Citrus × aurantium
An invasive-only shrub attacker with real armor and a binding advanced move — and a fruit that pays coins on Phosphorus.
Sour orange is a woody Shrub that fights as an armored attacker: it opens fast, carries genuine DEF, and pins targets in place. It has no native range in the game — it exists only as an invasive across Africa, East Asia, Europe, eastern North America, Oceania, South America, and South Asia — so the arena only ever fields it as an invasive attacker; there is no native buffer scenario. It is a sturdy, aggressive card held back only by the lack of a working passive.
Its starter attack, Chipmunk Horde, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 28 damage as an invasive — a plain strike. The free once-per-battle ability, Shrubland Sere, comes in at level 25: Settles the slope: heal 35%, and the foe withers. It restores a chunk of HP. The advanced attack, Bramble Scramble, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (44 invasive) and binds the target, pinning it so it cannot retreat. Most of your copies sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Sour orange holds two working traits. Sclerophylly (level 10) reflects the thick citrus leaf, cutting a flat 3 from each direct hit. Lignotuber (level 68) makes the tree Burn-immune and healed by any Burn thrown at it. See Abilities.
It carries no trait keywords and is non-toxic, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As an invasive attacker, offensive field gear sharpens its damage, though its solid base DEF also lets a Cloche or Ca/Mg amendment turn it into a bruising trader.
At level 40 Sour orange reads 89 HP with ATK of 29 as an invasive. DEF is 13, in the sturdy shrub band, so it blunts incoming hits rather than eating them whole. Its tempo runs turn 1 on its initiative (51) and every turn after on its SPD (34): it leads the opening exchange but is out-paced once a fight drags on. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As an invasive its ATK is trait-sourced, it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack, and it concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, Sour orange reaches 165 HP and 56 ATK, and — unlike a soft weed — its DEF climbs to 28, so it hardens into an armored wall while still hitting hard. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it opens fast when young but acts last once matured. Maturing buys armor and damage at the cost of speed.
As a shrub, Sour orange is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is struck for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which hit 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 Sour orange as a durable invasive attacker: its armor lets it trade blows most weeds cannot, and its binding advanced move locks a target down so you can finish it. Watch the Faustian bench self-damage — its aggression slowly costs your own back line. Its economy is a highlight: it is an edible fruit plant, so feeding it Phosphorus pays ×1.25 coins (any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead), making it a good coin-earner. It fights as a fast opener until about level 31, then its armor and bulk take over — always stronger higher up, so there is no reason to hold it back.
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.