Scotch Broom

Overview

Scotch broom is a wiry Perennial herb that fights as a spiky, self-defending body: poison on its starter, contact recoil for anyone who hits it, and a chance to survive a killing blow. It is native to Europe and invasive across Western North America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a solid, defensively minded card rather than a heavy hitter.

Moves

Its starter attack, Rhizome Creep, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 30 damage as a native and 33 as an invasive, and it leaves the target Poisoned (see statuses). The free once-per-battle ability, Allelochemical Priming, comes in at level 25: Primes root chemistry — Poison the foe. It mends the plant. The advanced attack, Herbaceous Assault, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (32 native / 35 invasive) as a straightforward, harder hit. Most of your broom sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider.

Abilities

Broom keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Resprout arrives on the level 68 riser. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health — but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.

Features

Broom holds the Toxin trait: striking it Poisons the attacker at the toxic tier, and that recoil fires in player-versus-player (PvP) too. Sulfur soil does not neutralize it, though a Cloche-warded attacker absorbs the hit. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear plays to its recoil-and-survive game; as an invasive, lean into offense to make its aggression count.

Stats

At level 40 broom reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 25 native versus 34 invasive — a genuine invasive edge. DEF is just 1, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so its armor is thin; its poison and contact recoil do the defending, not its DEF. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (56) and every turn after on its SPD (56), which sit at the same value, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 13 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.

At Level 100

Matured to level 100, broom climbs to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 44 / 67 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 2 — a soft herb gains bulk in health, never in armor, so it stays reliant on poison and recoil to punish attackers. Retreat rises to 25 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature broom acts last against almost anything young.

Weaknesses & Resistances

As a perennial herb, broom is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is hit for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.

Gameplay uses

Play broom as a self-defending body that taxes whoever attacks it. As a native it is a decent buffer — the HP cushion, contact poison, and Resprout let it soak hits and punish them — while as an invasive its aggression is only middling, so it works better as a spiky support than as a finisher. It is inedible, so feeding it any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. Because it is a legume (Fabaceae), roughly one in four caught wild arrives with a free Nitrogen amendment — an economy head start that decomposes after about a month. It fights as an even-tempo skirmisher until about level 40, after which its bulk starts to take over, so there is no reason to hold it back.