Carpinus orientalis
A native-only broadleaf tree that walls the front with heavy armor and heals and shields its bench β a European buffer and defensive anchor.
Eastern Hornbeam is a Broadleaf tree that fights as a native-only wall and support piece, native to Europe. It hits softly but stands behind tree-tier armor, mends its benched allies, and β once mature β shields the active from the bench. It has no invasive form; play it as a defensive anchor.
Its starter attack, Limb Lash, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 38 damage and splashing onto the enemy bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Canopy Recruitment, arrives at level 25: Pushes a sapling into the canopy: heal 35% and +3 ATK. The advanced attack, Transpiration Drain, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun and deals about 29 damage while sapping the target. Most of your hornbeam sit below level 40, where only the starter is live. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Eastern Hornbeam keeps two always-on traits. Mycorrhiza arrives on the level 10 riser and heals a benched ally, but it fires only about 60% of the time, so its mending is steady rather than certain. Network arrives on the level 68 riser: as a canopy tree it projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active from the bench, and it works every turn once it lands. See Abilities.
Eastern Hornbeam is non-toxic β no contact recoil and no poison rider. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native-only card, defensive field gear β a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment β stacks onto its already-heavy armor. See statuses.
At level 40 hornbeam reads 121 HP with ATK of only 22; it has no invasive form, so those are its only figures. DEF is 25, a genuine wall in the broadleaf-tree band, so it soaks hits where softer cards fold. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (27) and every turn after on its SPD (35), so it is slow off the mark and only a little quicker once a fight settles. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, hornbeam climbs to 233 HP and 40 ATK, and its DEF reaches 58 β a true wall that keeps growing, which is where a tree earns its keep. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature hornbeam acts last against almost anything younger but shrugs off much of what it does take.
As a broadleaf tree, Eastern Hornbeam sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for Γ1.5 and takes only Γ0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for Γ1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Eastern Hornbeam as a defensive anchor: keep it benched to heal your team and, once mature, to shield your active, then bring it in to wall the front when you need a plant that will not fall quickly. Its damage is low, so it holds ground rather than closing games. On economy it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks Γ1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. As a wall its bulk only compounds with levels, and it crosses into bulk-first play around level 14 β always stronger higher, so there is no reason to hold it back.
Leveling trades speed for power. A plantβs 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 β native adds a HP cushion, invasive an attack edge, neutral neither β with the card at its crossover and fully grown at LvΒ 100.