Alcea setosa
A very fast Perennial herb card with no armour to speak of that becomes impossible to pin down at level 68.
Bristly Hollyhock is a Perennial herb card with both roles: native to Europe and invasive in Africa. Native it is a cushioned bench piece projecting an overshield; invasive it is a fast attacker. See nativity and categories.
The starter attack, Herbal Draught, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, reading 27 native and 29 invasive. Brews its own remedy — strike and heal 12%.
The free once-per-battle ability, Stabilization, unlocks at level 25 and costs no Sun. Pins the ground down — the foe stalls, and can't break away.
The advanced attack, Herbaceous Assault, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, reading 30 native and 31 invasive. A season's growth thrown at once — the foe wilts. A modest step up from the starter for three times the Sun. See moves.
Basal Rosette arrives on the first riser at level 10 at full strength, adding a small flat amount of armour. On a card whose base armour is essentially zero, that is proportionally most of its defence.
Deep Taproot stacks on at level 68 and is an immunity: this card cannot be Bound. A fast card that also cannot be pinned in place is genuinely difficult to control — the usual answer to a racer is to lock it down, and that answer stops working here. See statuses.
The species record lists no toxicity and no trait keywords, so no poison rider applies. For field gear, damage prevention beats damage reduction on a card this soft. Its growth habit is not vine, epiphyte or hemiepiphyte, so a Moss Pole does not apply.
At level 40 native reads 103 HP and 19 ATK; invasive reads 89 HP and 22 ATK. Armour is 1, the lowest reading available. Retreat is a cheap 12 Sun. Opening tempo is 52 and sustained tempo is 50, both near the top of the range. Invasive it pays Faustian bench damage per damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes on knockout. See stats.
By level 100 native reaches 190 HP and 34 ATK, invasive 165 HP and 41 ATK, with armour only at 2. The soft-herb divergence: a large body with no plating. Retreat rises to 23 Sun and the inverted tempo has sunk to its floor, so the speed that defines this card at level 40 is gone by the cap. The Bind immunity is what it keeps.
Perennial herb is Competitor: strong into Ruderal — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs — and weak to Specialist, meaning succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes. See weaknesses and resistances.
A quick, fragile card whose real selling point arrives late. Below level 68 it is an ordinary fast attacker with a small attack stat and no defence. From level 68 it becomes a racer that cannot be locked down, which is a genuinely awkward problem for control-leaning opponents.
Use the cheap retreat freely — this card should be striking and withdrawing, not standing in a lane.
It is edible and its economy group is leaf, so a nitrogen soil amendment pays it ×1.25 coins. See the battle lab.
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.