Campsis grandiflora
A native-only Vine card that is genuinely fast, which is the one thing its opening-burst trait actually needs.
Chinese Trumpet Creeper is a Vine card, native to East Asia and listed as invasive nowhere, which makes it native-only. It always plays the buffer role: a +15% health cushion and a bench overshield projected onto your active plant. There is no attacker version. See nativity and categories.
The starter attack, Creeping Smother, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and hits for 24. Creeps over and smothers — the foe weakens.
The free once-per-battle ability, Smother Climax, unlocks at level 25 and costs no Sun. Blankets the whole stand — the foe's bench withers and is held.
The advanced attack, Twist Ending, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun and lands for 37. One last turn of the coil. That is a substantial step up from the starter and the main reason to take the card past level 40. See moves.
Heteroblasty arrives on the first riser at level 10, adding attack power for the first two turns of a battle only. Unlike most carriers of this trait, this card is fast enough to use it: its opening tempo is near the top of the range, so it reliably acts inside that window instead of watching it expire.
Apical Dominance stacks on at level 68 and adds attack power while the card is at full health. On a lightly armoured plant that condition ends as soon as anything connects, so treat it as a bonus on the opening swing rather than a standing buff.
The species record lists no toxicity and no trait keywords, so no poison rider applies. For field gear, anything that prevents the first hit is worth more than usual here, because the first hit is what switches off Apical Dominance. Its growth habit is a vine, so a Moss Pole does fit this card.
At level 40 the native side reads 103 HP and 17 ATK. The attack stat is low. Armour is 8 and retreat is 16 Sun. The strength is tempo: opening tempo is 51, among the highest in this bracket, with sustained tempo at 34. See stats.
By level 100 health reaches 190 and attack 30, with armour only at 15. The soft-vine divergence: much more biomass, barely more plating. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and the inverted tempo has sunk to its floor, which costs this card more than most — its speed was the reason its traits worked at all.
Vine is in the Competitor succession group: strong into Ruderal — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs — and weak to Specialist, meaning succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes. See weaknesses and resistances.
This card is the rare case where a two-turn opening bonus is actually usable, because it genuinely acts first. Lead with it, take the free attack, and expect the advanced slot to carry the damage once unlocked.
The honest limit is that the base attack stat is low and it is native-only, so there is no aggressive version to grow into. It is a fast, fragile support piece with a good advanced attack, not a threat.
It is not eaten, so a soil amendment earns no matching fertiliser coins from it and instead banks the ×1.25 XP an inedible plant pays. See the battle lab.
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.