Vaccinium macrocarpon
A low shrub that hardens at low HP and cannot be Burned at all, playable as an Eastern North American native or an invader across Europe and western North America.
American cranberry is a low, wiry Shrub that fights as a plain, durable trader. It is native to Eastern North America and invasive across Europe and Western North America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker (see nativity). It is an unremarkable card with light shrub armor and no standout trick; its main draw is the invasive damage bump and a mid-fight pin.
Its starter attack, Bramble Lash, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 35 damage as a native and 37 as an invasive — a straightforward hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Nurse Shrub, arrives at level 25: Shelters the whole bench — evens their health, and calls the fallen back. The advanced attack, Bramble Scramble, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (40 native / 44 invasive) and binds the target, pinning it in place so it cannot retreat. Most of your cranberries sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See moves and statuses.
American cranberry holds a working trait on each riser. Marcescence (level 10) keeps its dead foliage on as makeshift plating: +4 DEF once the card is at half HP or below, so the armour arrives exactly when it is losing. Lignotuber (level 68) is a fire-adapted rootstock — the card cannot be Burned at all, and an attempt to Burn it heals it instead. See Abilities.
Cranberry carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no spore chemistry. It is non-toxic: no contact recoil, no poison rider, and no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, general defensive field gear suits its trading game; as an invasive, lean into offense to press its damage edge.
At level 40 cranberry reads 121 HP as a native and 106 as an invasive, with ATK of 25 native versus 30 invasive — a meaningful invasive jump. DEF is 11, mid-pack for the shrub band, so it shrugs off small hits but not big ones. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (26) and every turn after on its SPD (32), so it is out-paced off the mark but relentless once a fight settles. Retreat costs 13 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield bar onto your active; as an invasive it pays self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, cranberry reaches 233 HP native / 203 invasive and 44 / 57 ATK, with DEF climbing to 21 — a real shrub wall, though short of what a tree becomes. Retreat rises to 26 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature cranberry acts late against younger cards.
As a shrub, cranberry is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is hit for only ×0.667 by them; 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 cranberry as a plain, sturdy trader. As a native its cushion and bench overshield make it a reasonable buffer for a fragile hitter; as an invasive its stronger attack plus the pin from its advanced move let it lock a target down and grind it out. It never punches far above its stats, but Marcescence and a fire-proof Lignotuber make it a stubborn role-player rather than a carry. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins, making it a steady growth-earner. It fights as a back-loaded skirmisher that leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 13 — and it is 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.