Wingspan Tutorial | How to pick a good starting hand?

Special thanks to Flan! Check out Wingin' It: / @winginitwingspan
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[@einher78]

the BEST starting hand is the plover and the crow played un the plains. sure victory

[@joegaster34]

For the last hand, I think I would have picked up Towhee, Blackbird, and Bobwhite, with cherry and worm because you can play Towhee, lay eggs and get the seed, then play Blackbird. The difference between the two starts is that one has a Bobwhite, which can be easily played later on thanks to the Towhee for a good grassland engine later in the game.

[@tuckNcache]

I think with additional food source bobwhite could be viable.

[@mtk52983]

Didn't see it discussed, but what about Wood Duck/Blackbird combo? That way if you get 2 bad cards from your draw you can turn one into an egg. Also, as grassland only with wildcard + grain food, tucking power and historian, you have a lot of future bonus cards that synergize with it.

[@tuckNcache]

Blackbird in the grassland? I think that can be useful. But typically it's hard to accumulate cards with Wood Duck because you draw two but discard one at the end.

[@mtk52983]

@@tuckNcache I get what you mean. Maybe I am used to always getting 2 useless migratory birds when I use Wood Duck power!

[@tuckNcache]

I know what you mean too...

[@fingerling1231]

I think the title was misleading. There wasn't much general strategy in this video. It was just an in depth look in a few starting hands. The insights shared were still somewhat useful although you made a lot of statements without clarifying as if they were obvious which isn't always the case for beginner players. A general approach would be more useful since there is so much variance in the game and would give players things to always think about at the start rather than relying on these specific situations coming up.

[@tuckNcache]

Thanks for the feedback! For more general tips, please check out my tip 10 tips video and the tier list videos!

[@danaranaran]

Great video! Helped me out. What are your thoughts on the white-crowned sparrow for hand #3 in terms of the EOR goals? E.g. take the rose-breasted grosbeak and the sparrow instead of the warbler. It's 6 fewer points for 1 fewer food, but with a 5-egg capacity and migration, it can help you win EOR1, EOR2, and EOR4. Definitely a chance it could get stuck before EOR4 though, would need to choose pretty deliberate turns to make it work.

[@tuckNcache]

Thanks! I think grosbeak + sparrow can work too. I'm not a big fan of migratory birds. You might save a few points here and there. But you can also miss out on things like when good bird show up after you just moved your bird to forest and you have no other bird in wetland. With that being say, they can still be the best play in certain situations.

[@danaranaran]

@@tuckNcache Agreed! They can cause inefficient turns that way or make you choose between locking the migratory bird vs. losing a turn moving it. Thanks for response !

[@tuckNcache]

anytime!

[@jfuite]

It's Ruddy Duck, not "Rudy Duck".

[@tuckNcache]

I have since learned

[@czevak89]

Hey folks! Just started playing Wingspan and I'm watching a lot of your videos! Quick question regaridng the third hand you commented on: why would you advise against keeping Migratory birds in the starting hand? You both seemed very adamant on not keeping any of them, is it just because of the initial cost? Thanks for the awesome content!

[@tuckNcache]

Thanks for watching! There’s a few discussion on the migratory bird in comment. I think the cheaper sparrow can certainly work here as well. In general, based on experience, migratory bird is just not great in the long run. You might save a few pts early game but sometimes it can really limit the sequence of your actions or make your moves predictable.

[@czevak89]

@@tuckNcache Thanks for the quick answer! So, as a beginner, should I try and stay away from them, as a rule of thumb? I'm just at that phase of the learning curve where having some general broad strokes is super useful!

[@tuckNcache]

I won't disregard migratory bird completely. Some of the cheaper one like white-crowned sparrow and song sparrow can be quite useful in situations where you have no better option. But definitely stay away from the more expensive birds like grossbeak or yellow-breasted chat. They are rarely worth the investment. Also I recommend checking out the Wingspan tier list where Flan and I rated each birds from base game.

[@czevak89]

@@tuckNcache Oh, that one's definitely on my "to watch" list! :)

[@MaudlinCake]

Any thoughts on keeping Brewster's Blackbird?

[@tuckNcache]

Wood duck only gains one card per activation. So it might be hard to accumulate cards to feed that blackbird.

[@nathanmays7926]

How do you feel about playing 2 migratory birds? You can activate both every turn to move to whatever habitat you plan on playing next.

[@tuckNcache]

I think that's certainly a viable strategy. It's not usually the go to strategy but it can work surprisingly well if you have no better option.

[@sandrogomesmarino9468]

Even if you're not planning on using Ruddy Duck, you're still playing first, my mind went directly into denying it from the opponent, do you think that is a valid gambit?

[@tuckNcache]

I think many people would consider denying the ruddy duck. Of course denying card comes with a cost too. You are spending a turn picking up a card that you are not gonna play and you also risk revealing better card for your opponent. Your opponent might also already have a good wetland bird in hand, so missing that ruddy duck might not be a huge lost for them). For me, if my opponent have to spend two turns to play a zero point bird, I think I can live with that most of the time. I would also look at how many cards my opponent kept to decide whether or not to deny. If my opponent kept 3 or 4 cards, likely they had a good hand and might not need the ruddy duck. But if them kept one bird or no bird, they might be desperate for good card, then I would consider denying the ruddy duck.

[@sandrogomesmarino9468]

@@tuckNcache Got it! Thanks for the answer. Lately I'm considering those aggressive plays because normally I'm afraid of messing with my own tempo, but that makes me interact less with the opponent, which is a flaw in my gameplan (I think)

[@tuckNcache]

Denying your opponent card or food is such important strategy in competitive Wingspan. Definitely adds additional layer of complexity and fun (maybe not to everyonne) to the game.