Cirsium arvense
A hardy, poison-tipped perennial weed that chips the enemy bench and can cling to life, playable as either arena role.
Canada thistle is a hardy Perennial herb that fights as an aggressive attrition weed: it poisons on its first strike, spreads damage across the enemy bench, and can cling to life once mature. It is native to East Asia and Europe and invasive across eastern and western North America, so the arena can cast it either way, as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is a solid, spiky card that is more dangerous the longer it survives. See nativity.
Its starter attack, Crown Split, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 46 damage as a native and 54 as an invasive, and it leaves Poison on the target as it strikes. The free once-per-battle ability, Perennating Bud, unlocks at level 25: Breaks a stored bud: heal 40%. The advanced attack, Taproot Canal, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (28 native / 32 invasive) and is a straightforward heavy strike. Most of your thistles sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See moves.
Canada thistle keeps two always-on traits. Spore-drift arrives on the level 10 riser and chips the enemy bench, spreading pressure past the front plant. Resprout arrives on the level 68 riser and lets it survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter health, but it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat that save as a coin flip. Neither is dropped once earned. See abilities.
Canada thistle carries no special trait keywords, and it is non-toxic on contact: nothing poisons an attacker for hitting it. It does lay Poison through its own starter, so it applies the status without holding the Toxin trait. Its terrestrial growth habit means it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear helps it stall; as an invasive, offensive gear presses its aggression. See statuses for how Poison ticks.
At level 40 Canada thistle reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 28 native versus 39 invasive, a sizeable invasive jump. DEF is just 1, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it has almost no armor. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on a low initiative (34), but every turn after runs on a strong SPD (50), so it is out-paced early and relentless in a long fight. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield; 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, Canada thistle swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 52 / 80 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 2: as a soft weed it gains health and almost no armor, so it stays vulnerable to any real hitter and must win through poison, bench chip, and its Resprout gamble. Retreat rises to 24 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature thistle acts last against almost anything young.
As a perennial herb, Canada thistle is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and is hit for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Canada thistle as an aggressive attrition weed: open with the poison starter, let Spore-drift wear the bench down, and count on relentless SPD to keep swinging in a drawn-out fight. As an invasive its higher ATK makes it a real threat, so that role suits its aggression best; as a native it can buffer a bench, but its damage is where its value sits. It is inedible, so any nutrient banks x1.25 XP rather than coins, making it a grower. It opens slow, then leans on relentless tempo and bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 29 as a native and 30 as an invasive; its stats only climb, 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.