Rhamnus prinoides
A native shrub with firmer armor and a hit-blunting leaf, a slow opener that leans on its bulk, a pinning finisher and a bench heal on its knockout.
The dogwood is a Shrub that fights as a plain, sturdy trader: firmer armor than the weeds and succulents around it, and a hard leaf that shaves 3 off every hit on top. It is native to Africa and has no invasive form, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer. It is a modest card whose value is in its bulk rather than any special mechanic.
Its starter attack, Snarl, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 29 damage. The free once-per-battle ability, Thicket Formation, arrives at level 25: Closes into thicket — Bind, and the foe can't heal. It sharpens its own attack. The advanced attack, Coppice Comeback, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (24 damage) and pins the target in place. Most of your dogwood sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
This buckthorn holds a working trait on each riser. Sclerophylly (level 10) reflects its glossy, hard leaf, taking a flat 3 damage off every direct hit. Drupe Mast (level 68) pays the bench out when the card falls: 8% of max HP to every surviving ally. See Abilities.
The dogwood is non-toxic, so it inflicts no contact recoil and carries no poison rider when it is struck. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium or magnesium amendment for extra DEF — builds on the armor it already has. See statuses.
At level 40 the dogwood reads 103 HP with 23 ATK. DEF is 13, firmer for the shrub band, so it soaks hits noticeably better than a grass or succulent. Its tempo is badly back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its very low initiative (13), where it is out-paced by almost everything, but every turn after runs on its higher SPD (34), where it is relentless — a slow starter but a faster cruiser. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, the dogwood swells to 190 HP and 42 ATK, and its DEF climbs to 28 — a solid firming for a shrub, well above the soft weeds though short of a tree's wall. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature dogwood acts last against almost anything younger.
As a shrub, the dogwood sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play the dogwood as a sturdy but unremarkable trader: it soaks better than most of its neighbors and can pin a target with its finisher, but a very slow opening turn means it neither sets up nor closes quickly. Treat it as a serviceable native body or a collection piece rather than a standout. On economy, it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a slow-opening cruiser that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 10 — but it is always stronger at higher levels, so 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.