Prunus virginiana
A fast, thorned shrub that buffs its own attack and speeds up in long fights, hitting hard as an invader.
Chokecherry is a Shrub that fights as a fast, thorny skirmisher: it accelerates as a fight drags on, punishes melee with thorns, and can pump its own attack. It is native to Eastern and Western North America and invasive in East Asia and Europe, so the arena can field it either way — a native buffer or, more naturally, an invasive attacker. Its light armor keeps it out of long wars, but its speed and thorns give it an edge in quick ones.
Its starter attack, Snarl, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and lands a plain hit of about 30 damage native / 32 invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Frugivore Pact, arrives at level 25: Trades fruit for carriage: +3 ATK, and the foe's whole bench sickens. — it raises its own attack, setting up a bigger follow-up. The advanced attack, Briar Cage, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (22 native / 24 invasive) and saps the target as it strikes. Most of your chokecherries sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. See Moves.
Chokecherry keeps one always-on trait: thorns, which arrives at full strength on the level 10 riser and returns a portion of damage to any plant that hits it in melee. It draws only this single trait, so nothing new comes online at the level 68 riser. See Abilities.
Its trait keyword is thorns, the contact recoil described above. It is non-toxic, so an attacker takes no poison from it — but the thorns still bite back on melee, so it is never a free target. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear props up its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear amplifies its already high attack. See also statuses.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive and 26 / 32 ATK — a strong invasive jump that makes it a genuine threat. DEF is just 12, low for the shrub band, so it does not want to take many hits. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (35) and every turn after on its SPD (50), which is much higher, so it is out-paced off the mark but pulls ahead in a long fight. Retreat costs 15 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield for your active; as an invasive it draws its higher ATK from traits but pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. Link Stats.
Matured to level 100, it swells to 190 / 165 HP and 49 / 62 ATK, but DEF only reaches 24 — as a shrub it gains far more health than armor, so it stays soft and relies on its thorns and speed. Retreat rises to 30 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so even a mature chokecherry acts late. Maturing buys HP and bigger hits, not real defense.
As a shrub it 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, but 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 Chokecherry as an invasive attacker: use the free attack buff to set up, let its rising speed win the later turns, and let thorns punish anything that comes in close. As a native it is a lighter support, best benched behind a wall. Economically it is an edible fruit plant, so feeding it Phosphorus pays ×1.25 coins (any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead), making it a dependable coin-earner. It leans on speed and grows into its bulk, crossing over around level 27 as a native (about 30 as an invasive) — always stronger at higher levels, so 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.