Maranta arundinacea
Arrowroot — a widespread invasive herb with a big attack jump and an edible root.
Arrowroot is a soft perennial herb whose invasive form gains a large attack step, backed by a Bind-and-Wither ability. It is native to eastern North America, western North America and South America and invasive in Africa, East Asia, Oceania and South Asia. That gives it two roles: a native buffer, or an invasive attacker.
Its kit unlocks in three steps, so most of the time you field it below the level where the whole thing is live. The starter attack, Taproot Anchor, is available from level 1 for 2 Sun. It deals 30 damage as a native or 32 as an invasive. Anchors deep and holds the foe with it.
At level 25 it gains a free, once-per-battle ability, Hemicryptophyte Hold: Hunkers at ground level — Bind and Wither the foe. It costs no Sun — its price is that you get one use per fight.
The advanced attack, Crown Division, arrives at level 40 for 6 Sun, dealing 40 damage as a native or 46 as an invasive. Splits the crown and strikes from both halves.
See Moves and Abilities for how the slots and Sun costs work.
A card keeps at most two always-on traits — drawn deterministically, with the rest of its category pool dropped for good. This one draws two, and they arrive at different levels:
Those are the only two it holds; everything else in its category's pool was passed over. See Abilities for the full trait list.
It carries no special keyword chips — it is not tagged toxic or thorned, and it is not a climber, so a Moss Pole does not fit it.
Soft-bodied cards like this one gain the most from a Calcium/Magnesium soil amendment, which adds flat DEF to a thin armor band. See Field gear for what fits.
Its gear picks shift with its role: as a native buffer, defensive amendments; as an invasive attacker, gear that presses its damage advantage. See Weaknesses & resistances for the matchup context.
Numbers here are read at level 40, where every slot is unlocked. It reads 4 DEF and retreats for 16 Sun.
Its opening initiative (32) and sustained Speed (34) are close, so it holds a steady tempo across the fight.
As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion — 103 HP versus 89 as an invasive — and while benched it projects a green HP overshield onto your active. As an invasive it trades that cushion for attack: its ATK rises from 25 to 33, a clear step up, but it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging hit and concedes 2 prizes when it is knocked out.
The overshield, the Sun economy and damage-as-a-ratio are explained on Stats.
By level 100 its biomass HP swells to 190, but its soft-bodied armor stays low at 8 DEF — leveling buys it bulk and attack (climbing to 44 native / 65 invasive), not toughness. Retreat climbs to 33 Sun and its already-inverted tempo sinks toward its floor, so it is markedly slower old than young.
In the succession chart its category, Perennial herb, is a Competitor. It deals ×1.5 damage to annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs, but succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes hit it for ×1.5 and resist its attacks in return (×0.667). Against everything else it is neutral.
The full wheel is on Weaknesses & resistances.
As a globe-spanning invader it is a strong budget aggressor for a herb; as a native it is a control buffer. Its edible root also makes it a Potassium coin earner. Mind the Faustian bench damage on the attack.
On the economy side, it is edible (the eaten part is the root), so feeding it Potassium — the fertilizer that matches a root — pays ×1.25 coins, while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead.
One note on leveling: it fights as a faster skirmisher until about level 24, after which its growing bulk and attack take over as the dominant edge. It is stronger overall at higher levels — turn order is only a small lever — 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.