Hydrangea macrophylla
A fast shrub that can pin its target, thickens up once it is hurt, and heals the whole bench when it falls — an East Asian native or a near-global invader.
Bigleaf hydrangea is a leafy Shrub that fights as a quick-cruising trader with a mid-fight pin. It is native to East Asia and invasive across Africa, Europe, Eastern and Western North America, Oceania, South America and South Asia, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker (see nativity). It is a middling card on damage, but decent shrub armor, a good cruising speed and armour that thickens once it is hurt keep it in fights.
Its starter attack, Hedge Hammer, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 29 damage as a native and 33 as an invasive — a plain hit, and quite weak in its native form. The free once-per-battle ability, Thicket Formation, arrives at level 25: Closes into thicket — Bind, and the foe can't heal. The advanced attack, Hedge Fund, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (26 native / 31 invasive) and binds the target, pinning it so it cannot retreat. Most of your hydrangeas sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See moves and statuses.
Bigleaf hydrangea holds two working traits, and the pair rewards leaving it in a fight rather than rotating it out. Marcescence (level 10) is the hydrangea's signature habit — dried heads and leaves clinging on — worth +4 DEF once it drops to half HP or below. Drupe Mast (level 68) then heals every surviving ally 8% of its own max HP the moment this card is knocked out. See Abilities.
Hydrangea carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no spore chemistry. It is non-toxic: no contact recoil, no poison rider, and no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear suits its trading game; as an invasive, offensive gear presses its damage edge.
At level 40 hydrangea reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 16 native versus 28 invasive — a large invasive jump, since its native attack is notably low. DEF is 11, mid-pack for the shrub band, so it shrugs off small hits but not big ones. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (40) and every turn after on its SPD (53), which is high, so it is out-paced on the opening turn but one of the faster cruisers once a fight settles. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield bar onto your active; as an invasive it pays self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, hydrangea reaches 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 28 / 57 ATK, with DEF climbing to 21 — a real shrub wall, though short of what a tree becomes. Retreat rises to 23 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so its cruising speed is gone and a mature hydrangea acts late against younger cards.
As a shrub, hydrangea is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is hit for only ×0.667 by 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 hydrangea mainly as an invasive: its native attack is too low to threaten, but as an invader it hits respectably and its advanced move pins a target so it cannot escape. Its high cruising speed lets it stay ahead in a long fight, and its shrub armor keeps it around. It rarely overperforms its stats outright, but Drupe Mast means even its death pays the bench — treat it as a solid role-player. As a native it is a passable buffer thanks to the cushion and overshield. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins, making it a steady growth-earner. It fights as a back-loaded skirmisher that leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 33 — and higher levels only help, so keep leveling it.
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.