Viburnum trilobum
A soft perennial herb with almost no armor but a survival trait, playable as a North American native or a European invader.
American cranberrybush is a soft, low Perennial herb that fights as a fragile, self-mending trader. It is native to Eastern and Western North America and invasive in Europe, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker (see nativity). It is a weak card overall: paper-thin armor and plain hits, kept afloat mainly by a single survival trait.
Its starter attack, Bitter Sap, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 30 damage as a native and 30 as an invasive — a straightforward hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Chronosequence, arrives at level 25: Time on its side: +3 ATK and speed, kept. The advanced attack, Tonic, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (35 native / 35 invasive), another clean strike with no rider attached. Most of your cranberrybushes sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See moves.
Cranberrybush keeps a single always-on trait, Resprout. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Resprout arrives 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. See abilities.
Cranberrybush 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 helps it survive; as an invasive, lean into offense to make its aggression count.
At level 40 cranberrybush reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 25 native versus 25 invasive — a modest invasive edge. DEF is just 2, at the very floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes almost every hit at full force. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (21) and every turn after on its SPD (23), so it is out-paced off the mark but a little quicker once the 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, cranberrybush swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 46 / 46 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 3 — a soft herb gains bulk in health and almost no armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 25 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature cranberrybush acts last against younger cards.
As a perennial herb, cranberrybush 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 cranberrybush as a cheap, self-healing filler, but do not lean on it — its armor is near zero and its damage is plain. As a native the HP cushion and bench overshield make it a passable buffer for a fragile hitter; as an invasive its slightly higher attack is not enough to make it a real threat, so keep it in a support slot. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins, making it a modest growth-earner. It fights as a back-loaded skirmisher that leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 9 — and higher levels only help, 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.