Platycerium bifurcatum
A paper-thin fern that wins by poison and bench-splash in either arena role — a native buffer or an invasive attacker.
Common staghorn fern is a Fern that fights as a poison-and-splash attrition piece: it poisons through its ability and its advanced hit, which also splashes the enemy bench. It is native to Oceania and invasive across Africa, East Asia, and South America, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. Its armor is paper-thin, so it wins by poison and spread rather than by standing and trading.
Its starter attack, Smothering Spores, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 25 damage as a native and 27 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Understory Ecesis, arrives at level 25: Takes the forest floor: heal 30%, and the foe can't heal. It is a mid-fight poison. The advanced attack, Spore Loser, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (23 native / 24 invasive), splashing damage onto the enemy bench and poisoning as it lands. Most of your staghorn fern sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Common staghorn fern keeps two always-on traits. Unpalatable arrives on the level 10 riser and makes the fern less appetizing to attackers. Spores arrives on the level 68 riser: it poisons whatever plant lands the killing blow, so an enemy that knocks it out walks away poisoned. Neither is a sustain trait, so both work whenever their condition is met. See Abilities.
Common staghorn fern does not hold the Toxin trait: striking it inflicts no contact recoil on its own — the poison it spreads comes from its moves and its Spores trait, not from a defensive recoil. Its habit is terrestrial in play, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear helps offset its near-zero armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its poison and splash. See statuses.
At level 40 common staghorn fern reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 20 native versus 25 invasive — the invasive form hits harder. DEF is just 2, at the soft floor of the fern band, so it soaks almost nothing and depends on poison and spread. Its tempo is split: a low initiative (28) is out-paced turn 1, but a higher SPD (34) grinds after. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; 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, common staghorn fern swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 35 / 48 ATK, but its DEF barely moves to 3 — a soft fern buys bulk in health and essentially none in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature fern acts last against almost anything younger.
As a fern, common staghorn fern sits in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, broadleaf trees) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play common staghorn fern as a poison-and-spread attacker: lead with its poison, use the advanced hit to splash the enemy bench, and let Spores tax anything that kills it — its own armor is too thin to trade, so it wins by attrition and chip. As a native its overshield supports a tougher active; as an invasive its higher ATK sharpens the poison. On economy, it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a fragile but relentless poisoner that gains bulk with levels, crossing over around level 22 as a native and 25 as an invasive — but it is always stronger at higher levels, so there is no 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.