Wood Duck

[enbycass]

The publisher allowed the option here when asked, yes. But it's never been made official or even announced as an option anywhere else. The Oceania expansion says that if you find the ravens overpowered with nectar, you can remove them, but it does not specifically recommend this and it's not at all in the context of the core game. And no one outside BGA has ever suggested banning Killdeer and Franklin's Gull as far as I've seen. The fan-run tournament discord has a rule against playing the ravens in the first round but that's completely homebrew, of course.

[Ceaseless]

After having a few games both as the Wood Duck player and facing it, yeah, a ban looks like a good idea. Card comes down early game that's gg. Card single handedly wins the game, drawing into its own support, etc. Just food to the win.

[RandyKOrton]

If your opponent has it in their starting hand, and there's a seed in the feeder, then it will certainly be played on top row.
Then they can just keep drawing blind from deck, and there's pretty much no counter play to it. They can keep building on the forest/top row, without ever building on bottom row (especially if it's not end-of-round goal).
At least one other duck (Ruddy duck I think) which has same text, it cannot be put into forest.

[Ceaseless]

If your opponent has it in their starting hand, and there's a seed in the feeder, then it will certainly be played on top row.
Then they can just keep drawing blind from deck, and there's pretty much no counter play to it. They can keep building on the forest/top row, without ever building on bottom row (especially if it's not end-of-round goal).
At least one other duck (Ruddy duck I think) which has same text, it cannot be put into forest.

Don't even need a seed in the feeder. Just keep a seed and fruit, then 2 for 1 the remaining seed. You could even first turn Wood Duck if you're wiling for it to be your only bird, it will draw friends for itself anyways. If you really want bird#2 though, you can still keep seed and fruit, then go for any kind of food for the double. You'll be using the gain food option often enough to justify the slight food inefficiency of the 2 for 1, not to mention the enormous edge of the Wood Duck itself.

[TryWhite]

If your opponent has it in their starting hand, and there's a seed in the feeder, then it will certainly be played on top row.
Then they can just keep drawing blind from deck, and there's pretty much no counter play to it. They can keep building on the forest/top row, without ever building on bottom row (especially if it's not end-of-round goal).
At least one other duck (Ruddy duck I think) which has same text, it cannot be put into forest.

Don't even need a seed in the feeder. Just keep a seed and fruit, then 2 for 1 the remaining seed. You could even first turn Wood Duck if you're wiling for it to be your only bird, it will draw friends for itself anyways. If you really want bird#2 though, you can still keep seed and fruit, then go for any kind of food for the double. You'll be using the gain food option often enough to justify the slight food inefficiency of the 2 for 1, not to mention the enormous edge of the Wood Duck itself.

Except it's not that strong. The only place I've ever heard of anyone complaining about it is on BGA when playing with the Big 4 banned.

[detlefchef11]

If your opponent has it in their starting hand, and there's a seed in the feeder, then it will certainly be played on top row.
Then they can just keep drawing blind from deck, and there's pretty much no counter play to it. They can keep building on the forest/top row, without ever building on bottom row (especially if it's not end-of-round goal).
At least one other duck (Ruddy duck I think) which has same text, it cannot be put into forest.

Don't even need a seed in the feeder. Just keep a seed and fruit, then 2 for 1 the remaining seed. You could even first turn Wood Duck if you're wiling for it to be your only bird, it will draw friends for itself anyways. If you really want bird#2 though, you can still keep seed and fruit, then go for any kind of food for the double. You'll be using the gain food option often enough to justify the slight food inefficiency of the 2 for 1, not to mention the enormous edge of the Wood Duck itself.

Except it's not that strong. The only place I've ever heard of anyone complaining about it is on BGA when playing with the Big 4 banned.

This is a strange hill for you to choose to die on. It is undeniably a very strong card. One could argue that it's not as strong as the big 4. But, at very least, it's just behind them and is, by a good stretch, the strongest card in Arena mode. One could also argue that it shouldn't be removed, but to take it as far as you do. To imply that it's really not all that strong of a card, is simply obtuse and contrarian.

I know this much is true: my win rate when I get it down early is significantly higher than my overall win rate. If I'm playing against someone who gets it down early, I feel VERY fortunate to pull out a W. Like, basically, they have to get really bad luck for the rest of the game or simply be a bad player who knows just enough to play it in the forest but, in general, is not very good. When I see someone play it in the wetlands, I'm as thrilled as I am when I see someone put the common raven in the forest or the Killdeer/Gull in the wetlands.

I have also found it to be an asset played as late as early in the 3rd round provided circumstances line up. Of course, that could be said for the big 4 as I've certainly passed on playing Killdeer/Gull in the 3rd round if I felt that I already had the cards I needed to end the game and don't have any tuck/lay birds in my grassland. Ravens may have a slightly later threshold in terms of when they're still worth playing, but that's basically the primary knock on the duck and, in truth, it's not THAT much worse in that regard than the other four.

[TryWhite]

Don't even need a seed in the feeder. Just keep a seed and fruit, then 2 for 1 the remaining seed. You could even first turn Wood Duck if you're wiling for it to be your only bird, it will draw friends for itself anyways. If you really want bird#2 though, you can still keep seed and fruit, then go for any kind of food for the double. You'll be using the gain food option often enough to justify the slight food inefficiency of the 2 for 1, not to mention the enormous edge of the Wood Duck itself.

Except it's not that strong. The only place I've ever heard of anyone complaining about it is on BGA when playing with the Big 4 banned.

This is a strange hill for you to choose to die on. It is undeniably a very strong card. One could argue that it's not as strong as the big 4. But, at very least, it's just behind them and is, by a good stretch, the strongest card in Arena mode. One could also argue that it shouldn't be removed, but to take it as far as you do. To imply that it's really not all that strong of a card, is simply obtuse and contrarian.

I know this much is true: my win rate when I get it down early is significantly higher than my overall win rate. If I'm playing against someone who gets it down early, I feel VERY fortunate to pull out a W. Like, basically, they have to get really bad luck for the rest of the game or simply be a bad player who knows just enough to play it in the forest but, in general, is not very good. When I see someone play it in the wetlands, I'm as thrilled as I am when I see someone put the common raven in the forest or the Killdeer/Gull in the wetlands.

I have also found it to be an asset played as late as early in the 3rd round provided circumstances line up. Of course, that could be said for the big 4 as I've certainly passed on playing Killdeer/Gull in the 3rd round if I felt that I already had the cards I needed to end the game and don't have any tuck/lay birds in my grassland. Ravens may have a slightly later threshold in terms of when they're still worth playing, but that's basically the primary knock on the duck and, in truth, it's not THAT much worse in that regard than the other four.

Again, compared to the Big 4 it is not strong. I stand by that, and outside a few on BGA forums no one else complains about the Wood Duck. Perhaps Arena should not be two player. that's utterly ridiculous that the standard mode is in an unbalanced player count.

[PaulB-UK]

I think I'd be willing to play anyone on BGA with money staked if I started each game with a Wood Duck in my hand.

[detlefchef11]

I think I'd be willing to play anyone on BGA with money staked if I started each game with a Wood Duck in my hand.

I wouldn't take that bet but it seems someone else here might...

[detlefchef11]

If your opponent has it in their starting hand, and there's a seed in the feeder, then it will certainly be played on top row.
Then they can just keep drawing blind from deck, and there's pretty much no counter play to it. They can keep building on the forest/top row, without ever building on bottom row (especially if it's not end-of-round goal).
At least one other duck (Ruddy duck I think) which has same text, it cannot be put into forest.

There is a counter, though I agree it's a very strong bird. And the counter isn't perfect. Spam food. Play and activate phoebes and hummingbirds in the grassland. Like if someone has a raven, spamming food makes food less valuable because everyone has plenty of it. Now they're just gaining food they don't need to get cards.