Nigella sativa
Black cumin is one of the quicker annual forbs off the mark, but it cannot hold that pace — a soft, edible ruderal that earns more at the fertilizer bench than on the battlefield.
Black cumin is one of the quicker annual forbs to act on turn one — its opening initiative of 46 at Lv 40 sits around the top fifth of the category — but it does not keep the lead: its sustained speed of 34 slides back into the slower part of the pool, so it usually strikes first and is then outpaced for the rest of the fight. Underneath that it is a soft-bodied ruderal built for fast establishment rather than staying power. It is native to East Asia and Europe, where it plays as a buffer carrying a small HP cushion, and invasive across Africa and South Asia, where it trades that cushion for a harder attack.
Its starter, Superhero, unlocks at Lv 1 for 2 Sun: Rallies the whole patch — the blow carries onto the bench. The blow carries onto the opposing bench, so it chips more than the active alone — expected damage is about 33 native and 37 invasive. Its free once-per-battle ability, Disclimax, arrives at Lv 25: Holds the ground open — the foe stalls and withers. The advanced attack, Scatterseed (Lv 40, 6 Sun), lands around 24 native / 27 invasive — Scatters wide — the foe's bench sickens and wilts. Most of your copies will sit well below Lv 40, so they carry only the starter for a long while. See moves.
Black cumin keeps two always-on traits. Photoblastic comes in at Lv 10: a light-triggered regrowth that heals a small slice of its maximum HP each upkeep, but only while the sun is out. It is reliable — it is not one of the sustain traits gated to roughly a 60% chance. A second, different trait, Ballistic Dispersal, stacks on at Lv 68: when black cumin is knocked out it flings its seed and every enemy takes a small hit — a parting shot, not something it uses while alive. Below Lv 10 it has neither. See abilities.
Black cumin carries no thorns, no toxin trait and no climbing habit, so a Moss Pole does not fit it. As a fast, fragile card it wants field gear that shields a glass body when you play it native, and gear that presses its early strike when you run it invasive.
At Lv 40 black cumin reads 103 HP native (89 without the cushion) on a DEF of just 2 — soft, as its category is. Its damage rides ATK 21 native, climbing to 32 invasive as its introduced range feeds the attack. Retreat costs 16 Sun. Benched and native, it projects a green overshield bar onto your active (sized by its rarity); invasive, it instead pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging hit and concedes 2 prizes on a knockout. See stats.
By Lv 100 its HP swells to 190 native, but DEF barely moves — 3 at the cap — so it ends a bigger but still-soft target, never a wall. Retreat climbs to 33 Sun as it roots in, and the inverted tempo that made it a fast opener has sunk to almost nothing: a mature black cumin is slow. Leveling buys it bulk and reach, not durability.
Roughly USDA zone 4b — it should come through winters that bottom out near -31 °C. Colder than that and it wants shelter, a wall, or a winter indoors. In the plant's own terms its comfortable range runs from a cold edge near -3.1 °C up to a warm edge around 33.8 °C, which puts it in a Cool-temperate · wide-ranging band. Use that as a guide rather than a promise: the zone is an estimate carrying better than a full zone of error, which is why it reads "roughly."
The chip on the card reports the climate where you are standing, so the reading changes as you travel. Thrives here means your local winter low and summer heat both fall inside black cumin's range, and it earns x2 battle XP; In range means it survives but sits near one of its edges (the longer label says which), for x1.25; Colder than its range and Hotter than its range mean your season runs past an edge, with no bonus. Battle XP is the only thing climate changes — it touches nothing about damage, stats, growth speed or the economy. A plant that reads "colder than its range" is usually just a tender plant facing a hard winter outdoors, not a weak card.
Black cumin is a Ruderal — the fast-colonising succession group its category belongs to. Ruderals deal extra damage to Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) and take extra from Competitors (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees). Against the off-wheel Weird categories it is neutral both ways. See weaknesses & resistances and the categories guide.
Black cumin is a collection-and-economy card more than a fighter. Its seed is edible (a fruit part), so feeding it the matching fruit fertilizer (phosphorus) pays a coin bonus instead of the extra XP an inedible banks — a steady, low-effort earner. In battle it is fragile and short of follow-through: play it native as a benched buffer whose overshield backs a sturdier active, not as a front line. Invasive, its attack sharpens and the bench-splashing starter can soften a whole enemy row, but it still needs support to matter. It fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 30, after which its growing bulk counts for more than its fading speed.
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.