Cucumis sativus
A fast Vine card that opens with bonus attack, hits hardest from its advanced slot, and heals itself once matured.
Cucumber is a Vine card with both roles: native to East Asia and South Asia, invasive across Africa, Europe, both halves of North America, Oceania and South America. Native it is a cushioned bench piece; invasive it is a fast attacker. See nativity and categories.
The starter attack, Creeping Crush, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, reading 25 native and 30 invasive. Crushes the whole back row under its own weight.
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, Twist Ending, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, reading 38 native and 43 invasive. One last turn of the coil. This is a substantial step up from the starter and the main reason to level the card past level 40. See moves.
Heteroblasty arrives on the first riser at level 10, adding attack power for the first two turns of a battle only. On this card the condition is far easier to use than on most, because its opening tempo is very high — it will usually get to act inside that window rather than watch it expire.
Adventitious Roots stacks on at level 68, healing the card a little each checkup. As with every sustain effect it triggers roughly 60% of the time rather than every checkup, so treat it as a slow drift upward across a long fight, not a dependable tick.
The species record lists no toxicity and no trait keywords, so no poison rider applies. For field gear, the thin armour is the weak point; gear that prevents damage suits it better than gear that reduces it. 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 33 ATK. Armour is 8 and retreat is 16 Sun. The standout is opening tempo at 51, one of the highest in this group, with sustained tempo at 34. Acting first is this card's real advantage. 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 36 ATK, invasive 165 HP and 69 ATK, with armour at 15. Biomass swells, plating does not — the soft-vine result. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and the inverted tempo has sunk to its floor, which is a real loss for this card specifically: the high opening tempo was what made its two-turn bonus reliable, and at the cap that advantage is gone. The self-heal is what it keeps.
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 the better of the two cucumber-family vines in this batch, and the reason is that its trait and its stats agree with each other for once: very high opening tempo means the two-turn attack bonus reliably lands, and the advanced attack gives it a genuine finisher once unlocked. Play it invasive, lead with it, and use those first two turns.
The limits are the usual ones for the shape — almost no armour and a small body, so it trades badly once the opening is over. The level 68 self-heal softens that a little but will not carry a long fight on its own.
It is edible with a fruit economy group, so a phosphorus amendment pays ×1.25 coins. Good tempo card, good income card. 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.