Nepeta grandiflora
A soft perennial herb that opens fast, double-heals, and can cheat one lethal hit, playing either arena role — a European native or a North American invader.
Caucasus Catmint is a low Perennial herb that fights as a self-sustaining trader: it opens quickly, mends itself twice over, and occasionally survives a killing blow. It is native to Europe and invasive across eastern and western North America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a durable support card whose damage is only moderate.
Its starter attack, Herbal Draught, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 27 damage as a native and 30 as an invasive — a plain strike. The free once-per-battle ability, Seral Persistence, comes in at level 25: Refuses to be replaced: heal 60%, and the foe can't heal. It restores a chunk of HP. The advanced attack, Deep Root Strike, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (40 native / 43 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your copies sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Caucasus Catmint keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. It draws only one eligible trait, so 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, not a guarantee. Read more at Abilities.
It carries no trait keywords and is non-toxic, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear such as a Cloche suits its stalling game; as an invasive, offensive gear makes its aggression count.
At level 40 Caucasus Catmint reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 19 native versus 27 invasive — a real gap that makes the invasive form the harder hitter. DEF is just 1, at the perennial-herb floor, so it takes hits with almost no armor. Its tempo runs turn 1 on its initiative (39) and every turn after on its SPD (38): it leads the opening exchange but is out-paced once a fight drags on. Retreat costs 11 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield; as an invasive its ATK is trait-sourced, it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack, and it concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, it reaches 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 34 / 53 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 2 — a soft herb gains bulk in health, never armor, so it stays vulnerable. Retreat rises to 21 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it opens fast when young but acts last once matured. Maturing buys health and full Resprout, not protection.
As a perennial herb, Caucasus Catmint is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is struck for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which hit it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Caucasus Catmint as a native buffer that grinds — two heals plus a coin-flip Resprout keep it on the field while the bench overshield protects a fragile hitter — or as an invasive trader whose self-healing offsets some of its Faustian bench cost. Either way its damage is moderate, so it supports rather than finishes. Its economy is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward growth rather than coins. It leads early as a quick opener and leans on its bulk from around level 28 as a native (about level 30 as an invasive); 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.