Lactuca hirsuta
A native-only annual-forb with a bench-splashing opener and a heavy advanced hit, but essentially no armor to survive a trade.
Hairy lettuce is an annual-forb — a soft, fast weed. It is native to eastern North America and invasive nowhere, so it plays a native-only buffer role. Its draw is a bench-splashing opener and a genuinely heavy advanced attack, which make it a decent single-player coin-earner despite paper armor.
Its opening attack, Superhero (level 1, 2 Sun), hits for 35 and splashes onto the enemy bench: "Rallies the whole patch — the blow carries onto the bench." The ability Nudation (level 25) does "Strips the ground bare — heavy Wither, and the foe can't heal." — heavy Wither plus a heal-block. Its advanced attack, Ragweed Burst (level 40), costs 6 Sun for a large 48: "An all-in burst of growth."
From level 10 it carries Photoblastic — a small self-heal each checkup, only in sunny weather. At level 68 it adds Soil Seed Bank, a revive: when it would be knocked out it clings on at about 15% HP, landing about 60% of the time — a coin-flip-plus save, not a guarantee. Below level 68 it has only the sunny heal.
No thorns, no toxin, no keyword. Not a climber, so no Moss Pole. Its splashing starter and bench-withering ability make it a soft area-pressure card; it wants cheap survivability gear to last long enough to use them.
At level 40 it reads HP 103, ATK 25, DEF 1, retreat 12 Sun. Its opening tempo is 29 and its sustained tempo 45: it is slow off the mark but fast once the fight settles — a slow starter and a quick cruiser, so it often takes the first hit before pulling ahead on speed. As a native it lends a +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield. Its DEF is at floor and stays there, so almost every hit lands near full.
By the cap, HP swells to 190 and ATK to 45, but DEF reaches only 1 — a soft annual gains bulk, not armor. Retreat rises to 23 Sun and its opening tempo sinks near floor. Maturing buys HP and hitting power, never durability.
Hairy lettuce 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 buffer whose splash opener and heavy advanced hit let it also clear some single-player fights — but its floor armor means it needs backup benched. It is edible with a leaf you eat, so a Nitrogen amendment pays ×1.25 coins (any other fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP). It fights as a fast skirmisher early and gains bulk with level; level it up rather than holding it young.
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.