Nepeta cataria
A soft, self-healing perennial herb that plays either role - a fragile native buffer or a hard-hitting invasive attacker.
Cat mint is a low Perennial herb that fights as a self-healing skirmisher: cheap hits, two mends, and next to no armor. It is native across Africa, East Asia, Europe, and South Asia and invasive across Eastern and Western North America, Oceania, and South America, so the arena can cast it either way - as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. Its invasive form hits noticeably harder, so it is most useful as an aggressive card that heals through trades.
Its starter attack, Rhizome Creep, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun for about 30 damage native / 34 invasive - a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Allelochemical Priming, arrives at level 25: Primes root chemistry — Poison the foe. It restores health mid-fight. The advanced attack, Perennial Problem, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (43 native / 47 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your cat mint sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Cat mint keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Resprout arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 one. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter health - but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve. See Abilities.
Cat mint carries no special trait keywords, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. It is non-toxic, with no hazard ring. As a native, defensive field gear props up its thin body; as an invasive, offensive gear makes its stronger attack count.
At level 40 cat mint reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 26 native versus 38 invasive - a large invasive edge. DEF is just 1, at the very floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with essentially no armor. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its slower initiative (36) and every turn after on its faster SPD (39), so it opens a step behind and pulls ahead as a fight runs long. Retreat costs 11 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, cat mint swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 47 / 77 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 2 - as a soft herb it gains health and almost no armor, so it stays fragile against any real hitter. Retreat rises to 21 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so its late-fight speed edge fades against younger cards. Maturing buys HP, attack, and a firmer Resprout; it never buys toughness.
As a perennial herb, cat mint sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them, while Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) strike it for x1.5 and resist its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the trade is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play cat mint as an aggressive, self-healing attacker. As an invasive its high attack plus two mends let it win drawn-out trades, though its paper armor means a hard hit can end it before it heals; as a native it is a weaker buffer that supports a stronger hitter. It is inedible, so feeding it any nutrient banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. It plays as a slower opener that grows relentless in long fights, crossing over around level 26; higher levels only raise its stats, 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.