Centaurea benedicta
A dangerous invasive weed: a wide invasive range drives a high attack, and it stacks ATK buffs across the fight.
Blessed thistle (Centaurea benedicta) is a Annual forb in Supplant. A dangerous invasive weed: a wide invasive range drives a high attack, and it stacks ATK buffs across the fight. It is native to Africa, East Asia, Europe, and South Asia — where it plays as a defensive buffer — and invasive in Eastern North America, Western North America, Oceania, and South America, where the arena turns it into an 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, Seed Scatter, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun: it deals 28 as a native card and 32 as an invasive one. In effect, Scatters seed across the foe's whole back row.
At level 25 it gains its free once-per-battle ability, Germination Flush (no Sun cost, one use per fight): The seed bank breaks at once: +4 ATK, kept for the match.
The advanced attack, Allergenic Odor, arrives at level 40 for 6 Sun, dealing 28 native and 32 invasive: A pollen haze — the foe weakens and its whole bench sickens. 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. Played native, lean defensive (Ca/Mg to deepen its wall); played invasive, lean into offense.
Read at level 40: DEF 1, retreat 12 Sun — an annual-forb sits in the softest DEF band there is (a level-100 cap of roughly 1–5). Turn order runs on two tempo stats: initiative (29) decides turn 1, and SPD (35) decides every turn after. Here SPD outruns initiative, so it is slow off the mark but quickens as the fight wears on.
Native, it gains a +15% health cushion (about 103 HP) and, while benched, projects a green HP overshield bar onto your active. Invasive, its attack climbs from 25 to 35 — the invasive edge is built from how widely it spreads, not a flat multiplier — but it pays "Faustian" self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when it is knocked out.
See Stats for how each number is built.
By level 100 its health reaches 190 native / 165 invasive, its attack 45 / 69, and its DEF barely leaves its soft band (1) — biomass swells but armor does not. Retreat rises to 23 Sun as it roots down, and the inverted tempo has fallen to near its floor — the fast opener of its youth is gone. Growth buys raw power and trades away turn order.
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 and overshield source; play it invasive as an attacker, mindful of the Faustian self-damage to your own bench. It is edible with a resolved leaf part, so feeding it Nitrogen (N) pays ×1.25 coins — a steady, low-effort earner. Any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. It fights as a fast skirmisher until roughly level 21 native (22 invasive), after which its bulk and attack dominate.
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.