Aglaonema commutatum
A soft foliage herb that poisons on contact and clings to one lethal hit, hitting a little harder as an invader.
Chinese evergreen is a low Perennial herb that fights as a fragile poisoner: modest damage, a lingering poison bite, and almost no armor. It is native to Oceania and invasive across Africa, South America, and South Asia, so the arena can cast it either way — a native buffer or an invasive attacker. It is a soft card with a slow-burn poison game rather than a hard hitter.
Its starter attack, Stolon Reach, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and lands about 29 damage native / 31 invasive, leaving the target poisoned so it keeps losing health. The free once-per-battle ability, Allelochemical Priming, arrives at level 25: Primes root chemistry — Poison the foe. The advanced attack, Herbaceous Assault, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (29 native / 31 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your evergreens sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. See Moves and statuses.
It keeps one always-on trait: resprout. Drawing only one eligible trait, resprout arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 one. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter health — but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve. See Abilities.
It carries no special trait keywords — its poison comes from its starter attack, not a contact trait — and it is non-toxic to the touch, so hitting it causes no recoil. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear offsets a little of its fragility; as an invasive, offensive gear helps its damage land.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive and 16 / 23 ATK — a fair invasive uplift, though its attack stays middling either way. DEF is just 1, at the floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with essentially no armor. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (36) and every turn after on its SPD (39), which is higher, so it is out-paced off the mark but quicker in a long fight. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield for your active; as an invasive it draws its higher ATK from traits but pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. Link Stats.
Matured to level 100, it swells to 190 / 165 HP and 28 / 46 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1 — as a soft herb it gains health and essentially no armor, so it stays a fragile poisoner. Retreat rises to 23 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last. Maturing buys HP and a longer poison game, never real defense.
As a perennial herb it sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them, but it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Chinese evergreen as a poison-chipper: land the toxic hit, let the lingering damage do the work, and lean on resprout for one extra turn — but keep it clear of straight trades, since it folds to a solid blow. As a native it is a light buffer, better benched. It is inedible, so any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins, making it a fine leveler. It opens a touch slow and speeds up as fights run long, crossing over around level 28 as a native (about 30 as an invasive) — always stronger at higher levels, so keep leveling it.
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.