This story is part of Yahoo Sports Shes Got Next series, featuring women in sports on the rise who deserve their time in the spotlight.

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Santia Deck has two sporting idols: Florence Griffith Joyner and Barry Sanders.

They couldnt be more different. The late Griffith Joyner, still the fastest woman ever, was flamboyant on the track, with her long hair and longer nails complementing her colorful running uniforms. Sanders was the opposite with the Detroit Lions, never outwardly celebrating any of his 109 touchdowns and walking away on his own terms years before anyone thought he would.

Deck dreamed of making it to the Olympics, just like Flo-Jo. As injuries derailed her collegiate running career, Deck believed she was meant to be an athlete and spent several years bouncing between flag football and rugby. That led her to the Womens Football League Association, a full-pads tackle league set to start in 2021.

The league announced in December she signed to a multimillion-dollar contract, the first for a woman in football.

I was at the theater with one of my friends, we were in the middle of watching the movie and my mom called me and told me the [contract] offer, and I just ran out the theater screaming, Deck said recently, laughing at the memory. My friend thought somebody died, and I was like, No, if you knew what my mom just told me, you would understand. And my life has changed after that.

Deck isnt just expected to be one of the WFLAs best players, but her contract and the ensuing publicity also made her the face of the upstart league, founded by California businesswoman Lupe Rose. So far, musician Ja Rule is among those buying in, owning the New York team.

Exhibition games begin this spring, with eight scheduled.

Its been an adventure getting to this point.

Deck began running track at age 6, not long after seeing a cheetah in full sprint on television. She told her mother, Cynthia Robles, that she wanted to be a cheetah. Robles laughed and told her young daughter that wasnt possible, but promised to put her in track.

And then I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was 12 years old and the doctor had told my mom that he recommended me never playing any sports because if I got hit the wrong way, fell the wrong way, that I could end up possibly paralyzed, Deck said.

Scoliosis is a sideways curvature of the spine that happens before puberty. While doctors now know that it cant worsen with athletic activity, there was once that fear.

Robles considered pulling Deck from track but she knew track was my life, Deck said. I had dreams of going to the Olympics since I was like 5 years old, so she knew that would pretty much destroy me. She ended up praying on it, and she ended up letting me go ahead and whatever God has planned is what He had planned.

She kept running and drew inspiration from the iconic Flo-Jo.

I was obsessed with her, from the time I saw her until now, Deck said. A lot of my style is [derived from] her. I used to wear my hair down. I used to wear full makeup. I got the mismatched socks and everything. I actually started running like her, as far as her coming out of the blocks, the little side-to-side she used to do, even though in real life, that didnt translate well for me. I ended up developing that habit that to this day is still hard for me to break.

Deck ran well enough to earn a scholarship to Division II Texas A&M Kingsville, but a series of back and hamstring injuries meant she didnt see much improvement.

Despite that, Deck wasnt ready to give up on track. After graduating in 2014, she kept training in an effort to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. She finally saw improvement, and then suffered another hamstring injury. Shed told herself that if she got hurt again, she was done with the sport and she reluctantly walked away.

She turned to a sport she knew well: flag football.

Growing up, I was a tomboy I did everything my brothers did. I was out there running routes, doing cone drills. I even went to a few of my twin brothers Pee Wee practices, and honestly, thats why I think I have the edge that I do in football because I was doing that stuff, she said. A lot of girls, they dont get that until theyre in high school or college. I was lucky in that way.

Story continues

As Decks flag football highlights spread on social media, rugby fans and coaches asked if she wanted to try that sport.

Once someone mentioned the chance to qualify for the Olympics, Deck was in.

She spent much of last year training and traveling overseas, playing with the Atlanta Harlequins, Stars Rugby 7s and the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union in New Zealand.

And then

I got injured again, unfortunately, Deck said. So, that slowed down my whole Olympic journey once again, and that was that.

I went into a depression because I was so close, super close to making the team and I got that injury and I couldnt come back from it. I was exhausted. I put my body through so much. I was going from Australia to New Zealand to London just to train, to get that experience because I was so new to the sport and I was literally running my body and my mind into the ground. So, when I got the injury, I didnt listen to the doctors. I kept going until my body shut down.

Not long after taking a step back from rugby, Rose asked if Deck would consider joining the WFLA. Deck had turned down the first offer earlier in 2019 while she focused on rugby.

Deck, a running back for the Los Angeles Fames, then turned to her second role model, Sanders, calling him poetry in motion.

Rose has promised WFLA players will be paid living wages, making it the first womens football league to pay players.

With the rebirth of the XFL and the memory of the short-lived AAF in 2019 still fresh, Deck is hopeful the WFLA will thrive where others have failed.

Knowing the owner and knowing who she is and the connections and who she knows and her history and how she has gotten to where shes at, she has so much, not only pull, but so much passion for this league that theres really no way that I could not see it happening, Deck said. She has really put in everything to make sure we are getting what we deserve. ... People ask me that all the time but honestly, I dont [think it will fail]. If anybodys going to do it, its going to be her.

She excitedly points to the growing number of female coaches in the NFL and Central Methodist University safety Toni Harris, the first woman to get a football scholarship, as evidence that its a great time for women in the sport.

I think having little girls who, before I even signed this contract were like, I want to play football. I want to go out there and do what my brothers are doing, and to me its so fulfilling to know that they now have a home, she said. They can now dream just like their brothers when theyre 5 and 6 years old of going to the NFL and [taking care of] their family and things like that. These little girls now can have the same opportunity, and just knowing that I can really tell these children: If you want something, you can have it.

I tell children all the time, If you want it, go get it. No questions asked, no excuses. If you want it, you can have it but you have to go get it. And thats what I live by; its what Ive always lived by. If you put in the work, the time and the effort and keep yourself on a straight-and-narrow path and keep God first, you can literally have whatever you want to have.

Visit Makers.com for more stories in celebration of Women's History Month.

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A mix of Flo-Jo and Barry Sanders, Santia Deck hoping to pave next generation of women's football - Yahoo Sports

Kasey Cohen from Below Deck Mediterranean wants her community to know that shes here to help if anyone needs assistance during the coronavirus threat.

Cohen shared a video message to Twitter that shed be happy to help any elderly members of the community or those with a compromised immune system get groceries and supplies. If any elderly individuals or individuals more susceptible to getting coronavirus need assistance in picking up groceries, supplies or medications in the Long Island area, Id be happy to help, she posted along with her video.

She added that being young and healthy puts her in a position to help others. Fans were overwhelmed by her kindness, some pointing out that residents could also get supplies through online delivery. But Cohen understood that not everyone can afford the higher fees associated with online delivery. So she wanted to offer an option to her community.

Captain Sandy Yawn was extremely proud of her former third stew. Thank you @kaseylcohen! We are all in this together! Also consider those who need daycare while schools are closed. Some parents, like medical and emergency personnel, will be working to help us. So consider helping as you can, Yawn tweeted along with Cohens post.

Yawn has also been trying to maintain an upbeat attitude and provide as many uplifting messages to her followers. She has been tweeting and re-tweeting positive messages along the way. Including some of the efforts being taken by Bethenny Frankel from The Real Housewives of New York City. She also supported the efforts being made by the nurses and doctors on the frontlines.

Thanks to all the medical personnel, doctors, & nurses, who are helping us fight the #CoronavirusPandemic. You have always been heroes, but lets get them an extra shout out right now. Be safe. Be smart. We are all in this together, she tweeted.

News footages have shown throngs of people crowding local grocery and warehouse stores, stocking up on supplies. Empty shelves and long lines show that many people went into panic buying. The public was advised to have 14 days worth of food, medicine, and supplies on hand. Despite a number of events and schools being canceled for a few weeks, the government has not imposed a mandatory lockdown on residents.

A number of people hoarded so many items, none were left for others. Several grocery chains are closing early each night to restock shelves. It is like pandemonium, Lou Scaduto Jr., president and CEO of Food Circus Super Markets told USA Today. They are literally buying everything I have never seen so much toilet paper go off the shelf.

The panic is largely unnecessary because most retailers are able to replenish products fairly quickly, Neil Saunders, managing director of the retail consultancy Global Data told USA Today. Also, products like toilet paper are not being used more than usual so people who have already stocked up will not keep buying them.

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'Below Deck Med' Cast Member Offers to Help Those in Need During Coronavirus Threat - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

edge, the highest outdoor sky deck in the western hemisphere, has welcomed its first visitors. rising 1,100 feet (335 meters) above hudson yards, the mixed-use development on manhattans west side, the observation platform has been designed to take visitors out of their comfort zone. located on the 100th floor of the sites tallest building, the deck has been conceived as an open plaza complete with a partially glass floor and angled glass walls. the platform, as well as the rest of the skyscraper, has been designed by KPF, with rockwell group responsible for the buildings interiors.

image courtesy of related-oxford

edge is accessed via the shops & restaurants, hudson yards indoor shopping mall. visitors are first greeted with an immersive multimedia arrival experience, designed by LAB at rockwell group, before a 52 second elevator ride brings visitors to the 7,500 square foot (700 square meter) outdoor viewing area. extending out almost 80 feet (24 meters) from the buildings 100th floor, the sky deck reveals panoramic views of new york famous skyline and beyond a distance encompassing more than 80 miles (129 kilometers).

image courtesy of related-oxford

at the heart of the sky deck, guests are dared to traverse a glass floor that offers a view of the city streets 100 stories below. visitors are also encouraged to lean against the decks nine-foot-tall (2.7 meter) glass walls, which are angled outwards to maximize views. an even higher perspective is offered from an outdoor stair and seating area that allows guests to look out over the glass from a seated position.

image designboom

bolted together and anchored to the east and south sides of the building, the sky deck comprises 15 main sections, each weighing between 35,000 and 100,000 pounds (16-45 metric tons). most observation decks are on a terrace, theyre part of the building, but here we did something very different, explains marianne kwok, director at KPF. we didnt want to scaffold up and build it and then take the scaffold down. it was manufactured in italy, and we put together the whole thing in italy to test it. then it was taken apart and shipped over. each section was then craned into place. it was constructed in such a short time because it was almost prefabrciated.

image designboom

we really wanted to create something that would give you a different view of the city and a different experience, continues marianne kwok. so there are no metal supports on the glass, and the glass is held slightly apart so that a cell phone camera can be put between and you can get a clean photo. one level up, the 101st floor is home to a restaurant, bar, and event space. the projects light show, which will take place through april, was designed by lobservatoire international, who also designed the overall lighting of the deck. edge is open from 8am to 12 midnight, 365 days per year.

image courtesy of related-oxford

image courtesy of related-oxford

image courtesy of related-oxford

image courtesy of related-oxford

image courtesy of related-oxford

project info:

name: edgelocation: 100th floor of 30 hudson yards, new yorkdesign: KPF (building), rockwell group (interiors)status: open to public from march 11, 2020times: 8am to 12 midnight, 365 days per yearprice: adult admission starts at $36

philip stevens I designboom

mar 09, 2020

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edge is the highest outdoor sky deck in the western hemisphere - Designboom

On February 6, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognised the Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) as one of the 15 laboratories that would provide reference testing support for the novel coronavirus.

The number of COVID-19 cases remained constant at three for nearly a month in India, but now it is going up steadily. Anticipating such a scenario, more labs are screening COVID-19 samples now. Besides the 52 labs belonging to the Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratories network of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 10 labs under the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) have been included for testing COVID-19 samples.

Till recently, all the 52 labs were allowed to only screen samples; only NIV was authorised to confirm positive cases. With more suspected cases piling up, a long delay in confirming positive test results would have become inevitable for NIV. So, in a welcome move, ICMR has pre-empted such a scenario. Four-five days ago, 13 labs were authorised to confirm positive cases without sending them to NIV. Another 17 labs will be authorised to do so on March 11 and the remaining labs on March 13, says Nivedita Gupta of ICMR. With the 10 labs under the NCDC regularly confirming positive H1N1 cases, we can expect these labs to be authorised to also confirm positive COVID-19 cases.

Unfortunately, several national labs have not been brought up to speed to perform other vital functions during an outbreak.

NIV is the only lab in India which has a bio-safety level-4 (BSL-4) facility to culture pathogenic, novel viruses, study the origin of such viruses and provide a comprehensive characterisation of them by sequencing the entire viral genome. NIV has sequenced the SARS-CoV-2 genome collected from two patients in Kerala.

When the entire genome is sequenced it helps researchers understand the arrangement of the four chemical entities or bases that make up the DNA or RNA. The differences in the arrangement of the bases make organisms different from one another. Sequencing the genome of SARS-CoV-2 will help us understand where the virus came from and how it spread.

In the last decade or so, many national laboratories have developed the expertise to sequence the entire genome of viruses and bacteria using the latest equipment (next-generation sequencing, or NGS). About a dozen labs have a BSL-3 facility to inactivate the virus and sequence the genome using advanced equipment. They also have the expertise to undertake such work.

It is therefore puzzling why India relies solely on NIV for undertaking genome sequencing. If theres a compelling need to have all hands on deck to sequence the genome, it is now.

While NIV sequenced two of the three COVID-19 samples collected from Kerala in late January-early February, it is not clear if more samples have been sequenced. Contrast this with how other countries have responded. Many of the 263 sequences shared with the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), a public platform started by the WHO in 2008 for countries to share genome sequences, are by universities and hospitals. In mainland China, many of the sequences are shared by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which is present in all the 31 provinces. At 90, China has posted the most sequence data on GISAID. This is followed by the U.S. (37).

We tested around 75,000 samples of H1N1 during the 2009-2010 outbreak. We have a BSL-3 facility and the latest sequencing equipment. We are ready to help out if ICMR reaches out to us, says Professor V. Ravi, Head of the Department of Virology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, about sequencing.

It is time for team building, not the time to work in silos, says Dr. Chitra Pattabiraman from NIMHANS. If we are not given an opportunity to develop these skill sets and not encouraged to participate, then how are we ever going to get good at it?

During the 2018 Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala, a lab outside NIV, the Manipal Centre for Virus Research, successfully proved that given an opportunity it could not only diagnose the novel virus but also partially sequence it. The Manipal Centre confirmed the Nipah virus in 17 of the 24 samples it received from Kerala. Unfortunately, since April 2019, the Manipal Centre has been directed to restrict itself to processing the samples of pathogens specific to the BSL-2 facility. It is not even one of the designated labs to test for the novel coronavirus.

Virologist Professor Gagandeep Kang, executive director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, however feels that given that the number of COVID-19 cases in India is still under 60, NIV does not feel overwhelmed.

While agreeing that many labs/ institutions in India have the ability to sequence the viral genome, Professor Kang emphasises that sequencing is useful to know where the virus strain came from and to check if the strain is evolving, but does not inform us of the immediate strategy to control the outbreak or its spread.

With the latest sequencing equipment widely available in many research labs and the cost of sequencing falling, researchers are using genome sequences for genomic epidemiology. This becomes possible as scientists already know the number of mutations that arise on an average in a month in the case of COVID-19, its incubation period, and the average time between cases in a chain transmission (serial interval). Using this data, it has become possible to identify the index case even when the source of infection is not known, and find the link between two seemingly unconnected outbreaks.

China was completely unprepared when the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) struck in 2002-2003. The outbreak infected over 8,000 people globally and killed nearly 800. The bird flu (H5N1) outbreak that followed in 2003 underscored the need for influenza detection and response in China. This led to a collaboration between the Chinese National Influenza Center and the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2004 to build capacity in influenza surveillance in China.

For the next 10 years the collaboration worked in many ways: it led to developed human technical expertise in virology and epidemiology, a comprehensive influenza surveillance system, strengthened analysis, the dissemination of surveillance data, and improved early response to influenza viruses with pandemic potential. By 2014, the national influenza surveillance and response system included 408 labs and 554 sentinel hospitals.

Today, there is a Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in each of the 31 provinces in mainland China. The infrastructure and capacity-building that was put in place by China for influenza surveillance stood in good stead when the H1N1 pandemic struck in 2009.

prasad.ravindranath@thehindu.co.in

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India needs all hands on deck - The Hindu

Spilling the tea! Below Deck Sailing Yacht stars Georgia Grobler and Parker McCown revealed their true thoughts on costars Paget Berry and Ciara Duggans relationship in an exclusive interview with In Touch, since it seems like the couple is still together.

I think theyre great as individuals, and I think they are very, very good couple, Georgia dished. Parker added, Yeah. I think theyre great for each other. They compliment each other, like in their personalities, I think.

Georgia continued, I think they emphasize, I mean not really emphasize, but I mean there is obviously bickering and, well not bickering, but they do bash heads like while working. But, I do think they are still a very good example of how couples can interact without being with too much PDA, or like making anyone else uncomfortable. I mean, Im sure its not easy to keep it completely separate.

But things could get awkward since it seems like Paget may have a crush on Georgia.Watch In Touchs exclusive interview above to see Georgias response to Pagets possible crush!

Below Deck Sailing Yacht airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET.

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Below Deck's Georgia Reveals Thoughts on Paget and Ciara's Relationship - inTouch Weekly

In high school, my best friend and I would spend hours ensconced in her bedroom reading each others tarot cards. She had an intuitive talent for the deck of increasingly battered cards, but I did my best to return the favor using the slim booklet that came with it. Her bedroom walls were decorated with quotes and art prints and postcards the things creative, book-loving teens collected like magpies and the room glowed like warm, pink amniotic fluid against the night. We shuffled like Vegas card sharks, cutting the cards and spreading them before us so we could choose without knowing what was on them beforehand.

The slap of the well-worn cards on the bedspread felt satisfying as we laid them out one by one in a 10-card layout called the Celtic Cross, in which each card represents different aspects of the person whose cards are being read and their life. Although different readers use different layouts or techniques, every tarot is a narrative of which you are the hero (and the card in the middle), and the surrounding cards represent issues or people affecting you and the story of your life.

Any given tarot deck consists of the 78 cards, sorted into whats called the minor arcana and the major arcana. The minor arcana looks sort of like a deck of playing cards it has four suits, as well as kings, queens and jacks though there are 56 cards in tarot and just 52 in a standard deck, while the major arcana are the 22 cards we normally associate with the tarot in pop culture Death, the Devil, etc.

Even beyond that, each card is packed with information some systems rely on numerology (i.e. where the card falls in the deck), astrology, and the Kabbalah to give deeper or slightly different levels of meaning and each deck is even slightly different. The Rider-Waite deck, though, is the one with which many tarot newbies begin, not only because its the most common and easiest to find but because illustrator Pamela Colman Smiths images are so colorful and clear and packed with symbols to indicate what the card itself means.

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Theres no one deck or way to read, though, which is why I leave it to the experts. No matter how many books on tarot and decks of cards I amass like dust bunnies, I dont fluently speak the language of tarot and its more obscure meanings; its the equivalent of trying to read Proust in the original French when you stopped taking the language in third grade. I can pull one or two, three cards at most for a past/present/future spread, but, beyond that, Im not ever really sure what Im looking at.

At its most basic, tarot tells stories about the cycles of our lives. Shuffling the deck, picking out cards and laying them out in order reveals what different trials and tribulations we might face during any given journey. However, the cards in the major arcana don't necessarily represent us in a given reading; they might represent someone else in our lives, or symbolize more general issues. Tarot is a complex language, and every reading is different; similarly, every reader and the methodology they use to interpret the way the cards interact is different.

The people I have seen over the years to do my readings have all come from different backgrounds, have different styles of reading cards and use their own unique flourishes to work with clients, such as incorporating astrology and/or mediumship, or from a trauma-informed therapeutic background. (They all have told me more or less the same thing, though: Leave the manic pixie dream boys alone, and finish your damn book.) For the most part, they dont do fortune-telling per se; its more about the deeper psychological symbols of the tarot and how we can apply them to everyday life.

A lot of the time, though, tarot simply brings up more open-ended questions instead of offering answers.

In 2017, for instance, I interviewed the famous Chilean-French surrealist director Alejandro Jodorowsky about his movie Endless Poetry. In addition to his work as a beloved cult filmmaker, Jodo is also an extraordinary tarot reader and expert; he spent years reconstructing the Tarot de Marseille with Philippe Camoin, whose family had been printing the deck for centuries.

Years before, Id attended a glamorously bizarre Halloween screening of his cult classic, The Holy Mountain, at the Museum of Modern Art, where my friends and I rubbernecked at Yoko Ono, Courtney Love, Martha Stewart and Willem Dafoe. During the audience question period, a nervous member asked Jodorowsky to give her a reading. In turn, he asked her to pick a few numbers between one and 22. She didnt understand what the point was, but I realized that whatever numbers she chose would correlate to cards in the major arcana, and he would be able to give her a verbal reading on the fly. He did, and it left her stunned.

I was thus determined asked him to pick a card for me after my interview something I could concentrate on or learn from. Hed reportedly been doing free tarot readings at a French caf for years; as recently as 2017, a Facebook user posted that he still appeared on Wednesdays, as did a TripAdvisor reviewer.

He pulled a deck from his breast pocket apparently, he carries the major arcana from the Marseille deck with him everywhere and picked out The Lovers card. Everyone usually gets excited when The Lovers shows up in a reading, since we all assume that it means good things for our love life; but it doesnt necessarily indicate romantic love at all. It can mean partnership, balance or even a choice. Every deck has its own nuances, and every reader has their own interpretations.

In most decks, the Lovers shows two people (usually a man and a woman) in a garden with an angel hovering in the sky above them, maybe in the Garden of Eden. The Marseille shows three people, and a grumpy-looking cherub aiming an arrow at them from above. Jodo pointed to the sun at the top of the card, from which said cherub was emerging.

The sun, he said, in his elegant, heavily accented English. The sun loves everyone. Im still not entirely sure what he meant, but Im positive if I ever figure it out, it will solve everything.

Jenni Miller is a freelance writer who covers movies, TV, sex, love, death, video games and assorted weirdness for a variety of publications online and in print.

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Tarot cards don't predict the future. But reading them might help you figure yours out. - NBC News

League of Legends has been a household name in the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre ever since it launched in 2009. The 10 years since it was introduced has seen it blow up from a simple Dota clone, to become its own fast-paced, intense game that has its own multi-million dollar esports brand, complete with a massive player base. It even has expanded beyond the gaming industry, and has even teamed up with fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, and even launched a K-Pop song to boot.

But this time, the focus is on Riot Games new free-to-play card game set in the League universe: Legends of Runeterra. An unlikely, but awesome new addition to the League spinoff games, LoR serves to scratch the itch of fans who want to experience the expansive universe in the form of a digital collectible card game (CCG).

Currently in open beta, LoR has been receiving rave reviews from testers, and has grown quite the strong presence in the card game community of late. Having played the demo when it was first announced back in October 2019, weve found that its most striking aspect is the champion-centric gameplay that features heavily in LoR. For fans of the original game, many will be delighted to find that a lot of decks are centred around some of the more popular champions that currently exist in League, and a lot of the deckbuilding is based around their unique mechanics.

But while champions certainly do add a ton of character to Legends of Runeterra, what the team felt was tantamount to the foundations of the game was to retain its MOBA identity from League.

Theres a League of Legends in our minds as developers, as people who are deeply steeped in the lore and understand the backstory of the world that were trying to bring, explained Design Director Andrew Yip in a recent interview with Geek Culture. But we also need to be cognizant of players in that League of Legends is basically a MOBA. And we need to find a line where it feels familiar and resonant, but also feels like its introducing a territory of what we believe people believe the IP to be.

True enough, this design aspect was heavily considered after numerous iterations in the LoR sweatshop led by Yip and Executive Producer Jeff Jew, over the games development period of over three years. This creative license eventually led to the subtle and clever inclusion of a lane as depicted in the main game as the playmat of a game of LoR. Other features that are highly reminiscent of League include the aspect of minion cards being led by champions, farming for coin, leveling up and upgrading cards, and so on. It was a carefully-thought-out process, but a smart one nonetheless, as it eases the transition from the original game to this one rather easily for seasoned League players.

That brings us to the aspect of accessibility. Despite boasting a universe (heck, lets just call it a multiverse now with all the alternate worlds that have spawned) with a decades worth of lore, champions and stories, another challenge for the team was to make it so that the years of backstory attached to League dont weigh down the experience of new players.

As with any MOBA out there, champions are essentially the lifeblood of the League of Legends IP. To date, there are a staggering 148 champions (and counting) in the original game, which if all were to be implemented into LoR right away, would be instantly overwhelming to new players. Hence, there are only 24 champions that were taken from the main pool as part of LoRs launch, with more to be slowly introduced in future updates. The teams focus for making the launch a strong one was to include some of the most iconic and popular champions in the base game, and build solid thematic foundations and concepts around them so it will instantly make the game accessible to everyone and anyone.

One of the initial questions that we asked ourselves is what is League of Legends?. And I think from our point of view, it often starts with champions, said Yip, who personally has over 13 years of game development experience and has grown up on Magic: The Gathering and other CCGs. Were still trying to iterate and figure out what are some of the main considerations when it comes to selecting champions and which ones are more important than others [to make it to launch]. So some of them have a lot to do with popularity, Like which champions are popular among players right now.

Some of the motivations that were actually more unique to our game was that we have divided all the cards into different regions [as part of the world of Runeterra]. One of the goals with our initial selection of champions for a lot of the initial sets is actually what champions reflect the common characteristics we think should be true for many of the cards from that region, to basically help establish and crystallise not just what does that champion do, but also what other champions, minion and spell cards from this region do.

I would say [the frozen region of] Freljord is a good example of this, where you see a diversity of different effects that manifests and are driven by the champions themselves. So Ashe is a very frostbite-heavy champion. Tryndamere is just a giant barbarian that pursues you relentlessly and never dies. And Braun has a big shield.

While Yips aspiration is to include all current and future League champions in LoR eventually, he also is grounded with the stance that the content has to be slowly introduced over time to not only slowly immerse franchise newcomers into the lore, but also to help with getting the player base up to speed with mechanics.

I think well see how far we can get. I think [over time] well start to recognise the structural pattern of our sets, and be able to extrapolate how long it would take to cover the roster of champions. [The entire champion roster] is definitely something we want to cover because, obviously, every champion is some players favourite, but we also know that there are a lot of opportunities with revised champions [in the original game], so its an aspiration.

And while implementing all nearly 150 champions into LoR might be a daunting task, Yip believes that having a character unique to LoR being adapted as a playable champion in League is a more realistic prospect, much to his excitement. Already, the player base has been fantasising about seeing the likes of Tiana Crownguard and Scarmother Vrynna being included in the main game something that Yip reveals to be, as Thanos would call it, inevitable.

Of course its a conversation that weve been having to do a collaboration with [the main League dev team], exclaimed a passionate Yip. What players maybe dont know yet is that actually many of the things that weve developed on the LoR team have already started to bleed into other [League] media. So not necessarily League proper yet, but a lot of the the cinematics and collaborations though comics with Marvel is a reflection and starting point of the concepts that we created on our own team. So thats definitely something that I would say is inevitable, though I would not put a specific date on [the releases].

With League already establishing itself as a powerhouse in esports, its only natural to assume that Legends of Runeterra will one day enter the competitive scene as well. While Riot Games hasnt officially announced its esports plans for LoR yet, Yip and his team arenot surprised that the community has already been clamouring for some tournaments to start soon.

This is a conversation that were actively having, of course, because the most dedicated and passionate players really enjoy playing competitively, Yip explained excitedly. In terms of basic game rules and depth, we think our game is well-suited for esports, in having really interesting strategic moments, as well as bluffing and high drama. We understand that our existing players already want [competitive games]. Were not surprised that they want it. Then, its a continuing conversation of how do we best support it?.

I would say that one of the strategies [to introduce competitive matches] is trying to avoid building the competitive pyramid from the top down. Were much more interested in actually creating competitive experiences that all players feel like they can have access to first, and then building the pyramid from the bottom up. And the fact that we worked at Riot before esports [became popularised] is a good signal towards that.

Keep in mind that this game is releasing in a market which is dominated by the likes of Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering. Moreover, the recent commercial flop of MOBA competitor Dota 2s own card game, Artifact, shows that just having an established IP isnt enough to sustain the game. Knowing this, the LoR team obviously had to play their cards right (ahem) make sure their game can survive, but is ultimately successful in an equally fast-paced and cutthroat market.

Yeah, you could say that the [CCG] genre is kind of congested right now. I dont take personal offense to that said Yip coolly. Honestly, for me, I look upon the genre with a little bit of grief insofar as, like, I feel the reasons that the genre got converted to digital were for many of the wrong reasons. So I think the concise answer is we wanted to make a card game because we loved cartoons growing up, and we felt like the direction that digital games were taking with card games left a lot of opportunities.

With Legends of Runeterra heading into full launch very soon, Yip and his team are already one foot firmly set in the future, with plans of releasing new card sets, expanding the champion roster, and introducing more gameplay balances and fixes to even the playing ground a lot more. Though he still admits that the games development is still a process of figuring things out with the dev team and community alike, he is confident in the staying power of the game in time to come.

Legends of Runeterra is currently in open beta, but is slated to launch very soon. No exact release date has been announced yet.

Marion has a serious RPG addiction. Sometimes it bleeds into real life; he forgets to sleep because he thinks he has a Witchers body clock. Forgive him in advance if he suddenly blurts out terms such as Mind Flayer and Magic Missile, because never once does he stop thinking about his next Dungeons & Dragons game.

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Geek Interview: Building Decks In Legends of Runeterra From The Ground-Up With Design Director Andrew Yip - Geek Culture

Writing a good intro to an article is like selecting an opening hand in an aggro deck. If it isnt obviously flowing smoothly for the first few turns (or sentences), scrap it and use a new one. On Arena, youll find that aggro decks are far more popular in Best of One than they are in Best of Three. One of the huge appeals of Best of One is the ability to play with a lower time commitment; aggro decks offer quicker games so playing them is the logical next step. Additionally, aggro is just a better archetype in Best of one than in Best of Three. Well get into the reasons behind that in a bit. Today, Im going to look at considerations for building Aggro decks for Arena Bo1, along with a few sample decklists, one each for Gruul and Rakdos Knights. I suppose Mono Red should get a mention as well.

Most decklists found within the pipes of the interwebs are geared towards the more traditional Best of Three format, with less if any consideration of the differences between Bo1 and Bo3. We at MTGA Zone recognize that the hugely popular Bo1 format has some different needs and considerations. There are three key factors that I have identified in looking at a Bo1 deck vs a Bo3 deck:

The most obvious difference between best of one and best of three is that you are only playing one game, so a sideboard isnt needed for most decks. This may superficially seem like an easy issue to address if you cant sideboard, then you dont need a sideboard! For the most part this is true, unless you have a card with a Wish effect like Karn, the Great Creator, Fae of Wishes or Vivien, Arkbow Ranger. In those cases, you not only need a sideboard, but you also may need a very different one from what you might have in Bo3. That being said, not having a second and third try at an opponent may mean youll want to make different choices in your maindeck as well and keep answers for certain decktypes or colors in your 60. That ties heavily into

Reading the metagame can be hard: it varies from tier to tier and even day to day as hot new builds hit social media. Still, well try to address the high level metagame with each build and some tips on how to adjust.

There are a couple different ways to read the Meta, first is to look at your own experience as far as what you have played against. This will be your most specific information, but can be biased by sample size. Use of a tracker app like Untapped.gg or MTGArena.Pro can provide valuable objective info on what you played against and how you performed. MTGArena.Pro in particular tracks the metagame across all users and reports out on it on their site. This gives you a ton of information, but may not be specific enough to your particular tier. Still, it is almost certainly the best resource available.

Ive covered Smoothing in my first two articles establishing Smoothings effect and looking at the numbers for each land ratio. Well be leaning on those numbers to inform how these decks get built and I strongly recommend reading them before continuing. Dont worry, Ill wait for you here!

Aggro is one of the four major deck archetypes in Magic: Aggro, Control, Combo and Midrange. Aggro decks pick a method of beating you, typically running your opponents life to zero, and go after that target hard, fast and, hopefully, relentlessly. Aggro loves creature abilities like Haste, First Strike, Double-Strike, and Trample along with spells and abilities that deal direct damage to a target.

Aggro is the archetype likely to benefit the most from Best of One for two major reasons. Unsurprisingly, those reasons tie tightly to the Factors mentioned before. The first reason is the sideboard. The inability to sideboard hurts other archetypes more than it does Aggro. Control in particular, with Midrange and combo to a lesser extent, get much stronger after sideboarding; they can pull cards that arent as effective in a particular matchup and add cards that are more effective. On the flip side, Aggro also tends to be highly vulnerable post-sideboard; the more time that an opponent has against an Aggro deck, whether in a single game or over multiple games, the stronger their matchup becomes as they can adapt to what the Aggro deck is doing. Aggro decks focus hard on what it is they mean to do and then do it. In Bo1, slower deck types frequently hedge their bets a bit against the deck types theyll see because they cant sideboard and risk running cards that are suboptimal in Best of Three, or just have a lot of expensive and awkward cards.

The second factor is the Hand Smoothing algorithm in Best of One; aggro decks have such a heavy emphasis on the early turns that having a hand that curves out is more important than it is for other archetypes. This makes it easier for an Aggro deck to mulligan away a suboptimal hand, knowing that the land base will almost certainly still be solid.

With that all being said, lets get to the digital pulp of the matter: the decks!

Rakdos Knights and its sibling Mardu Knights saw a lot of play at higher levels in Throne of Eldraine. When Theros Beyond Death dropped, knights got nothing obvious added to their arsenal aside from some scrylands and so it fell a bit out of favor, partly because the power level didnt tick up and partly because it wasnt new and hot. Its still a very solid Tier 2 deck though, as it has a ton of synergy and abuses incredibly powerful cards like Rotting Regisaur and Embercleave. An ideal curveout features a one drop on T1, of which there are plenty of good options Knight of the Ebon Legion, Fervent Champion, Foulmire Knight, or even Gutterbones. Turn 2 drops a Stormfist Crusader, followed by Rotting Regisaur on T3. Turn 4 brings Emercleave and death.

Stormfist Crusader will frequently be your MVP, even if it may not seem as such at first. The longer you can keep Crusader out, the higher your odds of winning; its fantastic at keeping the pressure on your opponent. One thing to note with Crusader and Rotting Regisaur is to be mindful of the order of the triggers. If you already have cards in hand, you will want Crusader to trigger first so you have a choice of what to discard to Regisaur. If you have no cards in hand, trigger Regisaur first and enjoy getting your card from Stormfist Crusader and your regular draw.

Rakdos Knights frequently features Spawn of Mayhem or Rankle, Master of Pranks, which are both great cards, but I opted to build this version with Anax, Hardened in the Forge in their stead. Anax does three things: first he lowers the mana curve a little bit without sacrificing much power. Secondly, Anax brings some protection against sweepers; there are tons of these in Standard right now and they serve as a major vulnerability of Rakdos Knights, even if Rotting Regisaur is out of easy range for Deafening Clarion or Storms Wrath. Finally, Anax and Embercleave is a fantastic combo. Believe in the Cleave! Gutterbones is in for sweeper insurance and late game use as well, though its kind of a love/hate card and replacing it with additional Foulmire Knights is a reasonable approach to improve synergy.

Drill Bit and Epic Downfall are in to kill sweepers and for key spot removal respectively. Epic Downfall is especially relevant as the current Bo1 metagame features a lot of RDW with Anax and Torbran, and Downfall deals with both of those threats cleanly, though being a sorcery makes it slightly less effective against Torbran, given that he often leads to immediate death. Reacting to your opponent isnt really what this deck wants to do though, so purely reactive cards are at a minimum, while Bonecrusher Giant//Stomp and Murderous Rider//Swift End provide additional removal without lowering your threat density.

Finally, while Shadowspear is no Embercleave, it gives some extra early value, especially in the Aggro matchups, and ups your odds of setting up Regisaur with trample. There are few things as frustrating as chump blocks against your Rotting Regisaur. I actually playtested this deck first without Shadowspear and was fairly happy with it, but once I used it with the Gruul Aggro deck, I had to go back and retest with a copy of the Spear in the deck.

In the metagame Rakdos Knights is slightly favored against mono-red; in aggro on aggro whoever gets the play is a major decider, but even on the draw, I like Rakdos Knights against mono-red, as an early Knight of the Ebon Legion will give them pause if they dont have immediate removal. RDW has few answers to Rotting Regisaur. but be careful of your own use of removal; dont waste it on the one drops unless things get dire. Also think long and hard about whether to just keep Stormfist Crusader in your hand against RDW. When playing RDW myself, seeing the Crusader cast on the other side of the field usually puts a smile on my face as I can typically take advantage of those extra cards faster and more effectively than a Rakdos player.

Temur Adventures is a much tougher matchup though, especially if Clover drops early. If your opponent doesnt drop Clover on turns two or three, you might be able to race past it if you curve out well but once Clover drops, it gets ugly. If this deck starts taking a bigger chunk of the metagame it might be worth playing some artifact removal. Embereth Shieldbreaker is not a good creature, but it is a knight and gives artifact removal, albeit at sorcery speed.

Gruul Aggro is a tougher matchup than RDW is as it can deal with the big threats better and has more general utility. Id give a slight edge to Rakdos Knights just because its a little bit faster than Gruul, though whoever gets the play is always going to be a big factor. Rationing the Crusader shouldnt be the problem it is against RDW.

UW Control struggles in general against Aggro in Bo1 due to the extra consistency that Aggro gets for its starting hands, but youll likely see 6-8 sweepers in Time Wipe and Shatter the Sky due to the high aggro density. Ideally, your opponent is scooping before they can cast Time Wipe, but Shatter the Sky takes out everything. The matchup is generally going to be good for Rakdos Knights, but other aggro decks are better suited to dealing with it.

Jeskai Fires in theory could run a dozen sweepers, but more commonly runs half that, leaning heavily on Deafening Clarion. As mentioned before, Clarion misses the Regisaur and Shadowspear puts the Giant, Rider and Anax out of range when equipped. Its probably worth saving Epic Downfall for Kenrith if things get that far. Mostly this is a matchup that favors the Knights.

With a mana curve that tops out at 3, two colors and the colored mana restrictions on Tournament Grounds, I like this deck at 23 lands, which gives you an 85% chance of hitting your third land drop on the play. If youre a particularly aggressive player and mulliganner you could slide down to 22 lands. Going up to 24 doesnt gain much statistically for hitting your third land drop.

Nothing says Aggro like Gruul; the planeswalker Domri Rade is essentially the personification of Gruul. If the system is broken, break the system. Gruul Aggro typically incorporates a little bit of ramp to get those ahead of the curve creatures out even faster; in current Standard that generally means Paradise Druid since Golden Goose is too intermittent. A very classic Gruul opening would be T1 Pelt Collector, T2 Paradise Druid, T3 Questing Beast, at which point youve dealt 9 damage and the opponent is wondering whether its worth trying to get out of this hole.

This build is a little different; youll notice theres just the one Pelt Collector and instead theres four Fervent Champions. The Fervent Champions have better synergy with Embercleave and Shadowspear, with the latter being a really valuable metagame tool. Fervent Champion also supports Lovestruck Beast in the event that the human from Hearts Desire gets wiped out, which happens a lot. Shadowspear also provides a reusable leg up in Aggro on Aggro matchups, throwing it on a Lovestruck Beast, Questing Beast, or Shifting Ceratops is backbreaking for an opponent.

Klothys, God of Destiny is in for some graveyard hate, some nearly unpreventable damage and lifegain, and an occasional mana boost. The occasional swing from Klothys is nice as well but is usually quite winmore. Scorching Dragonfire is a key card for hating on Anax, Hardened in the Forge and Ive also thrown it at Uro, Titan of Natures Wrath on first cast so that it exiled instead of being escapable. Theres not a ton of sweeper protection in Gruul Aggro outside of Phoenix of the Ash; you could look at running Anax in place of Klothys depending on your meta. In Best of 3, this deck would run three or four Questing Beast but in Bo1 I have opted for a pair of Shifting Ceratops, which is an ideal post-sweep drop and gets most Blue players sweating, plus dinosaurs are cool.

Against mono-red, this deck is likely to do well. Lovestruck Beast is a problem for RDW and between Domris Ambush and Scorching Dragonfire, Torbran and Anax are in for a tough time.

Temur Adventures on the other hand is a challenging matchup, though Gruul Aggro is probably the best aggro deck to match against it as any of the creatures are outside of the range of a single Stomp. Still, this has led to some ugly, frustrating matches during Ladder; the wins are memorable, but not nearly plentiful enough.

Rakdos Knights is slightly faster than Gruul but Gruul has better creature removal. If Rakdos does what it does best, which is curving into a turn four Embercleave on a Regisaur, then Gruul may very well be too slow, but once you get past turn four or five the balance shifts to Gruul, depending on the build.

Fires of Invention is a strong matchup for Gruul. Deafening Clarion misses on a lot of creatures in the deck and Shifting Ceratops is a card that Fires just doesnt have great answers to. Make sure to dispose of Teferi as soon as he pops his head up, as he really messes with Embercleave and Colossus. Domris Ambush gets the job done, but Scorching Dragonfire will make sure he doesnt come back with Elspeth Conquers Death and make a further pest of himself.

Azorius Control is another strong matchup, though reaching 4 mana on curve is essential; if you start to run a little slow, the sweepers will start to catch up and muddy the outcome. Azorius doesnt rely on Clarion like Fires, so it more consistently plays Shatter the Sky and Time Wipe, which the beefier Gruul creatures cant simply tough out.

In this build I went to 22 lands, in no small part because of the Paradise Druids. In Bo3, this is probably a 23 land deck on the light side and is more likely going to run 24. Temple of Abandon is something that might want to get trimmed down to 2 if youre concerned about the land coming in tapped and not feeling too concerned about the scry ability. If you have a 3 land opening hand, youre probably golden; if its 2 lands and a paradise Druid, youre probably still doing good. No Druid and 2 lands is likely a mulligan though. If you want to bump the odds up on the 3 land draw, pull a Klothys.

I have three great loves in my MTG life, ever since I started playing 25 years ago. Izzet Control, Jund, and RDW. In a conversation recently I compared RDW to abstract art. A lot of people dont get it, they think its simplistic and say things like My kid could do that. But when you make something so minimalist, every choice is critical, every step is essential and full of intentional meaning, and the margin of error for playing it successfully at the highest level is incredibly fine. Its stark, but still beautiful.

There are lots of RDW builds out there. This build is not for the faint of heart or the conservative; its for the bold and the furious. Its small RDW, so no Torbran and nothing over 3 mana, except for Embercleave, which you are still hoping to cast at two or three mana. Runaway Steam-Kin may be your game maker or breaker as it opens up lots of flexibility in what to cast and when. Mastering Steam-kin is a key to mastering the deck. Grim Initiate is a great card both for sweeper protection and for bringing the total first strike count in the deck to eight, which makes Boulder Rush, Infuriate, and Scorching Dragonfire more potent. Remember that if you take out Teferi with first strike, there is a window to cast instants before regular damage is dealt.

Theres no Scorch Spitter here; the Spitter has much better synergy in Torbran or Cavalcade builds. In its place, Tin Street Dodger provides good value with Robber of the Rich, which is particularly nasty against the plethora of other RDWs youll find in Bo1.

Anax is an essential RDW play, both for the post-sweeper value and the killing stroke it combines with Embercleave for. Anax and Scorching Dragonfire (particularly for opposing Anaxes) are just about the only concessions to the metagame in this build; otherwise this deck goes at your opponents face until there isnt one to go at anymore, or it collapses from overexertion.

Games against other mono-red builds are going to come down to getting the play and playing tight. Save the dragonfire for Anax or Torbran, Stomp is better suited to taking out Robber of the Rich or Steam-Kin. If youre seeing a really high level of matchups against mono-red, over 40%, which Ive seen in some tiers, then consider pulling Dragonfire for Redcap Melee.

With Temur adventures, theres no sugar-coating this. Its ugly. If you get a matchup where they dont get out Clover early, this is doable, but once the Clover hits the field oof. Go for the throat and dont hold back. If Temur Adventures starts becoming a larger part of the metagame, then adding Embereth Shieldbreaker in place of Robber may be necessary.

Gruul Aggro is a hard matchup. On the play its very winnable, but swings heavily on the draw. Hopefully you have the creatures and the mana to drop Embercleave on turn 4, if Gruul starts to get their footing, its a tough matchup.

Rakdos Knights is also fairly rough if they get Regisaur on turn three, as it starts faster than Gruul does. If your opponent plays Stormfist Crusader consider leaning into it rather than killing it, your spells are far cheaper and you should be able to leverage it better.

Azorius Control has a decided edge in Bo3, but in Bo1, the swing is pretty stark in the other direction. Aggro typically has the edge in game 1 of Bo3 against Control, adding Smoothing to that makes the advantage stronger. Theres no special strategy against Azorius; just do what mono-red does and watch out for sweepers starting on their turn four.

Jeskai Fires is stronger against RDW than Azorius is in no small part due to the earlier play on Deafening Clarion. Clarion hits everything in mono-red, which is why Anax and Grim Initiate are key plays. Given the option, Ill usually drop the Initiate first, as it leaves you with at least one body following a turn three Clarion.

This build uses 18 lands and is completely unplayable in Bo3. In Bo1, it takes smart gambles on mulligans. If youre not up for living on the edge with 18 land, dialing up to 19 or 20 in exchange for Infuriate or Rimrock Knight will have you feeling a bit more comfortable. You might even consider pulling one Embercleave, as drawing two in this deck is likely to leave you bogged down. RDW, especially small RDW, needs to use all its resources and cant waste time with uncastable spells.

These are just my takes on these three decks, there are a lot of other variants out there, and other Aggro flavors, from the similarly synergistic Mardu Knights to Jund Aggro/Combo decks working off of Dreadhorde Arcanist. Try them all and see what works for you! Qapla!

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Best-of-One (BO1) Aggro Deck Building with Hand Smoothing - MTG Arena Zone

When a developer in Hamilton changes their mind about what they're building in a neighbourhood you would think that some of the first folks to know about it would be the neighbours the ones directly affected by the construction impact the development will have on their community.

In this city, it seems, the neighbours are the last to find out. Take the ongoing development at Main and Walnut. It was originally proposed as a mixed-use residential tower. Then, in February, after the developer applied for a minor variance (a one-storey addition) neighbours discovered that the building was now to be a hotel. And, they learned by their own digging, that the developer, Vrancor, had made that change sometime in 2019 but didn't tell the neighbourhood. Neither did the planning department, which also didn't even inform Ward 2 Councillor Jason Farr. Why? Because the area is zoned to allow for a hotel, so there was ostensibly no need to share the change until the minor variation request was posted.

Now, consider another development, at King and Queen, by the same developer. Here, neighbours were told two years ago that a 10-storey hotel and a six-storey student residence were to be built in the Strathcona neighbourhood. Vrancor said it was also planning a 15-storey tower on a lot across Market Street on the old Greening Donald factory land. But at least a year prior, a letter from the city to the developer shows, Vrancor had been discussing an 11-storey residence and a 25-storey development for King and Queen.

When did Strathcona residents know about the intended 25-storey development? About a month ago, when a Vrancor representative revealed the "new" plans for the site at a Strathcona Community Council meeting. Nobody from the city had said word one. This, despite the fact that in December the developer had applied to make site-specific amendments to the Strathcona Secondary Plan and the Transit Oriented Corridor Plan, and is petitioning the city to change zoning so that more favourable downtown parking zoning would apply to its building currently outside downtown borders.

News of requests to change hard-fought and collaborative urban plans was not shared by the Vrancor representative at the community council meeting. Nor was it shared by anyone at the city. Like the folks in Corktown, we had to find out ourselves, by reading through dozens of lengthy documents the developer had to provide. City officials might argue that by advising residents of changes to the development they were letting the community know that the developer had also petitioned the city for site-specific plan amendments, but that assumes a level of the understanding of the planning process that is not held by most citizens.

And we know that planners and councillors are constrained by legal concerns from proactively sharing advice or information that they are not permitted by statute to divulge. But that only reveals that the system is fundamentally broken, not that it is best practice. From a citizen point of view, it looks like a developer gets all the help and support they need, while citizens get none.

I know city planners are hardworking and that their department is understaffed and handcuffed by legalities and regulations. I also applaud the city's desire to implement a "push notification" system that will give neighbourhoods an early warning of development changes. But, that doesn't alter the situation right now. And, right now the only advantage citizens have in a development process that seems slanted against us is trust and information. We would be naive to trust a developer to provide us timely information we're just a nuisance. But we should be able to trust the city to not see us as an irritant and to share vital changes to collaboratively forged plans promptly.

And, as importantly, I think the city needs to proactively engage in a public information campaign about the importance of these changes. Right now they are communicating, badly, only the information they must. And, that communication is not wrapped in any context or explanation of its import to the community. That's not helpful.

As community activist Cameron Kroetsch recently argued, the city's desire for inclusivity should embrace the inclusion of citizens in the processes and planning changes that shape our communities. There should be no development around us, without us. As citizens it seems the deck is stacked against us in our fight for livable neighbourhoods. In fact, engaged citizens feel that they spend years collaboratively developing secondary neighbourhood plans only to have to spend the following years defending that plan from developers.

This city needs to regain its citizens' trust. Transparency and inclusivity in the face of developers who take runs at hard-fought and collaborative urban planning would be a good start.

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Opinion | Deck is stacked against citizens in Hamilton planning process - TheSpec.com

The moon, or supermoon, is seen as it sets over Washington on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

Skywatchers are in for a treat next week when the full worm supermoon rises in the sky.

Marchs full Moon, called the full Worm Moon, reaches peak fullness at 1:48 p.m. EDT on Monday, March 9, explains the Old Farmers Almanac. Look for the spectacularly bright Moon as it rises above the horizon that evening!

The celestial event will be the first of three supermoons in 2020, according to the Old Farmers Almanac. EarthSky notes that the full worm moon will be the second-closest of the years supermoons.

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Supermoons happen when the moons elliptical orbit brings it to the closest point to Earth while the moon is full. The phrase was coined in 1979, according to NASA.

The Moon will appear full for about 3 days centered on this time, from early Sunday morning into early Wednesday morning, adds NASA, on its website.

The March full moon, which is also known as the crow moon, crust moon, sap moon and sugar moon, played an important role in Native American culture.

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The more northern tribes of the northeastern United States knew this as the Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter, explains NASA, on its website. Other northern names were the Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing by night, or the Sap (or Sugar) Moon as this is the time for tapping maple trees.

Southern tribes, however, dubbed the celestial event the "worm moon," as a result of the casts left by earthworms on the thawing ground.

Some experts described the spectacular February full moon, or snow moon, as a supermoon, although others feel that it does not qualify as that category of celestial event.

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The snow moon was one of the largest full moons of 2020.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

GET UPDATES ON THIS STORY FROM FOXNEWS.COM.

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Full worm supermoon on deck: What you need to know - FOX 35 Orlando