Ussuri splindletree

Overview

The Ussuri spindletree is a deciduous shrub native to East Asia. It has no invasive range anywhere, so it plays native-only: a buffer and a body, never an attacker. It is a common, Least-Concern species, so the overshield it projects from the bench is thin — value it for its own durability on the field rather than for what it lends to an ally.

Moves

Its three moves come online in stages, so a low-level card fields only the opener.

• Chipmunk Horde (unlocks at Lv 1, costs 2 Sun) — the starter attack, dealing 25. Sends the hoarders through the foe's whole bench. It reaches the whole enemy bench, so it is chip pressure spread wide rather than a single big hit.
• Chaparral Climax (unlocks at Lv 25, free, once per battle) — Owns the dry hillside: heal 60% and +4 ATK. A strong self-heal that also permanently lifts its own attack for the rest of the battle; it carries no damage number of its own.
• Coppice Comeback (unlocks at Lv 40, costs 6 Sun) — the advanced attack, 23. Cut it down and it returns — heal 35%. The heal attached to it keeps the plant standing through a slugging match.

None of its moves seize the initiative, so it always acts on its tempo in normal turn order.

Abilities

These are the always-on traits this card keeps, arriving on a schedule. At the snapshot level of Lv 40 it holds only the first.

• Marcescence (from Lv 10) — it holds its dead leaves like a winter shrub, gaining +4 DEF once it drops below half HP. The effect only switches on when the card is already hurt, which pairs neatly with its two self-heals: it toughens up in exactly the corner where it is fighting to survive.
• Lignotuber (stacks on at Lv 68) — a woody burl that makes it immune to Burn and heals it for roughly 4% of maximum HP when something tries to Burn it, since a chaparral shrub is released by fire rather than harmed by it.

Neither is a random-chance effect; both apply reliably whenever their condition is met.

Features

It is neither toxic nor thorny, so it deals no contact recoil to an attacker. It is not a climber and takes no Moss Pole. Its best field gear is a Calcium/Magnesium amendment for flat DEF, which stacks well with Marcescence to make it genuinely awkward to finish; because it has no invasive form, you only ever gear it as a native.

Stats

At the snapshot level of Lv 40:

• HP — 103, including the +15% native cushion.
• ATK — 20, on the low side; this is not a card that wins by hitting hard.
• DEF — 13, mid-band for a shrub and firmer than it looks once Marcescence is live.
• Tempo — initiative 48 versus SPD 34. Initiative leads, so it is a quick starter and a slower cruiser: it usually strikes first in a wild encounter, then cedes the pace.
• Retreat — 16 Sun.

Because it is native-only, it plays purely as a buffer: the HP cushion above, plus a green overshield bar it projects onto your active while benched (sized small, as a Least-Concern species). See nativity and the overshield.

At Level 100

Grown to Lv 100 its HP rises to 190 and its DEF to 28 — a solid mid-shrub wall, and with Marcescence adding +4 on top when it is low, a mature spindletree is a real chore to kill from behind. Its ATK caps at 36, so it never becomes a threat, and its early-game quickness has faded to about 1% of cap — it is slow and tanky at the top end. Retreat rises to 33 Sun as it settles in.

Weaknesses & Resistances

As a shrub it is a Competitor in the succession chart: ×1.5 into Ruderal categories (annual-forb, grass, aquatic, bulb), ×0.667 taken from Specialist categories (succulent, conifer, fern, epiphyte), and neutral against other Competitors and the Weird categories. Pit it against weeds and grasses; avoid conifers and ferns.

Gameplay uses

This is a native-only defensive body. Its heals and its below-half DEF bump let it soak a lot of punishment, which makes it a passable wall to hide a real hitter behind, but its weak attack means it will not close out a fight itself — a support and collection card more than a carry.

It is not edible, so any fertilizer you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins; that makes it a fine sink for leveling nutrients you would otherwise waste. It fights as a fast skirmisher up to about Lv 28, where its growing bulk overtakes its falling tempo and it settles into the durable wall it is built to be; keep leveling it, since it only gets stronger.