Carex ornithopoda
A quick-opening native grass that wilts the enemy active and chips its bench, playing as a fast but fragile buffer.
The bird's foot sedge is a Grass that fights as a fast, disruptive skirmisher: it leads turn 1 and lays a wilt aura on whatever it faces. It is native to Europe and has no invasive form, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer. Its armor is almost nonexistent, so it wants to strike first and set up rather than trade blows.
Its starter attack, Carpet, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 31 damage. The free once-per-battle ability, Fire Climax, arrives at level 25: A grassland that burns to stay a grassland — fire on the foe, and fire through its own ranks. It sharpens its own attack. The advanced attack, Wildfire Spread, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (44 damage) and hits hard. Most of your bird's foot sedge sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
The bird's foot sedge keeps two always-on traits. Allelopathy arrives on the level 10 riser and lays a wilt aura on the enemy active. Spore-drift arrives on the level 68 riser and chips the enemy bench through dispersal. Neither is a sustain trait, so both run every turn once online; for most of the card's life only the level 10 wilt aura is active. See Abilities.
The bird's foot sedge is non-toxic, so it inflicts no contact recoil and carries no poison rider when it is struck. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium or magnesium amendment for a little DEF — helps offset its near-total lack of armor. See statuses.
At level 40 the bird's foot sedge reads 103 HP with 24 ATK. DEF is just 2, at the soft floor of the grass band, so it takes hits with almost no armor and has to win before it is worn down. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on its high initiative (51), where it leads, but every turn after runs on its lower SPD (34), where it is out-paced — a quick starter but a slower cruiser. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, the bird's foot sedge swells to 190 HP and 43 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 3 — as a soft grass it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature bird's foot sedge no longer leads the way it does young.
As a grass, the bird's foot sedge sits in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, trees, vines), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Ruderal plants and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play the bird's foot sedge as a fast opener: lead with it to take the first turn, wilt the enemy active, and set up before its thin armor becomes a liability. It is a disruptive buffer rather than a finisher, and it fades in longer fights once faster cruisers catch it. On economy, it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a quick-opening skirmisher that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 31 — but it is always stronger at higher levels, 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.