Mammillaria prolifera
A native-only cactus that regenerates in any weather and later heals in sun, a sticky self-healing staller with almost no armor and no invasive card.
Little candles is a small Succulent that fights as a self-healing staller. It is native to eastern and western North America and South America, and the arena only ever casts it as a native buffer for your bench; no invasive attacker card exists, so it supports rather than finishes. Its damage is low, but stacked regeneration lets it wear opponents down over time.
Its starter attack, Prick, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and both hits and pins the target for about 27 damage. The free once-per-battle ability, Barb Priming, arrives at level 25: Raises its barbs — Poison and Wither the foe. It is a self-heal. The advanced attack, Water Hoard, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun and both strikes for about 22 damage and mends the plant as it hits. Most of your specimens sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See moves.
It keeps two always-on traits. Succulence arrives on the level 10 riser and lets it regenerate in any weather, though as a chance-gated trait it fires only about 60% of the time. Photosynthesis arrives on the level 68 riser and heals it in sun, again on roughly a 60% trigger. Both are helpful trickles rather than guarantees, and together they keep it sticky in long fights. See abilities.
It carries the Succulence keyword, which drives its any-weather regeneration, and no toxin, so despite the spines it shows no hazard ring and its contact deals no recoil or poison; it is non-toxic. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear such as a Cloche stacks with its healing to make it even harder to remove.
At level 40 it reads 121 HP and 19 ATK. DEF is just 1, at the rock-bottom floor of its band, so it survives on healing, not armor. Tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (41) and later turns on its slightly higher SPD (42), so it is out-paced off the mark but grows steadier the longer it stays in. Retreat costs 13 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield. Link Stats.
Matured to level 100, it swells to 233 HP and 33 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1 — as a succulent it becomes a big health pool with almost no armor, leaning entirely on regeneration to stay alive. Retreat rises to 25 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap. Maturing adds Photosynthesis on top of Succulence, its best reason to level.
As a succulent it is in the Specialist group. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, broadleaf trees) for x1.5 and resists their blows at x0.667; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which strike it for x1.5 while shrugging off its hits. Against other Specialists and the Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play it as a sticky native staller: pin the enemy active, mend with the advanced attack, and let its two regeneration traits drag out fights while its bench overshield protects a stronger ally. It cannot trade blows with a real hitter, so use it to buy time, not to close. Its value is also economic: it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP toward levels. Its tempo grows the longer a fight runs, and its bulk takes over from about level 26, so leveling it only helps.
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.