Betula lenta
A well-armored broadleaf tree that shields your bench with a Sun overshield and heals allies late, and can play either arena role — a North American native or a European invader.
Sweet birch is a sturdy Broadleaf tree that fights as a support wall: real armor, modest damage, and traits built to protect the rest of your bench. It is native to Eastern North America and invasive in Europe, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is a solid, patient card whose value is in what it does for your team, not in raw punch.
Its starter attack, Acorn Drop, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 26 damage as a native and 26 as an invasive — a straightforward hit with no rider. The free once-per-battle ability, Leaf Litter, comes in at level 25: Buries the ground in litter — the foe's whole bench withers. The advanced attack, Transpiration Drain, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (29 native / 29 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your birches sit below level 40, where only the starter move is available.
Sweet 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 plan around. See Abilities.
Sweet 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; as an invasive, offensive gear helps its damage keep pace.
At level 40 sweet birch reads 121 HP as a native and 106 as an invasive, with ATK of 23 native versus 23 invasive — a small invasive edge. DEF is 26, up in the broadleaf-tree band, so it genuinely blunts incoming damage. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (32) and every turn after on its SPD (32), which match, so it neither opens nor cruises fast. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield onto your active; as an invasive it pays self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, sweet birch climbs to 233 HP native / 203 invasive and 42 / 42 ATK, and as a tree its DEF reaches 60 — it hardens into an armored wall that shrugs off ordinary hits. Retreat rises to 34 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, sweet 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 sweet birch as an 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. As a native it is a strong buffer; as an invasive its damage is only fair, so keep it in a supporting role. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — a good long-term growth investment. It fights as an even-tempo skirmisher early and leans on its armor as it levels, crossing over around level 15, 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.