Lycopodium lagopus
A native-only fern that leads turn 1, pins early, and chips the enemy bench once mature — a Northern Hemisphere buffer.
Arctic stag's horn clubmoss is a Fern that fights as a native-only buffer with a rare early-tempo edge, native across East Asia, Europe, and Eastern and Western North America. It opens quickly, pins with its starter, and drifts spores onto the enemy bench once mature, but it hits and armors softly. It has no invasive form.
Its starter attack, Spore Broadcast, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 27 damage and pinning the target in place. The free once-per-battle ability, Gametophyte Rest, arrives at level 25: Falls back on the hidden generation: heal 35%. The advanced attack, Fiddlehead Flail, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun and deals about 42 damage. Most of your clubmoss sit below level 40, where only the starter is live. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Arctic stag's horn clubmoss keeps two always-on traits. Unpalatable arrives on the level 10 riser and makes it an unappealing target. Spore-drift arrives on the level 68 riser and chips the enemy bench each turn, wearing down plants before they step up. See Abilities.
Arctic stag's horn clubmoss is non-toxic — no contact recoil and no poison rider. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native-only card, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little DEF — best offsets its thin armor. See statuses.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP with ATK of 26; it has no invasive form, so those are its only figures. DEF is just 2, at the soft fern floor, so it takes hits with almost no armor. Its tempo is front-loaded for once: turn 1 runs on a higher initiative (35) than its later SPD (34), so it tends to lead the opening exchange but is out-paced in a long fight. 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, it climbs to 190 HP and 48 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 3 — as a soft fern it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so even its turn-1 lead is gone against anything younger.
As a fern, Arctic stag's horn clubmoss sits in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, trees, and vines) 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 Arctic stag's horn clubmoss as a native buffer that likes to move first: open with the pin while your initiative still leads, then chip the enemy bench with spore-drift once mature. Its damage is modest, so it supports and controls rather than finishing. 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 quick opener that fades in tempo but leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 24 — always stronger higher, 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.