Stachys tymphaea
A native-only perennial herb from Europe with almost no armor that wins through poison and a strong healing ability rather than raw damage.
Stachys tymphaea is a perennial herb, placing it in the Competitor succession group but with the soft armor of a herb. It is native to Europe and invasive nowhere, so it is a native-only card: it always plays the nativity buffer role and never takes on an attacker form. Its game plan is chemical and sustain-driven — poison the foe, then out-heal the exchange.
Its starter, Volatile Oils, unlocks at Lv 1 for 2 Sun: Releases volatile oils — Poison the foe. As a native it deals 25, and lays Poison on top — a damage-over-time effect that ignores DEF and bypasses the overshield, so it works even against heavily armored targets.
At Lv 25 it gains its free once-per-battle ability, Seral Persistence: Refuses to be replaced: heal 60%, and the foe can't heal. This is a large self-heal that also locks the foe out of healing — a strong swing move that deals no direct damage itself.
Its advanced attack, Tonic, unlocks at Lv 40 for 6 Sun: Strikes and mends — heal 15%. As a native it hits for 33 and mends a little on the same turn. Neither attack carries the initiative rider. See moves and statuses.
This card keeps two always-on abilities, arriving at different levels. At Lv 10 it gains Bitter Principle — a chemical-deterrent trait, live at full strength from arrival. At Lv 68 it stacks on Deep Taproot, an anchoring sustain trait that only comes online in the late game, so for most of its leveling it runs on the bitter trait alone. See the abilities guide.
It carries no special trait keywords and is not a climber, so it takes no Moss Pole. Its base DEF is almost nil, so a Calcium/Magnesium amendment for flat DEF is among the more useful field gear choices on it; otherwise favor Sun economy to fuel its heals.
At Lv 40 every move is unlocked. Its DEF is 1 — effectively none, the softest herb band, so it takes near-full damage from any direct hit. As a native it reads 103 HP and 20 ATK with the +15% HP cushion, and while benched it projects an HP overshield bar onto your active. It is native-only, so it never gains an invasive ATK step, the Faustian bench cost, or extra knockout prizes. On tempo it opens at initiative 37 and sustains at SPD 38 — a brisk racer at both stages. See stats.
By Lv 100 its HP swells to 190 and ATK to 36, but its DEF barely moves — 2, still soft. That is the herb's defining trade: more biomass, never armor, so it stays fragile to direct hits its whole life and must win through poison and healing. Retreat rises to 21 Sun and its tempo has fallen to roughly its floor.
As a perennial herb it is in the Competitor group: strong (x1.5) into Ruderal cards, weak (x0.667) into Specialists, even against other Competitors. Its poison ignores armor, so it can pressure a tank the type wheel would otherwise favor. See weaknesses & resistances.
Stachys tymphaea is a native-only support herb and, being uncommon, is partly a family-tree collection piece. On the board its strength is sustain: its ability is a big heal that also stops the foe from healing back, and its poison chips through armor, so it can grind down bigger cards it can't out-hit — provided it survives, which its near-zero armor makes uncertain, so keep backup on the bench. It has no attacker mode, so plan around the buffer role only. It is not edible, so any fertilizer banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. As a rough guide to its power curve, it stays a fast skirmisher until about Lv 27 native (Lv 31 on the neutral base line), after which its growing bulk leads.
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.