Picea mariana
A sun-healing conifer that plays either role and hardens into an armored wall, resisting the Competitor plants it beats.
Black spruce is a slow, tough Conifer that fights as an armored supporter: it heals in sunlight, buffs its own attack, and pins targets in place. It is native to Eastern and Western North America and invasive across Europe, so the arena can cast it either way - as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. As a Specialist conifer it climbs to a genuinely hard shell at high levels, making it a durable, patient card.
Its starter attack, Deathshadow, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun for about 27 damage native / 28 invasive, and it splashes some damage onto a benched opponent as well. The free once-per-battle ability, Resin Seal, arrives at level 25: Seals the wound with resin: heal 40%. It raises the plant's own attack. The advanced attack, Cone Cap, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (22 native / 22 invasive), mending the spruce while pinning the target so it cannot retreat. Most of your spruces sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Spruce keeps two always-on traits. Photosynthesis arrives in full on the level 10 riser: it heals a little while the plant sits in the sun, but only about 60% of the time, so lean on it as a bonus rather than a plan. At the level 68 riser it gains Network: while benched, this canopy tree projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active. See Abilities.
Spruce carries no special trait keywords. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. It is non-toxic, with no hazard ring, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. As a native, defensive field gear suits its long, grinding game; as an invasive, offensive gear helps its middling attack land harder.
At level 40 spruce reads 140 HP as a native and 122 as an invasive, with ATK of 25 native versus 27 invasive - a small invasive edge. DEF is 17, solid for the conifer band. Its tempo is front-loaded but slow overall: turn 1 runs on its initiative (27) and every turn after on its much slower SPD (12), so it almost always acts late once a fight settles. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield; 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, spruce reaches 276 HP native / 240 invasive and 44 / 49 ATK, and its DEF climbs to 38 - a conifer hardens into an armored wall, blunting most incoming damage. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature spruce is very slow but very hard to kill. Maturing buys armor and the bench overshield; it costs you all your speed.
As a conifer, spruce sits in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, broadleaf trees) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them, while Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) strike it for x1.5 and resist its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the trade is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play spruce as a patient wall. As a native its armor, sun-healing, and bench overshield make it an excellent buffer that protects a fragile hitter for a long time; as an invasive it can grind down Competitor opponents with its type edge, though its low speed means it takes hits first. It is inedible, so feeding it any nutrient banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. It plays as a slow skirmisher early and becomes a hard armored anchor as it grows, crossing over around level 2; higher levels only strengthen it, 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.