Urochloa plantaginea
A ruderal grass whose opening attack ramps as it lands and plays either arena role — a South American native or a widespread invader.
Alexander grass is a soft Grass that fights as a back-loaded cruiser with a ramping, armor-piercing opener, a bench-borrowed defence and little armor of its own. It is native to South America and invasive across Africa, Eastern and Western North America and Oceania, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. Its shell is paper-thin; it leans on tempo and its benched allies.
Its starter attack, Razors, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun. It has no fixed damage number — it hits harder each time it lands, and it bypasses the target's armor. The free once-per-battle ability, Pyric Herbivory, arrives at level 25: Burns the sward to draw the grazers back — sets the foe alight. It raises its own ATK for the exchanges ahead. The advanced attack, Tussock, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, dealing about 41 damage as a native and 44 as an invasive. Most of your alexander grass sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
It keeps two always-on traits. The first, Duff Stuff, arrives on the level 10 riser: while it is the active plant its effective DEF rises by half the combined DEF of your still-alive benched ruderals — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs — recomputed live, so the cushion shrinks as those allies faint, though the donors keep their own DEF. It is a genuine, always-on defence, not a one-off. The second, Spore Drift, arrives on the level 68 riser: it chips away at the enemy bench each turn through drifting dispersal. See Abilities.
Alexander grass is non-toxic, so it has no contact recoil and no poison rider — striking it costs an attacker nothing. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little DEF — shores up its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its aggression. See statuses.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 23 native versus 32 invasive — the invasive gap is wide (native ATK 23 up to invasive ATK 31). DEF is just 1, at the soft floor of the grass band, so on its own it takes hits with almost no armor and leans on its benched ruderals through Duff Stuff instead. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (44) and every turn after on its SPD (56), so it is out-paced off the mark but relentless once a fight settles — which suits its ramping opener. 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, it swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 42 / 65 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1 — as a soft grass it buys bulk in health and none to speak of in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 24 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature alexander grass acts last against almost anything younger.
As a ruderal grass, alexander grass sits in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, vines, trees), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Ruderals and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play it native as a buffer whose Duff Stuff turns a full ruderal bench into armor while it is up front, with its overshield helping your active survive. As an invasive its ramping, armor-piercing opener rewards a long fight — each landing hits harder and ignores the target's DEF — so it wants to stay in and grind, but its fragile shell means it must not eat big blows in the meantime; keep it away from Competitor hitters. Out of battle it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a slow-starting, faster-cruising skirmisher leaning harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 36 as a native and 38 as an invasive — but it is always stronger at higher levels, 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.