Prunus cerasifera
A fast, heavily armoured thorny Broadleaf tree card that hurts whatever attacks it and hits hard in five invasive regions.
Cherry Plum is a Broadleaf tree card with both roles: native to East Asia, Europe and South Asia, invasive across Africa, both halves of North America, Oceania and South America. Native it is a cushioned wall; invasive it is a strong attacker. See nativity and categories.
The starter attack, Branch Slam, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, reading 34 native and 38 invasive. A heavy branch slams down.
The free once-per-battle ability, Canopy Recruitment, unlocks at level 25 and costs no Sun. Pushes a sapling into the canopy: heal 35% and +3 ATK.
The advanced attack, Crown Shade, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, reading 34 native and 38 invasive. Casts deep shade that saps the foe. It matches the starter's damage at three times the Sun cost, so the starter is the efficient attack. See moves.
Thorns arrives on the first riser at level 10 and is confirmed on this card's schedule rather than assumed from its family. It is a contact recoil: anything that attacks this plant takes damage back automatically, with no turn or Sun spent. Combined with heavy armour, it makes attacking into this card a losing proposition over several turns.
Network stacks on at level 68 and amplifies the buffs your native bench is projecting — a support trait that rewards a deliberately native bench.
The card carries the thorns keyword, which is what drives the recoil above. The species record lists no toxicity, so no poison rider applies. For field gear, anything that extends its time on the field compounds, because every extra turn is another turn of recoil. Its growth habit is not vine, epiphyte or hemiepiphyte, so a Moss Pole does not apply. Its conservation status is data-deficient rather than a clean reading.
At level 40 native reads 103 HP and 24 ATK; invasive reads 89 HP and 34 ATK — a large step from five invasive regions. Armour is 26, among the highest here. Retreat is 14 Sun, cheaper than most trees. Opening tempo is 51, near the top of the range, with sustained tempo at 36. Invasive it pays Faustian bench damage per damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes on knockout. See stats.
By level 100 native reaches 190 HP and 44 ATK, invasive 165 HP and 69 ATK, with armour at 59. The tree shape: it climbs to a wall as wood density carries armour up. Retreat rises to 29 Sun and the inverted tempo bottoms out, so the matured card trades its speed for bulk while keeping the recoil.
Broadleaf tree is Competitor: strong into Ruderal — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs — and weak to Specialist, meaning succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes. See weaknesses and resistances.
One of the strongest cards in this batch. It acts first, hits hard invasive, absorbs well behind good armour, and punishes every attack made against it through Thorns. There is very little to play around.
The combination of high armour and contact recoil is what makes it awkward: opponents relying on repeated small attacks lose the exchange twice over, once to the armour and once to the recoil. Lead with the starter attack, since the advanced slot buys no extra damage.
It is edible with a fruit economy group, so a phosphorus soil amendment pays it ×1.25 coins. Strong in battle and in the economy. See 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.