Masdevallia colossus
A soft South American orchid that opens slowly, blunts damage-over-time and heals through Blight — a native-only, collectible-tier card.
Masdevallia colossus is a small Epiphyte that fights as a slow starter and a relentless cruiser: out-paced on turn 1, then a little harder to shake as a fight drags on. It is native to South America and has no invasive form, so the arena only ever plays it as a native buffer for your bench. It is one of the weaker cards in this set on damage and armor, so treat it mainly as a collectible — though it is unusually hard to grind down with poison.
Its starter attack, Aerial Root, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 29 damage — a plain hit with no rider. The free once-per-battle ability, Impounded Water, arrives at level 25: Drinks its own standing pool: heal 70%. It mends the plant. The advanced attack, Rootless Aggression, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (29 damage) and heals as it strikes. Most of your colossus orchids sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
Masdevallia colossus carries two always-on traits, and they stack into a genuinely attritional card. Peltate Trichomes (level 10) blunt damage-over-time by 30%. CAM Idling (level 68) heals 2% of max HP every checkup — and unlike an ordinary regen it keeps working through Blight, because the plant is recycling its own CO₂ rather than drawing on tissue a blight can reach. See Abilities.
Masdevallia colossus carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin chemistry — so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic: no contact recoil and no poison rider. Its growth habit is recorded as terrestrial in the arena, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear that shores up its paper-thin armor helps it survive.
At level 40 Masdevallia colossus reads 103 HP with ATK of 16 — a low figure. It is a native-only card, so it has no separate invasive attacker form. DEF is just 2, at the epiphyte floor, so it takes hits with essentially no armor. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on a lower initiative (23), but every turn after runs on a higher SPD (34), so it loses the opening exchange but keeps a little more pace as the fight lasts. 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, Masdevallia colossus grows to 190 HP and 28 ATK, but as an epiphyte its DEF stays at 3 — it gains a little health and almost no armor, so it remains fragile against any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap. Maturing buys modest HP and nothing that fixes its low ceiling.
As an epiphyte, Masdevallia colossus is in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants for ×1.5 and is struck for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which hit 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 Masdevallia colossus mainly as a collectible or a native bench-filler: its HP cushion and bench overshield prop up a stronger active, and between Peltate Trichomes and CAM Idling it stalls a damage-over-time race well — but low ATK and bare armor keep it out of serious lineups. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward leveling rather than coins, which is its most reliable contribution. It fights as a slow, low-damage skirmisher and leans on HP as it levels, crossing over around level 20 — so if you do field it, 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.