Plantago rugelii
A poison-tipped, self-healing herb with a survival trait, playing a North American native or an invasive attacker.
American plantain is a low Perennial herb that fights as a poisoning staller: its opening strike leaves the target bleeding damage while the plant heals and clings on. It is native to Eastern and Western North America and invasive across Oceania and South America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is a fragile but sticky card whose poison and survival trait stretch fights out.
Its starter attack, Stolon Reach, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 33 damage as a native and 33 as an invasive, and it leaves the target poisoned so it keeps taking damage. The free once-per-battle ability, Perennating Bud, comes in at level 25: Breaks a stored bud: heal 40%. It mends the plant. The advanced attack, Deep Root Strike, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (43 native / 43 invasive), a plain hit. Most plantains sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn; see Moves and Statuses.
American plantain keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Resprout arrives 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 rather than a guarantee. See Abilities.
American plantain carries no trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin chemistry — so nothing extra punishes an attacker for hitting it; the poison it inflicts comes from its starter move, not from a contact trait. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. Non-toxic on contact: no recoil, no passive poison rider. As a native, defensive field gear helps it outlast; as an invasive, offensive gear sharpens its damage.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 26 native versus 26 invasive — native ATK 26 rises to invasive ATK 28, a slim edge here. DEF is just 1, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (38) and every turn after on its SPD (38), which sit at the same value, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 11 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, American plantain reaches 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 47 / 47 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1 — as a soft herb it gains bulk in health and no armor, so it stays vulnerable to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 21 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last. Maturing buys HP and a stronger Resprout, never toughness.
As a perennial herb, American plantain is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play American plantain as a poison staller: open with the starter to set the poison, then lean on the heal and the coin-flip Resprout to outlast a target the venom is already wearing down. As an invasive its slim ATK edge and the poison sting make it a passable attacker, though the Faustian bench damage limits its time on point; as a native it is a sticky buffer. Economically it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP toward faster leveling. It fights as a fast skirmisher until about level 26 as a native (around 30 as an invasive), then its bulk takes over — 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.