Betula utilis
The Himalayan birch is a native-only broadleaf-tree card, a durable wall whose ability builds its own attack over the match.
The Himalayan birch is a broadleaf-tree card. It is native to East Asia, Europe and South Asia, and invasive nowhere, so it only ever plays the native wall role — there is no attacker version. Like other canopy trees it is a high-armor, high-HP heavyweight; see categories.
Its opening attack is Branch Slam, unlocked at level 1 for 2 Sun and dealing 34. Its free once-per-battle ability, Gap Capture, unlocks at level 25, costs no Sun and deals no damage — it grants +5 ATK kept for the rest of the match, a permanent in-battle buff. The advanced attack Deadfall unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun and hits for 42. No move carries an initiative rider. See moves.
This card keeps two always-on traits. Tannin-load arrives on the level 10 riser and is a contact retaliation: whenever an attacker lands a damaging hit on the birch, its astringent oak tannins Wither that attacker, dropping its ATK by two stacks. Canopy-gap stacks on at level 68 and makes it immune to bench-reaching damage — a splash or spread blow aimed at a neighbour cannot carry onto it. Both are passive, in force from the moment they unlock and lasting the whole match. For most of a card's climb it holds only tannin-load, gaining canopy-gap late. See abilities.
As a broadleaf-tree it is a canopy-tree card: benched behind your active, it backs that plant with a gold Sun overshield bar (see Stats). It is not a climber and takes no Moss Pole. A calcium/magnesium soil amendment is the best field gear fit, adding flat DEF to an already-hard tree.
At the snapshot level 40 it carries 121 HP and the highest base DEF of its region at 24, with a retreat cost of 16 Sun. Its tempo is evenly matched: initiative of 35 orders turn 1 and SPD of 35 orders later turns, and the two sit close, so it is neither a standout opener nor a standout cruiser. As a native it gains the +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. Being invasive nowhere, it has no attacker stat line. See stats.
Matured to level 100 it hardens into a wall: DEF climbs to 54 and native HP to 233, while the retreat cost rises to 32 Sun as the old tree roots in. The inverted tempo has fallen to roughly its 1% floor, so it almost always moves last. Leveling turns it into a heavy anchor at the cost of its turn-order flexibility.
As a broadleaf-tree it is a Competitor. It deals ×1.5 to Ruderal cards (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) and takes ×1.5 from Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), whose armor also resists its hits down to ×0.667. It trades evenly with other Competitors and the neutral Weird group. See weaknesses & resistances.
This is a durable native wall that improves the longer it fights: its ability adds +5 ATK kept for the match, so a birch that survives the opening turns grows into a self-buffing beater on top of its high HP and armor. Best used as a front-line anchor that soaks hits while it winds up. It has no attacker build. It is not edible, so any fertilizer banks a ×1.25 XP boost rather than coins. As a bulk-rich tree its power outweighs its tempo from a low level — around level 17 — so leveling only sharpens what it already does best.
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.