Phillyrea latifolia
A firm-shelled native shrub with middling damage whose hard leaf blunts every hit and whose lignotuber makes fire useless against it — played as a buffer.
Phillyrea is a Shrub that fights as a native buffer with middling damage and a firmer-than-average shell. It is native to Africa and Europe, and no invasive card exists, so it plays only as a native buffer, never as an attacker. Its hard Mediterranean leaf shaves 3 off every hit, and from level 68 fire cannot touch it at all.
Its starter attack, Drupe Drop, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 26 damage as a native. 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, Bramble Scramble, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (40 native) and saps the target, weakening its attack. Most of your phillyrea sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Phillyrea is a textbook sclerophyll, and the card reflects it. Sclerophylly (level 10) takes a flat 3 off each direct hit — the hard Mediterranean leaf doing exactly what it does in the field. Lignotuber (level 68) completes the picture: this genus resprouts from a burl after fire, so the card is immune to Burn and healed by it. See Abilities.
Phillyrea is non-toxic, so there is no contact recoil and no poison rider — striking it costs an attacker nothing. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little DEF — firms its already-decent armor further. See statuses.
At level 40 phillyrea reads 121 HP with ATK of 23. DEF is 13, toward the firmer end of the shrub band, so it holds a hit better than a soft herb but is no wall. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on a low initiative (23) so it is out-paced off the mark, but every turn after runs on a higher SPD (34), so it grows quicker as a fight goes on. Retreat costs 19 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, phillyrea swells to 233 HP and 43 ATK, and its DEF firms to 28 — a real gain for a shrub, though still short of a tree's wall. Retreat rises to 41 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature phillyrea acts last against almost anything younger.
As a shrub, phillyrea 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 phillyrea as a native buffer: bench it to lend your active the HP cushion and overshield, and bring it out when its firmer armor lets it stand in front for a few turns. It is a middling card on damage, so its main value is filling out the family tree — though it is genuinely awkward to burn down. On economy, it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a back-loaded trader that leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 13 — 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.