Acer spicatum
Mountain maple (Acer spicatum) is a broadleaf tree that plays a native buffer, with no introduced range to make it an attacker.
Mountain maple is a broadleaf tree — a big-health defensive wall that supports the whole team from the bench. It is native to eastern North America and western North America and has no introduced range, so it only ever plays the native buffer role — there is no attacker scenario for it.
Its kit unlocks in three stages. Its starter attack, Whomp (unlocked at level 1, 2 Sun), deals 39 as a native: The full weight of the tree, all at once. Its once-per-battle ability, Canopy Recruitment (level 25, free), is pure utility: Pushes a sapling into the canopy: heal 35% and +3 ATK. Its advanced attack, Out on a Limb (level 40, 6 Sun), deals 40 native: Two swings from the same limb.
These are the always-on traits this card actually keeps, and the level each one arrives at (a plant draws at most one trait per growth stage). From level 10, Buttress Roots makes it immune to Bind — a buttressed tree cannot be rooted in place or stopped from retreating. From level 68, Network lets it back up your team from the bench: while benched it projects a gold Sun-overshield bar onto your active plant (of any nativity), which is spent only once the active's own Sun runs dry.
On the field it draws on field gear to shore up its weaknesses. As a tree it takes best to a Calcium/Magnesium amendment that stacks flat DEF onto an already-hard trunk, and to Mulch for staying power.
Read at level 40, where every move is unlocked, it holds 140 health and 25 attack as a native, with 23 DEF. That is a wall-class defense for a plant this size — armor is diminishing rather than flat, so a big attacker still gets through, but a small one is turned away. Its retreat costs 18 Sun. On tempo it opens at 29 initiative (which orders the first turn) and cruises at 29 speed (which orders every turn after). Its opening and sustained tempo are close, so it holds a steady place in turn order across the fight. As a native it carries a 15% health cushion (140 versus 122 as an invader), and while benched it projects a green overshield bar onto your active plant, sized by how threatened it is.
Grown to level 100, this card hardens into a wall: its DEF climbs to 52 and its health to 276, with attack reaching 45. Retreat rises to 38 Sun as the older plant grows more rooted, and its once-quick tempo has sunk to a sliver — it goes late in turn order now. Maturing buys it raw bulk and hitting power; it costs it the speed edge it had as a seedling.
In the succession type chart, Mountain maple's category (broadleaf tree) belongs to the Competitor group. Ruderal, Competitor, and Specialist form a wheel: Competitor hits Ruderal plants (annual-forbs, grasses, aquatic plants, and bulbs) for 1.5× damage, and takes 1.5× from Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, and epiphytes), resisting each the other way at about two-thirds. The off-wheel Weird categories are neutral both ways.
One of the sturdier cards here: a large health pool, real armor, and a bench Network that feeds Sun to whatever is fighting. It is slow and native-only, so play it as a defensive anchor and a support piece rather than an attacker. It is not a coin-earner through fertilizer — feeding it any nutrient banks 1.25× experience rather than coins, so its off-battle value is leveling and family-tree collection. On the power curves below, it fights as a fast skirmisher until about level 10, after which its growing bulk and attack take over from its fading speed — a shift in which edge dominates, not a sign it is weaker when grown.
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.