Phlox maculata
A perennial-herb Competitor that starts slow and cruises faster, native to eastern North America and invasive in East Asia and Oceania.
Meadow phlox is a perennial-herb and a Competitor — a middling all-rounder. It is native to eastern North America (buffer role) and invasive in East Asia and Oceania (attacker role). Like its relatives it wins by outlasting rather than out-hitting.
It opens with Steady Growth at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing 34 native / 35 invasive. At level 25 it gains Chronosequence — Time on its side: +3 ATK and speed, kept.. Its advanced attack, Bitter End, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, dealing 29 / 30 and healing a little on the strike. No move carries an initiative rider.
It keeps one always-on trait, Resprout (arrives level 10, matures level 68), so it survives one lethal hit at reduced effect for most of its life and reaches full strength late. It triggers about 60% of the time — a save to hope for, not to plan around.
No thorns, no toxin trait, not a climber — no Moss Pole. A calcium/magnesium amendment for flat DEF is its most useful field gear.
At level 40 it reads 103 / 89 HP, 24 / 26 ATK, and 4 DEF — soft. Its opening tempo is 29 while its sustained tempo is 34: slow off the mark but faster once the fight settles, so it may cede the first hit and take the lead afterward. Native gives a 15% HP cushion and a bench overshield; invasive hits harder, pays Faustian self-damage each attack, and concedes 2 prizes on a knockout. Retreat costs 16 Sun.
By level 100 HP reaches 190 / 165 and ATK 43 / 50, but DEF only 8 — mass, not armor. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and its tempo has sunk near the floor, erasing the faster-cruiser edge it had earlier. It gains durability and a bigger hit but stays soft.
As a Competitor it deals 1.5× to Ruderals and takes 1.5× from Specialists, resisting Ruderal hits at 0.667×; Weird is neutral. Its thin DEF and poison vulnerability are its weak points.
Play it native as a self-healing buffer with a bench overshield, or invasive as a modest attacker. It is a serviceable coin-earner in single-player but wants backup, and is otherwise a collection piece. Inedible, so fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP. It leans on its cruising speed until about level 22, after which bulk and attack lead; level it freely, as higher levels only make it stronger.
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.