Monstera siltepecana
A frail carrion-aroid that chips with poison rather than muscle and plays only as a native buffer across the Americas, where no invasive form exists.
Monstera siltepecana is a non-toxic Vine built around poison rather than raw damage, and it is a weak card overall — its attack is low and its armor is almost nothing. It is native to Eastern and Western North America and South America with no invasive form, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer. Expect it to tax opponents with poison and lend its bench presence to the team rather than win fights on its own.
Its starter attack, Creeping Smother, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 25 damage and leaving the target poisoned. The free once-per-battle ability, Inhibition, arrives at level 25: Chokes off recovery — the foe can't heal. It is a mid-fight poison. The advanced attack, Tendril Trap, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (about 20 damage) and poisons as it strikes. Most of your monstera sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Monstera peru holds two working traits. Thermogenesis (level 10) stacks a Burn on the enemy active every checkup. Spathe Insulation (level 68) takes a flat 3 damage off each direct hit the plant receives — the same trapped-air insulation that lets an aroid hold its heat. See Abilities.
It is non-toxic and holds no Toxin trait, so it deals no contact recoil to anything that strikes it — 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 just 20, so it hits softly. DEF is 6, at the floor of the carrion-aroid band, meaning it takes hits with essentially no armor. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (39) and every turn after on its SPD (39), which match, so it neither opens nor cruises quickly. 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 36 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 10 — as a soft aroid it buys bulk in health and almost 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.
Monstera siltepecana 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 monstera siltepecana as a bench-sitting native buffer: park it to lend its HP overshield to your active and chip with poison when it has to fight, since its own damage is weak and its armor thinner still. It is a collection and coin piece more than a battler. 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 27 — 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.