Daucus carota
A non-toxic annual-forb skirmisher that pools defence from its benched ruderals and plays either arena role — an Old World native or a New World invader.
Queen Anne's lace is a wiry Annual forb that fights as a light skirmisher: soft on its own, it borrows armor from the ruderals sitting behind it and leans on a fast cruising tempo. It is native across Africa, East Asia, Europe, and South Asia, and invasive through Eastern and Western North America, Oceania, and South America, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker.
Its starter attack, Yolo, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 52 damage as a native and 60 as an invasive, and it carries an initiative rider: in a wild encounter it seizes the initiative and strikes first, while in the arena it instead finishes a kill and keeps going. The free once-per-battle ability, Ruderal Rush, arrives at level 25: Weedy haste — a burst of speed, kept for the match. The advanced attack, Scatterseed, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (26 native / 30 invasive). Most of your Queen Anne's lace sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. See Moves.
Queen Anne's lace keeps two always-on traits. Duff Stuff arrives on the level 10 riser: while it is your active plant its effective DEF rises by half the summed DEF of your alive benched ruderals — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, and bulbs. It is recomputed live, so the bonus shrinks as those allies faint, and the donors keep their own DEF; it is a genuine, always-on defence, not a chance-based one. Reseed arrives later, on the level 68 riser: when Queen Anne's lace is knocked out a fresh Seedling token steps up in its place, the annual-forb signature. See Abilities.
Queen Anne's lace is non-toxic, so it has no contact recoil and no poison rider — striking it costs an attacker nothing. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium or magnesium amendment for a little DEF — shores up its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its aggression. See statuses.
At level 40 Queen Anne's lace reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 28 native versus 40 invasive — the invasive gap is real, though its raw attack stays modest. DEF is just 2, at the soft floor of the annual-forb band, so on its own it takes hits with almost no armor and relies on the Duff Stuff pool instead. Its tempo is uneven: turn 1 runs on its initiative (25) and every turn after on its higher SPD (34), so it is out-paced on the opening exchange but relentless once the fight settles. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto 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, Queen Anne's lace swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 50 / 82 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 3 — as a soft weed it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter and depends on the benched-ruderal pool for real toughness. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature card acts last against almost anything younger.
As a ruderal, Queen Anne's lace sits in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Competitor plants (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Ruderals and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Queen Anne's lace as a bench-backed skirmisher: keep it active with a couple of live ruderals behind it so Duff Stuff keeps its armor propped up, then trade with its fast cruising tempo. As a native it is a fine buffer that stiffens while your other weeds are alive; as an invasive its higher ATK lets it push, though it still wins by tempo rather than force. On economy, Queen Anne's lace is edible at the root, so feeding it Potassium pays ×1.25 coins while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth. It plays as a slow-opening, fast-cruising skirmisher that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 18 as a native and 19 as an invasive — but it is always stronger at higher levels, so there is no reason to hold it back.
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.