Vitis labrusca
A climbing vine that fights as a slow-building bruiser, wearing the enemy active down with a wilt aura — a native buffer or an invasive attacker.
Concord grape is a climbing Vine that fights as a slow-building bruiser: it opens with a plain hit, wears the enemy active down with an allelopathic wilt aura, and pins its target once its advanced attack is online. It is native to Eastern North America and invasive across Africa, East Asia, Europe and South Asia, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker.
Its starter attack, Creeping Crush, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 27 damage as a native and 30 as an invasive — a straightforward hit with no rider. The free once-per-battle ability, Liana Loop, arrives at level 25: Loops around the foe — Bind and Wither. The advanced attack, Liana Leverage, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (32 native / 35 invasive) and pins the target as it strikes. Most of your Concord grape sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Concord grape keeps one always-on trait, Allelopathy, a wilt aura that steadily saps the enemy active's health. It arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 riser — a real difference for most of the card's life, since the card spends the bulk of its levels running the weaker half. See Abilities.
Concord grape is non-toxic: striking it carries no contact recoil, and its attacks carry no poison rider. Its habit is terrestrial, 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 DEF — offsets its thin vine armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its higher attack. See statuses.
At level 40 Concord grape reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 24 native versus 33 invasive — the invasive card hits noticeably harder. DEF is just 7, thin for the vine band, so it takes hits with little armor. Its tempo is lopsided: turn 1 runs on a low initiative (18), so it is out-paced early, but every turn after runs on a stronger SPD (32), making it a relentless cruiser once the fight settles. 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, Concord grape swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 44 / 64 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 14 — as a vine it buys bulk in health and little in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 27 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature grape acts last against almost anything younger.
As a vine, Concord 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 Concord grape as a slow-building attrition piece: it is out-paced on turn 1, so let it soak the opening and take over as a cruiser while its wilt aura grinds the enemy active down. As a native it is a serviceable buffer whose bench overshield helps your active; as an invasive its higher ATK makes it a real threat, though the Faustian bench cost and conceded prizes are the price. On economy, Concord grape is edible with a resolved part, so feeding it Phosphorus pays ×1.25 coins while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth. It plays as a slow-starting cruiser that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 12 as a native and 15 as an invasive — but it is always stronger at higher levels, 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.