Pinus ayacahuite
Mexican white pine (Pinus ayacahuite) is a conifer that plays a native buffer, with no introduced range to make it an attacker.
Mexican white pine is a conifer — a big-health evergreen wall that supports the team and heals itself. It is native to eastern North America, western North America, and South America and has no introduced range, so it only ever plays the native buffer role — there is no attacker scenario for it.
Its kit unlocks in three stages. Its starter attack, Blazing Pitch (unlocked at level 1, 2 Sun), deals 28 as a native: Flings burning pitch — the foe catches. Its once-per-battle ability, Terpene Fog (level 25, free), is pure utility: A haze of volatile resin — the foe is saturated and stalls. Its advanced attack, Conifer Conniption (level 40, 6 Sun), deals 38 native: Thrashes twice with stiff boughs.
These are the always-on traits this card actually keeps, and the level each one arrives at (a plant draws at most one trait per growth stage). From level 10, Evergreen Canopy heals it a small amount every checkup, in any weather — evergreen foliage keeps photosynthesizing year-round. Unlike the named sustain passives, this one is reliable rather than a 60% chance. From level 68, Network lets it back up your team from the bench: while benched it projects a gold Sun-overshield bar onto your active plant (of any nativity), which is spent only once the active's own Sun runs dry.
On the field it draws on field gear to shore up its weaknesses. As a tree it takes best to a Calcium/Magnesium amendment that stacks flat DEF onto an already-hard trunk, and to Mulch for staying power.
Read at level 40, where every move is unlocked, it holds 140 health and 20 attack as a native, with 20 DEF. That is a wall-class defense for a plant this size — armor is diminishing rather than flat, so a big attacker still gets through, but a small one is turned away. Its retreat costs 19 Sun. On tempo it opens at 22 initiative (which orders the first turn) and cruises at 13 speed (which orders every turn after). It is a quick starter but a slower cruiser — it tends to land the first hit and then get out-paced. As a native it carries a 15% health cushion (140 versus 122 as an invader), and while benched it projects a green overshield bar onto your active plant, sized by how threatened it is.
Grown to level 100, this card hardens into a wall: its DEF climbs to 44 and its health to 276, with attack reaching 36. Retreat rises to 41 Sun as the older plant grows more rooted, and its once-quick tempo has sunk to a sliver — it goes late in turn order now. Maturing buys it raw bulk and hitting power; it costs it the speed edge it had as a seedling.
In the succession type chart, Mexican white pine's category (conifer) belongs to the Specialist group. Ruderal, Competitor, and Specialist form a wheel: Specialist hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, and broadleaf trees) for 1.5× damage, and takes 1.5× from Ruderal plants (annual-forbs, grasses, aquatic plants, and bulbs), resisting each the other way at about two-thirds. The off-wheel Weird categories are neutral both ways.
A strong defensive card: high health, real conifer armor, a reliable self-heal every checkup, and a bench Network that feeds Sun to your active. Very slow, so use it as an anchor. Its pine nuts earn coins. Off the battlefield it earns money: it has an edible fruit, so feeding it Phosphorus fertilizer pays 1.25× coins (any other nutrient banks 1.25× experience instead). On the power curves below, it fights as a fast skirmisher until about level 1, after which its growing bulk and attack take over from its fading speed — a shift in which edge dominates, not a sign it is weaker when grown.
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.