Buddleja japonica
A mid-armored shrub that buffers your bench when native and turns into a modest attacker when invasive, gaining a battle taunt late.
Dense Butterfly Bush is a Shrub that plays as a firm, bench-oriented card rather than a heavy hitter. Because it is a shrub it sits in the middle of the armor range, tougher than a weed and softer than a tree. It has both roles: it is native to East Asia, where it takes the native buffer job, and invasive in Europe, where it becomes an attacker. Which side you get depends on the arena region you fight in.
Its starter attack, Hedge Hammer, unlocks at Lv 1 and costs 2 Sun. It deals 29 as a native card and 29 as an invasive one — The whole hedge comes down on it — the foe weakens.
At Lv 25 it gains a free once-per-battle ability, Chaparral Climax, which costs no Sun: Owns the dry hillside: heal 60% and +4 ATK. That is a strong tempo swing — a large self-heal plus a lasting ATK bump on a card that is otherwise built to soak.
Its advanced attack, Hedgerow Havoc, unlocks at Lv 40 for 6 Sun and hits for 23 native / 24 invasive: The whole hedgerow comes down on the bench. Neither attack carries an initiative rider, so this plant does not seize the opening turn — it fights on the normal turn order.
This card keeps two always-on traits, and they do not arrive together. From Lv 10 it holds Marcescence — the retained dead-leaf trait — which grants +4 DEF whenever it drops below half HP, so it hardens exactly as a fight turns against it. A second, different trait stacks on much later: at Lv 68 it gains Sapromyophily, a live taunt. Once it is in play with allies, Sapromyophily pulls any single-target pick (a forced swap, an incoming chip that would otherwise choose a victim) onto this card instead of onto a benched ally, and because it matures at the same level it unlocks, it holds that focus at any HP. The one caveat: in a one-on-one wild encounter there is no other target to protect, so the taunt has nothing to do until a bench is involved.
It carries no special trait keywords. As a shrub it is not a Moss Pole climber, so that slot does nothing for it. For field gear, a native copy leans on defensive amendments — a Ca/Mg feed adds flat DEF on top of its shrub armor, reinforcing the buffer job — while an invasive copy prefers gear that pushes its attack or protects it from the self-damage it pays to swing.
Read at Lv 40, a native Dense Butterfly Bush carries 103 HP against the invasive 89, the +15% cushion the native role adds. Its ATK identity is only a small step apart — 15 native versus 17 invasive — so being invasive here buys aggression but not a dramatic jump. DEF sits at 13 and climbs toward the firm shrub band as it levels. On tempo, turn 1 is ordered by initiative (13) and later turns by SPD (34); its sustained speed outpaces its opening, so it tends to answer the first exchange and settle into a steadier pace after. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As an invasive attacker it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging hit (10 + level, growing as it levels) and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. While benched, a native copy projects an HP overshield bar onto your active, sized by its rarity.
Grown to Lv 100, its HP opens up to 190 native / 165 invasive and its ATK to 25 / 29. DEF firms to 28 — a real shrub wall, well above what a herb or weed ever reaches, though short of a tree. Retreat rises to 33 Sun as the plant becomes more rooted, and the inverted tempo has sunk to roughly its floor by now, so a mature copy no longer wins races the way a seedling does. Maturing buys it durability and a working taunt at the cost of that early speed.
As a shrub it belongs to the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal categories — annual-forb, grass, aquatic and bulb — hard, at ×1.5, and is resisted by Specialists — succulent, conifer, fern and epiphyte — who take only ×0.667 from it and can turn the exchange around. Against fellow Competitors and off-wheel Weird cards, damage is neutral.
Play a native Dense Butterfly Bush as a bench anchor: its overshield and, from Lv 68, its taunt let it soak picks meant for weaker allies while its once-per-battle heal keeps it standing. An invasive copy is a serviceable coin earner in single-player battles but not a heavy attacker — its ATK step over the native side is small, so lean on the ability's +ATK buff and mind the bench damage it self-inflicts. It is inedible, so any fertilizer you feed it banks the ×1.25 XP (growth) bonus rather than coins. In Battle Lab terms it is power-favored from a low level — it fights as a quicker skirmisher only until about Lv 11, after which its bulk and armor carry 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.