Cystopteris bulbifera
A fast-opening fern that is hard to eat and poisons its killer, hitting well but folding fast under armor-piercing damage.
Bulblet bladder fern is a Fern that opens fast and bites back when it dies. It is native to Eastern and Western North America and invasive across Europe, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is a decent aggressive card: strong opening speed and above-average damage, undercut by paper-thin armor.
Its starter attack, Spore Broadcast, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 27 damage as a native and 27 as an invasive — a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Gametophyte Rest, arrives at level 25: Falls back on the hidden generation: heal 35%. It mends the fern while sapping the target. The advanced attack, Fiddlehead Flail, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (42 native / 42 invasive) and is a plain hit. Most of your ferns sit below level 40, where only the starter is open. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Bulblet bladder fern keeps two always-on traits. Unpalatable arrives on the level 10 riser, making it harder to eat — a reliable, non-random deterrent. Spores arrives on the level 68 riser: when the fern is knocked out, it poisons the plant that killed it, so even a loss leaves a mark. Neither is a heal, so it does not self-sustain in a long grind. See Abilities and statuses.
Bulblet bladder fern carries no trait keywords in its gear list, and it holds no toxin trait — non-toxic, so no contact recoil and no hazard ring. Its lethal-payback comes from the spores ability, not from contact. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native it wants defensive field gear to survive its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear presses its strong ATK.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 26 native versus 26 invasive — the gap is slim here (native ATK 26 rising to invasive ATK 27), so both roles hit about the same. DEF is just 2, at the soft floor of the fern band, so it takes hits almost unarmored. Its tempo leads then fades: turn 1 uses its initiative (51), every turn after its SPD (34), so it opens quickly but is out-paced in a long fight. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield for your active; 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, bulblet bladder fern reaches 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 46 / 46 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 3 — as a soft fern it gains health, never armor, so it stays vulnerable to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys health, the spores payback, and unpalatability, not a wall.
As a fern, bulblet bladder fern is in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Ruderal plants, which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play bulblet bladder fern as a fast aggressor: it hits hard early, mends off its ability, and even trades its death for a poison on whatever kills it. As a native it can buffer the bench too, but its thin armor means it prefers to strike first and fast; as an invasive its similar ATK still plays as an opener. It is inedible, so any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP. It fights as a quick skirmisher that leans on health as it grows, crossing over around level 31 — always stronger higher up, so keep leveling it.
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.