Southern magnolia

Overview

Southern magnolia is a broadleaf tree in Supplant, fielded in the broadleaf tree category. Native to Eastern North America, where it plays as a defensive buffer, it is also invasive in Africa, Europe, South America and South Asia, where it turns into an attacker. Its nativity — set by the arena region you fight in — is the spine of how it plays; see Nativity.

Moves

Its kit unlocks in three stages, and most cards you own sit well below the level where all three are live (the numbers on this page are read at level 40, where every slot is unlocked). See Moves and Abilities.

• Branch Bash (starter attack, unlocks at level 1, costs 2 Sun): Pins the foe under a fallen branch. It deals about 28 as a native and 31 as an invasive.
• Climax Community (free ability, unlocks at level 25, once per battle, no Sun): The forest as it ends up: heal 70% and +5 ATK.
• Transpiration Drain (advanced attack, unlocks at level 40, costs 6 Sun): Pulls water up through the foe and keeps it. It deals about 28 as a native and 31 as an invasive.

None of its attacks carry the initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn on a killing blow — it takes its turns in the normal order.

Abilities

A card keeps at most two always-on traits, one per riser, and the rest of its category pool is dropped. This one holds:

• Mycorrhiza — it has a 60% chance each turn to heal a benched ally; it does not fire every turn. It comes in on the level 10 riser.
• Network — while it is benched it projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active plant, of any nativity. It comes in on the level 68 riser.

See Abilities.

Features

For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium soil amendment adds flat DEF, which compounds a tree's already-heavy armour into a harder wall. Its growth habit is not a climbing or epiphytic one, so it does not take a Moss Pole.

Stats

Read at level 40: it carries 140 HP as a native and 122 as an invasive, with 20 and 28 ATK respectively, on 23 DEF (heavy, wall-grade armour). Southern magnolia's attack identity is built from how widely it spreads, with an added introduced-range term when invasive, so the invasive ATK reads higher — compare the two numbers for the real gap. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion; as an invasive it pays "Faustian" self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. Benched, it is a Network carrier — a canopy tree — so it also projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active plant regardless of that plant's nativity (see the overshield in Stats). Damage is diminishing armour — a hit scales by ATK ÷ (ATK + DEF), and poison ignores DEF entirely. On Sun (cap 120, refilling in real time), the starter costs 2 and the advanced attack 6; retreating costs 19 Sun.

It is quicker off the mark than it is in a long fight: its initiative (38, which sets turn 1) outreads its sustained speed (23, which sets turn 2 onward), so it wants to land an early blow and does not win drawn-out exchanges on tempo.

At Level 100

Grown to level 100, the floor→cap law carries this tree a long way past its level-40 read: HP climbs to 276 and DEF hardens to 51, wood-density armour turning it into a genuine wall, while retreat rises to 41 Sun as it roots deeper. Its inverted tempo, already slow, has sunk to roughly its 1% floor by now — do not expect it to win turn order at the top end.

Weaknesses & Resistances

It belongs to the Competitor succession group. As a competitor it hits Ruderals — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs — for ×1.5 damage, and is resisted to ×0.667 by Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes). Weird-group plants are neutral both ways. There is no type effectiveness beyond this wheel; see Weaknesses & Resistances.

Gameplay uses

Play it as a native buffer — bench it behind a heavier active to lend the overshield, or field it and lean on its HP cushion — and as an invasive attacker where the region makes it one, pushing its higher invasive ATK while eating the Faustian bench cost. As a tree it is one of the sturdier cards here — real HP and wall-grade armour make it a dependable single-player anchor. It is inedible, so any fertiliser you feed it banks ×1.25 XP — useful for levelling. Bulky from the start, it tips onto a power footing early — around level 12 — and only leans on turn order below that. Either way it grows monotonically stronger as it levels; turn order is only about a 5% lever.