Sambucus gaudichaudiana
A native-only shrub that hardens when hurt and is released by fire, a fire-proof bench wall.
White elderberry is a shrub: a firm, slow card that toughens under pressure. It is native to Oceania and invasive nowhere, so it plays only the native buffer role — a +15% HP cushion fielded, an HP overshield projected onto your active when benched.
Its starter, Drupe Drop (Level 1, 2 Sun), deals 25 and Drops fruit — also nicks the bench. The free ability, Bramble Barrier (25), is A wall of thorns — the foe withers against it. The advanced attack, Thorn in the Side (40, 6 Sun), deals 30 and A thorn that festers — Poison the foe. — it Poisons the foe, which ticks through any shield and ignores DEF. See Moves.
From Level 10 it carries Marcescence: while it is below half HP it gains a flat DEF boost, its retained dead leaves shielding it when it is hurt — so it is at its toughest exactly when it is in danger. At Level 68 Lignotuber stacks on: it becomes immune to Burn and, better, actually heals a slice of its maximum HP whenever Burn is applied to it — chaparral is released by fire, not merely spared. Against a Burn attacker it is a hard counter.
No thorns or toxin keyword. Not Moss-Pole-eligible. A Calcium/Magnesium field gear amendment adds to its wall; edible (fruit), so Phosphorus pays coins.
At Level 40 it reads 103 HP and 19 ATK, with a shrub DEF of 11 — firm, and firmer still under half HP thanks to Marcescence. Retreat is 13 Sun. Its opening initiative and sustained SPD are close, 22 / 23: middling and even, a slow, steady card.
By Level 100 HP reaches 190 and DEF firms to 23 — a solid mid-band wall, before Marcescence's bonus. ATK grows only to 33, and retreat rises to 26 Sun. Maturing buys durability; offense stays modest.
As a Competitor it hits ruderals for 1.5x and is resisted to 0.667x by Specialists; neutral against other Competitors and Weird. Note it turns the Burn status into a heal, an unusual resistance. See the succession wheel.
A defensive bench piece with a niche: field it as a wall that hardens as it takes damage and outright feeds on Burn, making it a clean answer to fire-based attackers; or bench it for the overshield. Its low ATK means it defends rather than closes, so pair it with a striker. It is edible with a resolved fruit part, so Phosphorus (the fruit fertilizer) pays the 1.25x coin bonus; other nutrients bank XP. It is power-favored from a low level (about Level 9) — level it up.
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.