Acer buergerianum
A durable Chinese maple that heals its bench and, late, shields the front line — an armored Competitor wall with modest bite.
Chinese Maple is a Broadleaf tree that fights as a durable wall and bench healer. It is native to East Asia and invasive in Europe, so the arena can cast it either way — a native buffer for your bench or an invasive attacker. It is a dependable support card: heavy armor and steady healing, but low damage even as the invader.
Its starter attack, Limb Lash, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun for about 36 damage native / 38 invasive, splashing a little onto the enemy bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Nurse Log, arrives at level 25: The fallen feed the next: heal 25%, even the bench, and call back the lost. The advanced attack, Mast Bombard, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (22 native / 23 invasive), mending the plant as it strikes. Most of your maples sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
Chinese Maple keeps two always-on traits. Mycorrhiza, which heals a benched ally, arrives at level 10 at full strength but fires only about 60% of the time, so the bench heal is frequent rather than guaranteed. Network arrives on the level 68 riser: a canopy trait that projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active from the bench. See Abilities.
It carries no trait keywords and is non-toxic, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it: no contact recoil and no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native buffer, defensive field gear reinforces its wall; as an invasive, offensive gear helps its otherwise soft attack.
At level 40 Chinese Maple reads 140 HP native / 122 invasive, with ATK of 18 native versus 22 invasive — a small invasive bump on already low damage. DEF is 23, solidly in the broadleaf-tree band, so it turns hits aside far better than most cards. Its tempo is a quick start into a slower cruise: turn 1 on its initiative (21), every turn after on its SPD (16), so it leads off the mark but is out-paced in a long fight. Retreat costs 18 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, Chinese Maple grows into an armored wall: 276 HP native / 240 invasive, 31 / 41 ATK, and DEF climbing to 52 — as a tree it earns armor where soft cards cannot. Retreat rises to 39 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature maple acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys a genuine tank and the network overshield; the cost is a slow clock and still-modest damage.
As a broadleaf tree, Chinese Maple is in the Competitor succession group. It strikes Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, bulbs) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them, but it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns), which hit it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
As a native, play Chinese Maple as a front-line wall and bench medic: absorb hits, top up a wounded benched ally with mycorrhiza, and once it reaches the network trait shield a fragile hitter. As an invasive it is a slow, low-damage attacker that still leans on its durability, so keep it in the support seat. Its value is also economic — it is inedible, so any nutrient banks x1.25 XP toward leveling. It fights as a quick skirmisher until about level 1 as a native (about 3 as an invasive), then its bulk takes over; there is no reason to hold it back from leveling.
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.