Artemisia vulgaris
A wide-ranging perennial herb that plays as a bench buffer at home and a genuinely hard-hitting attacker where it has invaded.
Mugwort is a perennial-herb with a global footprint: native across Africa, East Asia, Europe and South Asia, and invasive in eastern and western North America, Oceania and South America. That dual range gives it both roles — a native buffer in its home range and an invasive attacker where it has spread. The attacker side is the stronger of the two here.
Its opening attack, Stolon Reach (level 1), costs 2 Sun and hits for 33 native / 37 invasive: "Runs a stolon out fast — and keeps the speed." The ability Chronosequence (level 25) does "Time on its side: +3 ATK and speed, kept." — a kept stat buff. Its advanced attack, Herbaceous Assault (level 40), costs 6 Sun for 33 / 37: "A season's growth thrown at once — the foe wilts." None of its moves seizes the initiative.
From level 10 it carries Bitter Principle — a contact retaliation: an attacker that strikes it takes a stack of Wither. At level 68 it adds Deep Taproot, which makes it immune to Bind, so no coiling or binding effect can pin it in place. Below level 68 it has only the Wither counter.
No thorns, no toxin trait, no keyword. Its Bitter Principle punishes melee, so it appreciates staying in to trade rather than retreating. It is not a climber, so no Moss Pole. Native, it wants nothing special; invasive, it leans on its attack, so an ATK-supporting board suits it.
At level 40 it reads, native, HP 103 / ATK 28; invasive, HP 89 / ATK 38 — a real attacker step, its aggression sourced from how widely it has spread. DEF is 1 (floor-soft) and retreat 12 Sun. Its opening tempo is 38 and its sustained tempo 46: it is slower off the mark than it is once the fight settles, so it cruises faster than it opens. As an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack (growing as it levels) and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out; native, it lends a +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield.
By the cap, native HP climbs to 190 and ATK to 51 (invasive 165 / 77), but DEF reaches only 1 — a soft-bodied herb never hardens into a wall. Retreat rises to 24 Sun and its tempo sinks near its floor. Maturing buys a hard-hitting invasive attacker, but never a durable one.
Mugwort is a Competitor. It beats Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) at ×1.5 and loses to Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) at ×1.5. It trades evenly with fellow Competitors.
Where it is native, run it as a bench buffer and a Wither-punisher that makes attackers pay to hit it. Where it is invasive, it is a legitimately dangerous single-player attacker — good for clearing wild fights and banking prizes — but its floor-tier DEF means it needs backup on the bench against anything that trades blows well. It is edible with a leaf you eat, so a Nitrogen amendment pays ×1.25 coins (other fertilizers bank ×1.25 XP). It skirmishes on tempo early and leans on its attack after about level 29; level it up rather than holding it young.
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.