Cucumis melo
A Vine card with a big invasive attack step, a suppression aura, and almost nothing in the way of armour.
Cantaloupe is a Vine card with both roles: native to Africa, Europe, Oceania and South Asia, invasive across East Asia, both halves of North America and South America. Native it is a cushioned bench piece; invasive it is an attacker. See nativity and categories.
The starter attack, Twine, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, reading 24 native and 29 invasive. Twines around and holds it fast.
The free once-per-battle ability, Competitive Exclusion, unlocks at level 25 and costs no Sun. Leaves no room at all — the foe stalls and withers.
The advanced attack, Vine and Dandy, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, reading 27 native and 32 invasive. Takes what it needs and thrives — heal 25% and drain. 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 is facing rather than to the opposing bench.
Structural Load stacks on at level 68 and fires when this card is knocked out, chipping the opposing bench rather than the plant that removed it. It makes trading into this card slightly worse than it looks.
The species record lists no toxicity and no trait keywords, so no poison rider applies. For field gear, the thin armour means damage prevention beats damage reduction here. Its growth habit is a vine, so a Moss Pole does fit this card.
At level 40 native reads 103 HP and 25 ATK; invasive reads 89 HP and 39 ATK. That attack step is one of the larger ones in this batch, driven by introduced range rather than any flat multiplier. Armour is 8 and retreat is 16 Sun. Opening tempo is 31 and sustained tempo is 34 — middling, so it neither reliably leads nor reliably trails. Invasive it pays Faustian bench damage on every damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes on knockout. See stats.
By level 100 native reaches 190 HP and 45 ATK, invasive 165 HP and 80 ATK, while armour only reaches 15. The soft-vine divergence again: much more biomass, barely more plating. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and the inverted tempo has hit its floor, so the matured card is slow, large and still easy to hurt.
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.
Invasive this is a respectable attacker with a passive that keeps working between swings, and the knockout chip means it is never removed for free. Native it is thinner: the aura is still useful, but the attack is unremarkable and the body will not hold a lane.
Be honest about where it sits — it is very similar to Watermelon in shape and slightly behind it on raw invasive attack, so if you are choosing between them for a single vine slot, the comparison is close and comes down to which regions your arena favours.
It is edible with a fruit economy group, so a phosphorus amendment pays ×1.25 coins. A dependable income card and a serviceable attacker. 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.