Monstera adansonii
A carrion-aroid whose late move splashes the bench, pins and poisons at once but hits softly overall, played only as a native buffer in South America.
Swiss cheese-plant is a non-toxic Vine with a versatile late attack but modest muscle, and it is a middling card. It is native to South America with no invasive form, so the arena only fields it as a native buffer.
Its starter attack, Twine, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 24 damage in a clean hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Liana Loop, arrives at level 25: Loops around the foe — Bind and Wither. It is a mid-fight poison. The advanced attack, Thigmo-Trap, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (about 24 damage) and does three things at once — it splashes the enemy bench, can pin the target, and leaves it poisoned. Most of your monstera sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Swiss cheese-plant holds a working trait on each riser. Thermogenesis (level 10) is real aroid biology — these plants genuinely self-heat — and mechanically it stacks a Burn on the enemy active every checkup, a damage-over-time the card applies without spending a turn on it. Sapromyophily (level 68) makes it a decoy: wherever the engine picks one victim out of a group, this card takes it instead of an ally. See Abilities.
It is non-toxic and holds no Toxin trait, so it deals no contact recoil to attackers — the poison it inflicts comes only from its own moves landing, not from being touched. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little DEF — helps offset its thin armor. See statuses.
At level 40 monstera reads 103 HP with an ATK of 23, on the low side. DEF is just 6, at the floor of the carrion-aroid band, so it takes hits with essentially no armor. Its tempo is nearly even, tilting to a cruiser: slightly out-paced turn 1 on its initiative (34) and a little quicker afterward on its SPD (36). Retreat costs 12 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, monstera climbs to 190 HP and 42 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 10 — as a soft aroid it buys bulk in health and none in armor, so it stays exposed. Retreat rises to 23 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature monstera acts last against almost anything younger.
Swiss cheese-plant sits in the off-wheel Weird succession group, so it neither gains the ×1.5 strong-hit bonus nor suffers the ×0.667 penalty against anyone — every matchup, against Ruderal, Competitor, Specialist and other Weird plants alike, is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Swiss cheese-plant as a native buffer whose value spikes once its advanced attack is online, since that one move splashes the bench, pins and poisons in a single strike; before then it is a soft chip-and-shield piece. Its own damage stays modest, so lean on the status effects and its bench overshield. On economy, it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a near-even skirmisher leaning harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 23 — but it is always stronger at higher levels, 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.