Tsuga canadensis
A slow, heavily armored conifer that heals in sun and shields your bench, playing native wall or invasive bruiser.
Eastern hemlock is a shade-tolerant Conifer that fights as a slow, heavily armored wall. It is native to Eastern North America and invasive in Europe, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer that anchors your bench or as an invasive bruiser. It is one of the stronger cards in this set: real armor, in-sun healing, and a canopy shield make it a genuine team piece rather than filler. See nativity.
Its starter attack, Needle Rake, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 35 damage native / 36 invasive and splashing some onto the opponent's bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Allelopathic Duff, arrives at level 25: Sours the whole forest floor — the foe's bench sickens and withers. Its advanced attack, Evergreen Grudge, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (35 / 36), mending the tree as it strikes and pinning the target so it cannot retreat. Most of your specimens sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. See moves.
Hemlock keeps two always-on traits. Photosynthesis arrives at full strength on the level 10 riser and heals it a little whenever it is in sun, though only about 60% of the time, so the trickle is unreliable. Its canopy Network is added on the level 68 riser: from the bench it projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active, feeding your front card extra Sun as a big tree should. Neither trait is on from level 1, but once earned they stay. See abilities.
It carries no trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin — so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it, and it is non-toxic with no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear such as a Cloche or a Ca/Mg amendment stacks with its conifer armor; as an invasive, offensive gear turns its bulk into a threat.
At level 40 it reads 140 HP native / 122 invasive, with ATK of 25 native versus 28 invasive — a solid invasive jump. DEF is 17, high in the conifer band, so it genuinely blunts incoming hits. Its tempo is badly front-loaded: turn 1 runs on a fair initiative (23), but every turn after runs on a very low SPD (8), so after the opening it is one of the slowest things on the field. Retreat costs 19 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and projects a bench HP overshield; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100 it swells to 276 HP native / 240 invasive and 44 / 53 ATK, and as a conifer its DEF climbs to 38 — an armored wall that shrugs off most hitters. Retreat rises to 40 Sun and its tempo sinks to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature hemlock nearly always acts last. Maturing turns it into a true tank, paying only in speed.
As a conifer it sits in the Specialist succession group (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes). It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs) for x1.5 and is struck for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which hit it for x1.5 while shrugging off its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
As a native, this is a premier bench anchor: its Sun overshield and HP cushion keep your active fed and alive while the hemlock itself is nearly unkillable up front. As an invasive, run it as a slow bruiser that soaks hits, splashes the enemy bench, and pins targets in place — just accept it will move last. Its main weakness is the low SPD, so protect it against fast Ruderal hitters. Its value is also economic: it is inedible, so any nutrient banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as a fair-tempo opener until its armor takes over, crossing around level 1 — always stronger in raw stats higher up, so never 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.