Bouteloua dactyloides
A native-only Grass card that suppresses the plant across from it and regrows from the base after being cut down.
Buffalo Grass is a Grass card, native to both western and eastern North America and listed as invasive nowhere, which makes it native-only. It always plays the buffer role: a +15% health cushion, and an overshield bar projected onto your active plant while it waits on the bench. There is no attacker version to build toward. See nativity and the categories page for the grass concept.
The starter attack, Buffalo, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and hits for 32. Rolls over the whole back row like a herd through shortgrass.
The free once-per-battle ability, Pioneer Sward, unlocks at level 25 and costs no Sun. Closes the turf: heal 30%, and the foe's whole bench withers.
The advanced attack, Silica Slice, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun and lands for 37. Silica-edged blades cut and draw. It is the hardest single hit the card has, and the step up from the starter is worth the Sun when you can afford it. See moves and abilities.
Allelopathy arrives on the first riser at level 10 and is already at full strength when it lands — its mature level is the same as its unlock level, so there is no half-strength period to wait through. It projects a suppressing aura onto the opposing active plant, wearing down whatever is standing across from it without spending a turn.
Intercalary Meristem stacks on at level 68. This is the regrowth trait, and it is a genuinely good one: grasses grow from the base rather than the tip, so the card heals through damage that would stop other plants. Note that this sustain does not fire every time — it triggers roughly 60% of the time, so treat it as a reliable trend across a long battle rather than something to count on for an exact turn.
The species record lists no toxicity and no trait keywords here. For field gear, the standout number is the armour reading, which is very low — protective gear does more for this card than anything offensive, because almost nothing is being blunted on the way in. Its growth habit is not vine, epiphyte or hemiepiphyte, so a Moss Pole does not apply.
At level 40 the native side reads 103 HP and 22 ATK. Armour is 2, which is close to nothing — this card takes hits almost at face value and survives on its health pool alone. Retreat costs 16 Sun. Opening tempo is 34 and sustained tempo is 34, both healthy, so it usually acts before whatever it is suppressing. See stats.
By level 100 health reaches 190 and attack 40, while armour only manages 3. That is the soft-weed divergence stated plainly: biomass grows a great deal and plating barely leaves its band, so a matured copy is a large target rather than a protected one. What maturing really buys here is the level 68 regrowth trait working on top of a much bigger health pool, which is a better combination than the raw numbers suggest. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and the inverted tempo has dropped to its floor, so the card that used to move first no longer does — contrast the tempo pips at level 40 above.
Grass sits in the Ruderal succession group. Ruderal reclaims from Specialist, so this card hits succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes for extra damage. It loses to Competitor, so perennial herbs, vines, shrubs and broadleaf trees hit it harder in return. That is a real matchup axis to play around, unlike the parasites and aroids that sit off the wheel. See weaknesses and resistances.
This is one of the better native bench cards in its bracket, and the reason is the pairing of the two traits. The suppression aura works without spending a turn, and the level 68 regrowth undoes chip damage roughly 60% of the time, so the card quietly wins long exchanges it looks too fragile to survive. Against Specialist-group plants it also has the type advantage, which is where you should be deploying it.
The weakness is honest and structural: almost no armour. Burst damage removes it regardless of health total, so it is much better against grinding opponents than against anything that can land one large hit. Keep it benched for the overshield when the matchup is aggressive.
It is not edible, so soil amendments earn no matching fertiliser coins from it and instead bank the ×1.25 XP an inedible plant pays. Its value is on the field rather than in the economy. Worth a run in the battle lab against a Specialist-heavy line.
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.