Prunus mahaleb
Mahaleb cherry (Prunus mahaleb) is a competitor broadleaf tree in Supplant — a native buffer and invasive attacker whose game role is set out below.
The mahaleb cherry is a small cherry tree whose seeds yield the mahleb spice. In battle it is a Broadleaf tree — a Competitor on the succession chart. Native across Africa, East Asia, Europe and South Asia, it plays as a defensive buffer; where it has spread as an invasive into eastern North America, western North America, Oceania and South America, it turns attacker.
Its starter attack, Whomp, is available from Lv 1 for 2 Sun and deals about 39 damage as a native and 42 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Gap Capture, unlocks at Lv 25: Takes the fallen giant's light: +5 ATK, kept for the match. The advanced attack, Canopy Closure (Lv 40, 6 Sun), hits for about 27 native and 30 invasive.
From Lv 10 it carries Buttress Roots, so it cannot be Bound — a buttressed trunk will not pin. At Lv 68 a second always-on trait stacks on: Canopy Gap, so bench-reaching damage (splash and spread) cannot touch it.
For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment suits it, adding flat DEF on top of its already-firm armour; feeding it Phosphorus (P), the nutrient matching its edible fruit, pays bonus coins. Its growth habit is not recorded as a climber, so it is not Moss Pole–eligible.
Read at the snapshot level (Lv 40, where its whole kit is unlocked), it shows 103 HP and 25 ATK as a native, or 89 HP and 35 ATK as an invasive, with 26 DEF. As a native it adds a 15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; as an invasive it trades that for the higher attack ceiling and pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack, conceding 2 prizes when it is knocked out. On defence, its DEF is genuinely wall-like for its level and climbs further with age. Its opening tempo (turn 1) is 33 and its sustained tempo (turn 2 onward) 40 — making it slow to open but relentless once it gets going. Retreating it costs 14 Sun. See Stats and Native Strength for the full picture.
By Lv 100 it has hardened into a wall: HP up to 190 native and DEF to 59 from its wood density, with attack at 45. Retreat rises to 29 Sun as an older, more rooted plant is harder to pull back, and its inverted tempo has sunk to a sliver — it no longer wins turn order. Maturing buys it durability and reach at the cost of the speed it had as a seedling.
On the succession chart a Broadleaf tree is a Competitor. Competitor plants hit Ruderal categories hard (×1.5) and are resisted by Specialist categories (×0.667); against everything else the matchup is neutral. Weird categories are off the wheel entirely, so it trades neutrally with those.
An excellent all-rounder: near-wall tree DEF, immunity to Bind (and later to splash and spread), unusual Speed for a tree, and a strong attack step where it has spread into the Americas and beyond. Fruit-edible for coins. One of the best cards in this batch. Because its edible part (fruit) is recorded, feeding it Phosphorus pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead.
It fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 20 (a little later as an invasive, around Lv 22), after which its growing bulk and attack take over from its early speed edge.
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.