Hence, if it's not a visual bug, this is pretty hogwash. It's a debuff for Treants, which means it only comes into effect if an enemy unit is going to smack your troops afterwards. However, if there are no enemy units that moves after Treants (they have the lowest initiative) and it only sticks for one round, then it's as if 3* Treants have no special abilities at all! At least a Toad's 3* special ability is a buff and if you have a series of Toads acting after each other, they can still take advantage of the special ability before the round concludes.
Anyhoo, the debuff bug was reported in May. It's now November. I wonder if they've pushed new code on battle because the Treant one is very easy to observe and I'm surprised I'm seeing it now. I feel like I would have noticed it already if Buddy's debuff was confirmed months ago. Also, in this tourney (marble) this week, I've seen a Banshee tag a buff and debuff on a Mist Walker (correct) and then the second Banshee's next immediate attack
cleared all the buffs on the same Mist Walker (grrrr), which means
it's in the middle of a round! Also saw a hellhound shrug off a Buddy debuff this week. As far as I can tell, special abilities are currently at all levels of not working properly right now.