Alchemilla mollis
A thorny garden perennial that punishes attackers, plays either role, and gains a late survival trait as it matures.
Garden lady's-mantle is a mounding Perennial herb that fights as a thorny, self-defending trader. It is native to Europe and invasive in Eastern North America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a fair card with a nice defensive hook: thorns punish attackers from early on, and a survival trait arrives later, though its raw damage is soft in the native role. See nativity.
Its starter attack, Taproot Anchor, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 27 damage native / 31 invasive and leaving the target poisoned — see statuses. The free once-per-battle ability, Alkaloid Reservoir, arrives at level 25: Empties a season of alkaloids into the foe — saturating Poison. Its advanced attack, Deep-Seated Grudge, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (35 / 38) as a straight hit. Most of your specimens sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. See moves.
Garden lady's-mantle keeps two always-on traits. Thorns arrive at full strength on the level 10 riser, so from early on any attacker that strikes it takes recoil damage back. Resprout is added on the level 68 riser at full strength, letting it survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter health — but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat that late save as a coin-flip. Neither trait is on from level 1, but once earned they stay. See abilities.
It carries the Thorns keyword, so melee attackers take recoil when they strike it. It holds no toxin, so it is non-toxic with no hazard ring, and its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear stacks with the thorns to make it painful to attack; as an invasive, offensive gear helps offset its low base ATK.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 19 native versus 28 invasive — a large invasive jump, so the aggressive role hits far harder than the native one. DEF is just 3, low in the perennial-herb band, so it leans on thorns rather than armor. Its tempo is uneven: turn 1 runs on a modest initiative (27), so it is out-paced off the mark, but every turn after runs on a much higher SPD (42), so it grows relentless in a long fight. Retreat costs 15 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 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 34 / 55 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 7 — as a soft herb it gains bulk in health, not armor, so it relies on thorns and resprout to survive rather than on toughness. Retreat rises to 31 Sun and its tempo sinks to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last against almost anything younger. Maturing buys HP, contact punishment, and a survival save, not real armor.
As a perennial herb it sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and is struck for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which hit it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
As a native, play it as a bench card that discourages attacks: its thorns bleed anything hitting your active while the cushion and overshield keep the partner alive, and late it can shrug off a killing blow. As an invasive, the big ATK jump plus a poison opener make it a solid aggressor, though its thin armor means it wants to be trading forward, not soaking. It is a rounded, useful card. Its value is also economic: it is inedible, so any nutrient banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as a slow-opening skirmisher whose bulk and thorns take over as it levels, crossing around level 25 — 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.