Omalotheca sylvatica
Heath cudweed is a high-initiative perennial-herb that punishes attackers on contact — a scrappy native buffer with only a slim attacker edge where it has reached Oceania.
Heath cudweed is a perennial-herb: a persistent card that opens fast and answers back when hit. It is native across East Asia, Europe, and Eastern and Western North America, where it buffers your bench, and invasive only in Oceania — so its attacker role is narrow, and its native-to-invasive attack gap is correspondingly small. Its real edge is a strong opening tempo paired with contact retaliation.
Its starter, Stolon Reach (Lv 1, 2 Sun), runs a stolon out fast for 33 native / 33 invasive; it carries no initiative rider — its speed comes from raw tempo instead. The once-per-battle ability, Chronosequence (Lv 25, free), buys lasting tempo and attack: Time on its side: +3 ATK and speed, kept. — a +3 ATK and speed boost kept for the match. The advanced attack, Rhizome Lock (Lv 40, 6 Sun), locks the foe down underground and saps it for 23 native / 23 invasive. See moves.
Two always-on traits, one per stage. From Lv 10 it carries Bitter Principle: whenever an attacker lands a damaging hit on it, its sesquiterpene-lactone chemistry withers the attacker (2 stacks) — a multi-hit attack eats that recoil once per hit. At Lv 68 Deep Taproot stacks on, making it immune to the Bound status so nothing can pin it in place. Together they make it awkward to attack into and hard to trap — a scrappy defender for a card with so little raw armor.
It holds no thorns or Toxin trait, but its Bitter Principle is a genuine contact deterrent, so an attacker pays to trade blows with it. It is not a climber, so no Moss Pole. A Calcium/Magnesium amendment suits its weak DEF; the Deep Taproot already covers it against Bind, so anti-status gear is wasted on it. See field gear.
At Lv 40 (Perennial herb) it reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive and 28 / 28 ATK — a narrow attack gap, because it has invaded only one region. DEF is a soft 1. Its standout is tempo: opening initiative 47 is high, so it usually lands the first hit, and sustained Speed 44 keeps it quick after. Retreat costs 12 Sun. Native it gains the +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield; invasive it swaps that for the modest attack edge, pays Faustian self-damage per hit, and concedes 2 prizes on a knockout. See stats.
By Lv 100 HP reaches 190 native / 165 invasive and ATK 50 / 50, while DEF only reaches 1 — still soft. Retreat rises to 22 Sun and the inverted tempo sinks to roughly its 1% floor, so the high initiative that defined it early fades and it fights on bulk, contact recoil and its kept-buff attack instead. Maturing trades its speed edge for size.
As a perennial-herb it is a Competitor: ×1.5 into Ruderals (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), ×0.667 against Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), even into other Competitors and the Weird categories. Its low DEF leaves it soft to heavy attackers despite the contact recoil. See weaknesses & resistances.
Play it native as a fast, spiteful buffer: it opens first, its Bitter Principle taxes anything that swings at it, and its ability locks in extra attack and speed for the match. The Oceania invasive role exists but adds little punch, so it is better kept as support than fielded as a lead attacker. It is not edible, so fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — a collection and growth piece with a useful defensive gimmick. It fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 31 (Lv 35 as an invasive), after which its bulk outweighs its fading tempo.
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.