Solanum nigrum
An annual-forb built around a ramping, armor-ignoring opener and a wide invasive ATK jump.
Black nightshade is a Annual forb built around a ramping, armor-ignoring opener. It is native across Africa, East Asia, Europe and South Asia, where it plays as a buffer, and invasive in North America (east and west) and Oceania, where it becomes an aggressive attacker. Its native-to-invasive ATK jump is one of the larger ones on these cards.
The starter, Colonize, unlocks at Lv 1 for 2 Sun: Pioneer spread that ignores armor and hits harder each time it lands. It is a pioneer-spread attack, so it has no fixed damage number — it hits harder each time it lands, and it ignores the target's armor. The free ability, Germination Flush, unlocks at Lv 25: The seed bank breaks at once: +4 ATK, kept for the match. The advanced attack, Floormat Chokeout, unlocks at Lv 40 for 6 Sun and deals 29 native / 33 invasive: Mats the floor and reaches the whole back row — the foe wilts. Neither attack carries an initiative rider.
Duff Stuff arrives at Lv 10, and it is a real defence rather than filler: while active, the card's effective DEF rises by half the summed DEF of your alive benched ruderals (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), recomputed live so it fades as those allies faint — so it rewards a weed-heavy bench. Reseed stacks on at Lv 68: when this card is knocked out it leaves a fresh Seedling token behind instead of simply dying, keeping a body in the slot. Note that Reseed is not a save — the parent genuinely dies and concedes its prize; only the seedling steps up. Both are working traits.
It holds no toxicity trait and no thorns trait, so it neither poisons nor recoils on contact. As an annual forb it is not a Moss Pole climber. For field gear, a native copy leans on support and defence gear; an invasive copy wants attack gear to push its ramp and high ATK cap. See /wiki/abilities.
At Lv 40: HP 103 native / 89 invasive, ATK 28 native / 39 invasive — a wide native-to-invasive gap — and DEF 2, which is soft. Its opening tempo (Initiative) is 49, well above its sustained tempo (SPD) of 34: it is a quick starter that slows to a middling cruiser, so it wants to open strong. Native gives the +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield; invasive trades to the higher ATK cap, pays Faustian self-damage to its bench on each damaging hit, and concedes 2 prizes on KO. Retreat costs 16 Sun. See /wiki/stats.
By Lv 100 HP reaches 190 / 165 and ATK 52 / 78, but DEF stays soft at 3 — a weed swells in mass without ever hardening. Retreat climbs to 33 Sun and its once-fast tempo has fallen to about 1% of cap. The armor-ignoring opener still matters at any level because it sidesteps that thin DEF on both sides of the field.
Annual forb sits in the Ruderal group. It hits Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for x1.5 and is beaten by Competitors (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees) at x0.667; it is even against other Ruderals and Weird cards. See /wiki/weaknesses-resistances.
It is a strong single-player coin attacker as an invasive: the ramping, armor-ignoring starter is best against tanky trees and shrubs that ordinary hits bounce off, and its high ATK cap closes games. The Germination Flush ability gives it a permanent ATK bump mid-match. On defence, back it with other ruderals so Duff Stuff has DEF to borrow, and Reseed keeps a body in play after a KO. It is edible with the eaten part being its leaves, so Nitrogen pays x1.25 coins; other nutrients bank x1.25 XP. As an invasive it fights fast early and leans on power past about Lv 30.
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.