Carduus litigiosus
A weak, low-attack annual thistle: an armor-ignoring ramp and bench-wide chip, but little else — mostly a collection piece.
Italian thistle (Carduus litigiosus) is a Annual forb in Supplant. A weak, low-attack annual thistle: an armor-ignoring ramp and bench-wide chip, but little else — mostly a collection piece. It is native to Europe and invasive nowhere, so it is a native-only card: a defensive buffer, never an arena attacker.
Numbers below are read at level 40, where every move in its kit has unlocked.
Its kit fills in as it levels. The starter attack, Colonize, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun: it carries no fixed damage number — it hits harder each time it lands. In effect, Pioneer spread that ignores armor and hits harder each time it lands.
At level 25 it gains its free once-per-battle ability, Disclimax (no Sun cost, one use per fight): Holds the ground open — the foe stalls and withers.
The advanced attack, Scatterseed, arrives at level 40 for 6 Sun, dealing 22 native and 22 invasive: Scatters wide — the foe's bench sickens and wilts. None of its moves carry the initiative rider, so it never seizes first strike — turn order is decided purely by its tempo stats (see Stats).
Every plant keeps at most two always-on traits, drawn from its category pool with the rest dropped for good. This card keeps two, and both are working traits:
For most of a card's climb it is running on the first of these alone; the second only joins late.
It is non-toxic and unarmed — it holds no Toxin or Thorns trait, so biting it carries no chemical or thorn recoil. Its useful field gear is therefore the general kit: a Calcium/Magnesium soil amendment for flat DEF, a Cloche or Stake to ward status, and Mulch for the economy. It is not a climber, so a Moss Pole does nothing for it.
Read at level 40: HP about 103 with its +15% native cushion, DEF 1, retreat 12 Sun — an annual-forb sits in the softest DEF band there is (a level-100 cap of roughly 1–5). Its attack sits at 16. Turn order runs on two tempo stats: initiative (39) decides turn 1, and SPD (43) decides every turn after. Here SPD outruns initiative, so it is slow off the mark but quickens as the fight wears on.
As a native it is a buffer: while benched it projects a green HP overshield bar onto your active, sized by its rarity, that soaks direct attack damage before your active's own health. It is invasive nowhere, so it never takes the attacker role.
See Stats for how each number is built.
By level 100 its native health reaches 190 and its attack 28, while its DEF barely leaves its soft band (1) — biomass swells but armor does not. Retreat climbs to 23 Sun as it roots down, and its once-brisk tempo has sunk to near its floor. Maturing buys bulk and armor at the price of the speed it had as a seedling.
Its succession group is Ruderal — the pioneers. It hits Specialist cards (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5, and is crowded out by Competitor cards (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), which resist it to ×0.667. There is no type interaction beyond this succession wheel; see weaknesses & resistances.
Play it native as a bench buffer — its best job is projecting an overshield onto a stronger active. It has no attacker role. It has no resolved edible part, so any fertilizer you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — grow it for levels, not income. It leans on its speed edge until about level 31, after which its growing bulk and attack take the lead.
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.