Philodendron atabapoense
A native-only carrion aroid in the neutral Weird group: a low-attack, low-armor card that plays through poison and healing rather than raw damage.
Philodendron atabapoense is a carrion-aroid, a card in the Weird succession group that fights through status effects and healing rather than hard hits. It is native to South America and has no introduced range, so it only ever holds the native buffer role — there is no invasive attacker version to face.
The starter attack, Tug, is available from Lv 1, costs 2 Sun and deals 26 damage while touching the enemy bench: Hauls itself in first: first in the wild, acts again on a kill.
The free once-per-battle ability, Inhibition, unlocks at Lv 25 and deals no damage — Chokes off recovery — the foe can't heal. A solid mid-fight heal on an otherwise fragile card.
The advanced attack, Twist Ending, unlocks at Lv 40, costs 6 Sun and deals 36 damage plus a poison-and-weaken effect: One last turn of the coil. The Poison it applies ignores armor and bleeds through the overshield, which is its real threat since its raw damage is low. No move here carries an initiative rider.
From its trait schedule it keeps Thermogenesis from Lv 10 and Corm Reserve from Lv 68. Thermogenesis works on the foe: the spadix genuinely self-heats, Burning the opposing active a little each checkup for steady chip damage-over-time that ignores armor and bleeds through the overshield. Corm Reserve is a revive trait, not a sustain heal: when a hit would otherwise knock it out, its underground corm re-shoots for roughly a 35% chance to survive at about 30% HP — its own seeded save, separate from the 60% sustain rolls. Its toxicity is none and it holds no Toxin trait, so its Poison comes only from its moves, not from contact recoil.
This is an unarmed, non-toxic card, so an attacker takes no recoil from it. For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment is the most useful pick to shore up its almost non-existent DEF. It is not a climber, so no Moss Pole.
At the snapshot level of 40, ATK is a low 15 and DEF is just 6, so it neither hits nor absorbs well — an average HP pool of 103 (with the 15% native cushion) is most of what keeps it standing. Its opening tempo 34 and sustained tempo 35 are almost identical, so it has no real turn-order identity in either direction. Retreat costs 12 Sun. See stats.
By the endgame HP grows to 190, but DEF stays at the floor at 10 — it never gains meaningful armor. Retreat rises to 23 Sun and the inverted tempo sinks to roughly its floor. Maturing buys it more of a body but does nothing for its weak offense.
As a carrion aroid it is in the Weird group, which is off the succession wheel: it deals and takes neutral (×1) damage against every other group, with no strong matchups and no soft spots. See weaknesses & resistances.
This is a weak card in absolute terms — low attack, floor armor, no standout trait — so it is best thought of as a collection piece for the family tree rather than a battle carry. If you do field it, lean entirely on its poison-and-weaken advanced attack and its self-heal ability to grind, and keep it well backed on the bench. It is not edible, so any fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. Its native crossover sits around Lv 24; below it the card leans on its slim tempo, above it on its modest bulk.
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.