Chrysanthemum indicum
A poisoning perennial herb that heals through fights, playable as an East/South Asian native buffer or an invader across Africa, Europe, Oceania and South America.
Indian Chrysanthemum is a Perennial herb that fights as a poisoning attrition card: it poisons on its opening hit and heals through the exchange. It is native to East Asia and South Asia and invasive across Africa, Europe, Oceania and South America, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. Its armor is the thinnest here, so it relies on poison and healing to survive.
Its starter attack, Steady Growth, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 34 damage as a native and 37 as an invasive and leaving the target poisoned. The free once-per-battle ability, Perennating Bud, arrives at level 25: Breaks a stored bud: heal 40%. It is a mid-fight mend. The advanced attack, Perennial Problem, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (42 native / 44 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your Indian Chrysanthemum sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Indian Chrysanthemum keeps one always-on trait, Resprout, which lets it survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health. It arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 riser — a real difference for most of the card's life — and as a sustain trait it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a lucky reprieve rather than a guarantee. See Abilities.
Indian Chrysanthemum is non-toxic — although its starter leaves the target poisoned, the plant itself carries no contact recoil, so striking it does not punish the attacker. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear such as a Cloche or a calcium or magnesium amendment offsets its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its aggression. See statuses.
At level 40 Indian Chrysanthemum reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 22 native versus 30 invasive — a useful invasive gain. DEF is just 1, the softest floor in this set, so it takes hits with essentially no armor and survives on poison and healing. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its lower initiative (33), so it is out-paced off the mark, while every turn after runs on its higher SPD (42), so it turns relentless in a long fight. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and projects an HP overshield onto your active while benched; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, Indian Chrysanthemum swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 38 / 59 ATK, but its DEF barely moves to 1 — as the softest herb here it buys bulk only in health and none to speak of in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 23 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last against almost anything younger. Maturing also brings Resprout to full strength.
As a perennial herb, Indian Chrysanthemum sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Indian Chrysanthemum as a poison-first attrition card: poison the enemy active and heal through the fight while the poison does much of the work, since its own attack and armor are both slight. As an invasive its higher ATK sharpens the plan; as a native it is a buffer whose poison taxes trades. Out of battle it is edible with a resolved leaf, so feeding it Nitrogen pays ×1.25 coins, while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP. It plays as a slow opener that turns relentless and leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 27 as a native and 29 as an invasive — 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.