Arctium minus
A poisoning perennial herb that heals through exchanges and plays either arena role — an African and European native or a widespread invader.
Common burdock is a Perennial herb that fights as a poison-and-heal skirmisher: its opening attack leaves the target poisoned, and its later moves mend it as it trades. It is native to Africa and Europe and invasive across East Asia, Eastern and Western North America, Oceania, and South America, so the arena can field it as a native buffer or an invasive attacker. Its raw damage is modest; it wins by attrition.
Its starter attack, Rhizome Creep, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 30 damage as a native and 34 as an invasive and leaving the target poisoned. The free once-per-battle ability, Seral Persistence, arrives at level 25: Refuses to be replaced: heal 60%, and the foe can't heal. It is a mid-fight mend. The advanced attack, Winterkill, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (27 native / 31 invasive) and heals the plant as it strikes. Most of your burdock sit below level 40, where only the starter is live. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Common burdock keeps one always-on trait, Resprout, which arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 riser — that gap matters for most of the card's life. When it works, Resprout lets burdock survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health, but it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a lucky reprieve rather than a guarantee. See Abilities.
Common burdock is non-toxic — no contact recoil and no poison rider on being struck, though its own starter still poisons what it hits. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little DEF — offsets its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its aggression. See statuses.
At level 40 burdock reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 26 native versus 37 invasive — a wide invasive gap, though its attack stays modest either way. DEF is just 1, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor and leans on its poison and healing. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (43) and every turn after on its SPD (45), so it is out-paced off the mark but relentless once a fight settles. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; 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, burdock swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 48 / 76 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 2 — as a soft herb it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, staying exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 23 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature burdock acts last against almost anything younger.
As a perennial herb, common burdock 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; 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 common burdock as an attrition skirmisher: open with the poison, then heal through the exchange while your opponent bleeds. As an invasive its higher ATK adds pressure, but it still wins by wearing enemies down rather than by force; as a native it is a serviceable buffer whose poison taxes anyone who trades with it. On economy, its root is edible, so feeding it Potassium pays ×1.25 coins while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth. It plays as a back-loaded skirmisher that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 31 as a native and 32 as an invasive — but it is always stronger higher, 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.