Alnus incana
A hard-hitting broadleaf tree that heals its bench and shields your active, tough in either arena role.
Grey alder is a durable Broadleaf tree that fights as an armored attacker and bench-support piece. It is native across East Asia, Europe, and Eastern and Western North America, and invasive in Africa and South America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is one of the stronger cards here: it hits hard for a support tree and is tough to remove.
Its starter attack, Leaf Smother, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and hits for about 28 native / 29 invasive, splashing some damage onto the enemy bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Gap Capture, arrives at level 25: Takes the fallen giant's light: +5 ATK, kept for the match. — it mends the plant. The advanced attack, Mast Bombard, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (25 native / 27 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your alders sit below level 40, where only the starter is live. None of its moves carry an initiative rider.
Grey alder keeps two always-on traits. Mycorrhiza arrives on the level 10 riser: it heals a benched ally, but only about 60% of the time, so treat it as an occasional top-up. Network comes in on the level 68 riser and, from the bench, projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active — a canopy-tree effect that pays off even when it is not fighting.
Grey alder carries no trait keywords, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic — no hazard ring, no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear keeps it feeding the bench; as an invasive, offensive gear presses its strong punch. See Field gear.
At level 40 grey alder reads 121 HP native / 106 invasive, with ATK of 28 native versus 32 invasive — a heavy hit for a support tree, harder still as an invasive. DEF is 20, solidly in the broadleaf-tree band, so it shrugs off part of each hit. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on initiative (20) and every turn after on SPD (50), so it is out-paced off the mark but steadier later. Retreat costs 15 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield; as an invasive it pays self-damage to its own bench per attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, grey alder becomes an armored wall: 233 HP native / 203 invasive with DEF climbing to 44, and ATK around 51 / 60. A tree turns growth into armor as well as health, so a mature one is genuinely hard to kill. Retreat rises to 30 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it always acts late.
As a broadleaf tree, grey alder is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants, which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play grey alder as an anchor that pulls double duty: it hits hard enough to attack outright, and benched it feeds a Sun overshield while topping up a wounded ally. As a native it is a strong buffer-tank; as an invasive it is a durable, hard-hitting attacker. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster leveling. It fights as a slow skirmisher early and its bulk takes over around level 17 as a native and 19 as an invasive — always worth 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.