouse
• Creature – Rabbit Unicorn
• Creature – Faerie Shapeshifter
• Creature – Elf Fox Knight
• Creature – Giant Archer
• Creature – Plant Wurm
• Creature – Elemental Raccoon
• Legendary Creature – Rat Noble
• Legendary Creature – Vedalken Scout
• Legendary Creature – Human Warlock Bard
Finally, here are some names in the set:
• Candy Grapple
• Charming Scoundrel
• Food Fight
• Protective Parents
• Scream Puff
• Stroke of Midnight
• A Tale for the Ages
• Three Blind Mice
• Three Bowls of Porridge
• Up the Beanstalk
Kickoff the preview season for Wilds of Eldraine with the debut on August 15th, at 10:00 AM PT on twitch.tv/Magic and our official YouTube channel. Catch up with our web fiction before the debut August 8th – 14th.
I'll let you in on a secret. I have a doctorate in education, but the field’s basically just a 100 years old. We don’t really know what we’re doing. Our scholarly understanding of how learning happens is like astronomy 2000 years ago.
Most classroom practice is astrology.
Before the late 19th century, no human society had ever attempted to formally educate the entire populace. It was either aristocracy, meritocracy, or a blend. And always male.
We’re still smack-dab in the middle of the largest experiment on children ever done.
Most teachers perpetuate the “banking” model (Freire) used on them by their teachers, who likewise inherited it from theirs, etc.
Thus the elite “Lyceum” style of instruction continues even though it’s ineffectual with most kids.
What’s worse, the key strategies we’ve discovered, driven by cognitive science & child psychology, are quite regularly dismissed by pencil-pushing, test-driven administrators. Much like Trump ignores science, the majority of principals & superintendents I’ve known flout research.
Some definitions:
Banking model --> kids are like piggy banks: empty till you fill them with knowledge that you're the expert in.
Lyceum --> originally Aristotle's school, where the sons of land-owning citizens learned through lectures and research.
Things we (scholars) DO know:
-Homework doesn't really help, especially younger kids.
-Students don't learn a thing from testing. Most teachers don't either (it's supposed to help them tweak instruction, but that rarely happens).
-Spending too much time on weak subjects HURTS.
Do you want kids to learn? Here's something we've discovered: kids learn things that matter to them, either because the knowledge and skills are "cool," or because .... they give the kids tools to liberate themselves and their communities.
Maintaining the status quo? Nope.
Kids are acutely aware of injustice and by nature rebellious against the systems of authority that keep autonomy away from them.
If you're perpetuating those systems, teachers, you've already freaking lost.
They won't be learning much from you. Except what not to become. Sure, you can wear them down. That's what happened to most of you, isn't it? You saw the hideous flaw in the world and wanted to heal it. But year after numbing year, they made you learn their dogma by rote.
And now many of you are breaking the souls of children, too.
For what?
It's all smoke and mirrors. All the carefully crafted objectives, units and exams.
WE. DON'T. KNOW. HOW. PEOPLE. LEARN.
We barely understand the physical mechanisms behind MEMORY. But we DO know kids aren't empty piggy banks. They are BRIMMING with thought.
The last and most disgusting reality? The thing I hear in classroom after freaking classroom?
Education is all about capitalism.
"You need to learn these skills to get a good job." To be a good laborer. To help the wealthy generate more wealth, while you get scraps.
THAT is why modern education is a failure.
Its basic premise is monstrous.
"Why should I learn to read, Dr. Bowles?"
Because reading is magical. It makes life worth living. And being able to read, you can decode the strategies of your oppressors & stop them w/ their own words.
Does endeavor deserve to be called out by Dabi? Yeah. Definitely.
Was Hawks wrong to kill Twice? No.
If he hadn't, the attack by the Paranormal Liberation Army would have been way more devastating thanks to Twice's Sad Man's Parade. Hawks, as the number two hero, gave Twice more than enough verbal offers to surrender and Twice turned the offers down every time. Hawks isn't a villain for doing what he had to. He didn't want to kill Twice. It wasn't some sort of pleasurable experience for him. Hawks chose the lesser of two evils and some of y'all really need to understand that. Please carry your trash takes elsewhere.
Do Shoto, Fuyumi, Natsuo and Rei deserve to have their lives upturned thanks to Dabi putting them on blast too? Hell no.
Does endeavor deserve to die by Dabi's hand? No. That defeats the purpose of him owning up to his past.
Swear, some of y'all villain stans read the manga with your eyes closed and sunglasses on. Hell, even the book is closed too 🙄
I believe in sensitive and kind men.
I believe in the mystical men who believe in themselves.
I believe in men who seek temperance and peace inside them.
I believe in men poets, dreamers, magicians, writers, alchemists, artists, teachers, and angels.
I believe in men who like to dance and sing and make life a celebration.
I believe in men who embrace their wounded inner child, listen to him and embrace him true.
I believe in men who want to heal and help others to heal.
I believe in men who refuse to be slaves to their own wound and that despite the pain, they clean it and heal it patiently, with love and courage.
I believe in men who come from the stars and remember the power of their wings, the power of their hands and the power of their heart.
I believe in men who know of intuition and use it as their compass.
I believe in men who share freedom because they are free and do not know another way to live.
I believe in the men protective of women’s energy, who know how to read the look of their beloved and who do not intend to change it, simply accompany it wisely on their flight.
I believe in full men who don’t need anything from outside because they already know that everything has it inside.
I believe in men who make fire when they are cold, that take refuge in water when they are thirsty.
I believe in men with truthful eyes they see themselves and that’s why they love and respect every creature exists on earth.
I believe in men, perfectly imperfect, because it is in that imperfection is where they also find their beauty.
I believe in sensitive men who know how to receive and give love in balance, who listen and who also speak, those who live and let them live.
I believe in men who live sexuality as sacred, because they know that it is a wonderful gift.
I believe in men with clear feelings, which are accessible.
I believe in men who walk barefoot and speak to the plants.
I believe in the tender and wild men at the same time.
I believe in the sacred male and in all the divinity they have stood.
Poem by Rishima 🌹 for:
- Sacred Masculine
art by IG user @hvitravn
How 'She-Ra' Delivered on Queer Promises and Helped Revolutionized LGBTQ Representation
DreamWorks’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power has already cemented its place among the short but rapidly growing list of children’s animated shows with impactful LGBTQ representation. Showrunner Noelle Stevenson made it a point to push and fight for more diverse characters in every aspect from race, to personality, to sexual and gender identity. However, the finale of the GLADD Award-nominated program delivered on a revolutionary promise built up throughout all five seasons and completed one of the greatest queer narratives ever seen in children’s media.
As She-Ra progressed, Stevenson became more encouraged and inspired to pressure executives to allow more and more explicit LGBTQ characters and relationships. While ever-present in the series, season one only featured a background couple, Spinnerella (Noelle Stevenson) and Netossa (Krystal Joy Brown), and of course, the famous dance sequence between Catra (AJ Michalka) and Adora (Aimee Carrero). While this amount of representation is comfortably leagues ahead of the vast majority of cartoons, the show only upped the ante and the amount of representation from there. Season 2 introduced viewers to George (Chris Jai Alex) and Lance (Regi Davis), Bow’s fathers. The series presents them in a normalized fashion as a happy gay couple in love that built a family together. Jacob Tobia’s non-binary Double Trouble featured heavily in season four, making them one of the first non-binary characters in children’s animation and one of the first to holding an integral role in the show, a major step in representing such identities.
The many achievements and strides She-Ra in LGBTQ representation featured in She-Ra will doubtlessly affect other projects in the industry and help further programs walk a similar path. However, the greatest queer story inShe-Ra is the spectacular series-long arc exploring the relationship and dynamics between de facto antagonist Catra and protagonist Adora. The former friends, who grew up together in the ranks of the Horde, turn enemies at the start of the series after Adora gains the power of She-Ra and betrays Catra, joining the Rebellion.
Fans quickly began speculating on the nature of Adora and Catra’s relationship during season one, mainly because of the Princess Prom dance scene. After the young women shared a charged and sinister dance, fans quickly began supporting and analyzing “Catradora.” The next three seasons would gradually and gracefully define both characters’ complicated feelings for each other. Initially, Catra attempts to rationalize Adora’s leaving as a relief or else forces herself to appear apathetic towards it. She continuously uses the excuse that she is no longer living under Adora’s shadow to gradually build up more power, rising through the ranks of the Horde while stepping on those who helped her.