Dianthus deltoides
A poisoning perennial herb that plays either role, with a hard-hitting invasive form that still wins by attrition.
Maiden Pink is a low, mat-forming Perennial herb that fights as a poisoning skirmisher: its opening hit leaves the target poisoned, and it heals through the exchange. It is native to East Asia and Europe and invasive across both halves of North America, Oceania, and South America, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. Its invasive form hits notably harder, but even so it wins more by attrition than by force.
Its starter attack, Herbal Draught, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 30 damage as a native and 33 as an invasive, and leaving the target poisoned. The free once-per-battle ability, Hemicryptophyte Hold, arrives at level 25: Hunkers at ground level — Bind and Wither the foe. It is a mid-fight mend. The advanced attack, Tonic, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (35 native / 38 invasive) as a plain, harder strike. Most of your maiden pink sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Maiden Pink keeps one always-on trait, Resprout. It arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 riser, so the weaker version is what you get for most of the card's life. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health, but it fires only about 60% of the time — a lucky reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.
Maiden Pink does not hold the Toxin trait: striking it inflicts no contact recoil, and it carries no poison rider on defense — the poison it deals comes from its starter attack, not from being touched. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little DEF — offsets its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its aggression. See statuses.
At level 40 maiden pink reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 25 native versus 35 invasive — a wide invasive gap. DEF is just 4, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it relies on its poison and heal rather than armor. Its tempo is badly front-slow: a very low initiative (13) means it is out-paced off the mark, though a higher SPD (34) lets it grind once a 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, maiden pink swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 46 / 70 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 8 — as a soft herb it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last against almost anything younger.
As a perennial herb, maiden pink sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from 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.
Play maiden pink as a native buffer that opens with poison and heals through the fight, or as an invasive attacker whose much higher ATK, backed by that opening poison, does real damage over time. Either way its low initiative means it usually moves second, so it wants to survive the first exchange and grind. On economy, it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a slow-opening, relentless poisoner that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 11 as a native and 14 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.