Finspan: Sharks & Reefs – Building Coral Reefs and Unleashing Fearsome New Sharks

The first Finspan expansion adds vibrant coral reef habitats and formidable shark cards, opening a genuinely new path to victory without touching the base game's gentle, approachable core.

Finspan: Sharks & Reefs is the first expansion for Stonemaier Games' ocean-themed engine-builder, released in June 2026. Designed by Michael O'Connell — one half of the original Finspan design team — with development support from David Gordon and Wingspan creator Elizabeth Hargrave, the expansion invites players to nurture vibrant coral reefs in each of their ocean's three dive sites while introducing fearsome new sharks to the ecosystem.

Reef overlay mats sit on top of your existing ocean board, and building up healthy coral lets you play powerful reef fish, unlock special fish abilities, and score meaningful bonuses at game's end. Sharks bring their own distinct flavor of chaos — they scatter schools of young fish (which can then re-form into even more schools elsewhere on your board) and leave behind food scraps that any fish in your ocean can scavenge.

Designer Michael O'Connell explained the expansion's core appeal directly on Stonemaier's blog: reefs "create a new path to victory" alongside the base game's established strategies of playing big-point fish, playing many fish, or filling the ocean with schools — while coral's cost in eggs and young forces genuine trade-offs for players chasing that route. Tom Vasel's Dice Tower review, titled simply "Card Sharks," praised the expansion for adding meaningful variety without disrupting Finspan's relaxed, approachable core.

What's in the Box

What's New in Sharks & Reefs

How Does It Play?

Core turn structure carries over unchanged from base Finspan — play fish into dive-site columns, trigger chained abilities, manage eggs and young. The new wrinkle sits on the reef overlay mats: certain actions let you place coral onto your reefs, and once a reef reaches sufficient health, it unlocks the ability to play powerful reef-dwelling fish or activate bonus effects tied to that dive site. Coral isn't free — it typically costs eggs or young that could otherwise become schools, forcing a genuine strategic trade-off between the reef-building route and the base game's established scoring paths.

Sharks add a different kind of pressure entirely. Rather than simply scoring points on their own, they disrupt your existing schools by scattering young fish elsewhere on the board — which sounds punishing but often opens fresh school-forming opportunities in unexpected spots. The food scraps sharks leave behind are a small but appreciated consolation, available to any fish in your ocean that can make use of them.

Reviewers consistently note that Sharks & Reefs succeeds precisely because it doesn't ask Finspan to become a heavier game — the reef and shark systems layer cleanly onto the approachable base experience that made Finspan the gentlest entry point in the whole Wingspan family. For players who found the base game satisfying but wanted a genuinely new strategic axis to explore, this expansion delivers exactly that.

Rating Breakdown

Pros & Cons

Who Is This Expansion For?