Juniperus formosana
A firm-armored conifer that plays a native support wall, healing in sun and shielding your active from the bench.
Prickly cypress is a firm-armored Conifer that fights as a native support wall: it splashes the enemy bench, heals itself in sun, and projects a Sun overshield from the bench once mature. It is native to East Asia, and no invasive card exists, so it only ever plays as a native buffer. Its offense is low; its value is in lasting and supporting.
Its starter attack, Raysteal, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 29 damage and splashing the enemy bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Allelopathic Duff, arrives at level 25: Sours the whole forest floor — the foe's bench sickens and withers. It mends and splashes the bench. The advanced attack, Duff Dive, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (24 damage), mending as it strikes and pinning the target. Most of your prickly cypress sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Prickly cypress keeps two always-on traits. Photosynthesis arrives on the level 10 riser and heals it in sun, but as a sustain trait it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat the mend as likely rather than guaranteed. Network arrives on the level 68 riser: while benched it projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active, the canopy-tree support role. Below the level 68 riser it offers only the healing. See Abilities.
Prickly cypress is non-toxic: striking it carries no contact recoil, and its attacks carry no poison rider. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native support piece, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment — reinforces the wall it is already built to be. See statuses.
At level 40 prickly cypress reads 140 HP with 16 ATK — low offense, as befits a support card. DEF is 22, firm for the conifer band, so it takes hits far better than a weed or herb. Its tempo is lopsided: turn 1 runs on a low initiative (16), so it is out-paced early, but every turn after runs on a much stronger SPD (33), making it a relentless cruiser once the fight settles. Retreat costs 20 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, prickly cypress climbs to 276 HP and 28 ATK, and its DEF reaches 49 — as a conifer it hardens into a genuine wall, so a mature cypress shrugs off hits that would flatten a soft card. Retreat rises to 44 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so it acts last against almost anything younger. Maturing buys real durability at the cost of ever leading a turn.
As a conifer, prickly cypress sits in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, trees, vines) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play prickly cypress as a native wall and bench battery: keep it behind your active to feed the Sun overshield once it reaches the level 68 riser, and let its firm armor, in-sun healing and self-mending advanced attack keep it standing while it splashes the enemy bench. Its own damage is low, so it wins by lasting, not by hitting. On economy, prickly cypress is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a slow-opening support cruiser that only gets tankier with levels, crossing over around level 8 as a native — and it is always stronger at higher 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.