Anthoxanthum repens
A native grass whose colonizing opener ramps past armor and whose traits wilt and chip the enemy, playing as a fast-cruising buffer.
Anthoxanthum repens is a Grass that fights as a spreading pioneer: its opening move ramps harder the longer it lands and ignores the target's armor. It is native to East Asia and Europe and has no invasive form, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer. Its armor is almost nonexistent, so it depends on ramping and its wilt aura rather than on trading blows.
Its starter attack, Turf Smother, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun. It is a pioneer-spread move with no fixed damage number — it hits harder each time it lands, ignoring the target's armor as it ramps. The free once-per-battle ability, Sod Formation, arrives at level 25: Mats the ground over — Bind and Wither the foe. It pins the target in place. The advanced attack, Sod Off, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (24 damage) and simply hits hard. Most of your anthoxanthum sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Anthoxanthum repens keeps two always-on traits. Allelopathy arrives on the level 10 riser and lays a wilt aura on the enemy active. Spore-drift arrives on the level 68 riser and chips the enemy bench through dispersal. Neither is a sustain trait, so both run every turn once online; for most of the card's life only the level 10 wilt aura is active. See Abilities.
Anthoxanthum repens is non-toxic, so it inflicts no contact recoil and carries no poison rider when it is struck. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium or magnesium amendment for a little DEF — helps offset its near-total lack of armor. See statuses.
At level 40 anthoxanthum reads 103 HP with 22 ATK. DEF is just 1, at the soft floor of the grass band, so it takes hits with almost no armor and relies on its ramp and wilt aura instead. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (41), where it is out-paced, but every turn after runs on its high SPD (55), where it is relentless — a slow starter but a fast cruiser, which suits a ramping opener. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, anthoxanthum swells to 190 HP and 39 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1 — as a soft grass it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 24 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature anthoxanthum no longer cruises the way it does young.
As a grass, anthoxanthum sits in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, trees, vines), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Ruderal plants and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play anthoxanthum as a ramping cruiser: keep it in against a single target so its colonizing opener climbs, ignore the enemy's armor, and let its wilt aura and fast cruise speed grind the fight out over several turns. It is a disruptive buffer that rewards staying power, though its thin armor caps how much punishment it can take. On economy, it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a slow-opening, fast-cruising skirmisher that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 35 — but it is always stronger at higher levels, so there is no reason to 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.