Cichorium intybus
A perennial herb that buffers on defence at home and turns attacker where it is invasive.
A widespread chicory whose attack jumps sharply when it is playing the invader. It is a perennial herb in battle. 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 it turns attacker.
The starter attack Stolon Reach unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun: Runs a stolon out fast — and keeps the speed. It deals about 33 damage as a native and 38 as an invasive.
The free once-per-battle ability Allelochemical Priming arrives at level 25: Primes root chemistry — Poison the foe. It costs no Sun — its price is being usable only once per battle.
The advanced attack Crown Division opens at level 40 for 6 Sun: Splits the crown and strikes from both halves. It hits for about 42 native and 52 invasive.
Most cards you field sit well below level 40, so introduce these slots in order — a young plant has only its starter.
This card keeps two always-on traits, drawn from its category pool; the rest of that pool was dropped and it never gets it. Basal Rosette (from level 10) hugs the ground in a rosette for +3 DEF, resisting grazing and mowing.
A second, different trait stacks on later: Resprout (from level 68) lets it survive one otherwise-lethal hit, clinging on at 25% HP — but the save lands only about 60% of the time, so it is a coin-flip-plus, not a wall. So for most of its playable life — including at the level 40 snapshot the stats below are read at — this card runs its first trait alone, and only a fully levelled specimen holds both.
This card carries no special trait keywords, and as a perennial herb it is not eligible for a Moss Pole (that is for climbers — vines and epiphytes). A Calcium/Magnesium soil amendment adds flat DEF, useful on a soft card like this. Playing native, lean into bench support that feeds the overshield; playing invasive, a Cloche helps by absorbing incoming contact poison. See field gear for the full list.
Read at level 40, it carries 103 HP as a native (a +15% cushion) against 89 as an invasive, with DEF 1 and a retreat cost of 12 Sun. Its attack jumps hard as an invasive (27 native to 41 invasive), a sign of how widely it has spread beyond its home range.
Its opening tempo (initiative, 53) and sustained tempo (SPD, 53) sit close together, so it holds one steady pace through a fight rather than swinging early or late.
Playing native, it and any benched natives project a bench overshield onto your active; playing invasive, it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack (growing as it levels) and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See stats.
As a perennial herb it thickens in HP to 190 native / 165 invasive and gains ATK to 49 / 85, but keeps a low DEF band, capping at 1. Retreat rises to 24 Sun as it roots down with age, and its once-brisk tempo has sunk to near its floor — the tempo pips in Stats above are as fast as this card ever moves. Levelling buys raw bulk and reach; it costs turn-order speed.
In the succession type chart this perennial herb is a Competitor. Its attacks hit Ruderal cards (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs) for ×1.5, while Specialist cards (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes) hit it for ×1.5 and shrug its own blows down to ×0.667. Matchups against the off-wheel Weird categories (carrion-aroids, carnivorous plants, mycotrophs and vascular parasites) are neutral both ways. See weaknesses & resistances.
Play it native as a buffer — soak hits, feed the bench overshield, and lean on its kit. Play it invasive as an attacker, where its higher attack cap does the work, but mind the Faustian bench chip. It is edible with a resolved edible part, so feeding it Nitrogen pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead.
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.