Asclepias speciosa
A durable perennial-herb support card that wins by outlasting rather than out-hitting, with two self-heals and a native HP cushion.
Showy milkweed is a Perennial herb that plays as a durable support card. In the current regions it is native across eastern and western North America, where it takes the native buffer role, and invasive in Europe, where it becomes an attacker. Neither side hits hard; it earns its slot by staying alive and healing.
Its starter, Taproot Anchor, unlocks at Lv 1 and costs 2 Sun: Anchors deep and holds the foe with it. It deals 29 as a native and 30 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Perennating Bud, unlocks at Lv 25: Breaks a stored bud: heal 40%. The advanced attack, Self-Medicate, unlocks at Lv 40 for 6 Sun and hits for 29 native / 30 invasive: Strikes and treats itself — heal 30%. Neither attack carries an initiative rider, so turn order is decided purely by tempo.
Two always-on traits arrive on the risers. Basal Rosette comes in at Lv 10 and adds a flat DEF bonus — a low rosette that shrugs off grazing — which matters because this card's base armor is thin. Contractile Roots stacks on much later at Lv 68; it pulls the crown deeper a little each checkup, adding DEF gradually up to a small cap. So for most of a card's life it holds only the rosette, and the root-anchoring layer is an endgame addition. Both are on-card working traits.
It holds no toxicity trait and no thorns trait, so nothing bites an attacker back on contact. As a perennial herb it is not a Moss Pole climber. For field gear, a native copy wants defensive and support gear that leans into its cushion and heals; an invasive copy wants attack gear to make its modest ATK count. See /wiki/abilities.
Read at Lv 40, where every move is unlocked: HP 103 native vs 89 invasive; ATK 23 native vs 27 invasive; DEF 1, which is soft. Its opening tempo (Initiative, which orders turn 1) is 37 and its sustained tempo (SPD, which orders turn 2 onward) is 37 — near-identical, so it is neither a notably quick starter nor a slow cruiser but holds a steady middling pace on both. As a native it gains the +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; as an invasive it trades that for a higher ATK cap but pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging hit and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. Retreat costs 12 Sun. See /wiki/stats.
By Lv 100 its longevity carries HP to 190 native / 165 invasive and ATK to 43 / 51, but as a soft-bodied herb its DEF barely leaves its band, reaching only 2 even with both root traits mature. Retreat rises to 23 Sun as it becomes more rooted, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap — the quick opening it had as a seedling is gone. It matures into a bulky healer, not a wall.
As a perennial herb it sits in the Competitor succession group: it hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) hard at x1.5 and is itself softened by Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) at x0.667. It is even against other Competitors and against off-wheel Weird cards. See /wiki/weaknesses-resistances.
Play it as a sustain piece. Its once-per-battle heal plus the self-heal on the advanced attack let it outlast chip damage, and the native cushion and bench overshield make it a good babysitter for a fragile hitter. On its own it lacks the ATK to close games quickly, so it wants a finisher on the bench. As an invasive it hits a little harder and concedes prizes, which suits aggressive coin farming in single-player battles. It is edible with the eaten part being its leaves, so feeding it Nitrogen (the leaf fertilizer) pays x1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks x1.25 XP instead. It fights on even tempo throughout, leaning on power once past about Lv 26 as a native.
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.