Viola canina
A poisoning perennial herb that heals through fights, playable as a native buffer across Africa, East Asia and Europe or an Eastern North American invader.
Common Dog Violet is a Perennial herb that fights as a poisoning attrition card: it poisons on its opening hit and heals through the exchange. It is native across Africa, East Asia and Europe and invasive in Eastern North America, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. Its own hits are modest; it wins by wearing the enemy down.
Its starter attack, Crown Split, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 44 damage as a native and 44 as an invasive and leaving the target poisoned. The free once-per-battle ability, Hemicryptophyte Hold, arrives at level 25: Hunkers at ground level — Bind and Wither the foe. It is a mid-fight mend. The advanced attack, Rhizome Lock, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (22 native / 22 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your Common Dog Violet sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Common Dog Violet keeps one always-on trait, Resprout, which lets it survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health. It arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 riser — a real difference for most of the card's life — and as a sustain trait it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a lucky reprieve rather than a guarantee. See Abilities.
Common Dog Violet is non-toxic — although its starter leaves the target poisoned, the plant itself carries no contact recoil, so striking it does not punish the attacker. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear such as a Cloche or a calcium or magnesium amendment offsets its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its aggression. See statuses.
At level 40 Common Dog Violet reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 26 native versus 26 invasive — a small invasive gain on an already modest attack. DEF is just 4, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor and leans on its poison and healing instead. Its tempo is nearly even, tilted slightly late: turn 1 runs on its initiative (32) and every turn after on its marginally higher SPD (34). Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and projects an HP overshield onto your active while benched; 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, Common Dog Violet swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 48 / 48 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 8 — as a soft herb it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last against almost anything younger. Maturing also brings Resprout to full strength, tightening its survival trick.
As a perennial herb, Common Dog Violet sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from 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 Common Dog Violet as a poison-first attrition card: lead to poison the enemy active, then heal through the fight while the poison ticks — that chip is much of its damage, since its own attack is modest. As an invasive its slightly higher ATK helps, but it still wins by wearing down rather than bursting; as a native it is a fine buffer whose poison taxes anyone who trades with it. Out of battle it earns its keep: it is edible with a resolved leaf, so feeding it Nitrogen pays ×1.25 coins, while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP. It plays as a near-even skirmisher leaning on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 22 as a native and 26 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.