Solidago gigantea
A fast-opening perennial herb with double healing and a survival trait — a North American native or a wide invader.
Tall goldenrod is a soft Perennial herb that fights as a self-mending pressure piece: it leads on turn 1, heals across two of its slots, and can survive one killing blow. It is native to eastern and western North America and invasive across East Asia, Europe, Oceania, and South America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is fragile, but its aggression and healing make it more than filler.
Its starter attack, Crown Split, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing a plain hit of about 44 damage as a native and 50 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Hemicryptophyte Hold, comes in at level 25: Hunkers at ground level — Bind and Wither the foe. The advanced attack, Bitter End, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (30 native / 33 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your goldenrod sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
Tall goldenrod keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. It draws only one eligible trait, so 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 rather than a guarantee. See Abilities.
It carries no special trait keywords, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic: no contact recoil, no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. With DEF at the floor, HP-boosting field gear helps the native survive, while offensive gear presses the higher invasive attack.
At level 40 goldenrod reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 26 native versus 35 invasive — a large invasive jump that makes the attacker cast noticeably harder-hitting. DEF is just 1, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor. Its tempo favors the opening: turn 1 runs on a high initiative (53) so it leads early, then every turn after runs on a lower SPD (38), so it is out-paced once a fight drags on. Retreat costs 12 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, goldenrod swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 49 / 71 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1 — as a soft herb it gains bulk in health, never armor, so it stays vulnerable to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 23 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, goldenrod is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants for x1.5 and is hit for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants, which strike 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 goldenrod as a self-sustaining aggressor: open fast, heal through the exchange, and let Resprout steal one more turn. As an invasive its higher attack makes it a real racer; as a native it is a softer buffer whose bench overshield protects a partner. Its economy is growth-only — it is inedible, so any nutrient banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as a fast opener that leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 31 as a native and 33 as an invasive — always stronger higher up, 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.