Phytolacca acinosa
A fast-cruising perennial herb with a clutch second wind — a serviceable Competitor that hits noticeably harder as an invader.
Indian pokeweed is a Perennial herb that fights as an aggressive, self-preserving skirmisher. It is native to East Asia and South Asia and invasive across Europe and Eastern North America, so the arena can cast it either way — a native buffer for your bench or an invasive attacker. It is a serviceable mid-tier card whose damage jumps when it plays the invader.
Its starter attack, Stolon Reach, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun for about 31 damage as a native and 34 as an invasive, landing as a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Stabilization, arrives at level 25: Pins the ground down — the foe stalls, and can't break away. The advanced attack, Crown Division, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (38 native / 46 invasive). Most of your pokeweeds sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
Indian pokeweed keeps one always-on trait: resprout. It draws a single eligible trait, so resprout comes in at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 one. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter health — but it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.
It carries no trait keywords and is non-toxic in the arena, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it: no contact recoil and no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear suits its stalling; as an invasive, lean into offensive gear to make its higher ATK count.
At level 40 Indian pokeweed reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 22 native versus 31 invasive — a clear invasive edge that turns it from filler into a real threat. DEF is only 1, at the perennial-herb floor, so it takes hits with almost no armor. Its tempo is a slow start into a fast cruise: turn 1 on its initiative (35), every turn after on its SPD (52), so it is out-paced early but fast and relentless once a fight settles. Retreat costs 13 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, pokeweed swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 40 / 61 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 2 — as a soft herb it gains bulk in health, never armor, so it stays vulnerable to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 25 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last against most young cards. Maturing buys health, damage, and a full-strength second wind, but never a wall.
As a perennial herb, pokeweed is in the Competitor succession group. It strikes Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, bulbs) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them, but it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns), which hit it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
As a native, play pokeweed as a cheap buffer whose HP cushion and overshield shore up a fragile hitter while resprout buys the occasional extra turn. As an invasive it is the better role: fast cruise speed plus a real ATK bump make it a solid player-versus-player (PvP) racer that trades its bench health for pressure. Its value is also economic — it is inedible, so any nutrient banks x1.25 XP toward leveling. It fights as a fast skirmisher until about level 32 as a native (about 34 as an invasive), then its bulk takes over; there is no reason to hold it back from 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.