Ficus elastica
A native-only broadleaf tree with heavy armor, a mild contact poison, and a mature Sun overshield for the bench.
Rubber plant is a heavy-bodied Broadleaf tree that fights as an armored support wall: it tanks very well, poisons attackers on contact, and later shields your active from the bench. It is native to South Asia and has no invasive form, so it only ever plays the native buffer role; there is no attacker scenario for it. Its damage is modest, so it is a durable support piece rather than a finisher, and one of the sturdier native trees you can field. See nativity.
Its starter attack, Branch Bash, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 28 damage; besides hitting the active it also chips the enemy bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Canopy Recruitment, unlocks at level 25: Pushes a sapling into the canopy: heal 35% and +3 ATK. The advanced attack, Transpiration Drain, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (28 damage) and saps the target as it strikes. Most of your rubber plants sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See moves.
Rubber plant carries two working traits. Tannin Load (level 10) sours every bite: anything that strikes this card is Withered for 2 ATK. Network (level 68) turns it into a bench engine, projecting a gold Sun overshield onto your active and amplifying the network cluster ×1.25. See Abilities.
Rubber plant holds the Toxin trait and carries the toxic keyword: striking it Poisons the attacker at the mild tier, and this fires in the arena and in player-versus-player (PvP) alike. Sulfur soil does not neutralize it, though a Cloche-warded attacker can absorb the recoil. It has no other trait keywords, and its terrestrial growth habit means it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native support tree, defensive field gear such as a Cloche or a Ca/Mg amendment plays to its strengths. See statuses for how Poison ticks.
At level 40 rubber plant reads 121 HP and 21 ATK. DEF is 27, high in the broadleaf-tree band, so it blocks hits well even before it matures. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on a low initiative (32), but every turn after runs on a higher SPD (34), so it is out-paced in the opening exchange and steadier in a long fight. Retreat costs 19 Sun. It only appears as a native, so it always carries the +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects its overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, rubber plant climbs to 233 HP and 37 ATK, and as a tree its DEF rises to a stout 62, making it an armored wall that shrugs off most blows while poisoning anything that lands one. Retreat rises to 41 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature rubber plant acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys heavy durability and the bench overshield at the cost of ever moving first.
As a broadleaf tree, rubber plant is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and is hit for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play rubber plant as a native anchor: hold the front line where its heavy armor and contact poison make it expensive to attack, then bench it late so its Network overshield keeps a fragile finisher alive. Its own damage is moderate, so it supports rather than closes. On the economy it is inedible, so any nutrient banks x1.25 XP rather than coins, making it a steady grower. It opens slow and settles into its wall role as it levels, crossing over around level 16; higher levels only make it tougher, 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.