Citrus × limon
An invasive-only shrub that opens quickly and leans on aggression, taxing attackers on contact and feeding the bench on its knockout.
Lemon is a Shrub that the arena only ever fields as an invasive attacker. It has no native form in Supplant, so there is no native buffer scenario for it — it is invasive across Africa, East Asia, Europe, Eastern North America, Oceania, South America, and South Asia (see nativity). It is a middling card: it opens fast but fades once a fight drags on, and it brings no defensive tricks to lean on.
Its starter attack, Bramblemaze, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 29 damage as a native and 31 as an invasive — a plain hit with no rider. The free once-per-battle ability, Nurse Shrub, comes in at level 25: Shelters the whole bench — evens their health, and calls the fallen back. It raises the plant's own attack rather than dealing damage. The advanced attack, Coppice Comeback, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (23 native / 26 invasive) and pins the target so it cannot retreat. Most of your lemons 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.
Lemon carries a trait on both risers. Extrafloral Nectaries (level 10) is genuine citrus biology — the glands recruit ant guards — and mechanically it costs every attacker 3% of its own max HP, ignoring DEF and the overshield. Drupe Mast (level 68) drops the fruit crop on its knockout, healing all surviving allies 8% of their own max HP. See Abilities.
Lemon carries no trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin, no spore chemistry. It is non-toxic, so it shows no hazard ring and gives an attacker no contact recoil or poison. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As an invasive attacker, offensive field gear that pushes its damage suits it best.
At level 40 lemon reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 22 native versus 29 invasive — the invasive form is where its damage lives (native ATK 22 to invasive ATK 29). DEF is 13, mid-range for the shrub band, so it takes hits with a little armor but not much. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (51) and every turn after on its lower SPD (34), so it leads the opening exchange and is out-paced afterward. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As an invasive it draws its higher ATK from its trait line, 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, lemon swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 40 / 56 ATK, while its DEF climbs to 28 — a shrub gains a moderate wall, better than a soft herb but far short of a tree. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature lemon acts late. Maturing buys bulk and armor at the cost of any early-turn speed.
As a shrub, lemon is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play lemon as an invasive skirmisher: strike early with its higher ATK and try to close before its speed disadvantage and bench self-damage catch up. It is only a fair card overall, with no ability and thin defenses. Its steadier value is economic — it is an edible fruit plant, so feeding it Phosphorus pays x1.25 coins, and any other nutrient banks x1.25 XP instead. It fights as a fast opener until about level 31, after which its growing bulk carries it — there is no reason to hold it back from leveling.
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.