Special thanks to guest commentator, Flan! Check our their new channel, Wingin' It: / @winginitwingspan Check out Wingsearch, the Wingspan "encyclopedia" where I get the bonus card information: navarog.github.io/wingsearch/
Thanks for another great video! As a newer player, these tier list videos are really helpful with picking my starting hand. One thing I would mention about the large bird specialist is that it's generally pretty strong in combination with other bonus cards like wetland specialist, rodentologist, or falconer. The wetland birds are generally big enough to fit the criteria, and most of the tuck hunting birds (peregrine falcon, cooper's hawk, etc.) and some roll hunters also fit in. So you've got a bonus card that doesn't give great returns, but encourages you to play high point birds that often have strong brown/when-played powers. If you play a large bonus card bird (whooping crane, wood stork) for the specialist and then pick up the falconer/wetland scientist/rodentologist bonus card, you have the potential to score extra points with birds that are strong on their own (ibis, golden eagle, anhinga (I think)). Having falconer or rodentologist allows you to bring your main focus to an A-tier bonus card while simultaneously benefitting your other bonus. Obviously you can't cover everything in one video, but I think the bonus combination possibilities for large bird specialist might bump it up to a high C/low B.
Thanks for the awesome comment! Great points! Finding that synergy between different bonus cards and end-of-round goals can definitely make a huge difference.
It's interesting to see how wildly different the metas for Oceania expansion and base game are; I mostly play with Oceania and so many of the cards are different!
@@Wingsplain What I like about the Oceania expansion is that imho it reduces the RNG factor by introducing the nectars as a "bonus" food. It's now much more rare to go to the birdfeeder and not find what you're looking for. The meta might change yes, but I believe it's for the best.
@@AlessioRomito I agree that Oceania had an overall positive impact on the game. There are people out there who don't agree with that sentiment, but to each their own.
All the bonus cards are in the digital version. But a few (anatomist, cartographer, photographer and historian) do not come up in online game (they are included in local game) because they rely on bird names which translate differently in different languages.
Is there an updaded list that includes Oceania bonus cards? I dont see Mechanical engineer here on the list. Not having those included kind of invalidates this dated list. Also behaviorist and the new teal and yellow powers...
There are only a few bonus cards that are not available in online matches because of inconsistency of bird names in different languages. There are anatomist, historian, cartographer and photographer.
I didn't take the time to watch the whole vid, just checked the tier list at the end. For the most part, I agree with your rankings, except for two of them. Breeding Manager should be down in the bottom tier. Not even a question in my mind. It's an awful card. The other one I disagree with will be an unpopular opinion, but I think Oologist is over-rated. Most people consider it top tier, so I know I'm in the minority here. It's a good card, but it's not the guaranteed 6 points that most people assume. Sometimes, you have a game where you go for bigger birds that cost more to get out, so it's hard to hit 9 birds, and maybe not in the grassland where you'll get lots of eggs at once, so laying that many might be tough. Other times, spreading out your eggs in the final round might be counter to the final round goal, which wants all your eggs in a certain type of nest, or in a certain row, so going for the bonus card will help your opponent(s) beat you in the round goal. So I'd put Oologist in B tier, but maybe with an asterisk. Call it B+.
