Betula alleghaniensis
A native-only, well-armored broadleaf tree that shields your bench with a Sun overshield, leads early, and heals allies late — a North American wall with no invasive form.
Yellow birch is a sturdy Broadleaf tree that fights as a support wall: real armor, modest damage, and traits that protect the rest of your bench. It is native to Eastern North America and has no invasive form, so it only ever plays the native buffer role — there is no attacker version to build around. It is a strong defensive anchor whose value is in what it does for your team.
Its starter attack, Raysteal, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 32 damage — a straightforward hit with no rider. The free once-per-battle ability, Canopy Recruitment, comes in at level 25: Pushes a sapling into the canopy: heal 35% and +3 ATK. The advanced attack, Deadfall, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (43 damage) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your birches sit below level 40, where only the starter move is available.
Yellow birch keeps two always-on traits. Network arrives on the level 10 riser at full strength and, as a canopy tree, projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active from the bench — extra Sun the front plant can spend before its own is touched. Mycorrhiza arrives later, on the level 68 riser, and heals a benched ally; it triggers only about 60% of the time, so it is a bonus rather than something to rely on. See Abilities.
Yellow birch carries no special trait keywords and is non-toxic: no contact recoil and no poison rider on being struck, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear leans into its wall-and-support role.
At level 40 yellow birch reads 121 HP with ATK of 25. DEF is 24, up in the broadleaf-tree band, so it genuinely blunts incoming damage. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on a solid initiative (30), so it tends to lead off the mark, but every turn after runs on a much lower SPD (15), so it is out-paced in a drawn-out fight — fitting for a plant meant to stand and hold rather than chase. Retreat costs 17 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, yellow birch climbs to 233 HP and 45 ATK, and as a tree its DEF reaches 55 — it hardens into an armored wall that shrugs off ordinary hits. Retreat rises to 36 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature birch is slow but very hard to move. Maturing buys durability at the cost of ever acting first.
As a tree, yellow birch 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 yellow birch as a native anchor: park it up front to soak damage while its Network overshield feeds Sun to whichever plant is fighting, and let Mycorrhiza top up the bench in longer games. It is not a carry — its damage is ordinary — so pair it with a stronger hitter it can protect. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins, a good long-term growth investment. It leads early and hardens into a wall as it levels, crossing over around level 6, so keep leveling it.
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.