If you spend lots of time hanging around card shops and TCG forums, or even if you just read through the articles on Metagame.com, you’ll hear a lot of TCG-specific terms. If you’re relatively new to TCGs, or you don’t have many other duelists in your area, it’s possible you might not know the meanings of all the lingo. It can be daunting to learn a new vocabulary by asking around, so here is your embarrassment-free, in-the-comfort-of-your-own-web-browser guide to talking the talk (we’ll leave walking the walk to you) and making sense of common TCG terms. Read it, learn it, know it, and speak it—and before you know it, you’ll feel just as cool as everyone else.
While many of these terms pop up in most TCGs, we’ve included lots of Yu-Gi-Oh!-specific lingo as well, since Yu-Gi-Oh! is the focus of this series of articles. The following list is sorted alphabetically, not by similarities of definitions.
• Advanced Format: A new Yu-Gi-Oh! format (unveiled in October 2004) that removes several of the most heavily-used cards from the competitive-play environment. A list of forbidden cards can be found here. This format takes away a lot of cards that duelists have relied on, and it makes players think of new, inventive ways to build successful decks. Since many of the forbidden cards were among the most expensive (and necessary) cards in the game, the playing field in this format is a bit more level. Higher-level premier events (such as Regionals, Nationals, and Worlds) will use the Advanced format, but smaller, local events can choose to stick with the Traditional format.
• Archetype: A distinct deck theme, such as Beatdown, Control, Gravekeeper, Exodia, and so on. Two decks are said to be of the same archetype if they contain similar cards and/or they use similar strategies. Duelists are always coming up with innovative deck ideas, but a new type of deck is not necessarily a new archetype; a new deck has to make a significant dent in the metagame to get that honor.
• Board (or Field) Control: Control of the field technically refers to controlling both the monster and spell/trap zones, but the term most often refers to monster zone–oriented effects. Anything that changes the field by restricting an opponent’s options, destroying an opponent’s cards, or sending an opponent’s cards off the field (whether the cards go to the hand, the graveyard, the deck, or out of the play area) is considered board control. The terms “board” and “field” can be used interchangeably. Most strategies use some measure of board control, but some decks rely on it more than others.
• Board (or Field) Presence: Presence refers to the cards that are on the field. If a duelist has several monsters summoned or set, and several useful, well-protected cards in the spell/trap zone, he or she has good board presence. That duelist would have poor board presence if he or she had no cards on the field. Having solid board presence is important, but so is being able to protect it—if an opponent destroys your monsters, spells, and traps every time you put a card into play, you probably won’t be around long enough to mount any kind of offense or defense.
• Broken: A card or strategy that’s so good that it probably needs to be stopped, either through limitation or (in some instances) banning. Something is broken if it’s so magically delicious that everyone wants to use it, and it disrupts gameplay, angers opponents, and makes the game utterly unfair. For instance, many players think Raigeki is broken—it has an unbelievably great effect with no cost at all to make it less appealing. A player who has gone up against a really good First-Turn Win Exodia deck or a First-Turn Kill Magical Scientist deck and lost without getting to take a turn will likely think those combos are broken, broken, broken! Sometimes everyone will agree that a card or combo is broken, and sometimes only a few players will join in a loud chorus of “BROKEN!!” against certain strategies. Whether something is broken is usually determined by looking at the environment as a whole . . . but try telling that to someone who’s just experienced his or her third loss in a row to a Manticore of Darkness Exodia deck!
• Bye: A bye is given out when there’s not an even number of duelists competing in a tournament. One duelist will get an automatic “win” for the match without having to play against anyone. Despite the name, if you get a bye, don’t wander far from the tournament, since you never know when the next round will start. While an automatic victory might seem like a great thing, byes won’t help with your tiebreakers (since there is no opponent to factor in). This could end up hurting your final standings, but byes are a fact of tournament life, so when it’s your turn to get a bye, take it in stride.
• Cheap: Cheap lives next door to broken. A card, combo, or deck is called “cheap” if it practically guarantees a win (and an angry opponent). While there aren’t any decks in Yu-Gi-Oh! that need no skill to play, a player will say something is cheap if it looks like an opponent is winning without using a lot of strategy, planning, or skill. For the most part, cheap-ness is in the eye of the beholder, and many duelists will argue about what is cheap. There are some cards and combos that will make it so a duelist can’t do anything to stop his or her opponent, and no one likes being in that position. If a duelist loses quickly and consistently to an opponent he or she thinks is less skilled, the word “cheap” (or lucky) will often come up.
• Combo: A combo is a sequence of cards that is played to get a maximum effect. A prime example is playing two copies of Manticore of Darkness with a Card of Safe Return. Another example is playing Butterfly Dagger - Elma, Gearfried the Iron Knight, and Magical Marionette; Magical Scientist, Ryu Senshi, and Book of Moon also form a combo when played together.
• Con (Convention):A large-scale event, featuring games and gamers galore. Some cons are relatively small local events, while some are gigantic (like Origins, Gen Con, and Comic-Con). When you go to a con, you can look forward to seeing high-profile tournaments, lots of side events, fans in costumes, and a dealer hall full of goodies to buy.
• Constructed: A tournament format in which duelists play decks that they bring to the event. Constructed decks must contain the correct number of cards, and duelists should check the official forbidden/limited list to make sure they’re not playing with illegal cards.
• Cookie Cutter: Decks that stick closely to a proven archetype. These are usually decks that a less-experienced duelist has copied from another duelist’s decklist. There’s nothing wrong with playing a cookie-cutter deck, but many duelists look down on players who don’t try out original ideas.
• Cut: After shuffling, a duelist will offer his or her deck to an opponent to be cut. This means an opponent will quickly change the order of the cards without looking at them and then return the deck to its owner.
• Decklist: A complete list of the cards in a duelist’s deck. A written list of all cards in a deck is usually required at any tournament, and duelists will often publicize well-built, successful decks.
• Drop: To drop out of a tournament. If a duelist wants to stop competing, he or she needs to notify the tournament organizer (after the last match the duelist is playing in is over) and have his or her name removed from the pairings.
• Early Game: The start of a duel (through the first three turns).
• Environment: The environment includes all the cards released and legal for play in a particular format. In short, the environment is what players can choose to play. You can alter your play to reflect the metagame if you know the environment well.
• Errata: A change in card text or a change in how a card is played after it has been printed, usually due to a misprint or mistake in a card’s template. A card with errata will generally play differently than how the text on it says it should be played, so it’s important to familiarize yourself with card errata. Yu-Gi-Oh! errata can be found here.
• Expansion: A new set of cards. Soul of the Duelist is the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! expansion.
• Format: A structure to follow when building and playing a deck. Playing the Advanced format means a duelist can’t use certain cards at all, playing the Constructed format means a duelist must build a legal deck from cards he or she owns, and playing the Limited format means a duelist must build a deck from sealed packs obtained at the event.
• God Card: God cards live across the street from broken and cheap. A god card doesn’t necessarily refer to the Egyptian God promo cards; it refers to a card (monster, trap, or spell) that is just really powerful. It’s merely a coincidence that those Egyptian “Gods” are on over-powerful cards . . .
• God Hand: Despite the name, god hands are not related to god cards, and god hands live nowhere near broken or cheap, although they’ve been seen hanging around with luck. A god hand is a term describing an amazingly good draw (or series of draws). For example, your opening hand could be Painful Choice, three Limiter Removals, and Premature Burial. You then could draw Pot of Greed, play it, and get Change of Heart and Mechanical Chaser. With Painful Choice, you could take another four Machine-type monsters and Jinzo. While your opponent probably wouldn’t let you have Jinzo, your Premature Burial would get it back. The odds are against such a series of draws, but it does happen.
For the sake of brevity, we’ll stop here for now. Next time the list continues, starting with “hand control” and stretching all the way to “utility.” We’ll be covering a lot of lingo and answering lots of commonly-asked questions, so make sure you’re completely up on this week’s terms and come back ready to learn some more!