Toxicodendron diversilobum
A native-only western North American herb that poisons on contact, heals as it strikes, and chips the enemy bench late.
Pacific poison oak is a Perennial herb that fights as a self-healing contact hazard: it poisons what it hits and mends itself while it strikes. It is native to Western North America and has no invasive card, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer for your bench — there is no attacker version to play. It is a durable support piece rather than a damage dealer.
Its starter attack, Rhizome Creep, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 28 damage and leaving the target Poisoned (see statuses). The free once-per-battle ability, Seral Persistence, comes in at level 25: Refuses to be replaced: heal 60%, and the foe can't heal. It mends the plant. The advanced attack, Deep-Seated Grudge, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (36 damage) and heals the plant as it lands. Most of your poison oak sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider.
Poison oak keeps a single always-on trait: Spore Drift. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Spore Drift arrives on the level 68 riser and chips the enemy bench each turn through dispersal. It works from level 68 on with no half-strength phase and no coin-flip. See Abilities.
Poison oak holds the Toxin trait at the toxic tier: striking it Poisons the attacker, and that recoil fires in player-versus-player (PvP) too. Sulfur soil does not neutralize it, though a Cloche-warded attacker absorbs it. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. Defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a Ca/Mg amendment for a little extra DEF — plays to its heal-and-punish game.
At level 40 poison oak reads 103 HP and ATK 20 (this is a native-only card, so there is no invasive stat line). Its ATK is on the low side, which is fine — it defends by healing and by punishing contact, not by hitting hard. DEF is 4, a step above the perennial-herb floor. Its tempo is a slow starter but a faster cruiser: turn 1 runs on its initiative (32) and every turn after on its SPD (34), so it is out-paced early and relentless later. Retreat costs 16 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, poison oak climbs to 190 HP and 36 ATK, and its DEF reaches 8 — modest armor for a soft herb, so most of its growth lands in health. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys it the durability to keep healing and poisoning through longer fights.
As a perennial herb, poison oak is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is hit for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), 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 poison oak as a native buffer that outlasts: the HP cushion, bench overshield, self-healing attacks, and contact poison let it soak damage and tax attackers over a long fight. It is a support piece, not a finisher. It is inedible, so feeding it any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as a self-mending skirmisher until about level 23, after which its bulk starts to carry it, so there is no reason to hold it back from leveling.
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.