Board Game Arena

In the arena, I’ve seen many players, with ELO ratings ranging from 500 down to 100, who recognize that butterflies are a strong scoring method. However, some become constrained by this knowledge and end up playing poorly. They often play butterflies one by one in isolation, without any species that boost butterfly points, rather than playing them alongside other cards that could bring them out. No gentian, no Alpine Newt, not even Blackthorn. Whenever I face such opponents, I know the game has entered garbage time—chances are I’ll win, and even if my opponent manages to assemble butterfly combos later on, the match feels meaningless to me. It becomes a pure contest of luck, with none of the strategic depth that comes from card combos. And if they do win, it only reinforces their belief that focusing on butterflies is correct, leading them to repeat the same flawed strategy in the next game.

Butterflies are indeed strong, but out of nearly 200 cards, only 28 are butterflies—and some are even removed from play. Can you guarantee drawing 4 to 5 butterflies every game? In such cases, bird cards are also a reasonable choice. While not as high-scoring as butterflies, they offer solid point gains and versatile abilities like cycling cards and refreshing turns. When butterfly scoring efficiency is low, why not give birds a try?