Ribes laxiflorum
A native-only shrub with mid armor and a quick opening, useful mainly as a durable body and an edible-fruit coin earner.
Trailing black currant is a shrub: a card with firmer armor than a weed but no bulk to match a tree. It is native to western North America and has no introduced range, so it only holds the native buffer role — there is no invasive attacker version to plan against.
The starter attack, Frère Brer, is available from Lv 1, costs 2 Sun and deals 29 damage: Lures it into the briar patch and feeds.
The free once-per-battle ability, Bramble Barrier, unlocks at Lv 25 and deals no damage — A wall of thorns — the foe withers against it.
The advanced attack, Hedgerow Havoc, unlocks at Lv 40, costs 6 Sun and deals 26 damage: The whole hedgerow comes down on the bench. It reaches the enemy bench, which is unusual for a shrub. No move here carries an initiative rider.
From its trait schedule it keeps Sclerophylly from Lv 10 and Lignotuber from Lv 68. Sclerophylly is a flat damage cut: its tough, hard leaves shave 3 damage off every incoming direct attack, on top of whatever its DEF already absorbs. Lignotuber is a Burn immunity with an upside — not only does Burn never damage it, but when a Burn would land the chaparral lignotuber turns it into a heal of about 4% max HP, so fire actually restores it rather than hurting it. Neither is one of the chance-based sustain heals, so both are simply on once reached rather than firing on a 60% roll. Its toxicity is none and it holds no Toxin trait, so it does not poison attackers on contact.
This is an unarmed, non-toxic shrub, so an attacker takes no recoil from it. For field gear, a Phosphorus amendment matches its edible fruit and pays the coin bonus (below); a Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF if you want more wall out of it. It is not a climber, so no Moss Pole.
At the snapshot level of 40, DEF reads 13 — mid-tier armor, firmer than a weed's but short of a tree's — over an HP pool of 103 (with the 15% native cushion). ATK is 22, ordinary. Its opening tempo 46 is higher than its sustained tempo 34, so it is a quick starter that gets out-paced as the fight goes on — it wants to land its first hit and then trade. Retreat costs 16 Sun. See stats.
By the endgame HP grows to 190 and DEF climbs to 28, firmer than at Lv 40 but still within the shrub band — respectable, not a true wall. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and the inverted tempo sinks to roughly its floor, so the quick opening it enjoys early is gone by the endgame.
As a shrub it is a Competitor: strong (×1.5) into Ruderal cards and resisted (×1.5 against it) by Specialists. See weaknesses & resistances.
It is a serviceable native body — enough armor and HP to trade a few turns, with a bench-reaching advanced attack for a little extra reach — but nothing about its kit is a standout, so treat it as a solid support rather than a carry. Because its edible part is the fruit, feeding it the matching Phosphorus fertilizer pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead, which makes it a reasonable low-effort coin earner. It fights as a quick skirmisher until about Lv 27, after which its bulk and armor outweigh its fading speed.
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.