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Is there a more frustrating card to play against? In my opinion its way stronger than the one food crows. Wheat is one of the most useful foods in the game, and there is no downside to getting it. At least the crows you have to give up an egg. Seems like a free ticket to over 100 points each time it's played early, is that that much different than the ones banned?

It's a nice card but no more than that. In certain combos it is particularly potent. I'll usually take a crow over it.

If you get it in your starting hand or draw it within the first few turns, yeah, it's powerful. It's potency diminishes later on in the game. It's also a 0 point bird, so if you are very behind in points, it most likely won't help you.

It's an extremely strong card and I considered banning it from my personal games. But the stats don't seem to back up the card like they do with the current power 5. See here: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/338978 ... -boards-2p

According to that thread, a first column towhee is less likely to win than playing these birds in the first column. Take that with a grain of salt though - wood duck is conspicuously missing from here.

71 Common Raven (G)
70 Franklin's Gull (G)
67 Killdeer (G)
66 Chipping Sparrow (F)
66 Painted Whitestart (F)
65 American Robin (G)
64 Brant (W)
62 American Redstart (F)
62 Barn Swallow (W)
61 Tree Swallow (W)
60 Common Yellowthroat (W)

The banned powerful birds are significantly more powerful than Spotted Towhee. Barn Swallow and American Crow are also more powerful than Spotted Towhee IMO.

At any rate, there will always be a most OP bird remaining after banning some on the top.

Akagi29 wrote: ↑19 July 2026, 23:58 Is there a more frustrating card to play against? In my opinion it’s way stronger than the one food crows. Wheat is one of the most useful foods in the game … At least the crows you have to give up an egg.

Giving up an egg most of the game is fine. You’re basically never playing crow in the forest. You’re only playing it in the wetland with grackle types, where the crow helps you clear eggs. Same in grassland. A good grassland engine you want to be running as much as possible. Crow frees you up to do that while giving you the exact food you need. It needs less help than towhee, which more often requires another food source to manage egg space.

Towhee is A-tier. I’m almost always keeping it to start. But better than crow? Rarely. Banned? No.

I would rather have eastern phoebe in my starting hand. Much more flexible.
And every now and then I get crushed so hard by some cards that it’s just demoralizing. Then I remember it’s just wingspan and the luck will just swing back in my favor later

Ok let’s not go crazy here. Towhee has gotta be stronger than Phoebe early.

Towhee is top 3 starting cards, along with Sparrow and Pileated Woodpecker to me. I don't want it banned, i want my Wood Duck back.

Phoebe is just like a Hummingbird, self killing as many games as winning.