Rubus odoratus
A thorny shrub that punishes attackers on contact and plays either arena role - a North American native or a Eurasian invader.
Purple-flowered raspberry is a mid-DEF Shrub that fights as a prickly, patient trader: it holds up under fire and makes hitting it hurt. It is native to Eastern and Western North America and invasive across East Asia and Europe, so the arena can cast it either way - as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is a sturdier-than-average early card thanks to its shrub armor and thorns.
Its starter attack, Snarl, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 30 damage native / 32 invasive - a plain strike. The free once-per-battle ability, Nurse Shrub, comes in at level 25: Shelters the whole bench — evens their health, and calls the fallen back. The advanced attack, Briar Cage, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (22 native / 24 invasive) and saps the target's attack as it strikes. Most of your raspberries sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Raspberry keeps a single always-on trait: Thorns. It arrives on the level 10 riser at full strength - there is no half-then-mature ramp and no chance element, so from level 10 on, every attacker that strikes it in melee takes recoil damage back. That makes it a natural wall: the longer a foe hammers it, the more they bleed. See Abilities.
Raspberry carries the Thorns keyword, which drives that contact recoil (see statuses). It is otherwise non-toxic - no hazard ring, no poison on contact - so the thorns are its only punish. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear that adds DEF stacks well with its thorns wall; as an invasive, offensive gear turns its aggression up.
At level 40 raspberry reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 25 native versus 31 invasive - native ATK 25 rising to invasive ATK 32. DEF is 11, mid-pack for the shrub band, so it actually shrugs off some damage. Its tempo is a slow starter and faster cruiser: turn 1 runs on its initiative (22), where it is out-paced, and every turn after on its SPD (52), where it is relentless. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield; 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, raspberry reaches 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 45 / 61 ATK, and as a shrub its DEF climbs to 21 - a genuine mid-tier wall, well above the soft herbs. Retreat rises to 24 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature raspberry acts last but soaks a lot before it does. See Stats.
As a shrub, raspberry is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and is struck for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which hit it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play raspberry as a durable trader whose thorns tax anything that comes at it. As a native buffer its armor and recoil let a fragile hitter shelter behind it; as an invasive its higher ATK plus thorns make it a punishing front-liner. It is inedible, so any nutrient banks x1.25 XP rather than coins - grow it for stats, not income. It opens a step behind but takes over on tempo and bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 23 native and 26 invasive; higher levels only help 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.