Paeonia mascula
A soft, self-healing perennial herb that only ever plays the native buffer role, native to Europe and invasive nowhere.
Peony is a perennial herb that fights as a soft, supportive card. It is native to Europe and holds no invasive range, so it only ever takes the native buffer role — there is no attacker version of this plant in any arena.
Its kit unlocks across three slots. The starter, Bitter Sap, comes online at Lv 1 for 2 Sun and hits for 29 while poisoning the foe. The free once-per-battle ability, Perennating Bud, unlocks at Lv 25 and heals 40% of its HP. The advanced attack, Tonic, arrives at Lv 40 for 6 Sun, dealing 34 and mending 15% on the same swing. None of its moves carry the initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn out of order. See moves.
Peony keeps two always-on traits. Bitter Principle arrives on the Lv 10 riser: whenever an attacker lands a damaging hit on it, that attacker is Withered by the bitter sap, taking a stacking -ATK debuff of two stacks per hit. Deep Taproot stacks on at Lv 68, making it immune to Bind — it can never be trapped or held in place and can always retreat. Neither is a sustained-healing trait, so there is no 60% sustain chance to track here; both simply sit on the card once unlocked.
It carries no thorns, Toxin or Unpalatable contact-recoil trait, so attacking it is safe for the striker. As a ground-level herb it is not a climber and cannot equip a Moss Pole. Its most useful field gear is a Calcium/Magnesium amendment to shore up its thin armor, since its own DEF is very low.
Read at Lv 40, Peony is built around HP, not defence. Its native HP sits at 103 (the +15% native cushion is baked in) against a DEF of only 4, typical of the soft perennial-herb band. Its opening tempo, 51, is well ahead of its sustained tempo, 34, so it is a quick starter that often leads turn 1 and then gets out-paced as the fight wears on. The starter costs 2 Sun and the advanced 6, against a 120 Sun bar; retreat costs 16 Sun. Benched, it projects a native HP overshield bar onto your active — and because it is a more at-risk species, that bar is a large one, well above the sliver a common native contributes. See stats.
Maturing swells its HP to 190 and its ATK to 39, but its DEF only reaches 8 — a perennial herb never hardens into a wall, so it stays a big, soft body. Retreat climbs to 33 Sun as it roots down, and its inverted tempo sinks to roughly its 1% floor, so the quick-starter edge it shows at Lv 40 is essentially gone by the cap. From Lv 52 it regenerates Sun in battle, and at Lv 85 the starter becomes free.
As a perennial herb, Peony is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal cards (annual-forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is hit by Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5 while dealing only ×0.667 back to them. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group it trades even.
Peony's job is support. Its two self-heal moves and large HP pool let it soak damage and stall, and its standout use is on the bench, where its large overshield bar meaningfully protects whichever card is active. It is not a finisher — its ATK is modest and its armor is thin — so pair it with a real attacker. It is inedible, so any fertilizer you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. As a native its power curve overtakes its tempo curve at about Lv 31; below that it leans on speed, above it on bulk, though it is a better shield than a striker at any level.
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.