Juniperus chinensis
A durable conifer that heals in the sun and shields the bench late - an East Asian native or a European invader.
Chinese juniper is a hardy Conifer that fights as a slow, grinding wall: real armor, steady self-healing, and a late bench-shield. It is native to East Asia and South Asia and invasive across Europe, so the arena can cast it as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. As a Specialist conifer it is one of the sturdier cards here, better at outlasting than at closing fights quickly. See nativity.
Its starter attack, Smothering Pollen, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 26 damage as a native and 27 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Boreal Establishment, arrives at level 25: Takes hold in cold ground: heal 35%, and the foe can't heal. The advanced attack, Evergreen Strike, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (42 native / 43 invasive); it mends the plant as it strikes and can pin the target in place. Most of your junipers sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Juniper keeps two always-on traits. Photosynthesis arrives at level 10 and heals it in the sun, but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat the mend as likely rather than guaranteed. At level 68 it gains Network, a canopy-tree trait that, from the bench, projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto whichever plant is active. Together they make it a patient healer that also protects the front line late. See Abilities.
It carries no trait keywords and is non-toxic - no contact recoil, no hazard ring, no poison on its strikes. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear reinforces its wall; as an invasive, offensive gear helps its higher ATK bite.
At level 40 it reads 140 HP native / 122 invasive, with ATK of 22 native versus 26 invasive - a solid invasive step up. DEF is 23, high for its conifer frame, so it genuinely blunts incoming hits. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (13), which is low, but every turn after runs on its SPD (43), so it is out-paced on turn 1 and relentless once a fight settles. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield 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, juniper climbs toward an armored wall: 276 HP native / 240 invasive, 39 / 50 ATK, and DEF reaching 52. Retreat rises to 32 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts late but shrugs off what younger cards throw. Leveling turns it into a wall that trades slowly and wins on attrition.
As a conifer, Chinese juniper is in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants (herbs, shrubs, broadleaf trees) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which hit it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play it as a front-line wall that heals through long fights. As a native its armor plus the bench overshield make it a strong protector for a fragile hitter; as an invasive it hits harder and can grind an opponent down, though it still wins on attrition rather than speed. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP toward faster leveling rather than coins. In player-versus-player (PvP) matches it fights as a stubborn wall from the start - not a skirmisher - and only becomes tougher as it 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.