Bulbine frutescens
A native-only African leaf succulent with a big health pool, a sunny self-heal, and a water-draining kit — but almost no armor.
The snake flower is a Succulent — a leaf succulent that plays on a large health pool and steady healing rather than armor. It is native to Africa and invasive nowhere, so it only fills the native buffer role. It is a durable stall body, not a threat.
Its starter, Water Leech, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, deals 28, and draws the foe's water off for itself. The free ability Barb Priming opens at level 25: Raises its barbs — Poison and Wither the foe. The advanced attack Dry Spell unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, deals 25, and stops the foe recovering. No move carries an initiative rider.
It keeps two always-on traits. From level 10 it holds Photosynthesis, a heal in sunny weather that lands about 60% of the time — a coin-flip-plus sustain, not a guarantee. From level 68 it adds Caudex Reserve: it supplies its own HP overshield bar to itself, recomputed continuously so it survives swaps — a personal buffer on top of any bench shields. Together they make a soft body genuinely hard to grind down in the sun.
No combat keyword. Although it is a leaf succulent, this scanned card is not flagged with the succulence keyword — describe only the Photosynthesis heal it actually carries, not a separate succulence regen. As a succulent it is not Moss-Pole-eligible. Field gear that keeps it in the sun (for Photosynthesis) or adds flat DEF suits its stall plan.
At level 40: HP 121, ATK 20, DEF 2 — a large health pool wrapped in almost no armor, the classic succulent shape. On tempo it is slow both ways, with a modest opening initiative (27) and a low sustained speed (21), so it usually acts second. As a native it also gets the +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield. With so little DEF, incoming hits land close to full — its defense is health and healing, not toughness, and its low ATK means it will not out-damage much.
By level 100 its HP swells to 233 while DEF stays near the floor at 3 — huge health, negligible armor, exactly the succulent divergence. ATK reaches 35, retreat rises to 41 Sun, and its already-slow tempo sinks to roughly 1% of cap. Maturing buys it an enormous pool to heal against, not resistance to burst.
Succulent is in the Specialist group: it beats Competitors (perennial-herb, vine, shrub, broadleaf-tree) for ×1.5 and loses to Ruderals (annual-forb, grass, aquatic, bulb), taking ×1.5 from them and only ×0.667 from the Competitors it beats. Neutral against other Specialists and the Weird categories.
Play it as a sunny-weather stall wall: its health pool, ~60% Photosynthesis heal, self-overshield and heal-lock ability let it soak and outlast Competitor-group foes, which it also hits for ×1.5. It is weak into fast Ruderal attackers, which double-dip on the type chart and its thin armor. It is not edible, so fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP, not coins — a stall utility and collection piece. Each plant runs one Sun bar (cap 120, refilling +1 every 15 minutes). The starter attack costs 2 Sun, the advanced attack 6, and the ability is free — it is priced by being usable only once per battle. Retreating to the bench costs 19 Sun, and an empty bar attack-locks the card until it refills. From level 52 it regenerates Sun mid-battle, and at level 85 a capstone makes the starter free and drops the advanced attack to 2 Sun.
See nativity, moves, abilities, stats, statuses, field gear, weaknesses & resistances, the Battle Lab and the category guide for the mechanics referenced here.
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.