Buxus sempervirens
A sturdy shrub that hits hard as an invader, saps on its advanced attack, taxes attackers on contact and shrugs off fire completely.
Common boxwood is a Shrub that trades on solid stats rather than tricks: a decent armor band, a strong invasive ATK, and a sapping advanced hit. It is native to Africa and Europe and invasive across East Asia, Eastern North America, Oceania, South America, and South Asia, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is a fair card whose ceiling is set by its stats rather than its traits — though both of those traits work every match.
Its starter attack, Tick Tumble, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 29 damage as a native and 32 as an invasive — a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Bramble Barrier, arrives at level 25: A wall of thorns — the foe withers against it. The advanced attack, Bramble Scramble, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (40 native / 46 invasive) and saps the target as it lands. Most of your boxwoods sit below level 40, where only the starter is open. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Common boxwood holds two always-on traits. Extrafloral Nectaries (level 10) costs any attacker 3% of its own max HP on contact, straight through DEF and shields. Lignotuber (level 68) makes the dense woody base immune to Burn, and healed by any Burn aimed at it. See Abilities.
Common boxwood carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin. Non-toxic: no contact recoil, no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native it wants defensive field gear to lean into its sturdier armor; as an invasive, offensive gear makes its stronger ATK count.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 23 native versus 32 invasive — a big gap (native ATK 23 rising to invasive ATK 31), so the invader hits much harder. DEF is 13, mid-band for a shrub, so it holds up better than most soft cards. Its tempo runs slow then relentless: turn 1 uses its initiative (32), every turn after its SPD (34), so it is out-paced off the mark but the faster cruiser in a long fight. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield for your active; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, common boxwood reaches 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 42 / 64 ATK, with DEF up to 28 — a shrub gains meaningful bulk but never a tree's wall. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys durability and damage but never a passive ability, because it has none.
As a shrub, common boxwood 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 common boxwood on the strength of its numbers: as a native it is a sturdy buffer whose armor and HP cushion protect the bench; as an invasive its high ATK and sapping advanced hit make it a real attacker that wears opponents down. It wants gear and good matchups to shine, with a contact tax and total Burn immunity underneath. It is inedible, so any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP. It fights as a slow-building cruiser that leans on its bulk as it grows, crossing over around level 20 — always stronger higher up, 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.