Platycladus orientalis
A conifer that starts slow and grinds relentlessly, healing in the sun and shielding your bench, playable as an East Asian native or a wide-ranging invader.
Oriental arbor vitae is a sturdy Conifer that fights as a defensive healer: decent armor, modest damage, and a pace that builds as the fight drags on. It is native to East Asia and invasive across Africa, Europe, Eastern North America, and South Asia, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a dependable, patient defensive card.
Its starter attack, Needle Rake, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 33 damage as a native and 36 as an invasive — a straightforward strike. The free once-per-battle ability, Mother Tree, comes in at level 25: Channels the grove: evens the bench's health and revives the fallen; a matured canopy also shares Sun. The advanced attack, Needle Point, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (40 native / 44 invasive) and both mends the plant as it strikes and pins the target. Most of your specimens sit below level 40, where only the starter is available, and none of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
Oriental arbor vitae keeps two always-on abilities. Photosynthesis arrives on the level 10 riser and heals it in the sun, but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so the mend is likely rather than guaranteed. Network arrives on the level 68 riser: as a canopy tree it projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active from the bench. Neither is dropped once earned.
It carries no special trait keywords and, as a terrestrial conifer, is not eligible for a Moss Pole. It is non-toxic, so it shows no hazard ring and nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. As a native, defensive field gear suits its patient stalling; as an invasive, offensive gear helps its relentless late-fight tempo turn into damage.
At level 40 it reads 140 HP as a native and 122 as an invasive, with ATK of 19 native versus 29 invasive — a real but moderate invasive edge. DEF is 19, in the conifer band, so it takes hits well. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on a lower initiative (22) and every turn after on a higher SPD (37), so it is out-paced off the mark but relentless in a long fight. Retreat costs 20 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; 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, oriental arbor vitae climbs to 276 HP native / 240 invasive and 33 / 58 ATK, and its DEF hardens to 42 — as a conifer it becomes a genuine armored wall. Retreat rises to 44 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so even its late-fight cruising speed is gone and it acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys toughness at the cost of speed.
As a conifer, oriental arbor vitae is in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, trees) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which hit it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play oriental arbor vitae as a patient defensive anchor: it opens slow, so guard it through the first exchange, then let its rising SPD and self-heal grind down a tiring opponent while its bench overshield protects your active. As a native it is a fine buffer; as an invasive its higher ATK lets it push damage, though its own bench pays for it. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward growth rather than coins. It fights as a slow-then-relentless skirmisher until about level 12 as a native (around level 14 as an invasive), after which its bulk takes over — 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.