Spotted Towhee needs to join the powerful bird cards.

[FrankJones]

I agree with Madlaine that the food cost of the Tree Swallow is more of a burden than the other two wetland tuck-and-draw cards mentioned.

But it's still just two food each, and to refer to the tree swallow's cost as a catastrophe seems a bit overdramatic. In the base game without expansions, quality wetland birds in the opening hand are a rare commodity, and the Tree Swallow definitely qualifies as a good one.

[Madlaine]

I just lost my 10 ranked game streak to a spotted towee/american robin/pie billed start game. I really miss my wood duck.

I feel your pain. I hate when I go on a 10-game win streak by pure skill and tactics, never once winning because I had the better cards, only to then have my streak of mastery rudely interrupted by some unworthy opponent getting some strong early game birds.

Precisely, i think i really should be offered a rematch to get those hardly earned points back.

[Madlaine]

Why is Tree Swallow very bad and should be avoided

1) early game your worm is your most precious single ressource. Considering you don' have a crow or a spotted thowee, you will need to find food or die. A single worm will allow you to play 29 of the 175 cards in your forest, while on only 21 for a single seed.
And what is the combo that allow you to play the most cards in forest ? Worm and Seed. 43 cards. BUT Worm and Berry allows you to play 42 cards, which is a solid 24% of the total, and among them, you find the Wood Peckers and American Redstart. The only birds that efficiently be better than this with seed + worm is the Blue Jay.

2) so if you want to spend your worm, youd better dray eficiently out of it, and Tree Swallow is not really efficient, it's a card swaper that wont allo you to have an extra card for and extra food to get you out of a difficult start.

3) now you should all hate the tree swallow for beiing the worst tucker and the worst drawing related card in the base set.

4) also beiing a swamp-only card and not having a fish is rather bad for a bonus card oriented kind of game. It could be the worst berry-eating bird if it wasnt for the infamous Ceddar Waxwing. It connect with only 5 specifics bonus cards. American Coot 7, Barn Swallow 6, Ring Bill Seagull 5 also but better card, House Finch 6.

[FrankJones]

step 1: Play a bird in the forest.

step 2: Use the gain food action. to gain a worm.

step 3: Play Tree Swallow.

You're making it sound as though getting a second worm is impossible.

So, any non-forest bird that requires a worm is terrible and should be avoided?

What are you typically playing in your wetland as your first bird there?

[Groovenstein]

Why is Tree Swallow very bad and should be avoided

1) early game your worm is your most precious single ressource. Considering you don' have a crow or a spotted thowee, you will need to find food or die. A single worm will allow you to play 29 of the 175 cards in your forest, while on only 21 for a single seed.
And what is the combo that allow you to play the most cards in forest ? Worm and Seed. 43 cards. BUT Worm and Berry allows you to play 42 cards, which is a solid 24% of the total, and among them, you find the Wood Peckers and American Redstart. The only birds that efficiently be better than this with seed + worm is the Blue Jay.

2) so if you want to spend your worm, youd better dray eficiently out of it, and Tree Swallow is not really efficient, it's a card swaper that wont allo you to have an extra card for and extra food to get you out of a difficult start.

3) now you should all hate the tree swallow for beiing the worst tucker and the worst drawing related card in the base set.

4) also beiing a swamp-only card and not having a fish is rather bad for a bonus card oriented kind of game. It could be the worst berry-eating bird if it wasnt for the infamous Ceddar Waxwing. It connect with only 5 specifics bonus cards. American Coot 7, Barn Swallow 6, Ring Bill Seagull 5 also but better card, House Finch 6.

Early game nothing is more important than having good access to cards. You say “it’s a card swapper” like that’s nothing. It’s literally the most important early thing, the ability to see more cards, and swallow does that while giving you points in the process.

Let’s say you present the following scenario to a top player: “You cannot see anything about the start of the game. Not who goes first, what’s in the tray, feeder, etc. Totally blind. Your starting hand will be only one bird. For that bird you may choose either any forest bird (excluding wood duck) or tree swallow.” They are always choosing tree swallow. Always.

[FrankJones]

Exactly; not having a playable wetland bird makes for a brutal start to the game.

I count 22 reasonably playable wetland birds for the first wetland bird.
Using combinatorics, more than half the time, we will not have any of those 22 birds in our starting hand.

But, 4 of them are tuck+draw birds that I would rather have in the grassland:
House Finch
Barn Swallow
Violet-Green Swallow
Purple Martin

These birds also require either a worm, or two food, or in one case, two worms. So, not exactly ideal (Though still great to have in the opening hand).

Three of them are "draw 1 discard one".
Black Tern
Foster's Tern.
Clark's Grebe.
Solid cards, but a much worse power than the Tree Swallow. Much easier to play, and a star nest though. Lower egg capacity.

Then there are the "tuck and lay eggs":
Bushtit
Red-winged blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Useful in their ability to use an egg for a second card, and then tuck one to get the egg back, scoring points and setting up another "Draw-2" turn. Can be an issue if both drawn cards are worth keeping. Sometimes we might prefer the Bushtit or the Red-winged Blackbird in a different habitat.

Then we have "draw 1". The Mallard. An excellent starting card. Gaining a card without using a resource.

"Draw 2 discard 1". Super strong ability. Being able to see 2 new cards, and keep them both (if desired) by discarding some other junk card.
Red-breasted Merganser
Pied-Billed Grebe
Ruddy Duck
Common Yellowthroat.
Great to have in the starting hand, but again, we're talking about 4 birds here. Most of the time we will not have one.

Everybody draws a card:
Spotted Sandpiper
Wilson's Snipe
Canvasback.
I am not a big fan of these unless I also have a tuck-and-egg bird. Otherwise, I might just be helping an opponent who otherwise is struggling to get cards, or, worse, has a tuck-and-egg.

Miscellaneous:
The Brant.
Rarely held in the opening hand, great if there are good cards in the tray, and if not, it's still a wetland bird worth 3 points, and provides 3 cards to use for gaining food or whatever.

And the "tuck and draw":
Tree Swallow
Ring-billed Gull
American Coot

Are the Coot and the Gull better? Yes. But to say that the Tree Swallow is catastrophically worse than the other two is rather dramatic.

Would I prefer a better card? Yes. Duh. Obviously. Unless I have the best card in the game, I always would rather have a better card. Thus, I see that as a bit of an empty statement.

[Ceaseless]

Exactly; not having a playable wetland bird makes for a brutal start to the game.

I count 22 reasonably playable wetland birds for the first wetland bird.
Using combinatorics, more than half the time, we will not have any of those 22 birds in our starting hand.

But, 4 of them are tuck+draw birds that I would rather have in the grassland:
House Finch
Barn Swallow
Violet-Green Swallow
Purple Martin

These birds also require either a worm, or two food, or in one case, two worms. So, not exactly ideal (Though still great to have in the opening hand).

Three of them are "draw 1 discard one".
Black Tern
Foster's Tern.
Clark's Grebe.
Solid cards, but a much worse power than the Tree Swallow. Much easier to play, and a star nest though. Lower egg capacity.

Then there are the "tuck and lay eggs":
Bushtit
Red-winged blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Useful in their ability to use an egg for a second card, and then tuck one to get the egg back, scoring points and setting up another "Draw-2" turn. Can be an issue if both drawn cards are worth keeping. Sometimes we might prefer the Bushtit or the Red-winged Blackbird in a different habitat.

Then we have "draw 1". The Mallard. An excellent starting card. Gaining a card without using a resource.

"Draw 2 discard 1". Super strong ability. Being able to see 2 new cards, and keep them both (if desired) by discarding some other junk card.
Red-breasted Merganser
Pied-Billed Grebe
Ruddy Duck
Common Yellowthroat.
Great to have in the starting hand, but again, we're talking about 4 birds here. Most of the time we will not have one.

Everybody draws a card:
Spotted Sandpiper
Wilson's Snipe
Canvasback.
I am not a big fan of these unless I also have a tuck-and-egg bird. Otherwise, I might just be helping an opponent who otherwise is struggling to get cards, or, worse, has a tuck-and-egg.

Miscellaneous:
The Brant.
Rarely held in the opening hand, great if there are good cards in the tray, and if not, it's still a wetland bird worth 3 points, and provides 3 cards to use for gaining food or whatever.

And the "tuck and draw":
Tree Swallow
Ring-billed Gull
American Coot

Are the Coot and the Gull better? Yes. But to say that the Tree Swallow is catastrophically worse than the other two is rather dramatic.

Would I prefer a better card? Yes. Duh. Obviously. Unless I have the best card in the game, I always would rather have a better card. Thus, I see that as a bit of an empty statement.

I would count Green Heron, Osprey, Snowy Egret, and Willet as reasonable starting wetland birds just for being 1 food wetland birds, and their point value isn't too bad either. I'd rather have them over 2 food tuck birds like Bushtit as far as wetland power goes for most openings, you'd need to be abusing that tuck mechanic or utilizing some other advantage to make me want otherwise for the starting birds. Even 0 food birds like California Condor or Turkey Vulture are acceptable, if not exactly my favorite targets, for wetland bird #1. They lose out on standalone ability due to their egg space though, so definitely hope to have a food plan already. 2 food or less habitat movers like Song Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow, and White-Crowned Sparrow work too, covering the wetland base while filling in for other roles, like the forest bird, for early game needs.

[Madlaine]

My innitial point was, why is Tree Swallow quoted in the top 11 starting cards posted by FranckJones considering its much worse than many (and from which House Finch is suspiciously missing) Of course id play it if its my only drawing card in starting hand.

Now if i have to blindly choose between Tree Swallow and Canvas Back, i go for Canvas Back for every previously developed reasons, even though i will probably give a Crow to my opponent doing so and drawing a White Pelican myself.

[FrankJones]

My innitial point was, why is Tree Swallow quoted in the top 11 starting cards posted by FranckJones considering its much worse than many (and from which House Finch is suspiciously missing) Of course id play it if its my only drawing card in starting hand.

That wasn't me. How the heck would I know what the top 11 starting cards are? Picking exactly 6 (after the ravens and killdeer and Franklin's Gull and the Wood Duck) is an exercise in nonsense.

[Groovenstein]

My innitial point was, why is Tree Swallow quoted in the top 11 starting cards posted by FranckJones considering its much worse than many (and from which House Finch is suspiciously missing) Of course id play it if its my only drawing card in starting hand.

Actually i dont understand why people like Tree Swallow,, its the worse of the three blue line tuckers,, i never play it when i can avoid.

I know tree swallow is playable, but i dont understand why its ranked so high when Coot and Ringed Bill exist. They are better in every point.

First thing beiing, they dont destroy your economy early game.

Spending a worm and a berry in the blue line is a catastrophy.

Why is Tree Swallow very bad and should be avoided

Saying “tree swallow is not a top 11 bird” is a far cry from all of this, where you all but call it the Antichrist for the crime of having a worm in its cost.

Now if i have to blindly choose between Tree Swallow and Canvas Back, i go for Canvas Back for every previously developed reasons, even though i will probably give a Crow to my opponent doing so and drawing a White Pelican myself.

Why see more cards yourself and get more points when you can help your opponent out instead?

On the bright side, at least white pelican doesn’t cost a precious worm.