Philodendron melanochrysum
A native-only carrion aroid that plays as a defensive buffer.
The Black gold philodendron is a carrion aroid in Supplant. It is native to South America and is recorded as invasive nowhere, so it plays purely as a defensive buffer: a card that shores up your team rather than an attacker.
Its kit fills in across three slots, and most of your copies will be well below the snapshot level of 40 where all three are live — the plant unlocks them as it grows. Twist is the starter attack, available from level 1 for 2 Sun. The free once-per-battle ability, Inhibition, unlocks at level 25: Chokes off recovery — the foe can't heal. The advanced attack, Clinging Vine, comes online at level 40 for 6 Sun — Won't let go, and feeds while it holds.
Its attacks land for about 26 (starter) and 21 (advanced) at the snapshot level.
Turn order splits across two stats: initiative (37) decides who moves first on turn 1, and SPD (39) decides every turn after. The two are close on this card, so it neither dominates nor loses the tempo battle outright. See turn order for how the two interact.
Black gold philodendron runs a trait on both risers. Raphide Bundles (level 10) Poison the attacker for 2 stacks on contact. Spathe Insulation (level 68) shaves a flat 3 off every direct hit. See Abilities.
For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF (most worthwhile on a bulky front-liner, least on a soft body), and the N/P/K fertilizers drive its economy (see Gameplay uses). This species is not Moss-Pole-eligible: that gear is keyed on a climbing growth habit (vine, epiphyte or hemiepiphyte), and its species record carries no growth-habit tag.
At the snapshot level (40) it reads roughly HP 103, DEF 6, with a retreat cost of 12 Sun and tempo pips of 37 initiative / 39 SPD. Its DEF sits modestly in the low band. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects a green HP overshield bar onto your active — its whole role is defensive support. Sun refills at +1 every 15 minutes up to a cap of 120; an empty bar attack-locks the plant. From level 52 it regenerates Sun mid-battle, and a level 85 capstone drops its starter to free. See stats.
HP swells toward 190 while DEF stays modest (10) — bigger, but no new tricks. Retreat rises to 23 Sun (an older plant is more rooted and costlier to pull), and the inverted tempo has sunk to its floor by now — the fast opening it had as a seedling is gone, so a mature copy leans entirely on power rather than turn order.
Its category is off the succession wheel entirely, so it deals and takes neutral damage against every group — no type advantage in either direction. It lives or dies on raw stats and its kit, not the matchup chart.
Its only role is the native buffer: sit it on the bench to project an overshield, or field it as a body that soaks hits for your carries. Off the succession wheel it never gets a type edge either way, but it is not an empty card: it runs Raphide Bundles from level 10 and Spathe Insulation from level 68, both working every match. It is inedible in the game's economy, so any fertilizer you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — useful as level fodder, not as a coin source. In the Total power gallery below you can watch it trade a fast-skirmisher opening for raw bulk as it levels: it leans on speed until about level 28, after which its power takes over. It is monotonically stronger the higher it goes, so there is never a reason to hold it back.
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.