Gymnocarpium dryopteris
A non-toxic native fern that pins on its opening hit and chips the enemy bench once mature, played only as a defensive buffer across East Asia, Europe and North America.
Common oak fern is a low Fern that fights as a slow but relentless cruiser, opening with a pin and leaning on its traits rather than raw force. No invasive card exists, so it appears in the arena only as a native buffer across East Asia, Europe and both Eastern and Western North America. Its armor is paper-thin, so it is a support piece more than a front-line fighter.
Its starter attack, Frond Whip, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 36 damage and pinning the target. The free once-per-battle ability, Frond Chemistry, arrives at level 25: Bitter frond chemistry — the foe is poisoned and weakened. It mends the plant while sapping the enemy. The advanced attack, Carboniferous Comeback, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (about 31 damage). Most of your oak fern sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Oak fern keeps two always-on traits. Unpalatable arrives on the level 10 riser and makes it harder for foes to profitably chew through. Spore-drift arrives on the level 68 riser and chips the enemy bench each turn, a dispersal-derived trickle of pressure that a benched opponent cannot dodge. See Abilities.
Oak fern is non-toxic: it holds no Toxin trait, so nothing recoils onto an attacker and its hits carry no poison. 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 — helps offset its very thin armor. See statuses.
At level 40 oak fern reads 103 HP with ATK of 29. DEF is just 2, at the soft floor of the fern band, so it takes hits with essentially no armor and relies on its pin, its heal and its unpalatability instead. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on a low initiative (13) that is out-paced off the mark, but every turn after runs on a much higher SPD (34), so it is a slow starter and a relentless cruiser. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, oak fern climbs to 190 HP and 53 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 3 — as a soft fern 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 oak fern acts last against almost anything younger.
As a fern, oak fern sits in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, broadleaf trees) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play oak fern as a native support piece: open with the pin to slow a target, heal through the exchange, and let spore-drift tax the enemy bench once it matures. It is not a hitter and its armor is fragile, so keep it behind a wall and use it to grind, not to trade. 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-starting, relentless cruiser leaning harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 11 — 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.