Melothria pendula
A hard-hitting Vine card whose two traits both want conditions it rarely gets — it is slow, and it does not stay at full health.
Creeping Cucumber is a Vine card with both roles: native across eastern and western North America and South America, invasive in East Asia and Oceania. Native it is a cushioned bench piece; invasive it is an attacker. See nativity and categories.
The starter attack, Tendril Whip, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, reading 35 native and 37 invasive. A lashing tendril. It is strong for a starter and cheap to use.
The free once-per-battle ability, Canopy Climb, unlocks at level 25 and costs no Sun. Hauls itself into the light: heal 30% and +3 ATK.
The advanced attack, Canopy Coup, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, reading 35 native and 37 invasive. Takes the canopy — the foe's whole bench wilts under it. It matches the starter's damage at three times the Sun cost, so the starter is the efficient attack. See moves.
Heteroblasty arrives on the first riser at level 10, adding attack power for the first two turns of a battle only. Be aware of the tension: this card's opening tempo is among the lowest in its bracket, so it frequently spends that two-turn window being hit rather than hitting.
Apical Dominance stacks on at level 68 and adds attack power, but only while the card is at full health. On a lightly armoured plant that condition breaks the moment anything connects, so treat it as a bonus on the first swing rather than a standing buff.
Both traits are conditional, and both conditions are ones this card struggles to hold. That is the honest shape of it.
The species record lists no toxicity and no trait keywords, so no poison rider applies. For field gear, anything that prevents the first hit is unusually valuable here, because the first hit is what switches off Apical Dominance. Its growth habit is a vine, so a Moss Pole does fit this card.
At level 40 native reads 103 HP and 27 ATK; invasive reads 89 HP and 30 ATK. The base attack stat is good for a vine. Armour is 8, which is not. Retreat is 16 Sun. Opening tempo is 13, near the bottom of the range, with sustained tempo at 34. Invasive it pays Faustian bench damage per damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes on knockout. See stats.
By level 100 native reaches 190 HP and 49 ATK, invasive 165 HP and 57 ATK, with armour only at 15. The soft-vine divergence. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and the inverted tempo sinks to its floor, making the two-turn opening bonus even harder to use than it already is.
Vine is Competitor: strong into Ruderal — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs — and weak to Specialist, meaning succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes. See weaknesses and resistances.
The raw numbers here are good — a cheap starter attack that hits hard, and a solid attack stat, especially invasive. The problem is that both of its traits are written for a card that acts first and stays untouched, and this card does neither.
Play it as a straightforward beater and ignore the traits in your planning: lead with the starter attack, expect to trade, and treat any trait bonus you actually get as a windfall. If you can support it with tempo from elsewhere, it gets considerably better.
It is edible with a fruit economy group, so a phosphorus soil amendment pays ×1.25 coins. See the battle lab.
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.