Rosa gallica
A shrub Competitor with firm mid-tier armor and bench-support moves, native in Europe and invasive across several continents.
The French rose is a Shrub that plays as a firm, mid-armor bruiser with a supportive kit. Its nativity role runs both ways. It is native to Europe, where it buffers your team, and it turns up as an invasive in Africa, East Asia, eastern North America and Oceania, where the same card plays as a harder attacker.
Its starter attack, Drupe Drop, is available from Lv 1 for 2 Sun (Drops fruit — also nicks the bench.), dealing 27 native and 30 invasive — a normal-damage hit that also nicks the foe's bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Nurse Shrub, unlocks at Lv 25: Shelters the whole bench — evens their health, and calls the fallen back. It deals no damage and costs no Sun, and it is a genuine team turn. The advanced attack, Thicket, unlocks at Lv 40 for 6 Sun (Hems the foe in.), hitting for 34 / 38. No move carries an initiative rider.
It keeps two always-on traits that arrive at different times. Extrafloral Nectaries comes in at Lv 10, working from early on. Drupe Mast stacks on at Lv 68, the fruiting reserve arriving only well into the card's life. This card does not draw the shrub pool's Sapromyophily taunt, so do not expect it to pull single-target picks onto itself. Neither of its two traits is a chance-based sustain heal.
The French rose carries no special trait keywords. Despite being a rose, this card does not hold the thorns trait, so biting it deals the attacker no thorn recoil — do not play it as a spike wall. As a shrub it is not a climber and takes no Moss Pole. For field gear, a native copy pairs with defensive amendments that reinforce its already-decent armor; an invasive copy leans into its attack.
At Lv 40 a native reads 103 HP to an invasive's 89, the native carrying the +15% cushion. ATK is 24 native versus 33 invasive — a wide step that makes the invasive copy hit noticeably harder, driven by its introduced range rather than any flat multiplier. DEF is 12, mid-tier for a shrub and firmer than any herb, and it rises with level. On tempo it opens at initiative 35 and sustains at SPD 39, roughly even with a slight edge later — neither a standout starter nor cruiser. Retreat is 15 Sun. A native on the bench projects a green HP overshield bar; an invasive pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes on a knockout.
By Lv 100 HP reaches 190 native and 165 invasive and ATK 43 / 68. DEF climbs to 24, staying in the shrub band — firmer than a herb, well short of a tree. Retreat rises to 30 Sun and the tempo has fallen near its floor. Maturing buys a bigger body and a harder swing, especially for the invasive line, without ever making it a true wall.
As a shrub it is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual-forb, grass, aquatic, bulb) for ×1.5 and resists them at ×0.667, but it loses to Specialists (succulent, conifer, fern, epiphyte).
Play a native French rose as a supportive mid-line piece: Nurse Shrub evens the bench and calls a fallen ally back, and its firmer DEF lets it trade blows longer than a herb. An invasive copy is a solid attacker with a real ATK jump, so long as you accept the Faustian bench cost and the 2 prizes it concedes. It is edible with the leaf as its resolved part, so feeding it nitrogen — the fertilizer that matches a leaf crop — pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. As a firm shrub it leans on power fairly early, crossing over around Lv 24 native and Lv 25 invasive.
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.