Lysimachia ciliata
A soft perennial herb with a strong attack and a big self-heal, plus a slow-burn late ATK trait — a buffer when native, an attacker when invasive.
Fringed loosestrife is a Perennial herb that plays as a lightly armored striker with a large heal to keep it in the fight. It has both roles: it is native to eastern and western North America, where it takes the native buffer job, and invasive in Europe, where it becomes an attacker. As a herb its armor is thin, so it wins by hitting and healing rather than soaking.
Its starter attack, Steady Growth, unlocks at Lv 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing 35 native / 37 invasive: A reliable, even strike.
At Lv 25 it gains a free once-per-battle ability, Perennating Bud, which costs no Sun: Breaks a stored bud: heal 40%. A 40% self-heal on a fragile herb is a real swing — it can undo a heavy exchange in one free action.
Its advanced attack, Deep Root Strike, unlocks at Lv 40 for 6 Sun and hits for 43 native / 44 invasive: Draws on deep roots for a heavy blow. Neither attack carries an initiative rider, so it fights on the normal turn order.
It keeps two always-on traits, arriving at different levels. From Lv 10 it holds Bitter Principle, which Withers any attacker that strikes it — a retaliation that taxes the foe on every damaging hit it lands. A second, different trait stacks on at Lv 68: Vernalization Memory, which grants +5 ATK from turn 3 onward. That is a slow-starter shape — it does nothing in the opening exchanges and only rewards a fight that runs long, which suits a card built to heal and outlast. The two never arrive together; for most of the card's life it has only the retaliation.
It carries no special trait keywords, and as a herb it is not a Moss Pole climber. For field gear, a native copy wants defensive amendments to cover its low DEF, while an invasive copy prefers attack or protective gear to press its higher ATK and offset the self-damage it pays to swing.
Read at Lv 40, a native Fringed loosestrife carries 103 HP against the invasive 89, and its ATK identity steps up clearly — 26 native versus 30 invasive — so the invasive side hits noticeably harder. DEF is only 4, so it soaks little and relies on its heal instead. On tempo, turn 1 is set by initiative (22) and later turns by SPD (34); its sustained speed outpaces its modest opening, so it is steadier across a long fight than it is on the first turn — which pairs well with the turn-3 attack trait. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As an invasive attacker it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging hit and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. A benched native copy projects an HP overshield bar onto your active, sized by rarity.
Grown to Lv 100, its HP rises to 190 native / 165 invasive and its ATK to 48 / 59, while its DEF barely moves — 8 even at the cap. That is the soft-herb pattern: growing biomass and attack, but no real armor, so it stays fragile. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and the inverted tempo has fallen to roughly its floor, so it no longer wins races the way a young copy does.
As a perennial herb it is in the Competitor succession group. It deals ×1.5 to Ruderal categories — annual-forb, grass, aquatic and bulb — and is resisted, taking only ×0.667, by Specialists — succulent, conifer, fern and epiphyte. Its thin DEF makes a resisted matchup dangerous, so lean on the heal and the retaliation to grind rather than trade blows.
An invasive Fringed loosestrife is a solid single-player coin earner: it hits hard, its once-per-battle 40% heal buys it a second life in an exchange, and Vernalization Memory rewards it for dragging a fight past turn three. The weakness is durability — with almost no DEF it needs bench backup and cannot brawl a tank directly. As a native it plays as a quick, self-sustaining harasser and overshield contributor. It is inedible, so any fertilizer you feed it banks the ×1.25 XP (growth) bonus rather than coins. In Battle Lab terms it stays speed-favored until about Lv 19 as an invasive, after which its rising attack and HP 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.