Cascabela ovata
A native-only shrub that plays as a defensive buffer and collection piece.
A sclerophyll shrub with a fast cruise and a bench-sickening fruit ability. It is a shrub in battle. It is native to Eastern North America, Western North America and South America and is recorded as invasive nowhere, so it only ever plays the native buffer role — there is no attacker scenario for this card.
The starter attack Berry unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun: A measured strike. It deals about 28 damage.
The free once-per-battle ability Frugivore Pact arrives at level 25: Trades fruit for carriage: +3 ATK, and the foe's whole bench sickens. It costs no Sun — its price is being usable only once per battle.
The advanced attack Hedgerow Havoc opens at level 40 for 6 Sun: The whole hedgerow comes down on the bench. It hits for about 26.
Most cards you field sit well below level 40, so introduce these slots in order — a young plant has only its starter.
This card keeps two always-on traits, drawn from its category pool; the rest of that pool was dropped and it never gets it. Sclerophylly (from level 10) stiffens the leaves, shaving 3 off every incoming direct attack.
A second, different trait stacks on later: Drupe Mast (from level 68) drops a fruit mast whenever any card is knocked out, healing its own bench by 8%. So for most of its playable life — including at the level 40 snapshot the stats below are read at — this card runs its first trait alone, and only a fully levelled specimen holds both.
This card carries no special trait keywords, and as a shrub it is not eligible for a Moss Pole (that is for climbers — vines and epiphytes). A Calcium/Magnesium soil amendment adds flat DEF, useful on a soft card like this. Playing native, lean into bench support that feeds the overshield it and its benched natives project. See field gear for the full list.
Read at level 40, it carries 103 HP, including the +15% native cushion, with DEF 11 and a retreat cost of 12 Sun. Its attack reads 21 ATK.
It is slow off the mark but relentless after: a low opening tempo (22 initiative) but a higher sustained tempo (45 SPD), so it often loses turn 1 and then out-paces the foe from turn 2.
As a native it and any benched natives project a bench overshield onto your active. It never holds the invasive role, so it pays no Faustian self-damage. See stats.
As a shrub it firms into a mid DEF band, capping at 21 — tougher than a weed, far short of a tree — while HP reaches 190 native / 165 invasive and ATK 37 / 37. Retreat rises to 23 Sun as it roots down with age, and its once-brisk tempo has sunk to near its floor — the tempo pips in Stats above are as fast as this card ever moves. Levelling buys raw bulk and reach; it costs turn-order speed.
In the succession type chart this shrub is a Competitor. Its attacks hit Ruderal cards (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs) for ×1.5, while Specialist cards (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes) hit it for ×1.5 and shrug its own blows down to ×0.667. Matchups against the off-wheel Weird categories (carrion-aroids, carnivorous plants, mycotrophs and vascular parasites) are neutral both ways. See weaknesses & resistances.
This is a native-only card: play it as a buffer and wall, soaking hits and feeding the bench overshield. It earns its keep in single-player battles for coins and as a family-tree collection piece more than as a top-tier attacker. It is not tagged with a resolved edible part, so fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP rather than paying a coin bonus — feed it to level, not to earn.
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.