Rubus argutus
A thorny bramble shrub that recoils damage onto attackers and plays either arena role — an Eastern North American native or an East Asian and Oceanian invader.
Saw Tooth Blackberry is a thorny Shrub that fights as a prickly, moderately durable trader. It is native to Eastern North America and invasive across East Asia and Oceania, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker (see nativity). It is a solid mid-tier card whose thorns make hitting it costly.
Its starter attack, Berry, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 29 damage as a native and 30 as an invasive — a plain, reliable hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Facilitation, arrives at level 25: Shelters its own and starves the rest: heal 50%, and the foe's bench withers. The advanced attack, Thorn Wall, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (37 native / 38 invasive) and saps the target, withering it 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: Thorns. It draws a single eligible trait, so Thorns arrives at full strength on the level 10 riser with no half-strength phase. Thorns recoils contact damage back onto any plant that strikes it, so aggressive attackers pay to trade blows with it. See Abilities.
Its one trait keyword is thorns, which produces the contact recoil above; there is no status chemistry beyond it. It is non-toxic, with no poison rider and no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear that stretches its bulk suits its trading game; as an invasive, offensive gear makes its higher attack count.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 24 native versus 26 invasive — the invasive edge is real but modest. DEF is 12, in the middle of the shrub band, giving it genuine armor for its size. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (49) and every turn after on its SPD (49), which sit at the same value, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 14 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield for your active; 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, it swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 44 / 47 ATK, and as a woody shrub its DEF climbs to 24 — a real armored body, not just an HP sponge. Retreat rises to 29 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature copy acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys a durable, thorny wall at the cost of speed.
As a shrub 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. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
As a native, play it as a bench buffer and thorny wall that punishes attackers while its cushion and overshield protect a fragile hitter; as an invasive, it is a competent front-line attacker whose thorns tax anything that trades with it. It is a dependable, unflashy card overall. Its value is also economic: it is inedible, so any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward leveling. As a native it fights as an even skirmisher until about level 33, and as an invasive the crossover to bulk comes around level 36 — keep leveling it either way.
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.