Melothria scabra
A very slow Vine card whose two traits both want conditions it almost never gets.
Mouse Melon is a Vine card with both roles: native across eastern and western North America and South America, invasive in Europe. That single invasive region keeps the attacker step very small. See nativity and categories.
The starter attack, Creeping Spread, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, reading 23 native and 23 invasive. Creeps across the foe's whole bench.
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, Girdling, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, reading 29 native and 29 invasive. Rings the stem — the foe wilts and can't heal. A modest step up from the starter. See moves.
Heteroblasty arrives on the first riser at level 10, adding attack power for the first two turns of a battle only. This card's opening tempo is at the very bottom of the range, so it usually spends that window being hit rather than hitting.
Apical Dominance stacks on at level 68 and adds attack power while the card is at full health. On a lightly armoured plant that condition ends the moment anything connects — and since this card almost always acts second, it will often have taken a hit before it can use the bonus at all.
Both traits are conditional, and this card is unusually poorly set up to meet either condition. 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, since the first hit 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 22 ATK; invasive reads 89 HP and 22 ATK — barely a step at all. Armour is 8 and retreat is 16 Sun. Opening tempo is 13, the lowest reading in the game, with sustained tempo at 34. See stats.
By level 100 native reaches 190 HP and 38 ATK, invasive 165 HP and 38 ATK, with armour only at 15. Soft-vine divergence. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and the inverted tempo has bottomed out, making its opening-turn trait even harder to use.
Vine is Competitor: strong into Ruderal — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs — and weak to Specialist, meaning succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes. See weaknesses and resistances.
Be plain: this is a weak card. The attack numbers are modest, the invasive role adds almost nothing, and both traits are written for a fast, untouched plant while this one is the slowest thing on the field.
Judge it on its base stats and treat any trait bonus as a windfall. With external tempo support it becomes ordinary rather than poor.
It is edible with a fruit economy group, so a phosphorus soil amendment pays it ×1.25 coins — which is the clearest reason to keep it. 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.