Pitcherplant

Overview

The pitcherplant is a carnivorous plant, and it plays as a Carnivorous card. It is native across Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Oceania, and invasive nowhere, so in the arena it only ever fights as a native — a defensive buffer, never an attacker. Like every carnivore it is soft, but it arrives with nutrients already in the soil, which lifts it a little above the floor without ever making it strong.

Moves

The kit unlocks across three move slots.

• Enzyme (unlocks at level 1, costs 2 Sun) deals 29 damage and, more usefully, stops the foe from healing for the exchange — good against a resprouter or a succulent that leans on its regen.
• Nutrient-Poor Niche (unlocks at level 25) is the free once-per-battle ability: Thrives where nothing else feeds: heal 35%. It costs no Sun and fires reliably, so it is a dependable mid-fight top-up rather than a coin-flip.
• Pitfall (unlocks at level 40, costs 6 Sun) deals 37 damage and binds the foe in place while draining it.

None of the pitcherplant's moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes first strike or an extra turn — it relies on its own tempo (see Stats).

Abilities

Read off the card's actual trait schedule, the pitcherplant keeps three always-on traits, arriving at different levels:

• Carnivory is on from level 1 and never drops. It is a lifesteal — the plant heals for roughly half the damage it deals — but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a frequent bonus, not a guarantee.
• Thigmonasty arrives at level 10: the flytrap-snap reflex adds +4 to initiative, its opening tempo, helping it land the first hit of a fight.
• Peat acidification stacks on at level 68: the acidic bog chemistry chips the foe for 2% of its maximum HP at each checkup, a slow burn that adds up over a long fight.

Features

The pitcherplant carries the Carnivory keyword and no other certain trait keywords. It is not Moss Pole-eligible — it is not a climber. Because it self-supplies its own nutrients (see Stats), a Nitrogen, Phosphorus or Calcium/Magnesium amendment is largely wasted on it; a Cloche (to soak up an enemy's contact poison) or a Mulch is a better slot.

Stats

Read at level 40, where every move is unlocked, the pitcherplant is a soft, high-HP card: HP 103, ATK 30, DEF 4, retreat 16 Sun. Its tempo splits the usual way — initiative 29 decides turn 1 and SPD 39 decides turn 2 onward — both middling and both easing as it ages.

Being native-only, it always fights as the buffer: a +15% HP cushion on top of the numbers above, and while benched it projects a green HP overshield bar onto your active. It never fields the invasive attacker role, so it pays no Faustian self-damage and concedes no attacker prizes.

The one thing lifting it off the absolute floor is its self-fertilizing chemistry: a carnivore holds Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Calcium/Magnesium innately, and burns them as combat power — Nitrogen adds +6 ATK, Phosphorus multiplies its sustained SPD by 1.15, and Calcium/Magnesium adds +2 DEF on top of its tiny category floor. That makes it read a touch firmer and hit a little harder than a bare soft card. It is still a weak card in absolute terms — say it plainly.

At Level 100

Maturity swells the pitcherplant's biomass — HP climbs toward 190 — but its carnivorous DEF band is soft, so DEF only reaches 5: it becomes a big-HP sponge, not a wall, and a strong attacker still punches through it. Retreat rises to 33 Sun as the plant roots in, and its inverted tempo has sunk to near its floor by now, so the quick opening it enjoyed as a seedling is gone — at the cap it is slow but bulky.

Weaknesses & Resistances

Carnivorous is a Weird category, off the succession wheel entirely: it deals and takes neutral damage against every group, with no strong or resisted matchups. It has no type edge to exploit and none to fear.

Gameplay uses

The pitcherplant is a collection piece and a modest coin-earner more than a battle winner. As a native buffer it can soak hits and feed an overshield to a stronger active, and its heal-block starter is a genuine tool against regen-reliant foes — but on its own it is fragile and low-damage, so bench it behind a heavier hitter. It is not edible, so any fertilizer you feed it banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. In the Battle Lab you will see it fight as a fast skirmisher early and lean on its (still modest) bulk after about level 21 — but it grows monotonically stronger with level, so there is never a reason to hold it back.