Gahnia grandis
A native-only sedge that opens faster than almost anything, pressures the whole enemy bench, but hits softly and has no armor.
Cutting grass is classed as a grass — soft, damage-capped, and fast. It is native to Oceania and invasive nowhere, so it plays a native-only buffer role. Its defining trait is its opening tempo: it is among the very fastest starters in the game, so in a wild fight it almost always lands the first hit. Its low attack keeps it from being a real threat, though.
Its opening attack, Blade Runner (level 1, 2 Sun), hits for 29 and keeps its speed: "Runs the blades out — and keeps the speed." The ability Rhizosphere Reign (level 25) does "Owns the root zone — the foe's whole bench sickens and withers." — a bench-wide sicken. Its advanced attack, Rhizome Rampage (level 40), costs 6 Sun for 32 across the enemy bench: "Runs riot underneath the foe's whole bench."
From level 10 it carries Silica Phytoliths — a contact chip: an attacker that strikes it wears itself on the abrasive blades and takes a small hit back. At level 68 it adds Spore-drift: each checkup it chips one random benched enemy. Below level 68 it has only the contact chip.
No thorns, no toxin. Not a climber, so no Moss Pole. Its bench-reaching attacks and Spore-drift make it an area-pressure card; with almost no armor, it wants to strike first and stay out of trades.
At level 40 it reads HP 103, ATK 17 (low), DEF 2 (floor), retreat 16 Sun. Its opening tempo is a very high 51 while its sustained tempo is 34: it lands the first hit reliably, then settles to a more ordinary pace — a quick starter, an average cruiser. As a native it lends a +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield. Its attacks are damage-capped as a grass.
By the cap, HP swells to 190 and ATK to 30 (still low), but DEF reaches only 3 — biomass, not armor. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and its once-blazing opening tempo sinks near floor, so its first-strike edge fades with age. Maturing buys HP and reach; the soft attack and thin armor persist.
Cutting grass is a Ruderal: ×1.5 into Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), ×1.5 taken from Competitors (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), even with fellow Ruderals.
Play it as a native area-pressure buffer that opens the exchange and chips the whole enemy bench while lending a cushion from your own. Its low attack and floor armor make it a weak solo card — it is really a support and collection piece, not a coin-earner, and needs a hitter alongside it. It is not edible, so any fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — feed it to level. It fights on its opening speed while young and leans on bulk after about level 33; level it up rather than holding it young for the tempo.
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.