Ban American Redstart

[Madlaine]

all in the title, this card is op.

1- no other card does the same thing
2- it's not in the base game, added just to please people
3- does better than any other food gatherer for a cheap price
4- fit a lot of bonus cards (forest, nest, geography, color AND small wingspan) , more than bad cards like Crested Woodpecker, which makes them look even worse

Clearly a promotional card quicly designed without thinking of competitive issues.

[FrankJones]

It's not a promo card. It's generally considered part of the base game. it is included (along with 9 other cards) as a set of "quick start" cards because they are good economy-starters.

Most or all competitive settings use these 10 birds as part of the "base game".

I agree it's a very strong card.

[Fromper]

This card is good, but not overpowered. There are plenty of other cards that get you an additional food early in the game. They each have their own drawbacks, like the crows costing an egg to get the food (but being stronger than this because you can get ANY food) or the spotted towhee that only gives a seed, not any other food. There's also the eastern phoebe and others that give a food to every player. The drawback for the american redstart is that it costs two to put out, and your choice of food is limited by the birdfeeder, which can be good or bad, depending on circumstances.

But the crows are definitely stronger, and the argument against banning them is long over.

[Madlaine]

I did not have the swift pack in my base set game, nor in my european or oceania box. Not even mentionning the disgrace that was Asia.
I can't buy it from anywhere, especially not in french version, and its listed as "promotional" on every (sold out) online shop. So its a promotional card gave away to fortunate players.

[FrankJones]

I did not have the swift pack in my base set game, nor in my european or oceania box. Not even mentionning the disgrace that was Asia.
I can't buy it from anywhere, especially not in french version, and its listed as "promotional" on every (sold out) online shop. So its a promotional card gave away to fortunate players.

That's odd. I bought a normal-looking game on Amazon and it had those 10 birds.

This website
https://navarog.github.io/wingsearch/

includes the cards in the "base game".

Anyway, you can elect to play without those 10 birds here on BGA.

[Jontia]

I did not have the swift pack in my base set game, nor in my european or oceania box. Not even mentionning the disgrace that was Asia.
I can't buy it from anywhere, especially not in french version, and its listed as "promotional" on every (sold out) online shop. So its a promotional card gave away to fortunate players.

The swift start birds are included in the later versions of the base game. You can also pick it up as stand-alone addition direct from Stonemaier.

When setting up a table, it certainly looks like you can shut them off. But the wording of the options isn't super clear to me.
You can have "do not use" set to Ok, and Shuffle into deck set to "never", that would be my assumption for getting rid of them. But I'm not 100% certain that would work. And I don't see how I would get an actual beginner "Swift Start" game up and running, is that even possible? ( I don't need or want a swift start game, but it seems odd to have the birds but not the rules from the Swift Start pack).

[FrankJones]

I did not have the swift pack in my base set game, nor in my european or oceania box. Not even mentionning the disgrace that was Asia.
I can't buy it from anywhere, especially not in french version, and its listed as "promotional" on every (sold out) online shop. So its a promotional card gave away to fortunate players.

The swift start birds are included in the later versions of the base game. You can also pick it up as stand-alone addition direct from Stonemaier.

When setting up a table, it certainly looks like you can shut them off. But the wording of the options isn't super clear to me.
You can have "do not use" set to Ok, and Shuffle into deck set to "never", that would be my assumption for getting rid of them. But I'm not 100% certain that would work. And I don't see how I would get an actual beginner "Swift Start" game up and running, is that even possible? ( I don't need or want a swift start game, but it seems odd to have the birds but not the rules from the Swift Start pack).

As far as I know, there is no option to actually use the "swift start" mechanism where each player gets (1? 2?) such birds.

Generally speaking, those birds are considered part of the base game with a 180-card deck. Playing without them is unusual. Which likely is why they are included in recent versions.

I bought my game more than 5 and a half years ago. I think a more accurate phrasing would be, "The swift start birds were not included in the very early printings of the game, but have long been included with the base game".

[Ceaseless]

all in the title, this card is op.

1- no other card does the same thing
2- it's not in the base game, added just to please people
3- does better than any other food gatherer for a cheap price
4- fit a lot of bonus cards (forest, nest, geography, color AND small wingspan) , more than bad cards like Crested Woodpecker, which makes them look even worse

Clearly a promotional card quicly designed without thinking of competitive issues.

Being unique isn't a bannable offense, and not being in the base game says nothing about its power, if you wanted to ban the cards in its set that's a separate discussion from its power level.

Now regarding your actual case. I recall you saying Great Crested Flycatcher was so bad as to be unplayable trash that should be removed from the game due how weak it was, just for modifying Redstart's effect from any food to the most common Invertebrate, in exchange for an extra 1 point and egg space. So if a downgrade of that nature is enough to make a card unplayable, Redstart isn't looking very intimidating.

The bonus benefits are nice, but aren't going to break the game, just give it some solid generic appeal.

I have no idea who Crested Woodpecker is supposed to be, that's way too open-ended for too many other words to pin it down, I could switch out one word for another to various results.

[WingspanG0D]

It's a decent card for sure, but there are way better cards to start with, like Rudy duck, pied billed and yellow throat. Grass tuckers are also better and ofcourse the crows and towhee which are also way better. Beside that the humming birds and Phoebe can really help to make the redstart less useful, while Hummingbirds/Phoebe suck if the opponent has crow/towhee