Phalaris arundinacea
A relentless grass that wilts the enemy and chips their bench, hitting hardest as an invasive attacker but with paper-thin defense.
Gardener's garters is a fast-cruising Grass built to grind an opponent down over a long fight. It is native across Africa, East Asia, Europe, Eastern and Western North America, and South Asia, and invasive in Oceania and South America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is a genuine offensive card, but so fragile that it lives or dies on tempo.
Its starter attack, Turf Smother, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and hits for about 33 native / 35 invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Pioneer Sward, arrives at level 25: Closes the turf: heal 30%, and the foe's whole bench withers. — it buffs its own attack. The advanced attack, Lawn Order, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (30 native / 32 invasive) and splashes some damage onto the enemy bench. Most of your grasses sit below level 40, where only the starter is live. None of its moves carry an initiative rider.
Garters keeps two always-on traits. Allelopathy arrives on the level 10 riser: it lays a wilt aura on the enemy active, sapping the plant it faces. Spore-drift comes in on the level 68 riser and chips the enemy bench each turn from its own dispersal. Both are on full when they arrive.
Garters carries no trait keywords — nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic, so no hazard ring and no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear helps it survive to its second turn; as an invasive, offensive gear presses its damage lead.
At level 40 garters reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 30 native versus 36 invasive — a strong punch for a herb, and the invasive form hits harder still. DEF is just 1, at the floor of the grass band, so it has essentially no armor. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on initiative (41) and every turn after on SPD (56), so it is out-paced off the mark but relentless once the fight settles. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield; as an invasive it pays self-damage to its own bench per attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, garters climbs to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 55 / 71 ATK, but DEF stays at 1 — a grass gains health and never armor, so even a mature one folds to a heavy hit. Retreat rises to 24 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts last against almost anything young.
As a grass, garters is in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialist plants for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Competitor plants, which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Ruderals and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play garters as an aggressor that wears the whole enemy team down: the wilt aura and bench chip add up while its front attack does the heavy lifting. As a native it is a passable buffer, but its thin defense means the invasive attacker is where it shines. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster leveling. It fights as a fast skirmisher early and leans on bulk later, crossing over around level 33 as a native and 36 as an invasive — always worth leveling.
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.