Dahlia pinnata
A very fast bulb whose starter carries the initiative rider, playing as a native buffer or a quick invasive racer with an edible tuber for coins.
Dahlia is a fast, soft Bulb that trades on speed and tempo tricks rather than bulk. It is native to eastern and western North America, where it plays as a native buffer, and invasive across Africa, East Asia, Europe, Oceania, South America, and South Asia, where it becomes a quick attacker. Its standout feature is its starter, which carries the initiative rider — a genuine turn-order lever most cards do not have.
Its moves unlock over three levels. The starter Surprise unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun: Up before anything expects it: first in the wild, acts again on a kill. It hits for 32 native and 37 invasive. That "up before anything expects it" wording is the initiative rider, and it behaves differently by mode: in a wild encounter the move takes hard priority and strikes first regardless of either tempo stat (if both sides bring a rider, they cancel and normal order decides); in the arena there is no simultaneous exchange to jump, so instead a lethal rider strike lets the attacker finish a kill and keep going. The free once-per-battle ability Vernalization Complete unlocks at level 25 and costs no Sun: The cold requirement met at last: heal 60% and +5 ATK. The advanced attack Spring Burst unlocks at level 40 and costs 6 Sun: An explosive seasonal burst. It deals 49 native and 53 invasive.
It keeps two always-on traits, arriving at different levels. Spring ephemeral burst comes in at level 10: leafing out before the canopy closes, it adds a burst of SPD across the first two turns, stacking onto an already fast card to help it win early turn order. Perennating reserve stacks on at level 68: the tuber is a stored-energy organ, so it grants an extra self Sun bar that can be spent above the normal Sun cap, easing the card's Sun budget. For most of its life the card has only the early SPD burst; the extra Sun is a late-game addition.
It carries no special trait keywords. For field gear, a native copy wants defensive help for its near-zero armor, while an invasive racer wants offense to press its speed advantage; a Cloche is useful on either side against Poison. It is not a climber, so it takes no Moss Pole.
At level 40, HP is 103 as a native (with the +15% cushion) against 89 invasive. ATK steps up sharply from 18 native to 30 invasive — a large invasive edge for such a light card. DEF is only 1, so it cannot afford to stand and trade. Its real strength is tempo: initiative 33 orders the first turn while SPD 49 orders the turns after, and that SPD is very high — a modest opener that becomes a relentless cruiser, sharpened further by the level-10 SPD burst and the starter's rider. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it projects a green HP overshield bar from the bench; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes on a knockout.
It grows into a bigger glass cannon rather than a tank. HP swells to 190 native and 165 invasive, and ATK to 31 native and 62 invasive, but DEF stays soft at 1 — a bulb never armors up, so a grown Dahlia is all mass and offense with little to stop a hit. Retreat rises to 23 Sun, and the tempo that made it dangerous young has fallen to a sliver by the cap, so late on it wins on raw stats rather than by moving first.
As a bulb it is in the Ruderal succession group. It deals x1.5 to Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) and resists them down to x0.667, but it loses to Competitors (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), who hit it for x1.5. Against other Ruderals and the Weird categories the matchup is neutral.
Dahlia is a tempo card, and the initiative-rider starter is the reason to run it. Invasive, it is a strong racer: high SPD, a big ATK jump, and a starter that either strikes first in the wild or extends a lethal turn in the arena — pair it with a chipped enemy bench and a rider knockout can chain. Native, it is a serviceable buffer whose speed lets it pick its moments, though its thin DEF means it needs a tougher card to soak for it. It is edible with a resolved edible part (the tuber, a root), so feeding it Potassium (the root nutrient) pays x1.25 coins, making it a real coin-earner between battles; any other nutrient banks x1.25 XP instead. It fights as a fast skirmisher until about level 31 as a native (around level 31 invasive), after which its growing bulk and attack outweigh its fading speed.
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.