Podranea ricasoliana
A very fast Vine card that binds whatever attacks it, though its own attacks are among the softest in the collection.
Zimbabwe Creeper is a Vine card with both roles: native to Africa and invasive in Europe, both halves of North America, Oceania and South America. Native it is a cushioned bench piece; invasive it is a sharper attacker. See nativity and categories.
The starter attack, Creeping Spread, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, reading 22 native and 25 invasive. Creeps across the foe's whole bench.
The free once-per-battle ability, Inhibition, unlocks at level 25 and costs no Sun. Chokes off recovery — the foe can't heal.
The advanced attack, Tendril Trap, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, reading 20 native and 23 invasive. A tendril snare that saps as it tightens. It hits for less than the starter while costing three times the Sun, so take it strictly for its effect. Both figures are low in absolute terms. See moves.
Thigmotropic Coil arrives on the first riser at level 10 at full strength, and it is the reason to field this card: when it is struck, the attacker is Bound. Touch-directed coiling, modelled as a counter-lock. It costs no turn and no Sun, so an opponent attacking into this card gets stuck doing it.
Structural Load stacks on at level 68 and fires when this card is knocked out, chipping the opposing bench rather than the plant that removed it. See statuses for what Bind does.
The species record lists no toxicity and no trait keywords, so no poison rider applies. For field gear, gear that extends its stay is strong — every extra turn is another chance to lock an attacker. Its growth habit is a vine, so a Moss Pole does fit this card.
At level 40 native reads 103 HP and 19 ATK; invasive reads 89 HP and 28 ATK. Armour is 8, thin. Retreat is 16 Sun. The strength is tempo: opening tempo is 51 and sustained tempo is 34, both at the top of the range. Invasive it pays Faustian bench damage per damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes on knockout. See stats.
By level 100 native reaches 190 HP and 33 ATK, invasive 165 HP and 57 ATK, with armour only at 15. Soft-vine divergence. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and the inverted tempo has sunk to its floor, taking away the speed edge. The counter-bind is what it keeps, and that does not depend on turn order.
Vine is Competitor: strong into Ruderal — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs — and weak to Specialist, meaning succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes. See weaknesses and resistances.
A control card rather than a damage card, and it should be judged that way. Its attacks are genuinely weak — the advanced slot is a downgrade — so it will not win a fight on damage. What it does is make attacking it expensive: every strike against it risks a Bind, and it is fast enough to be where you want it.
Use it to stall an aggressive opponent while a real threat develops elsewhere. Against a patient opponent that simply ignores it, it contributes very little.
It is not eaten, so a soil amendment earns no matching fertiliser coins and instead banks the ×1.25 XP an inedible plant pays. See 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.