Edit: Pellet Dissector bonus card from Asia expansion counts cached rats. Still hasn’t changed my decision. Check out more WINGSPAN GAMEPLAY: youtube.com/@Master_Wing
I've played the Loggerhead Shrike a couple times as a starting hand better-than-nothing-in-my-wetlands. I even gained a few caches out of it because no one's going to skip a rodent if they need it just to avoid a cache. I remember having Rodentologist as a bonus card once, which helped more. I'd call the Loggerhead Shrike occasionally viable for starting hand or early game. However, I'm almost positive that in my 1000+ games of wingspan I've never played the Yellow-Breasted Chat. Two cherries and a grub? Insane.
lol to the yellow-breasted chat. it’s so interesting to hear different individuals’ experiences and the disdain each person has towards a certain bird. it’s like the cards have personally offended us at their absurdity lol. when the stars align, every card could be useful.
I clicked to check that Horned Lark wasn’t disrespected Black Redstart really has no place being on this list, it's definitely not as good as the whitethroat but it's still pretty good. I played it 10 days ago vs Flan in premier League and it scored me 15 eggs by itself. Hooded Merganser certainly is much better now with the introduction of Purple Heron and Eurasian Marsh harrier, both easy to play wetland predators with an amazing power. You can also pair it with the little Penguin and go to town. Loggerhead Shrike is awful but I've played it once or twice to do Behaviorist or Ethologist and beef up my egg capacity. It's also ok-ish against automa because it has the same activation rate as any other pink power. You also kinda have to respect the fact that it was used in the previous world record of 192. Still very bottom of the barrel. I'm not sure in what way the European Roller will ever "perform" tho. Same for the Blackbird, both absolutely horrendous birds and impossible to justify. Even Bewick's wren I've sometimes kept when my starting hand offered nothing else of any value. But Roller has absolutely 0 uses.
good thoughts here^ thx for watching. it is all a matter of opinion i suppose. i’ve played shrike for rodentologist a couple times. and redstart for viticulturalist and star nest, but when i went to review the game, the opportunity cost of three food for zero bird points normally doesn’t make sense for my games. it helped with my full tuck once as well. i think in the video i said it “might” be the second worst bird :) (up for debate) i have different experiences with roller and blackbird as well :) they “perform” by skipping a slot or making two filled columns with one bird for me. the shrike just sits there taking up space not activating in my 1v1 games.
couldn't agree more. in hundreds of games our group NEVER played a covers 2 spaces birds and so we removed them as they are terrible in opening hand and worse can devastate a bird-tray for an entire round
You make some excellent points. I find the roller is a desperation play in the pre-oceania game because it can get you straight to 3 eggs, or 4 eggs, however that is still quite a desperation play.
Black Redstart is quite useful if you get it round one or two with a forest engine. For me, one of the worst birds is the common kingfisher because it's so expensive, and it's sometimes *good* for your opponent when you steal their fish, because they can get a more useful food/flip the birdfeeder. But I suppose it would be a good play if you had Fishery Manager + Wetland Scientist + a nest type bonus.
You are correct that every bird has its day. I played the black redstart yesterday. I had the food to play it R1 on a tuck engine and it did alright. The wild nest also helps on those EOR goals.
Exactly^ I can’t say any card is utterly useless in every scenario. I played the black redstart to help me with viticulturist once that helped. You gotta admit though, 3 food for zero pts is tough. At least you played it in round one though^
Pellet Dissector from AE checks cached Rats and Fish. I've only played Loggerhead Shrike one time, and that was for the achievement. Its definitely at the bottom of the barrel.
I won a game with the Black Redstart because that + the Goldeneye made me never have to activate TWO opponents pink egg powers and I had so much more time to gain food/play birds.
Great video imo. 😊 Like you said, all cards can be good in the right situation. I think you did a great job of listing some of the most situational ones. The only one I didn't agree with was the Black Redstart.
I'm surprised the American Goldfinch wasn't mentioned. 3 point grassland bird that nets you 1 grain when played. I have never chosen to play it. In lower player count the Loggerhead is bad, but in higher play counts it can be useful as only wetland bird available.
I'm being 100% serious when I say that the Shrike was the first card that came to mind. I think I can recall one game where it really popped off, and I got like 15 points off it. But that was in NA/EE format online. Now that Oceania is out... people have even less reason to pick up a rat when there's nectar. I will say that because of the OE board, you can play this in either habitat early if you are given literally no other options so that you can collect 2 cards or eggs right away.
Fire fronted serin has some use in an air sandwhich game since in slot two or three it can generate an egg or two a round allowing you to reliably play a new bird atthe start of the next round despite not having a grassland and saving you an action each round after the first one. It combos well with the play a second bird powers since that guarantees at least one bird to its left.
The first time I played the loggerhead shrike it was in a 5 player game and I misread the card and thought that I could cache a rat any time a player took the food action… even then I thought it was a mediocre play at best . Imagine my disappointment 😂
Even round 2 works. Round 1 you maybe get 2 eggs. But by round 2 you should be able to get 3 which nets you 9 over the game if you don't go further. And if you build with this you can plan to rush a bit and end up with 12 or even 13 with just 3 rounds.
I saw your video yesterday. Today we played the game and guess what...I drew the Loggerhead Shrike and played it because I did not have other cards to play. It wasn't that bad...ended up with two rodents on it.
My mother sent me this video. And I called the best cards in the worst cards in the first two minutes I couldn't agree more. I love the shrike so much in real life and always bummed me out how it was in the game
Migratory birds are the worst in the game imo, but I agree that loggerhead shrike is also the worst. The only time I play the shrike is for behaviourist, ethologist, or rodentologist. The simple fact that it's pink gives it the slightest bit more usefulness. Still, I would take those 4 cards out for sure. They're incredibly unhelpful.
Edit: Pellet Dissector bonus card from Asia expansion counts cached rats.
Still hasn’t changed my decision. Check out more WINGSPAN GAMEPLAY: youtube.com/@Master_Wing
Another thing about the black redstart is that it's at least a star bird nest. Adds value. I might take that over a roll used food dice card tbh.
I've played the Loggerhead Shrike a couple times as a starting hand better-than-nothing-in-my-wetlands. I even gained a few caches out of it because no one's going to skip a rodent if they need it just to avoid a cache. I remember having Rodentologist as a bonus card once, which helped more. I'd call the Loggerhead Shrike occasionally viable for starting hand or early game. However, I'm almost positive that in my 1000+ games of wingspan I've never played the Yellow-Breasted Chat. Two cherries and a grub? Insane.
lol to the yellow-breasted chat. it’s so interesting to hear different individuals’ experiences and the disdain each person has towards a certain bird. it’s like the cards have personally offended us at their absurdity lol. when the stars align, every card could be useful.
I clicked to check that Horned Lark wasn’t disrespected
Black Redstart really has no place being on this list, it's definitely not as good as the whitethroat but it's still pretty good. I played it 10 days ago vs Flan in premier League and it scored me 15 eggs by itself.
Hooded Merganser certainly is much better now with the introduction of Purple Heron and Eurasian Marsh harrier, both easy to play wetland predators with an amazing power. You can also pair it with the little Penguin and go to town.
Loggerhead Shrike is awful but I've played it once or twice to do Behaviorist or Ethologist and beef up my egg capacity. It's also ok-ish against automa because it has the same activation rate as any other pink power. You also kinda have to respect the fact that it was used in the previous world record of 192. Still very bottom of the barrel.
I'm not sure in what way the European Roller will ever "perform" tho. Same for the Blackbird, both absolutely horrendous birds and impossible to justify.
Even Bewick's wren I've sometimes kept when my starting hand offered nothing else of any value. But Roller has absolutely 0 uses.
good thoughts here^ thx for watching. it is all a matter of opinion i suppose. i’ve played shrike for rodentologist a couple times.
and redstart for viticulturalist and star nest, but when i went to review the game, the opportunity cost of three food for zero bird points normally doesn’t make sense for my games. it helped with my full tuck once as well. i think in the video i said it “might” be the second worst bird :) (up for debate)
i have different experiences with roller and blackbird as well :) they “perform” by skipping a slot or making two filled columns with one bird for me.
the shrike just sits there taking up space not activating in my 1v1 games.
@@Master_Wing Shrike and some of the others is what I would qualify as a desperation play
couldn't agree more. in hundreds of games our group NEVER played a covers 2 spaces birds and so we removed them as they are terrible in opening hand and worse can devastate a bird-tray for an entire round
You make some excellent points. I find the roller is a desperation play in the pre-oceania game because it can get you straight to 3 eggs, or 4 eggs, however that is still quite a desperation play.
Black Redstart is quite useful if you get it round one or two with a forest engine. For me, one of the worst birds is the common kingfisher because it's so expensive, and it's sometimes *good* for your opponent when you steal their fish, because they can get a more useful food/flip the birdfeeder. But I suppose it would be a good play if you had Fishery Manager + Wetland Scientist + a nest type bonus.
Black redstart is okay in scenario you pair it with wetland or forestland engine if you dont have the egg producer in that habitat
You are correct that every bird has its day. I played the black redstart yesterday. I had the food to play it R1 on a tuck engine and it did alright. The wild nest also helps on those EOR goals.
Exactly^ I can’t say any card is utterly useless in every scenario. I played the black redstart to help me with viticulturist once that helped. You gotta admit though, 3 food for zero pts is tough. At least you played it in round one though^
Pellet Dissector from AE checks cached Rats and Fish. I've only played Loggerhead Shrike one time, and that was for the achievement. Its definitely at the bottom of the barrel.
aw man now i need to edit. knew that was too bold a statement. even still he’s at the bottom for me lol
I won a game with the Black Redstart because that + the Goldeneye made me never have to activate TWO opponents pink egg powers and I had so much more time to gain food/play birds.
Great video imo. 😊 Like you said, all cards can be good in the right situation. I think you did a great job of listing some of the most situational ones. The only one I didn't agree with was the Black Redstart.
I'm surprised the American Goldfinch wasn't mentioned. 3 point grassland bird that nets you 1 grain when played. I have never chosen to play it. In lower player count the Loggerhead is bad, but in higher play counts it can be useful as only wetland bird available.
I'm being 100% serious when I say that the Shrike was the first card that came to mind. I think I can recall one game where it really popped off, and I got like 15 points off it. But that was in NA/EE format online. Now that Oceania is out... people have even less reason to pick up a rat when there's nectar. I will say that because of the OE board, you can play this in either habitat early if you are given literally no other options so that you can collect 2 cards or eggs right away.
Fire fronted serin has some use in an air sandwhich game since in slot two or three it can generate an egg or two a round allowing you to reliably play a new bird atthe start of the next round despite not having a grassland and saving you an action each round after the first one. It combos well with the play a second bird powers since that guarantees at least one bird to its left.
The first time I played the loggerhead shrike it was in a 5 player game and I misread the card and thought that I could cache a rat any time a player took the food action… even then I thought it was a mediocre play at best . Imagine my disappointment 😂
The black redstart is quite good in the right game. If you can get it down rd one, it can easily get 10 or more eggs over the course of the game.
i would agree in the right game with the necessary food. if you don’t get it down round 1 though is it still worth it? idk
Even round 2 works.
Round 1 you maybe get 2 eggs.
But by round 2 you should be able to get 3 which nets you 9 over the game if you don't go further. And if you build with this you can plan to rush a bit and end up with 12 or even 13 with just 3 rounds.
I saw your video yesterday. Today we played the game and guess what...I drew the Loggerhead Shrike and played it because I did not have other cards to play. It wasn't that bad...ended up with two rodents on it.
Halfway through the vid I'm taking my guess only to see if I agree with you ... Tekla's Lark is definitely the worst bird in WS in my book.
My mother sent me this video. And I called the best cards in the worst cards in the first two minutes I couldn't agree more. I love the shrike so much in real life and always bummed me out how it was in the game
i know. i wanna like it so bad, but it’s failed me so many times lol
@9:55 "as of 2023 how many bonus cards require the player to have cached food? 0"
what about "Pellet Dissector"????
yep. in the description :)
Migratory birds are the worst in the game imo, but I agree that loggerhead shrike is also the worst. The only time I play the shrike is for behaviourist, ethologist, or rodentologist. The simple fact that it's pink gives it the slightest bit more usefulness.
Still, I would take those 4 cards out for sure. They're incredibly unhelpful.
agree. hardly ever played :/