Amelanchier arborea
Allegheny Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) is a shrub that plays a native buffer, with no introduced range to make it an attacker.
Allegheny Serviceberry is a thorny shrub — a mid-armor bruiser that bites back when struck. It is native to eastern 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, Bramblemaze (unlocked at level 1, 2 Sun), deals 30 as a native: A maze of brambles the foe can't back out of. Its once-per-battle ability, Chaparral Climax (level 25, free), is pure utility: Owns the dry hillside: heal 60% and +4 ATK. Its advanced attack, Hedgerow Havoc (level 40, 6 Sun), deals 27 native: The whole hedgerow comes down on the bench.
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, Thorns punishes melee: every attacker that lands a damaging hit takes a flat chunk of recoil damage off the plant's armature. From level 68, Drupe Mast turns its own death into a gift — when it is knocked out it feeds its bench, healing each surviving teammate a little.
On the field it draws on field gear to shore up its weaknesses. A Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF that suits its firmer frame.
Read at level 40, where every move is unlocked, it holds 103 health and 26 attack as a native, with 11 DEF. That is a firm mid-tier armor — armor is diminishing rather than flat, so it shaves a real fraction off small and medium attackers, though a heavy hitter still punches through. Its retreat costs 14 Sun. On tempo it opens at 20 initiative (which orders the first turn) and cruises at 20 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 (103 versus 89 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, its health swells to 190 and its attack to 47, and its armor firms up to 23 DEF — genuinely tough, though never a tree-class wall. Retreat rises to 28 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, Allegheny Serviceberry's category (shrub) 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.
A solid, unflashy card: enough armor to survive a few rounds, thorns to punish melee, and a parting heal for the bench when it does fall. It never gains an attacker role, so value it as a defensive mid-liner and a fruit coin-earner. Off the battlefield it earns money: it has an edible fruit, so feeding it Phosphorus fertilizer pays 1.25× coins (any other nutrient banks 1.25× experience instead). On the power curves below, it fights as a fast skirmisher until about level 5, 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.