Gary,
I completely agree with you about item 1. Something is truly fishy with those last birds the opponent pulls out. However, it might just be bad card timing in the display of it. Hard to say.
As for item 2:
I think we have to keep in mind the human penchant for selective memory here. Unless you are going to keep stats, we all remember when we get worthless Blues for that last bird. And we’ll forget when we get a suitable bird because we feel like that is just how it should work — things should always go our own way. But just now I got Bomb as my last bird. We simply tend to remember what we perceive as injustice. I do not think the random bird at the end is in any way contrived to be ineffectual (on average), and I have never seen what you are talking about in regards to birds suddenly bouncing off everything. In fact, a couple times I got Chuck against non-wood structures and was still able to break through enough glass and stone (which he shouldn’t really be very good against) to topple a structure and win the battle.
The best way to trend something is to really trend it. Start writing down every bird you get as extra, as well as the outcome of it. I lose a lot even with the extra bird, but I win, too. If I keep an open, statistical mind about it, I’d say it is about 50/50 as to whether or not I get a “useful” bird with a chance at scoring enough points to pull out the win. What is usually of far greater importance is to clear the level before so that the extra bird stands a shot at doing a lot of damage. I have had lots of scenarios where one stupid tiny pig holds on in the last level, so of course the extra bird cannot do much except head pop him. So I lose.
There’s a great deal to be miffed about in regards to Arena play, but I trust @bankler when he says Rovio isn’t gaming the system for that last bird. At some point and on some of these issues we need to give Rovio the benefit of the doubt, otherwise we should just be uninstalling the game.
Thanks,
sutekh137