Viburnum lentago
A tough, self-healing native herb from across North America that outlasts opponents through long, even fights.
Nannyberry is a hardy Perennial herb that fights as a patient staller: cheap attacks, modest damage, and a habit of clinging on. It is native to both eastern and western North America and has no invasive card, so the arena only ever fields it in its native, bench-support role. It is a solid, unspectacular card — a reliable trader rather than a finisher.
Its starter attack, Rhizome Creep, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 30 damage; it also leaves a lingering poison on the target, so it keeps chipping between your turns. The free once-per-battle ability, Chronosequence, arrives at level 25: Time on its side: +3 ATK and speed, kept. The advanced attack, Self-Medicate, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (30 damage) and is a harder, straightforward strike. Most of your nannyberries sit well 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.
It keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Resprout comes in at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 one. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter health — but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.
It carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin chemistry — so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic: no contact recoil and no poison rider baked in. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear (a Cloche, a Ca/Mg amendment for a little extra DEF) suits its stalling game.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP with 25 ATK, with no invasive form to compare against. DEF is just 2, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (20) and every turn after on its SPD (20), both the same value, so it neither opens nor cruises faster than average. Retreat costs 13 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, it climbs to 190 HP and 45 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 4 — as a soft herb it banks bulk in health, never armor, so it stays vulnerable to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 26 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last against almost anything young.
As a perennial herb it sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike 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 it as a native buffer that buys time — the HP cushion and bench overshield help a fragile hitter survive while its poison and heal grind down an even trade. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as an even-tempo skirmisher early and leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 7; it is always stronger at higher levels in raw stats, so there is no reason to hold it back.
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.