Monstera obliqua
A South American carrion-aroid that opens with a poisoning hit, poisons anything that strikes it, and insulates itself against direct damage — a native buffer.
The Swiss cheese plant is a Vine that fights as a light poison skirmisher: its opening attack leaves the target poisoned, and its oxalate needles poison anything that strikes back. It is native to South America and has no invasive form, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer. Its damage is modest and its armor is paper-thin, so it is more a collection piece than a strong card.
Its starter attack, Twine, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 23 damage and leaving the target poisoned. The free once-per-battle ability, Gap Colonizer, arrives at level 25: Races into a light gap: +4 ATK and speed, kept. It mends mid-fight and leaves poison behind. The advanced attack, Vine and Dandy, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (26 damage) and simply hits hard. Most of your Swiss cheese plant sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Swiss cheese plant holds two working traits. Raphide Bundles (level 10) put 2 stacks of Poison on any attacker. Spathe Insulation (level 68) reduces each direct hit by a flat 3 — worth most against a stream of small strikes on this notably thin frame. See Abilities.
The Swiss cheese plant is non-toxic, so it inflicts no contact recoil and carries no poison rider when it is struck — its poison comes only from its own moves. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium or magnesium amendment for a little DEF — helps offset its thin armor. See statuses.
At level 40 the Swiss cheese plant reads 103 HP with 22 ATK. DEF is just 6, at the soft floor of the carrion-aroid band, so it takes hits with almost no armor and relies on its poison instead. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (37) and every turn after on its SPD (37), which match, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. 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, the Swiss cheese plant swells to 190 HP and 39 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 10 — as a soft-bodied aroid it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 23 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature Swiss cheese plant acts last against almost anything younger.
The Swiss cheese plant sits in the off-wheel Weird succession group, which is neutral both ways: it deals and takes normal damage against every other group — Ruderal, Competitor, and Specialist alike — with no ×1.5 strengths or ×0.667 resistances of its own. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play the Swiss cheese plant as a light poison lead: open with it to poison the enemy active, then chip in with follow-up damage. Without an always-on trait to sustain it and with almost no armor, it is a fragile buffer rather than a card that carries a fight, so treat it mostly as a collection or coin piece. On economy, it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as an even-tempo skirmisher that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 25 — 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.