Euphorbia pulcherrima
A relentless-cruising shrub with a strong invasive attack, armour that arrives at low HP and total Burn immunity, playing either role across many regions.
Poinsettia is a mid-sized Shrub that fights as a slow starter and a relentless cruiser: out-paced on turn 1, then increasingly hard to shake as a fight drags on. It is native to eastern and western North America and South America, and invasive across Africa, East Asia, Europe, Oceania, and South Asia, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or an invasive attacker. It is a serviceable card carried by its damage, with low-HP plating and complete Burn immunity underneath.
Its starter attack, Chipmunk Horde, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 25 damage as a native and 29 as an invasive — 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 mends the plant. The advanced attack, Hedge Fund, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (28 native / 31 invasive); it can bind the target, pinning it in place. Most of your poinsettias sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
Poinsettia holds two working traits. Marcescence (level 10) hardens the spent bracts and leaves into +4 DEF at half HP or below. Lignotuber (level 68) makes the woody base immune to Burn, converting an applied Burn into a heal. See Abilities.
Poinsettia carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin chemistry — so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic in the arena: no contact recoil and no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear (a Cloche, a Ca/Mg amendment) helps it reach the late-fight window where its tempo shines; as an invasive, lean into offense.
At level 40 poinsettia reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 20 native versus 30 invasive — the invasive form gains a solid edge (native ATK 20 to invasive ATK 28). DEF is 13, in the middle shrub band, so it has modest armor. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on a low initiative (15), but every turn after runs on a higher SPD (34), so it loses the opening exchange but pulls ahead the longer a fight lasts. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, 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, poinsettia swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 35 / 61 ATK, with DEF reaching 28 — a shrub gains real health and a moderate amount of armor, so it toughens up without ever becoming a true wall. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so its late-fight speed advantage disappears entirely. Maturing buys bulk, not resilience.
As a shrub, poinsettia 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 poinsettia as a damage piece that wants long fights. As a native the HP cushion and bench overshield help it survive to its late-fight tempo window; as an invasive its higher ATK makes it a genuine attacker, at the cost of chipping its own bench. It brings armour rather than healing, so it still wants partners who supply heals or overshields. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward leveling rather than coins. It fights as a slow skirmisher that grows relentless with time, and it only gets stronger at higher levels, crossing over around level 12 as a native and 14 as an invasive — 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.