Ludwigia bonariensis
The Carolina primrose willow is a native-only aquatic card that stalls and withers foes rather than out-damaging them.
The Carolina primrose willow is an aquatic card. It is native to eastern and western North America and to South America, and it is invasive nowhere, so it only ever plays the native buffer role — there is no attacker version of this card. As an aquatic it is a soft, fast control piece rather than a bruiser; see categories.
Its opening attack is Drown, unlocked at level 1 for 2 Sun and dealing 28; it holds the foe under long enough to make it miss its turn. Its free once-per-battle ability, Terrestrialization, unlocks at level 25, costs no Sun and deals no damage — it stalls the foe and withers it. The advanced attack Hydrophyte Headlock unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, dealing 24 and wrapping the foe up to hold it. No move carries an initiative rider. See moves.
This card keeps two always-on traits. Duff Stuff arrives on the level 10 riser and is a real always-on defence: while it is active, its effective DEF rises by half the combined DEF of its living benched ruderal allies — other annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs — recomputed live, so the bonus fades as those allies faint. Waterlogged stacks on at level 68 and is a genuine double edge: its saturated tissue makes it immune to Burn and impossible to drain by lifesteal (there is nothing to steal), but the same root anoxia means it cannot be healed at all — no regen, no ability heal, and no move heal will land on it. For most of its climb it holds only Duff Stuff. See abilities.
As an aquatic it is not a climber and takes no Moss Pole. Because Duff Stuff scales off benched ruderals, it wants a bench of other ruderal cards to be worth its DEF bump. Its base armor is near zero, so a calcium/magnesium soil amendment is the field gear that helps it most. See field gear.
At the snapshot level 40 it carries 103 HP and a very low DEF of 2, with a retreat cost of 16 Sun. Its tempo is lopsided in a useful way: initiative of 51 is high, so it usually acts first on turn 1 and lands its stall before the foe moves, while its SPD of 34 is more ordinary, so it slows back toward the pack from turn 2 on. As a native it gains the +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. Because it is invasive nowhere, it has no attacker stat line. See stats.
Matured to level 100 it is still a soft aquatic: native HP grows to 190 but DEF stays tiny at 3, so it never hardens. The retreat cost rises to 33 Sun, and the inverted tempo has fallen to roughly its 1% floor, so it loses the fast-opener edge that defines it earlier. Leveling adds bulk but not survivability against real damage.
As an aquatic it is a Ruderal. It deals ×1.5 to Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) and takes ×1.5 from Competitors (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf-trees), whose armor also resists its own hits down to ×0.667. It trades evenly with other Ruderals and the neutral Weird group. See weaknesses & resistances.
This is a control and stall card, not a damage dealer: its starter skips the foe's turn, its ability stalls and withers, and its high initiative means it usually gets to act first on turn 1 to set that up. But it is fragile — near-zero DEF and a damage-capped attack — so it leans hard on Duff Stuff and a ruderal bench to survive, and it works better as a supporting piece or a family-tree collection card than as a carry. It is not edible, so any fertilizer you feed it banks a ×1.25 XP boost rather than coins. As a light aquatic it stays a fast skirmisher until about level 31, after which rising bulk and attack dominate.
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.