Kalmia angustifolia
A dense shrub bruiser that starts a step behind but grows relentless in long fights, playing either a native Eastern North American buffer or an East Asian and European invader.
Sheep laurel is a dense, low Shrub that fights as a straightforward bruiser: it opens a step behind but grows relentless the longer a fight drags on, and its later attack pins the foe in place. It is native to Eastern North America and invasive across East Asia and Europe, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. Its stats and kit carry it, with dead-leaf plating at low HP and a rootstock that turns fire into healing.
Its starter attack, Drupe Drop, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 27 damage as a native and 27 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Shrubland Sere, arrives at level 25: Settles the slope: heal 35%, and the foe withers. It sharpens its own attack rather than healing. The advanced attack, Briar Cage, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (21 native / 22 invasive) and binds the target as it hits. Most of your sheep laurel sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Sheep laurel runs a trait on each riser. Marcescence (level 10) is worth +4 DEF once at or below half HP. Lignotuber (level 68) matches the plant's real barrens ecology — it comes back hard after fire — so the card is immune to Burn and healed by it. See Abilities.
Sheep laurel does not hold the Toxin trait, so striking it carries no contact recoil and its attacks lay no poison. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche or a calcium or magnesium amendment — firms up its middling armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its aggression. See statuses.
At level 40 sheep laurel reads 121 HP native and 106 invasive, with ATK of 24 native versus 26 invasive — a modest step up when invasive. DEF is 10, firmer than a herb in the shrub band, so it trades hits reasonably well. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (19) and every turn after on its faster SPD (32), so it is out-paced off the mark but relentless once a fight settles. Retreat costs 13 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects 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, sheep laurel swells to 233 HP native / 203 invasive and 43 / 50 ATK, and its DEF climbs to 20 — a shrub firms into a genuine wall, if not a tree's. Retreat rises to 26 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature sheep laurel acts last against almost anything younger. Maturing buys real bulk at the cost of turn order.
As a shrub, sheep laurel sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from 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 sheep laurel as a slow-building bruiser: it loses the first exchange but wins the war of attrition once its SPD takes over, and its pin keeps a fleeing foe on the hook. As a native it makes a solid wall and bench buffer; as an invasive its higher ATK and pin make it a real attacker, though its bench pays for the aggression. On economy, sheep laurel is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a slow opener that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 10 as a native and 12 as an invasive — but 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.