Verbascum thapsus
A self-healing perennial herb that leans on a survival trait through long fights and plays either arena role — a native of the Old World or an invader across the Americas and Oceania.
Mullein is a tall, soft Perennial herb that fights as a relentless, self-healing staller. It is native to Africa, East Asia, Europe and South Asia, and invasive across eastern and western North America, Oceania and South America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker (see nativity). Its invasive form hits notably harder, making it a genuine offensive option as well as a durable support.
Its starter attack, Stolon Reach, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 33 damage native / 37 invasive — a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Hemicryptophyte Hold, arrives at level 25: Hunkers at ground level — Bind and Wither the foe. The advanced attack, Tonic, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (35 native / 39 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your copies sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
It keeps one always-on trait: Resprout. Because it draws a single eligible trait, Resprout arrives 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 fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.
Mullein carries no trait keywords and no status chemistry, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic, with no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear suits its stalling game; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its strong attack.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 26 native versus 38 invasive — a wide gap, so the invasive form is much more dangerous. DEF is only 4, near the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with little armor. Its tempo is a slow start into a faster cruise: turn 1 runs on its lower initiative (32) and later turns on its higher SPD (34), so it is out-paced early but relentless once a fight settles. Retreat costs 16 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 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 49 / 78 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 8 — a soft herb gains health, never real armor, so it stays exposed to any hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap. Maturing buys a large, self-mending body that is still thin-skinned.
As a perennial herb it is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants for ×1.5 and is struck for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants, which hit it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group are neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
As a native, play it as a healing bench buffer that outlasts trades and shields a fragile hitter; as an invasive, its high attack and mending make it a durable front-line racer. It is a strong grind card because it rarely dies cheaply. Its value is also economic: it is inedible, so any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward leveling. As a native it fights as a relentless skirmisher until about level 22, and as an invasive the crossover to bulk comes around level 23 — keep leveling it.
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.