Stachys byzantina
A near-armorless perennial-herb Competitor that leans on poison-dealing moves, native in Europe and invasive widely abroad.
Lamb's ear is a Perennial herb that plays as a soft-bodied striker whose kit is built around poisoning the foe. Its nativity role runs both ways. It is native to Europe, where it buffers your team, and it has spread as an invasive across East Asia, eastern and western North America and Oceania, where the same card plays as a harder attacker.
Its starter attack, Steady Growth, is available from Lv 1 for 2 Sun (A reliable, even strike.), dealing 33 native and 37 invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Allelochemical Priming, unlocks at Lv 25: Primes root chemistry — Poison the foe. It deals no damage and costs no Sun, and applying Poison through it is strong because damage-over-time bypasses the overshield and ignores DEF (see statuses). The advanced attack, Bitter End, unlocks at Lv 40 for 6 Sun (Bitter to the last — Poison the foe.), a hit that also poisons, reading 27 / 31. No move carries an initiative rider.
It keeps two always-on traits that arrive at different times. Basal Rosette comes in at Lv 10, a low, defensive growth form working from early on. Vernalization Memory stacks on at Lv 68, arriving only late in the card's life; until then the rosette is its lone always-on trait. Note that the poison this card deals comes from its moves, not from a contact trait — it does not hold the Toxin trait, so an attacker biting it takes no poison recoil.
Lamb's ear carries no special trait keywords, and as a perennial herb it is not a climber, so it takes no Moss Pole. For field gear, its almost-nonexistent DEF means a calcium/magnesium amendment helps it proportionally more than most, and warding or healing gear offsets how easily it is hit.
At Lv 40 a native reads 103 HP to an invasive's 89, the native carrying the +15% cushion. ATK is 19 native versus 30 invasive — a wide gap that makes the invasive copy the real hitter, set by its introduced range rather than any flat multiplier. DEF is just 1, effectively no armor, so nearly every hit lands close to full. On tempo it opens at initiative 35 and sustains at SPD 38, roughly balanced with a slight edge later. Retreat is a cheap 11 Sun. A native on the bench projects a green HP overshield bar; an invasive pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes on a knockout. Because its poison is damage-over-time, it can wear down even a shielded, well-armored foe.
By Lv 100 HP swells to 190 native and 165 invasive and ATK to 34 / 60, but DEF stays at the floor, reaching only 2 — a soft herb never armors up. Retreat edges to 21 Sun and the tempo has sunk near its floor. Maturing buys mass and a bigger swing, and its poison stays relevant because it ignores armor entirely.
As a perennial herb it is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual-forb, grass, aquatic, bulb) for ×1.5 and resists them at ×0.667, but it loses to Specialists (succulent, conifer, fern, epiphyte).
Play lamb's ear for its poison: land Allelochemical Priming and Bitter End to stack damage-over-time that bypasses shields and armor, which is its best answer to a tanky opponent. It is fragile and short-lived on the field, so keep bench support behind it rather than asking it to trade blows. It is not edible, so fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP toward leveling rather than coins. It fights as a quick, soft skirmisher until about Lv 27 as a native and Lv 28 as an invasive, after which its growing HP and attack take over.
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.