Lavandula × intermedia
A dense aromatic shrub that fights as a front-line bruiser with firm armor, extra plating at low HP and a bench heal on its knockout — fielded only as a European native.
Lavandin is a dense, aromatic Shrub that fights as a plain front-line bruiser: a thorny opening lash and firm shrub armor, but no background trick to fall back on. It is native to Europe, and no invasive card exists — the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer for your bench. It is a modest card whose staying power comes entirely from its shrub-grade DEF rather than from any special ability.
Its starter attack, Bramble Lash, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and lands a thorny hit for about 32 damage. The free once-per-battle ability, Facilitation, arrives at level 25: Shelters its own and starves the rest: heal 50%, and the foe's bench withers. It is a permanent attack bump, not a heal, so it only pays off in a fight that runs long. The advanced attack, Thorn in the Side, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (29 damage) and drains a little as it strikes. Most of your lavandin sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Lavandin holds two working traits. Marcescence (level 10) stiffens the spent growth into armour — +4 DEF once at or below half HP. Drupe Mast (level 68) turns the card's knockout into a bench-wide top-up: 8% of max HP to every surviving ally. See Abilities.
Lavandin carries no special trait keywords — no thorns rider, no toxin, no spore chemistry — so nothing punishes an attacker for striking it; it is non-toxic, so nothing chemical bites back either. 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 extra DEF — leans into the durable game its shrub armor already wants.
At level 40 lavandin reads 103 HP and 16 ATK. DEF is 11, up in the firmer shrub band (roughly 20–35), so it genuinely blunts incoming hits — damage is diminishing armor (ATK ÷ (ATK+DEF)), not flat subtraction, so that DEF matters more than a soft herb's would. Its tempo splits across two clocks: turn 1 runs on initiative (36), every turn after on SPD (33); whichever is higher tells the story — a higher SPD means it opens a step slow but cruises in a long fight, a higher initiative means a fast opener that fades. Retreat costs 11 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, lavandin reaches 190 HP and 28 ATK, and unlike a soft herb its DEF actually climbs — to 21, real armor, though short of a full tree's wall. Retreat rises to 21 Sun as it roots in, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature lavandin acts last against almost anything younger. Maturing buys it bulk and bite; it costs speed.
As a shrub, lavandin 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 lavandin as a native buffer with a bit of a punch: bench it to lend a fragile hitter the HP cushion and overshield, or lead with it and rely on that shrub armor to trade for a while. It is an honestly unremarkable card carried by its DEF, with Marcescence thickening that armour once it is hurt. On economy, it is not an edible-part plant, so fertilizer earns no coin bonus — any nutrient instead banks ×1.25 XP, a growth boost that levels it a little faster. It fights as an even-tempo skirmisher early and leans harder on its armor and bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 23 — but it is always stronger at higher levels in raw stats, 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.