Commiphora baluensis
A native-only African shrub whose hardened leaves blunt damage and whose nectaries chip attackers, a sturdy bench wall.
Commiphora baluensis is a shrub: a firm, slow card built to soak damage. It is native to Africa and invasive nowhere, so it plays only the native buffer role — a +15% HP cushion fielded, an HP overshield projected onto your active when benched.
Its starter, Frère Brer (Level 1, 2 Sun), deals 27 and Lures it into the briar patch and feeds. The free ability, Facilitation (25), is Shelters its own and starves the rest: heal 50%, and the foe's bench withers. — a heal plus bench-wide pressure. The advanced attack, Blackthorn Barrage (40, 6 Sun), deals 40 and Every thorn it has, all at once. See Moves.
From Level 10 it carries Extrafloral Nectaries: an attacker that lands a damaging hit on it takes a small chip of its own maximum HP in return — its nectar recruits ant bodyguards. At Level 68 Drupe Mast stacks on: when this plant faints, it heals its own benched team for a slice of their maximum HP, a mast crop that feeds the survivors. Neither restores the carrier itself in play, but Drupe Mast makes its death useful.
No thorns or toxin keyword. Not Moss-Pole-eligible. A Calcium/Magnesium field gear amendment suits its wall role; inedible, so nutrients bank XP.
At Level 40 it reads 103 HP and 17 ATK, with a shrub DEF of 13 — firm, several times the soft categories. Its ATK is low, so it is a defender, not a striker. Retreat is 16 Sun. Its opening initiative is 32 and sustained SPD is 34: quick and even, a little faster than most shrubs.
By Level 100 HP reaches 190 and DEF firms to 28 — a solid mid-band wall. ATK grows only to 30, so it stays a poor attacker, and retreat rises to 33 Sun. Maturing buys durability, not offense.
As a Competitor it hits ruderals for 1.5x and is resisted to 0.667x by Specialists; neutral against other Competitors and Weird. See the succession wheel.
A defensive bench piece: field it as a wall that chips attackers with its nectaries and, if it falls, heals the rest of your team on the way out; or bench it for the overshield. Its low ATK means it will not close out fights on its own, so pair it with a striker. Inedible, so fertilizer banks 1.25x XP. A steady, if unspectacular, support card. It is power-favored from a fairly low level (about Level 22), so level it up.
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.