I completely agree with haiduk's opinion. I think starting second is the best position.
Unless your opponent has a tree that allows them to play again.
Because you have the tempo at the start of the game. To win, you have to counter your opponent, so you have to avoid them getting the powerful cards from the clearing, and starting second allows you to do that.
- If your opponent plays a tree when they have 8 cards, this reveals a card + potentially what they discard.
This allows us to draw again to reach 10 cards with more choices thanks to the clearing. This gives us more leeway to reach the bonus action of a tree or bush. Then there is little chance that they will instantly play another tree that would reveal a card that would be inaccessible to us, and afterwards we can play while retaining the possibility of recovering a revealed card without ever being blocked, which is not possible when playing first (again, except if there is a tree that allows them to play again).
- If the opponent draws to reach 10 cards, then they can play a tree, the card reveal will not be accessible to them, so potentially for us, and in addition, unless they play a bush, they will reveal one more. Which is even more interesting.
(Note that a player who draws the 10th card at the beginning either needs one more card to complete a bonus, doesn't want to sacrifice cards, or is unaware of the risk).
This tempo and whether or not you have access to the revealed cards gives the second player an advantage, and if we judge that it is slightly better than the 2 extra cards, it is because there is a fairly high percentage that these revealed cards will be interesting, and at worst, we draw. Furthermore, depending on when the game ends, there is a 50% chance that the same number of turns will have been played, which more or less cancels out the advantage of starting.
