Salvia
A native-only herb that hits harder than most soft plants but has paper-thin armor, played as a bench buffer.
The Salvia group - sages - is a low Perennial herb that fights as a hard-hitting but fragile skirmisher. It is native across every region the game tracks and has no invasive form, so the arena only ever plays it as a native buffer - there is no attacker version. It is an above-average hitter for a soft herb, undercut by almost no armor.
Its starter attack, Steady Growth, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 37 damage - a plain strike. The free once-per-battle ability, Chronosequence, comes in at level 25: Time on its side: +3 ATK and speed, kept. The advanced attack, Herbaceous Assault, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (about 34 damage) - another plain heavy hit. Most of your sages sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Sage 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 fires it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter health, but it triggers only about 60% of the time - a coin-flip reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.
Sage carries no special trait keywords - no thorns, no toxin trait, no spore chemistry - so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic, showing no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native it only plays defense, so defensive field gear - a Cloche, a DEF amendment - helps offset its thin armor.
At level 40 sage reads 103 HP with ATK of 31, which is high for a soft herb - it hits noticeably harder than most of its band. Because there is no invasive card, it never gains trait-sourced ATK. DEF, however, is just 1, at the floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with essentially no armor. Its tempo is a slow starter and faster cruiser: turn 1 runs on its initiative (34), where it is out-paced, and every turn after on its SPD (35). Retreat costs 11 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield, and it never pays the invasive attacker's Faustian self-damage or extra prizes. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, sage reaches 190 HP and 58 ATK, but its DEF only climbs to 2 - as a soft herb it banks bulk in health, almost none in armor, so it hits hard yet crumples to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 21 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature sage acts last against almost anything young. See Stats.
As a perennial herb, sage is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and is struck for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), 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.
Play sage as a glass-cannon buffer: its strong ATK lets it trade up when it lands first, but its thin armor means it must strike before it is struck. It works best on the bench for its overshield or as a fast finisher after a wall has softened the enemy. It is inedible, so any nutrient banks x1.25 XP rather than coins - grow it for stats. It opens a step slow but its damage and bulk grow together as it climbs, crossing over around level 21; higher levels always help, so keep leveling it.
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.