Citrullus amarus
A Vine card that suppresses what it faces and slowly heals itself, but never hits very hard.
Tsamma Melon is a Vine card with both roles: native to Africa and invasive across eastern and western North America. Native it is a cushioned bench piece; invasive it is a light attacker. See nativity and categories.
The starter attack, Twist, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, reading 28 native and 30 invasive. Twists tight enough to sap it.
The free once-per-battle ability, Gap Colonizer, unlocks at level 25 and costs no Sun. Races into a light gap: +4 ATK and speed, kept.
The advanced attack, Liana Leverage, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, reading 30 native and 32 invasive. Uses the foe's own weight against it, and pins it. It is a genuine if modest step up from the starter. See moves.
Allelopathy arrives on the first riser at level 10 at full strength, projecting a suppressing aura onto the opposing active plant. It works every checkup without costing a turn, and it applies to the plant your active card faces rather than to the opposing bench.
Adventitious Roots stacks on at level 68, healing this card a little each checkup. Like every sustain effect it triggers roughly 60% of the time, so it drifts the card upward over a long fight rather than ticking reliably.
The species record lists no toxicity and no trait keywords, so no poison rider applies. For field gear, the thin armour means prevention beats reduction. Its growth habit is a vine, so a Moss Pole does fit this card.
At level 40 native reads 103 HP and 20 ATK; invasive reads 89 HP and 25 ATK — a modest step, matching its two invasive regions. Armour is 8 and retreat is 16 Sun. Opening tempo is 23, which is low, and sustained tempo is 34. Invasive it pays Faustian bench damage per damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes on knockout. See stats.
By level 100 native reaches 190 HP and 36 ATK, invasive 165 HP and 48 ATK, with armour only at 15. Biomass swells, plating barely moves — the soft-vine result. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and the inverted tempo has bottomed out. The self-heal and the aura are what the matured card actually contributes.
Vine is Competitor: strong into Ruderal — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs — and weak to Specialist, meaning succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes. See weaknesses and resistances.
This is an attrition card rather than a threat. Neither attack is large and the invasive step is small, so it is not going to close a game. What it does is grind: the aura chips the plant across from it every checkup for free, and once matured it heals part of what it takes back.
Against Ruderal-group opponents the type bonus helps. Against anything that hits hard and fast, the low armour and low opening tempo mean it will not get to grind at all.
It is edible with a fruit economy group, so a phosphorus soil amendment pays ×1.25 coins — the economy case is the stronger one here. See the battle lab.
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.