Alchemilla xanthochlora
A thorned perennial herb that poisons on its opening strike and can cling to life, playing either arena role — a European native or a North American invader.
Lady's Mantle is a low Perennial herb that fights as a prickly staller: it poisons early, mends mid-fight, and punishes attackers that touch it. It is native to Europe and invasive across Eastern North America and Oceania, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is a serviceable card that rewards patience over burst. See nativity.
Its starter attack, Taproot Anchor, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 29 damage native and 31 invasive while applying poison. The free once-per-battle ability, Seral Persistence, comes in at level 25: Refuses to be replaced: heal 60%, and the foe can't heal. It mends the plant. The advanced attack, Herbaceous Assault, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (31 native / 33 invasive) as a plain hit. Most of your plants sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider. See moves and statuses.
Lady's Mantle keeps two always-on traits. Thorns arrives at level 10 and works at full strength, returning contact damage to any plant that strikes it in melee. Resprout arrives at level 68 and lets it 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 rather than a guarantee. See abilities.
Lady's Mantle carries the Thorns keyword, so an attacker that hits it in contact takes recoil. It is otherwise non-toxic — it shows no hazard ring and lays no poison of its own beyond its starter move. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear suits its stalling game; as an invasive, offensive gear plays up its aggression.
At level 40 Lady's Mantle reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 23 native versus 28 invasive (native ATK 23 to invasive ATK 29 — a modest edge). DEF is just 2, at the perennial-herb floor, so it takes hits with almost no armor and leans on Thorns and Resprout instead. Its tempo is even-to-front: turn 1 runs on its initiative (44) and every turn after on its SPD (43), which sit close together, so it leads the opening slightly and is out-paced only a little afterward. Retreat costs 14 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield; as an invasive it draws higher ATK from its trait line, pays Faustian self-damage to its bench, and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, Lady's Mantle swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 43 / 54 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 3 — as a soft herb it gains health and almost no armor. Retreat rises to 28 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts late.
As a perennial herb, Lady's Mantle is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Lady's Mantle as a defensive staller: poison the target early, mend when pressed, and let Thorns tax anything that trades blows with it. As a native its cushion and overshield help a fragile ally survive; as an invasive its damage is only modest, so it works better as support than as a finisher. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as an even-tempo skirmisher until about level 31, after which its bulk carries it; 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.