Dalea leucosericea
A quick-opening American legume shrub that buffs, saps, blunts incoming hits and shrugs off fire — a native-only card that often arrives with free nitrogen.
Dalea leucosericea is a mid-sized Shrub that fights as a quick opener with a soft follow-through: it leads turn 1, then is out-paced in a long fight. It is native to eastern and western North America and South America, and has no invasive form, so the arena only ever plays it as a native buffer for your bench. Its stats and moves carry it, backed by a hit-blunting leaf and a fire-proof rootstock — and as a legume it comes with an economy perk too.
Its starter attack, Bramble Lash, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 33 damage — a plain hit with no rider. The free once-per-battle ability, Thicket Formation, arrives at level 25: Closes into thicket — Bind, and the foe can't heal. It raises the plant's attack for the fight. The advanced attack, Sucker Punch, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (33 damage) and saps the target, wearing it down. Most of your Dalea sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
Dalea leucosericea runs a trait on both risers. Sclerophylly (level 10) blunts each direct hit by a flat 3. Lignotuber (level 68) is the dryland shrub's fire strategy in mechanical form: immune to Burn, and healed when a Burn is applied. See Abilities.
Dalea carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin chemistry — so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic: no contact recoil and no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, general defensive field gear (a Cloche, a Ca/Mg amendment) suits its game.
At level 40 Dalea reads 103 HP with ATK of 19. It is a native-only card, so it has no separate invasive attacker form. DEF is 11, in the middle shrub band, so it has modest armor. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on a high initiative (49), but every turn after runs on a lower SPD (44), so it leads the opening exchange and is out-paced afterward. Retreat costs 14 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, Dalea swells to 190 HP and 33 ATK, with DEF reaching 22 — a shrub gains real health and a moderate amount of armor, toughening up without ever becoming a true wall. Retreat rises to 28 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so its opening speed edge is gone. Maturing buys bulk, not resilience.
As a shrub, Dalea 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 Dalea as a native opener and bench buffer: lead with its high initiative and attack buff, then hand off as its tempo fades, using the HP cushion and bench overshield to support a partner. Its traits are defensive rather than restorative, so pair it with cards that supply healing or shields. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward leveling rather than coins. As a member of the bean family (Fabaceae), about one in four caught wild arrives with a free Nitrogen amendment already equipped — an economy head start that decomposes after about a month. It fights as a fast skirmisher early and leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 32 — 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.