Buddleja davidii
A mid-armor shrub that anchors the bench as a native buffer and turns into a poison-dealing attacker where it has spread invasively.
Butterfly bush is a Shrub built to soak hits and outlast an exchange rather than race it. It is native to East Asia, where it plays as a native buffer, and invasive across Africa, Europe, eastern and western North America, Oceania, South America, and South Asia, where the same card becomes an attacker. Its role is set by the arena region, so the same plant plays very differently on the two sides.
Its moves come online across three levels, so a low-level copy has only the first of them. The starter Bramble Lash unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun: A thorny lash. It hits for 32 as a native card and 37 as an invasive one. The free once-per-battle ability Shrubland Sere unlocks at level 25 and costs no Sun: Settles the slope: heal 35%, and the foe withers. The advanced attack Thorn in the Side unlocks at level 40 and costs 6 Sun: A thorn that festers — Poison the foe. It deals 30 native and 35 invasive, and the Poison it leaves is damage over time that ignores DEF and bypasses the overshield. None of its moves carry the initiative rider, so it takes turns in the normal order.
This card keeps two always-on traits, and they arrive at different levels rather than together. Sclerophylly comes in at level 10: its hardened leaves shave a flat amount off every incoming direct attack, a small layer of armor sitting on top of DEF. Lignotuber stacks on at level 68: the woody basal swelling makes the plant immune to Burn, and more than that, it actually heals when a Burn is applied, because a chaparral shrub is released by fire rather than harmed by it. For most of a card's life it has only the sclerophylly damage reduction; the Burn interaction is a late-game addition.
It carries no special trait keywords. For field gear, a native buffer copy leans on defensive amendments — a Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF on top of its shrub armor — while an invasive attacker copy wants gear that feeds its offense. A Cloche is worth keeping in mind on either side, since it wards off the Poison this card both deals and can receive. It is not a climber, so it takes no Moss Pole.
Read at level 40, where every move is unlocked, its HP is 103 as a native (already including the +15% native cushion) against 89 as an invasive. The two sides diverge most on offense: ATK is 18 native but 32 invasive, a large step up that reflects how widely the plant has spread. DEF is 13, firmer than a weed or herb but well short of a tree. On tempo, initiative 32 orders the first turn and SPD 34 orders every turn after; the two are close, so it neither clearly leads the opening nor dominates the cruise, edging a touch faster as the fight goes on. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it also projects a green HP overshield bar onto your active while it sits on the bench; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out.
Maturing turns it into a heavier version of the same shape. HP climbs to 190 native and 165 invasive, and ATK to 31 native and 66 invasive. DEF firms to 28 — meaningfully tougher than its level 40 read, but still a shrub's mid band rather than a tree's wall. Retreat rises to 33 Sun as the plant becomes more rooted, and its tempo has sunk to a sliver of its early value, so a grown copy no longer wins the turn-order coin flips it could when young. The trade is clear: much more staying power, much less speed.
As a shrub it belongs to the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them, but it is on the losing end against Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), who hit it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird categories the matchup is neutral both ways.
Played native, it is a solid bench anchor: park it behind an active to feed the overshield, then bring it in to trade hits it can afford thanks to sclerophylly and the 35% self-heal on its ability. Played invasive, it is a genuine attacker — the ATK jump is large, and its advanced attack stacks Poison that chews through armored defenders the raw hit cannot. The Faustian bench damage is the cost, so keep the rest of the bench healthy behind it. It is not edible, so any fertilizer you feed it banks x1.25 XP toward leveling rather than a coin bonus; treat it as a battler and a family-tree entry, not a coin farm. It fights as a fairly even skirmisher until about level 21 as a native (around level 22 invasive), after which its bulk and attack take over from its fading speed.
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.