Ocimum basilicum
A fast, soft perennial herb with a survival trait and a big invasive attack but almost no armor, playable as an Asian and Oceanian native or a wide invader.
Basil is a soft, quick Perennial herb that fights as a low-armor aggressor with a self-mending safety net. It is native across East Asia, Oceania and South Asia, and invasive in Africa, Europe, Eastern and Western North America and South America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker (see nativity). It is a fragile but hard-hitting card, especially as an invasive.
Its starter attack, Herbal Draught, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 30 damage as a native and 34 as an invasive — a clean hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Autogenic Reaction, arrives at level 25: Remakes its own ground: +6 ATK and heal 25%. The advanced attack, Bitter End, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (30 native / 34 invasive), another straightforward strike. Most of your basil sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See moves.
Basil 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.
Basil carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no spore chemistry. It is non-toxic: no contact recoil, no poison rider, and no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear helps it survive; as an invasive, lean into offense to press its strong attack.
At level 40 basil reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 25 native versus 38 invasive — a large invasive jump that makes the invader hit hard for a herb. DEF is just 1, at the very floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes essentially every hit at full force. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (37) and every turn after on its SPD (38), so it is out-paced off the mark but relentless once the fight settles. Retreat costs 11 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield bar onto your active; as an invasive it pays self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, basil swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 44 / 77 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 2 — a soft herb gains bulk in health and essentially no armor, so it stays wide open. Retreat rises to 21 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature basil acts last against younger cards.
As a perennial herb, basil is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is hit for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike 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 basil as a glass-cannon herb. As an invasive its high attack makes it a real threat that can trade up, but its near-zero armor means it will not survive a counter-punch, so pair it with a wall or heal support. As a native its cushion and bench overshield make it a serviceable buffer. It is inedible in this card set, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins, making it a steady growth-earner. It fights as a back-loaded skirmisher that leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 26 — and higher levels only add punch, so keep leveling it.
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.