Bromus tectorum
A fast invasive grass that ignores armor, wilts the enemy active, and spreads bench damage, playable as either arena role.
Cheatgrass is a quick, wiry Grass that fights as an armor-cutting racer: it ramps its damage, ignores the target's armor, and drapes a wilt aura over the enemy active. It is native to Europe and invasive across eastern and western North America, so the arena can cast it either way, as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is a fast, fragile card whose aggression is far easier to use than its thin defense. See nativity.
Its starter attack, Colonize, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun. It ignores the target's armor and hits harder each time it lands, so it has no fixed damage number and threatens even high-DEF walls. The free once-per-battle ability, C4 Ascendancy, unlocks at level 25: Runs the hotter carbon pathway: +8 ATK and speed, kept. The advanced attack, Grazing Damage, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (29 native / 33 invasive) and splashes damage onto the enemy bench. Most of your cheatgrass sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See moves.
Cheatgrass keeps two always-on traits. Allelopathy arrives on the level 10 riser and lays a wilt aura on the enemy active, sapping it each turn it stays in. Spore-drift arrives on the level 68 riser and chips the enemy bench, spreading pressure past the front plant. Both are dependable once earned and neither is dropped. See abilities.
Cheatgrass carries no special trait keywords, and it is non-toxic: nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it, and it lays no poison. Its terrestrial growth habit means it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, light defensive field gear buys it a turn; as an invasive, offensive gear compounds its ramp and speed. See statuses for the wilt aura.
At level 40 cheatgrass reads 65 HP as a native and 57 as an invasive, with ATK of 27 native versus 38 invasive, a large invasive jump. DEF is just 1, at the soft floor of the grass band, so it has essentially no armor. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on a fair initiative (43), but every turn after runs on a strong SPD (60), so it is out-paced in the opening and relentless once the fight settles, which pairs well with its ramp. Retreat costs 11 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield; 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, cheatgrass swells to 103 HP native / 90 invasive and 50 / 79 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1: as a soft grass it gains health and no armor, so it dies to any real hitter and must win first. Retreat rises to 20 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature cheatgrass loses the speed that made it dangerous, though its armor-ignoring damage still climbs.
As a grass, cheatgrass is in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for x1.5 and is hit for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, trees), which strike it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Ruderals and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play cheatgrass as an armor-cutting racer: its ramping, armor-ignoring starter is strongest against tanky Specialists, the wilt aura ticks free damage on whatever stays in front of it, and its advanced move spreads that pressure to the bench. As an invasive its much higher ATK makes it a real threat, so that role suits it best; as a native it can buffer, but aggression is its point. It is inedible, so any nutrient banks x1.25 XP rather than coins, making it a grower. It opens slower than it cruises and relies on relentless tempo and ramp, crossing into its bulk role around level 49 as a native and 47 as an invasive; its stats only climb, 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.