Phoradendron leucarpum
A native-only Vascular parasite card that poisons what it hits, drains the plant it faces from level 1, and takes a last bite even as it dies.
American Mistletoe is a Vascular parasite card, native to eastern North America and listed as invasive nowhere. It is therefore native-only: it always plays the buffer role, taking the +15% HP cushion and projecting an overshield bar onto your active plant from the bench. There is no attacker build for it. See nativity for how the arena region assigns that role and categories for what a vascular parasite is meant to do.
The starter attack, Graft, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and hits for 29. Grafts on with haustoria, pinning the host.
The free once-per-battle ability, Seed Rain Deluge, unlocks at level 25. Scatters dust-fine seed everywhere — strikes one plant anywhere, and feeds. It costs no Sun, which makes it the cheapest swing in tempo the card has.
The advanced attack, Mistle-Toll, unlocks at level 40, costs 6 Sun and lands for 31. Collects what the host owes it. This is one of a small number of species-unique attacks in the game, and it is the reason to level this card rather than a generic parasite. Both attacks carry a Poison rider from the first level you can use them — see Abilities. See moves and abilities.
This card holds two working always-on traits from early on, and picks up a third late.
Haustorial Drain is an innate feeding mode, live from level 1 and never dropped. When the card is knocked out it pulls a last measure of health out of the opposing active plant, and that drain bypasses the overshield rather than being absorbed by it. It means the card is never a completely free kill.
Sun Siphon arrives on the first riser at level 10, but it does not arrive finished: its mature level is 68, so for the whole stretch between it runs at half strength and only reaches full effect on the second riser. That is a real difference in how the card plays for most of its life, and it is worth knowing before you invest levels expecting the finished version.
Toxin lands on the second riser at level 68. A toxic species has this trait floored onto a riser rather than entering the draw, so the card is guaranteed to keep it. Do not read its late arrival as the card being harmless until then: the Poison rider is a separate safety floor forced onto the attacks of every species rated above "none", so this card poisons what it hits from the moment it can attack at all. The trait's arrival is a step up, not the start.
The hazard ring and warning badge render for the same toxicity floor described above. Be precise about what toxicity does here: the old attack multiplier for toxic plants is retired and it no longer restrains or inflates the attack stat, but the Poison rider it forces is a live combat effect. For field gear, armour is middling rather than absent, so the card benefits from gear that extends its stay on the field and lets the Poison tick. Its growth habit is not vine, epiphyte or hemiepiphyte in the species record, so a Moss Pole does not apply.
At level 40 the native side reads 103 HP and 22 ATK, with armour at 10. Retreat is 16 Sun. Opening tempo is 34, which decides the first turn, and sustained tempo is 34 for every turn after — both sit high for a card of this size, so it tends to move first and can land its drain and its Poison before taking a hit. See stats.
By level 100 health reaches 190 and attack 40, with armour at 20. The card grows into a genuinely awkward blocker rather than a wall: there is more of it, and its armour has moved, but it never becomes a tank. Retreat climbs to 33 Sun, so a matured copy is committed once it is out front, and the inverted tempo has fallen to its floor — the fast opening it enjoys at level 40 is gone by the cap, which matters because the drain works best when the card acts first. The Poison rider and the matured Toxin trait are what the endgame copy actually leans on.
Vascular parasite sits in the Weird succession group, off the type wheel: neutral in both directions against every other group. No matchup gives this card a damage bonus and none punishes it, so its results come from its own traits rather than from a favourable read. See weaknesses and resistances.
Played native, this is a bench piece that punishes trades. The overshield it projects while benched is the routine contribution, and the on-knockout drain means an opponent who spends a turn removing it still pays for it. Its high opening tempo makes it a reasonable lead when you want the first action and want Poison on the board early, though the low health pool means it will not hold the front for long.
Be realistic about the ceiling: half-strength Sun Siphon for everything below level 68 is a long wait, and until the advanced attack unlocks at level 40 the card is a single cheap attack and an ability. It is not edible, so feeding it a soil amendment earns no matching fertiliser coins and instead banks the ×1.25 XP an inedible plant pays — it is an experience sink and a collection piece more than an income card. Test it in the battle lab.
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.