Plant

Alert

Type

Power to Graft

Steals Others’ Powers

Once per invasion, you may use this power to “graft” an alien if you have dominion in their system. Assimilate that alien until the end of upkeep.

Legacy: When an alien’s color is drawn via destiny, that alien’s power is deactivated until the upkeep phase.

The Plants spent eons watching in envy as the animals and machines run rampant over the Cosmos with their power of locomotion. After finally deciding to take such power for themselves, they soon found that these alien creatures were capable of much more than walking. If things go their way, they’ll have the whole Cosmos going green.

Any: Any

Optional

Wild Flare

As a leader, after arrival, you may discharge this flare to assimilate one of your sponsors until the end of upkeep.

Leader: Arrival

Super Flare

You may discharge this flare to use your power a second time during an invasion.

Any: Any

Modifications

Original Plant’s power is the power of “grafting”. Changed to the power to “graft” to make it punchier.
The original Plant is restricted to only using their power as a leader, and only after arrival. I can understand these restrictions to a certain extent, but I find the dominion requirement to be sufficient as a restriction.
The original Super Plant flare “takes over” the winning aliens if they have a colony in the system. This flare is the epitome of “I win instead” nonsense aspects that makes a win feel cheap. It’s even worse in the base game, as it means the entirety of the game is decided based on whether someone else has a card zap. My Super flare instead lets Plant graft twice in an invasion, requiring dominion in two different systems to make use of the flare.
Plant’s legacy saps the powers of anyone whose destiny color manifests, greatly affecting leader-based aliens, while not affecting invader or sponsor-based aliens at all. It’s more like Classic Plant’s power in this sense. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Plant only needs one base in your system to steal your power every encounter for the rest of the match. Don’t feed the Plant!
When you’re set to invade Plant’s system, consider attacking one of their foreign bases in your system, if there is one. If there is more than one, however, you may have to accept that Plant can steal your power.
Plant’s power serves both the function of gaining power and depriving it from others. Since Plant can activate at any time, it can wait for the right opportunity to perform a surprise zap. However, if it waits too long, it may not be able to use the power for itself.
A well-timed zap can ruin a Plant’s plans to cause an upset. For instance, if Plant waits after reinforcements have arrived to steal Human’s +4 combat bonus for itself, zapping it could make the difference between a win and a loss.

Development Notes

The change I made to Plant provides it maximum flexibility and makes it much more noteworthy as a threat. Original Plant suffers from the issue where you can end up with a match against Parasite, Hate, Dictator, and Assassin, and can do absolutely nothing with its power due to the timing differences. My version allows all of these powers to be stolen and used against their owners, to execute Assassin’s ships, control Dictator’s destiny, prevent Hate from allying with other aliens, and join Parasite’s encounters without being invited.
Because of the extreme flexibility in powers, Plant acts as a pseudo-Martian, an old alien from CEO that’s considered to be the weakest. Plant does not zap aliens, but it does render them inactive, allowing it to effectively zap an alien even if it doesn’t plan to use the power for itself.
Since Plant’s power doesn’t zap, it cannot be used with Human to grant it is super boost. Stealing Human’s power allows Plant to remove its combat bonus without penalty.
My original idea for Plant’s legacy was to deactivate all powers if the eliminated Plant has a ship in your system. I like the idea since it makes Plant’s “seeds” apply long-term, and Plant no longer being a valid destiny color makes it difficult to remove Plant’s ships through normal means. However, this makes it a nothing effect if Plant’s legacy is activated at the start of the match, making it invalid.
One rule from original Cosmic is that stealing or copying a power also copies all aspects of that power. For instance, stealing Warrior’s power copies all of Warrior’s experience, as opposed to simply copying the ability to gain experience. Since the idea is total assimilation, it makes sense that power stealing gets all aspects of the power. This also potentially works in Warrior’s favor, as the experience Plant gets returns to Warrior (assuming Plant will ever let them use it again.)