Martynia annua
Tiger's claw (Martynia annua) is a ruderal annual forb in Supplant — a native buffer and invasive attacker whose game role is set out below.
The cat's-claw or devil's-claw is an annual weed with hooked seed pods. In battle it is a Annual forb — a Ruderal on the succession chart. Native across eastern North America, western North America and South America, it plays as a defensive buffer; where it has spread as an invasive into Africa, East Asia, Oceania and South Asia, it turns attacker.
Its starter attack, Seed Scatter, is available from Lv 1 for 2 Sun and deals about 28 damage as a native and 30 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Nudation, unlocks at Lv 25: Strips the ground bare — heavy Wither, and the foe can't heal. The advanced attack, Covercrop Crush (Lv 40, 6 Sun), hits for about 31 native and 34 invasive.
From Lv 10 it carries Rapid Cycling, whose SPD climbs by 1 each checkup up to +5 across the fight. At Lv 68 a second always-on trait stacks on: Reseed: when it is knocked out it leaves a Seedling token that steps into the slot — the parent still dies and concedes its prize, so this is replacement, not survival.
For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF, which a soft-bodied plant like this feels most. Its growth habit is not recorded as a climber, so it is not Moss Pole–eligible.
Read at the snapshot level (Lv 40, where its whole kit is unlocked), it shows 103 HP and 23 ATK as a native, or 89 HP and 31 ATK as an invasive, with 2 DEF. As a native it adds a 15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; as an invasive it trades that for the higher attack ceiling and pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack, conceding 2 prizes when it is knocked out. On defence, its DEF stays near the floor, so it relies on tempo and offence rather than soaking hits. Its opening tempo (turn 1) is 13 and its sustained tempo (turn 2 onward) 34 — making it slow to open but relentless once it gets going. Retreating it costs 16 Sun. See Stats and Native Strength for the full picture.
By Lv 100 its HP swells toward 190, but its DEF barely leaves its band at 3 — a soft-category plant stays soft no matter how much biomass it puts on. Attack reaches 42, retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its inverted tempo has sunk to a sliver, so the speed it relied on young is spent. It grows bulkier but never becomes a wall.
On the succession chart a Annual forb is a Ruderal. Ruderal plants hit Specialist categories hard (×1.5) and are resisted by Competitor categories (×0.667); against everything else the matchup is neutral. Weird categories are off the wheel entirely, so it trades neutrally with those.
A weedy annual attacker: Rapid Cycling accelerates it over a fight and Reseed leaves a seedling behind when it falls (late), but its DEF is at the floor. A soft invasive coin-earner that relies on speed and spread. It has no resolved edible part, so fertilising it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — useful for levelling.
It fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 13 (a little later as an invasive, around Lv 15), after which its growing bulk and attack take over from its early speed edge.
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.