Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
A self-healing herb that grows more relentless in longer fights and plays either role — a North American native buffer or a Eurasian invader.
New England aster is a Perennial herb that fights as a back-loaded grinder: cheap attacks, steady damage, and a tempo that climbs as a fight runs on. It is native to both eastern and western North America and invasive across East Asia and Europe, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a dependable, unflashy card.
Its starter attack, Rhizome Creep, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 30 damage as a native and 33 as an invasive; it also leaves a lingering poison on the target. The free once-per-battle ability, Hemicryptophyte Hold, arrives at level 25: Hunkers at ground level — Bind and Wither the foe. The advanced attack, Deep-Seated Grudge, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (38 native / 41 invasive) and is a harder, straightforward strike. Most of your asters sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
It keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Resprout comes in 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.
It carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin chemistry — so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic: no contact recoil and no poison rider baked in. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear suits its patient game; as an invasive, lean into offense to make its aggression count.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 26 native versus 34 invasive — a clear invasive step up. DEF is only 1, at the very bottom of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with essentially no armor. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on a slower initiative (30) that gets out-paced, but from turn 2 on its faster SPD (39) takes over, so it opens behind and grows relentless. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield; 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, it swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 47 / 68 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 2 — as a soft herb it banks bulk in health, never armor, so it stays vulnerable to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 24 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last against almost anything young.
As a perennial herb it sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), 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 it as a native buffer that grows into a fight — it opens behind but its SPD lets it out-trade slower foes as a bout runs on, while the HP cushion and overshield protect a fragile ally. As an invasive its higher ATK makes it a passable racer, though its near-zero DEF keeps it fragile. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. It starts slow and leans harder on its bulk and SPD as it levels, crossing over around level 23; it is always stronger at higher levels in raw stats, so there is no reason to hold it back.
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.