Deutzia scabra
A fast-cruising but weak-hitting shrub that plates up at low HP and refuses fire outright — an East Asian native or a European invader.
Deutzia is a Shrub that fights as a quick cruiser with notably low damage. It is native to East Asia and invasive in Europe, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It hits softly and leans on tempo rather than force, but it does plate up at low HP and becomes immune to Burn at level 68.
Its starter attack, Bramblemaze, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 26 damage as a native and 29 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Chaparral Climax, arrives at level 25: Owns the dry hillside: heal 60% and +4 ATK. The advanced attack, Coppice Comeback, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (21 native / 24 invasive) and saps the target, weakening its attack. Most of your deutzia sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Deutzia carries one working trait per riser. Marcescence (level 10) adds +4 DEF while at or below half HP. Lignotuber (level 68) makes it immune to Burn, and healed by any attempt to Burn it. See Abilities.
Deutzia is non-toxic, so there is no contact recoil and no poison rider — striking it costs an attacker nothing. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little DEF — firms its middling armor; as an invasive, offensive gear helps offset its weak attack. See statuses.
At level 40 deutzia reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 15 native versus 23 invasive — low even at the invasive figure. DEF is 11, in the middle shrub band, so it holds a hit better than a soft herb but is no wall. Its tempo is strongly back-loaded: turn 1 runs on a lower initiative (36), but every turn after runs on a much higher SPD (52), so it is out-paced off the mark yet quick once a fight settles in. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; as an invasive it 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, deutzia swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 25 / 44 ATK, and its DEF firms to 21 — a real gain for a shrub, though still short of a tree's wall. Retreat rises to 24 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so even a mature deutzia acts last against almost anything younger.
As a shrub, deutzia sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike 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 deutzia as a native buffer that lends your active the HP cushion and overshield, or as an invasive cruiser that leans on its high SPD and its sap to grind an opponent down. Its damage is weak either way, so it is one of the softer hitters here and works better as a support and collection piece than as a finisher. On economy, it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a slow-starting, fast-cruising trader that leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 31 as a native and 34 as an invasive — but it is always stronger at higher levels, 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.