Phoenix dactylifera
A well-armoured Broadleaf tree card that cannot be pinned down, and a hard-hitting attacker across the four regions it has spread to.
Date Palm is a Broadleaf tree card with both roles available. The species record lists Africa, Europe and South Asia as native, and East Asia, western North America, Oceania and South America as invasive, so the arena region decides which version you are holding. Native it is a buffer with a health cushion and a bench overshield; invasive it is an attacker. See nativity and categories.
The starter attack, Leaf Smother, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, reading 25 native and 29 invasive. Buries the foe under a canopy's worth of leaf — it weakens.
The free once-per-battle ability, Stand Replacement, unlocks at level 25 and costs no Sun. A fire that takes the whole stand — the foe burns, and so do its neighbours.
The advanced attack, Forest Fire, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, reading 33 native and 37 invasive. Takes the whole stand with it — the foe burns, and so does its own bench. See moves and abilities.
Buttress Roots arrives on the first riser at level 10 and is at full strength immediately. Despite the name it is not an armour bonus — it is an immunity: the card cannot be Bound. A buttressed trunk cannot be pinned, so every Bind effect an opponent spends on it is wasted. Against control-heavy opponents that is worth more than a stat line.
Mycorrhiza stacks on at level 68, healing a benched ally each checkup. Note that this sustain does not fire every time — it triggers roughly 60% of the time, so read it as a reliable trend over a long battle rather than a guaranteed tick. See statuses for what Bind does.
The species record lists no toxicity and no trait keywords, so there is no poison rider or thorn recoil on this card. For field gear, the armour reading is already good, so gear that adds reach or staying power pays better than more protection. Its growth habit is not vine, epiphyte or hemiepiphyte, so a Moss Pole does not apply.
At level 40 the native side reads 103 HP and 19 ATK; invasive reads 89 HP and 32 ATK. Compare those directly — the invasive attack step here is large, which follows from how widely the species has spread rather than from any flat multiplier. Armour is 24, high for a card at this level, and retreat is 16 Sun. Opening tempo is 32 and sustained tempo is 34. Played invasive it also pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack, growing as it levels, and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See stats.
By level 100 the native health pool reaches 190 and attack 34, with the invasive side at 165 HP and 65 ATK, and armour climbing to 55. This is the tree shape at the cap: it grows into a wall, with wood density carrying armour up alongside the health pool rather than leaving it behind. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and the inverted tempo has sunk to its floor, so the matured card is slow and committed — but it is genuinely hard to remove, and it still cannot be Bound.
Broadleaf tree sits in the Competitor succession group. Competitor crowds out Ruderal, so this card hits annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs harder. It loses to Specialist, so succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes hit it harder in return. See weaknesses and resistances.
This is a solid card in both roles, which is not something you can say about most of the collection. Native it is a genuine wall — good armour, a real health pool, and a bench heal once it matures. Invasive it hits hard enough to close games, at the cost of chewing its own bench with Faustian damage every time it attacks, so keep the back row healthy or keep the fights short.
The Bind immunity is the detail worth planning around: against any opponent leaning on Bind to lock your active plant, this card simply ignores that plan.
It is edible and its economy group is fruit, so a phosphorus soil amendment pays it ×1.25 coins — it is a reasonable income card as well as a battlefield one. Test both roles in the battle lab.
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.