Prunus serrulata
A hardy flowering-cherry tree that walls up on DEF and chips the enemy bench; native buffer or invasive attacker, and an edible-leaf coin-earner.
Japanese flowering cherry is a broadleaf tree, a Broadleaf tree card that plays as a durable, armored body. It is native to East Asia, where it is a defensive buffer, and invasive in Europe and Oceania, where it is an attacker. See nativity.
Whomp unlocks at Lv 1 for 2 Sun — The full weight of the tree, all at once. — for 36 native / 38 invasive. The free once-per-battle ability Leaf Litter (Lv 25, no damage) hits the whole enemy bench: Buries the ground in litter — the foe's whole bench withers. The advanced Deadfall (Lv 40, 6 Sun) reads 40 / 42: The whole tree comes down. No initiative rider. See Moves.
It keeps two always-on abilities, arriving apart. Buttress Roots arrives at Lv 10 — an always-on anchoring trait that helps the tree hold its position and resist being shoved. Heartwood Core stacks on at Lv 68, a durability trait deep in an old trunk. Note this cherry drew neither of the canopy headline traits (Network, Mycorrhiza), so it is not a Sun-overshield carrier — both of its traits are about staying power. For most of its climb it has only Buttress Roots.
No toxin or thorn trait — although it is in the rose family (often armed), this card holds no thorn trait, so biting it draws no recoil. Not a climber, so no Moss Pole. For field gear, Calcium/Magnesium suits the native wall build; the invasive wants attack support.
At Lv 40, 103 HP native / 89 invasive (native +15% cushion and bench overshield). DEF is 26, already firm and headed much higher — tree armor is the highest band in the game. ATK is 18 native versus 22 invasive, a modest invasive step; this is a wall first, a hitter second. The invasive pays Faustian bench self-damage per hit and concedes 2 prizes on KO. Tempo: initiative 40 (turn 1) is decent while SPD 31 (turn 2 onward) is lower — a fair starter, slower cruiser. Retreat 15 Sun. See Stats.
HP reaches 190 / 165, ATK 31 / 41, and DEF hardens into a true wall at 59 — driven by wood density, this is where the card comes into its own. Retreat rises to 30 Sun (deeply rooted) and its tempo pips fall to about 1% of cap, so it is slow but nearly unbreakable at the cap. Maturing buys a fortress at the cost of any speed.
Broadleaf tree is in the Competitor group: strong (×1.5) into Ruderals — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs — and weak (×0.667) into Specialists — succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes. Its one soft spot is poison, which ignores DEF entirely and is the intended answer to a wall like this.
Native, it is an excellent defensive anchor — high DEF, an HP cushion, and a bench-wide chip on its ability to soften the other side. Invasive, it attacks adequately but shines more for its durability than its damage. It is edible with a leaf part, so feeding it Nitrogen (the leaf match) pays ×1.25 coins — a reliable coin-earner — while any other fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP. A strong, well-rounded card. As a bulk-rich tree it is power-favored from a low level, crossing to power-dominance by about Lv 21 as a native (Lv 24 invasive) and only widening its lead from there.
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.