Groot is in hero form and has 2 growth counters and a tough status card. If he takes 2 damage, I'm thinking I have to remove 2 growth counters first, as it is a forced interrupt, before I would get to discard the tough status card. Likewise, if I took 3 damage, I would discard 2 growth counters first and then the tough status card for the remaining 1 damage. Rules gurus, take it away! Thanks!
Gardien.
Flora Colossus — Interruption forcée : quand Groot est censé subir n'importe quelle quantité de dégâts, retirez-lui autant de jetons Croissance. Pour chaque jeton Croissance ainsi retiré, prévenez 1 de ces dégâts.
Hors-La-Loi.
Poussée de Croissance — Action : placez 2 jetons Croissance sur Groot (jusqu'à un maximum de 10). (Limite d'une fois par round.)
Groot is an interesting puzzle. Half of his kit wants to stack counters and the other half wants to spend them resulting in a bit of a dilemma. After some testing I think burning through the counters is the answer. You can spend several turns stacking for a big event just to have everything ruined by one bad encounter card.
The ideal scenario would be blocking for a partner, getting hit directly, and ultimately ending up around 2 HP (5 or less if you have endurance). This gives you an excuse to stay down for a couple turns to stack counters. When you flip up you’ll have 1 turn to play your events with your freshly stacked counters before repeating the process of spending them. Obviously this strategy really only works in 2-4 player and really needs to be paired with Justice to help enable your semi-frequent flipping.