Dracaena ellenbeckiana
A drought-hardy African shrub that fights as a native-only buffer, leading the first turn before slower cards overtake it — a modest collection piece rather than a strong card.
Kedong Dracaena is a drought-hardy Shrub that fights as a defensive support card. It is native to Africa and has no invasive form, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer — never as an attacker. Its own damage is low and its armor is thin, so it is more of a collection and coin piece than a strong battler.
Its starter attack, Berry, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and deals about 27 damage — a straightforward strike. The free once-per-battle ability, Nurse Shrub, arrives at level 25: Shelters the whole bench — evens their health, and calls the fallen back. The advanced attack, Thicket, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (33 damage) and can bind the target in place. Most of your Kedong Dracaena sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Kedong Dracaena keeps one always-on trait, Succulence, which arrives on the level 10 riser at full strength: it lets the plant regenerate in any weather, but as a sustain trait it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat the regeneration as frequent rather than guaranteed. See Abilities.
Kedong Dracaena is non-toxic — it carries no contact recoil and no poison rider, so nothing punishes an attacker for striking it. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium or magnesium amendment for a little DEF — helps offset its thin armor. See statuses.
At level 40 Kedong Dracaena reads 103 HP with ATK of 19, which is low, and it has no invasive form to raise that attack. DEF is just 10, sitting at the shrub band — firmer than a weed but far from a wall — so it takes real hits with little armor. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (40), which leads, while every turn after runs on its lower SPD (25), so it opens quickly but is out-paced in a long fight. Retreat costs 12 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, Kedong Dracaena swells to 190 HP and 33 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 20 — as a shrub it buys most of its bulk in health and only a little in armor. Retreat rises to 22 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature Kedong Dracaena acts last against almost anything younger. Maturing buys durability and a bigger overshield; it costs turn order.
As a shrub, Kedong Dracaena 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 Kedong Dracaena as a bench buffer: park it behind a stronger active to feed the HP overshield and lead the occasional turn with its quick initiative. It is an honestly weak card — low attack, thin armor, and no invasive attacker mode — so its main value is filling out the family tree and generating resources. 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 fast opener that leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 20 — 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.