Solidago flexicaulis
A native-only, soft perennial herb that poisons on its opening hit and self-heals through fights at even tempo — a North American buffer with no invasive form.
Zig-zag goldenrod is a soft woodland Perennial herb that fights as a self-healing skirmisher: very light armor, a poisoning opener, and even tempo throughout. It is native to Eastern North America and has no invasive form, so it only ever plays the native buffer role — there is no attacker version to build around. It is a modest support card that trades steadily rather than hitting hard.
Its starter attack, Stolon Reach, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 32 damage and leaving the target poisoned so it keeps bleeding health after the hit lands. The free once-per-battle ability, Chronosequence, comes in at level 25: Time on its side: +3 ATK and speed, kept. The advanced attack, Perennial Problem, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (43 damage) — a straightforward, harder hit. Most of your goldenrods sit below level 40, where only the starter move is available.
Zig-zag goldenrod 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 triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.
Zig-zag goldenrod carries no special trait keywords and is non-toxic in the arena sense: no contact recoil and no poison rider on being struck, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it (its poison comes only from its opening move). Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear suits its stalling game.
At level 40 zig-zag goldenrod reads 103 HP with ATK of 25. DEF is just 1, right at the floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with essentially no armor. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (38) and every turn after on its SPD (38), which match, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, zig-zag goldenrod swells to 190 HP and 46 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1 — as a soft herb it gains bulk in health, never armor, so it stays among the most exposed cards to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 22 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature goldenrod acts last against almost anything young.
As a perennial herb, zig-zag goldenrod is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants, which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play zig-zag goldenrod as a cheap, self-healing filler that opens with poison and trades evenly while a stronger plant does the real damage. Its HP cushion and bench overshield help a fragile finisher survive, but with almost no armor of its own it needs to be kept out of heavy fire. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins, a steady growth investment. It fights as an even-tempo skirmisher and leans on its HP as it levels, crossing over around level 26, 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.