Abies balsamea
A glacially slow but very durable conifer that always moves last, self-heals, and hits hard with its advanced attack.
Balsam fir is a conifer — heavy and well-armored. It is native across eastern and western North America and invasive in Europe, so it holds both roles: a wall at home, a sturdy attacker abroad. Its defining trait is speed: it is one of the slowest cards in the game, on both turn one and after, so it will almost always move last.
Its opening attack, Deathshadow (level 1, 2 Sun), hits for 27 native / 28 invasive and blocks the foe's healing: "Casts a shade nothing recovers in — the foe can't heal." The ability Resin Seal (level 25) does "Seals the wound with resin: heal 40%." — a self-heal. Its advanced attack, Conifer Conniption (level 40), costs 6 Sun for a heavy 40 / 42: "Thrashes twice with stiff boughs."
From level 10 it carries Xylem Tracheids — a flat reduction on incoming direct attacks, on top of its DEF. At level 68 it adds Needle Duff: each checkup it chips the opposing active plant with acidic litter, a small steady drain that ignores armor and the overshield. Below level 68 it has only the damage reduction.
No thorns, no toxin. As a canopy tree it is a Network carrier, lending a Sun overshield bar from the bench. Not a climber, so no Moss Pole. Its bulk, damage reduction, and self-heal all point toward staying in and grinding.
At level 40 it reads, native, HP 140 / ATK 24; invasive, HP 122 / ATK 27. DEF is 17 and retreat 19 Sun. Both its opening tempo (7) and sustained tempo (7) are near the bottom of the range — it moves last almost every turn, so its whole plan is to absorb the first hit and win the long game. Invasive, it pays Faustian bench self-damage each attack and concedes 2 prizes on a knockout.
By the cap it becomes a wall: DEF 37 from wood density, native HP 276 / ATK 43 (invasive 240 / 52). Retreat rises to 41 Sun and its already-glacial tempo bottoms out. Maturing deepens exactly what it already is: a durable, self-healing tank that never wins the turn but rarely needs to.
Balsam fir is a Specialist: ×1.5 into Competitors (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), ×1.5 taken from Ruderals (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), even with fellow Specialists. Fast weeds and grasses that strike first are its worst matchup.
Native, it is a self-healing wall and Sun-lending Network carrier. Invasive, it is a slow, heavy attacker whose big advanced hit can end single-player fights once it survives to use it. Its extreme slowness is the real liability — a fast attacker gets free opening hits. It is not edible, so fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP; feed it to level. Its bulk makes it power-favored from a low level (crossover near level 1); it was never fast, so level it into the wall.
Leveling trades speed for power. A plant’s tempo (SPD + INI, the turn-order edge) fades as it grows, while its power (HP + ATK + DEF, net of the rising Sun cost to retreat) climbs. The crossover is the level where power overtakes tempo: below it the plant is a fast skirmisher, above it a heavyweight. Shown for each stance this plant can actually hold — native adds a HP cushion, invasive an attack edge, neutral neither — with the card at its crossover and fully grown at Lv 100.