Shantung maple

Overview

Shantung maple is a broadleaf tree in Supplant, fielded in the broadleaf tree category. It is native to East Asia and invasive nowhere in the game's regions, so it only ever plays the native, defensive role — there is no attacker version of this card. Its nativity — set by the arena region you fight in — is the spine of how it plays; see Nativity.

Moves

Its kit unlocks in three stages, and most cards you own sit well below the level where all three are live (the numbers on this page are read at level 40, where every slot is unlocked). See Moves and Abilities.

• Deathshadow (starter attack, unlocks at level 1, costs 2 Sun): Casts a shade nothing recovers in — the foe can't heal. It deals about 25 damage.
• Old-Growth Reaction (free ability, unlocks at level 25, once per battle, no Sun): Centuries of shade — the foe stalls and withers.
• Forest Fire (advanced attack, unlocks at level 40, costs 6 Sun): Takes the whole stand with it — the foe burns, and so does its own bench. It deals about 33 damage.

None of its attacks carry the initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn on a killing blow — it takes its turns in the normal order.

Abilities

A card keeps at most two always-on traits, one per riser, and the rest of its category pool is dropped. This one holds:

• Network — while it is benched it projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active plant, of any nativity. It comes in on the level 10 riser.
• Mycorrhiza — it has a 60% chance each turn to heal a benched ally; it does not fire every turn. It comes in on the level 68 riser.

See Abilities.

Features

For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium soil amendment adds flat DEF, which compounds a tree's already-heavy armour into a harder wall. Its growth habit is not a climbing or epiphytic one, so it does not take a Moss Pole.

Stats

Read at level 40: it carries 140 HP (with the native +15% cushion already in) and 20 ATK on 23 DEF (heavy, wall-grade armour). Benched, it is a Network carrier — a canopy tree — so it also projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active plant regardless of that plant's nativity (see the overshield in Stats). Damage is diminishing armour — a hit scales by ATK ÷ (ATK + DEF), and poison ignores DEF entirely. On Sun (cap 120, refilling in real time), the starter costs 2 and the advanced attack 6; retreating costs 18 Sun.

It is quicker off the mark than it is in a long fight: its initiative (26, which sets turn 1) outreads its sustained speed (15, which sets turn 2 onward), so it wants to land an early blow and does not win drawn-out exchanges on tempo.

At Level 100

Grown to level 100, the floor→cap law carries this tree a long way past its level-40 read: HP climbs to 276 and DEF hardens to 52, wood-density armour turning it into a genuine wall, while retreat rises to 39 Sun as it roots deeper. Its inverted tempo, already slow, has sunk to roughly its 1% floor by now — do not expect it to win turn order at the top end.

Weaknesses & Resistances

It belongs to the Competitor succession group. As a competitor it hits Ruderals — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs — for ×1.5 damage, and is resisted to ×0.667 by Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes). Weird-group plants are neutral both ways. There is no type effectiveness beyond this wheel; see Weaknesses & Resistances.

Gameplay uses

It only ever fights as a native, so play it as a buffer: field it for its HP cushion, or bench it to feed the overshield to a sturdier active. It is not an attacker. As a tree it is one of the sturdier cards here — real HP and wall-grade armour make it a dependable single-player anchor. Its edible part is tagged, so feeding it the matching Phosphorus fertiliser pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. See the N/P/K economy. Bulky from the start, it tips onto a power footing early — around level 4 — and only leans on turn order below that. Either way it grows monotonically stronger as it levels; turn order is only about a 5% lever.