Armeria arenaria
Jersey thrift (Armeria arenaria) is a competitor perennial herb in Supplant — a native-only buffer whose game role is set out below.
This is a sand-dwelling thrift (sea-pink) of European coasts and sandy ground. In battle it is a Perennial herb — a Competitor on the succession chart. It is native to Europe and invasive nowhere, so it only ever plays the native buffer role — there is no attacker version of this card.
Its starter attack, Rhizome Creep, is available from Lv 1 for 2 Sun and deals about 27 damage. The free once-per-battle ability, Alkaloid Reservoir, unlocks at Lv 25: Empties a season of alkaloids into the foe — saturating Poison. The advanced attack, Bitter End (Lv 40, 6 Sun), hits for about 27.
From Lv 10 it carries Bitter Principle, so an attacker that strikes it is Withered (its attack drops by 2). At Lv 68 a second always-on trait stacks on: Resprout, a 60% chance (it triggers about three times in five) to cling on through one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter HP, once per battle.
For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF, which a soft-bodied plant like this feels most. Its growth habit is not recorded as a climber, so it is not Moss Pole–eligible.
Read at the snapshot level (Lv 40, where its whole kit is unlocked), it shows 103 HP and 19 ATK with 4 DEF. As a native it carries a 15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield bar onto your active. On defence, its DEF stays near the floor, so it relies on tempo and offence rather than soaking hits. Its opening tempo (turn 1) is 13 and its sustained tempo (turn 2 onward) 34 — making it slow to open but relentless once it gets going. Retreating it costs 16 Sun. See Stats and Native Strength for the full picture.
By Lv 100 its HP swells toward 190, but its DEF barely leaves its band at 8 — a soft-category plant stays soft no matter how much biomass it puts on. Attack reaches 34, retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its inverted tempo has sunk to a sliver, so the speed it relied on young is spent. It grows bulkier but never becomes a wall.
On the succession chart a Perennial herb is a Competitor. Competitor plants hit Ruderal categories hard (×1.5) and are resisted by Specialist categories (×0.667); against everything else the matchup is neutral. Weird categories are off the wheel entirely, so it trades neutrally with those.
A weak attacker and native only, so it earns its place on defence: a Wither recoil on contact and a late survival trait. A durable support and collection piece that banks XP. It has no resolved edible part, so fertilising it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — useful for levelling.
It fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 13, after which its growing bulk and attack take over from its early speed edge.
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.