Vitis cinerea
A snowballing vine that saps the enemy active and grows its own attack mid-fight, playing either arena role — a North American native or a European invader.
Ashy grape is a lashing, fast-growing Vine that fights as a snowballing attacker: it whips at the foe, binds it in place, and its attack climbs the longer a match runs. It is native to Eastern and Western North America and invasive across Europe, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a genuine offensive card, though a soft-bodied one that needs to end fights before it gets punished.
Its starter attack, Creeping Smother, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, landing a lashing tendril for about 27 damage as a native and 27 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Gap Colonizer, arrives at level 25: Races into a light gap: +4 ATK and speed, kept. That permanent attack boost is what makes it a threat in a drawn-out fight. The advanced attack, Strangle, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (22 native / 22 invasive) and binds the foe in place before squeezing. Most of your grapes sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Ashy grape keeps a single always-on trait, Allelopathy, and because it draws only one eligible trait, that slot is all it gets. Allelopathy arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 one; it is a wilt aura that saps the enemy active each turn, a small steady drain that grows to full bite only once it matures. It is not a heal or a survival trait, so the grape still has to win the damage race itself. See Abilities.
Ashy grape carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin, no spore chemistry — so nothing punishes an attacker for striking it; it is non-toxic, so nothing chemical punishes a hit. Despite being a climbing plant in the wild, it is not recorded with a climbing growth habit here, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little extra DEF — helps its fragile body last; as an invasive, offensive gear presses its attacking edge.
At level 40 ashy grape reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 25 native versus 25 invasive — compare the two to judge how much extra bite the invasive form brings. DEF is just 7, at the soft end of the band, so it takes hits with almost no armor and must rely on ending fights quickly. Its tempo: turn 1 runs on its initiative (18) and every turn after on its SPD (33) — read the two to see whether it opens fast and fades, starts slow and cruises, or plays evenly. Retreat costs 14 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto 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, ashy grape swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 44 / 44 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 14 — as a soft-bodied vine it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 27 Sun as it roots in, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature grape acts last against almost anything younger — a real problem for a card that wants to strike before it is struck.
As a vine, ashy grape sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from 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 ashy grape as an attacker that wants long fights: bank the permanent attack boost early, bind the foe with its advanced move, and let Allelopathy chip away while its ATK snowballs. The invasive form leans hardest into that aggression but bleeds its own bench; the native form trades some punch for the HP cushion and overshield, which its thin defense appreciates. On economy it earns real money: it is an edible fruit plant, so feeding it Phosphorus pays ×1.25 coins, while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. It fights as a fast-snowballing skirmisher whose bulk and attack take over as it levels, crossing over around level 13 as a native and 16 as an invasive — and 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.