TradeMatches

Card game keyword and rules glossary

280 keywords and rules from 10 card games, each with a one-line answer and a link to the full explanation with worked examples. Type a keyword in English or Spanish, or filter by game.

Tabbed notebook as a card rules glossary — AI-generated illustration.

Pokémon TCG

Setting up and taking a mulligan: If your opening seven cards contain no Basic Pokémon, you must take a mulligan: show your hand to your opponent, shuffle it back into your deck and draw seven new cards, repeating until you have a Basic.
What you can and can't do on the first turn: The player who goes first can't attack and can't play a Supporter on their first turn.
When you can evolve a Pokémon: You can evolve a Pokémon if the evolution card in your hand says "Evolves from" that Pokémon's exact name and the Pokémon was already in play at the beginning of your turn.
What evolving keeps and what it clears: When a Pokémon evolves, it keeps its damage counters and every attached card (Energy, Pokémon Tool and the earlier evolution cards underneath).
Attaching Energy: You can attach one Energy card from your hand to one of your Pokémon each turn, Active or Benched, including on the very first turn of the game.
Basic vs Special Energy, and how many you can play: Basic Energy is the plain Grass, Fire, Water, Lightning, Psychic, Fighting, Darkness, Metal or Fairy Energy card, and a deck can hold any number of them.
Deck building: 60 cards and 4 copies per name: A standard Pokémon TCG deck has exactly 60 cards, at least one Basic Pokémon, and no more than 4 cards with the same name, except Basic Energy.
Trainer card types: Item, Supporter, Stadium and Pokémon Tool: Trainer cards come in four types, shown in the card's upper-left corner.
Using Abilities from the Bench: Yes, Benched Pokémon can use their Abilities.
Retreating: cost, once per turn and what blocks it: Once per turn, you may retreat your Active Pokémon by discarding Energy from it equal to its Retreat Cost, then switching it with one of your Benched Pokémon.
Special Conditions: the five states and how they combine: There are five Special Conditions: Asleep, Burned, Confused, Paralyzed and Poisoned.
Asleep vs Paralyzed: Asleep and Paralyzed both stop the Active Pokémon from attacking and retreating.
Confused: the coin flip before attacking: A Confused Pokémon can try to attack, but first you flip a coin.
Poisoned and Burned: damage between turns: At each Pokémon Checkup, a Poisoned Pokémon gets 1 damage counter and a Burned Pokémon gets 2 damage counters, after which its owner flips a coin and removes the Burn on heads.
Weakness, Resistance and the order of damage: Weakness and Resistance only apply to attack damage done to the opponent's Active Pokémon.
Doing damage vs placing damage counters: "Do damage" and "put damage counters" are different instructions.
"Up to" and "any amount": when you can choose zero: In an attack's effect, "up to X" lets you choose any number from 0 to X.
Prize cards: setting them up and how many you take: Each player sets aside the top 6 cards of their own deck face down as Prize cards during setup.
How to win, and what happens if both players win at once: You win in three ways: take your last Prize card; Knock Out your opponent's last Pokémon in play, so they have no Benched Pokémon to replace the Active; or your opponent has no cards in their deck at the beginning of their turn.
What happens when you run out of cards: Running out of cards doesn't end the game by itself.
Finding the cards for your deck: If these rules have you rethinking a list, perhaps more Basic Pokémon to avoid mulligans or a second Stadium, TradeMatches lets you keep lists of the cards you have and the ones you want, see matching collectors nearby and talk in your province's chat.
Regulation marks: which cards are Standard legal in 2026: In the 2026 Standard format, cards with regulation mark H, I or J are legal (plus any newer marks released before the next rotation); G-mark cards left Standard on 10 April 2026 for in-person events and on 26 March 2026 on Pokémon TCG Live.
Prism Star cards: the ◇ symbol and the one-per-name limit: A Prism Star card has a ◇ symbol after its name and two rules: you can't have more than one card with that name in your deck, and if it would go to the discard pile, it goes to the Lost Zone instead.
The Lost Zone: what it is, where it goes and what you can get back: The Lost Zone is considered out of play: cards sent there can't be recovered or played again for the rest of that game, and you put them face up anywhere out of play.
ACE SPEC: how many you can run in a deck: You can include only one ACE SPEC card in your entire deck, not one of each name and not one of each card type.
Ancient Traits: not Abilities and not attacks: An Ancient Trait is a special power printed just under the Pokémon's name, such as Ω Barrier or α Recovery; it is neither an attack nor an Ability, so cards that stop attacks or Abilities don't affect it.
GX attacks and TAG TEAM: one per game: Each player can use at most one GX attack during an entire game, however many Pokémon-GX they play; when you use it, turn your GX marker face down.
VSTAR Power: once per game, Ability or attack: You can use only one VSTAR Power in the whole game, no matter how many Pokémon VSTAR you play; a VSTAR Power can be an Ability or an attack, and using either one uses up both.
Radiant Pokémon: one per deck: You can have only one Radiant Pokémon in your deck in total, so Radiant Greninja and Radiant Charizard together already break the limit.
Pokémon ex, Tera ex and Pokémon-EX: not the same card: When a Pokémon ex is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards; the older Pokémon-EX (capital letters, with a hyphen) also give up 2 but are a different name from a different era, and Mega Evolution Pokémon ex give up 3.
Mega Evolution: 2025–2026 ex vs XY-era -EX: Today's Mega Evolution Pokémon ex give up 3 Prize cards and have no other special rules; the XY-era Mega Evolution Pokémon-EX gave up 2 Prizes and ended your turn as soon as you Mega Evolved.
Pokémon V-UNION: four pieces from the discard pile: You play a Pokémon V-UNION by putting all four of its pieces onto your Bench at once from your discard pile, during your turn and only once per game for each name; it takes one Bench spot and gives up 3 Prize cards.
BREAK Evolution: what a Pokémon BREAK keeps: A Pokémon BREAK keeps the attacks, Abilities, Weakness, Resistance and Retreat Cost of its previous Evolution and adds the new attacks or Abilities on the BREAK card; its HP changes and it can even change type.
Pokémon LEGEND: two halves played together: A Pokémon LEGEND is made of two cards, and you can only put it onto your Bench from your hand with both halves at the same time.
Fossils: Trainer cards that play as Basic Pokémon: Rare Fossil, Unidentified Fossil and the Fossils with "Antique" in their name are Item cards that can be played as Basic Pokémon; in your hand, deck or discard pile they don't count as Basic Pokémon.
Black Star Promos: SWSH, SVP and MEP: Black Star Promos are identified by their series prefix plus number (such as SVP 001 or MEP 012), and for Standard you check them like any other card: by regulation mark.
Jumbo cards: for display, not for play: Jumbo cards, which Pokémon's product pages call "oversize" cards, come in some collections next to the same promo in normal size, and only the normal-size card is playable.
World Championships decks: official replicas that aren't tournament legal: Cards from the World Championships decks are not legal for tournament play: they have different card backs from normal Pokémon cards, silver borders and the player's signature on every card.
Finding the cards you're missing: If you're short of a particular ACE SPEC or one half of a LEGEND, TradeMatches lets you keep a list of what you have and what you want, see matching collectors nearby and chat with players in your province.

Magic: The Gathering

Index by topic: Looking for a keyword that doesn't have its own section here?
Planeswalker loyalty abilities: A planeswalker enters with as many loyalty counters as the number in its lower right corner, and you can activate only one of its loyalty abilities each turn: in a main phase of your own turn, when you have priority and the stack is empty (306.5b, 606.3).
The legend rule: If one player controls two or more legendary permanents with exactly the same name, that player chooses one and puts the rest into their owners' graveyards.
Summoning sickness: what it stops and what it doesn't: A creature can't attack or activate abilities with the tap ({T}) or untap ({Q}) symbol in their cost unless you have controlled it continuously since your most recent turn began.
Vehicles and crew: summoning sickness, tapped Vehicles and blocking: A Vehicle you have controlled since the start of your turn can attack as soon as you crew it, even if the creatures crewing it just came in; a Vehicle that entered this turn can't attack even when crewed, because once…
Infect vs toxic: how each gives poison: Infect replaces damage: players get poison counters instead of losing life, and creatures get −1/−1 counters.
Ward, hexproof and protection: Hexproof stops your opponents' spells and abilities from targeting the permanent at all; ward lets them target it, then triggers and counters that spell or ability unless its controller pays the ward cost (702.11b, 702.21a).
Trample: how much damage goes through: A blocked attacker with trample must assign lethal damage to all its blockers, and can assign the rest to the player, planeswalker or battle it's attacking (702.19b).
First strike and double strike: If any attacking or blocking creature has first strike or double strike as the combat damage step begins, there are two damage steps: only those creatures deal damage in the first, and everyone else, plus double…
Deathtouch and indestructible: An indestructible creature survives damage from a deathtouch source: deathtouch makes the creature be destroyed as a state-based action, and indestructible means it can't be destroyed (702.2b, 702.12b).
Sacrifice vs destroy: Destroying moves a permanent from the battlefield to the graveyard and can be stopped by indestructible or regeneration; sacrificing is its controller moving it straight to the graveyard, and neither indestructible nor regeneration stops that (701.8a, 701.21a).
Equipment vs Aura: Equipment is cast as an artifact, enters unattached and attaches with its equip ability, which you can only activate at sorcery speed targeting a creature you control; an Aura is cast targeting whatever its enchant…
Layers: working out power and toughness: Power and toughness are calculated in layer 7 in this order: characteristic-defining abilities (7a), effects that set a value (7b), effects and counters that add or subtract (7c), and effects that switch power and toughness (7d) (613.4).
Token vs copy: A token is an object representing a permanent that isn't a card, and it stops existing if it leaves the battlefield; a copy takes the copiable values of another object, and can be a token, a card entering as a copy, or…
Phasing vs blink: A permanent that phases out is treated as though it doesn't exist, but it never changes zones: it keeps its counters, Auras and Equipment, and no enters or leaves triggers fire (702.26b, 702.26d); a blink exiles it and…
Mutate: which card goes on top: When you cast a creature for its mutate cost, it targets a non-Human creature you own; when it resolves, it merges with that creature, and the result has the characteristics of the top card plus the abilities of every…
Ninjutsu and sneak: Ninjutsu is an activated ability from your hand: pay its cost, reveal the card and return an unblocked attacker you control to hand, and the card enters tapped and attacking (702.49a); sneak is an alternative cost to…
Manifest and cloak: Manifest puts a card onto the battlefield face down as a colorless 2/2 creature with no name or abilities; cloak does the same, but the face-down creature also has ward {2} (701.40a, 701.58a).
The stack and priority: how responding works: The stack holds spells and abilities waiting to resolve, and priority decides who can add something; when all players pass in a row, the last thing put on the stack resolves (117.4, 405.5).
Scry vs surveil: Scry N means look at the top N cards of your library, put any number on the bottom and the rest back on top in any order; surveil N is the same, except the cards you don't keep go to your graveyard instead of the bottom (701.22a, 701.25a).
Landfall: is it a triggered ability?: Yes. Landfall is an ability word with no rules meaning of its own, and the abilities it labels are triggered abilities that trigger each time a land enters the battlefield under your control (207.2c).
Dungeons and the initiative: Venturing into the dungeon puts a dungeon of your choice into the command zone with your marker on its first room, or moves you to the next room if you're already in one; the initiative is a designation that makes you…
Proliferate: one more of each counter: To proliferate, choose any number of permanents and players that have a counter, then give each one an additional counter of each kind it already has (701.34a).
Oracle text: when your card says something else: You play a Magic card using its current Oracle text, even when your printed copy is worded differently (108.1); Oracle wordings are kept in English in Gatherer, Wizards' official card database.
Mana value of X spells: While a spell with {X} in its mana cost is on the stack, each X counts as the number chosen when it was cast; in every other zone, including the battlefield, X counts as 0 (202.3e).
Suspend: time counters and casting from exile: Suspend N—[cost] lets you pay that cost to exile the card from your hand with N time counters; at the start of each of your upkeeps you remove one, and when the last one comes off you may cast it without paying its mana cost (702.62a).
Adventure cards and casting from exile: An adventurer card is one card you can cast either as its Adventure spell or as its main half; if the Adventure resolves, the card goes to exile and you can later cast the main half from there, paying its normal costs (715.3, 715.3d).
Cascade: what you can cast for free: When you cast a spell with cascade, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with lower mana value than that spell; you may cast it without paying its mana cost if the resulting spell also…
Convoke: paying with creatures, even new ones: Convoke lets you tap untapped creatures you control to pay part of a spell's total cost: each one pays for one generic mana or one mana of its color (702.51a).
Delve: paying with your graveyard: Delve lets you exile cards from your graveyard to pay for generic mana in a spell's total cost, one card per generic mana (702.66a).
Cycling: an ability, a discard and how to respond: Cycling [cost] is an activated ability that works only while the card is in your hand and means "[Cost], Discard this card: Draw a card" (702.29a).
Dredge: replacing a draw: Dredge N works while the card is in your graveyard: if you would draw a card, you may instead mill N cards and return the dredge card to your hand, as long as you have at least N cards in your library (702.52a–b).
Flashback: casting from the graveyard, then exile: Flashback [cost] lets you cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard by paying that cost instead of its mana cost, and if you did, the card is exiled whenever it leaves the stack, even if it's countered (702.34a).
Fetchlands and shocklands: how they work together: A fetchland searches for a land card by basic land type, and a shockland has two basic land types without being a basic land, so a fetchland that finds "a Plains or Island card" can find a shockland that's a Plains Island (305.6, 305.8).
Commander color identity (and Backgrounds): A card can go in a Commander deck only if every color in its color identity is also in your commander's, and color identity includes mana symbols in the mana cost and the rules text, the color indicator and color-defining abilities (903.4, 903.5c).
Partner, Backgrounds and commander pairs: You can have two commanders only if both meet the same pairing ability: partner, "partner—[text]", "partner with [name]", "choose a Background" or Doctor's companion (702.124a).
Commander tax: how to calculate it: Casting your commander from the command zone costs an additional {2} for each previous time you cast it from the command zone that game (903.8).
Graveyard or command zone: where your commander goes: If your commander goes to the graveyard or exile, it gets there first and you can then move it to the command zone as a state-based action; if it would go to your hand or library, you can replace that move and send it…
Commander damage: the 21-point rule: A player who has been dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander over the course of the game loses (903.10a).
Commander mulligan: In a multiplayer game, such as a normal four-player Commander game, each player's first mulligan is free: it doesn't count toward the cards you put on the bottom of your library (103.5c).
Finding the cards you're missing: If a deck needs a particular Vehicle, a shockland or the right Background for your commander, TradeMatches lets you list the cards you have and the ones you want, see matching collectors near you and talk in your province's chat.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Normal Summon, Set and Flip Summon: what counts as what: You can Normal Summon or Normal Set only once per turn in total, but a Flip Summon does not count as your Normal Summon, so yes, you can Flip Summon one monster and Normal Summon another in the same turn.
Changing battle position: the three restrictions: During your Main Phase you can change each monster's battle position once per turn, except a monster that was played onto the field this turn, a monster that attacked this turn (in Main Phase 2), or a monster whose position you already changed this turn.
Properly Summoned: when you can revive a monster: A monster that says it "must first be Special Summoned" in a particular way, and Fusion, Synchro, Xyz and Link Monsters, can only be revived from the Graveyard (or banishment) by another card's effect if they were first properly Summoned.
Fusion, Synchro, Xyz and Link: how each Extra Deck Summon works: Fusion needs a card such as Polymerization plus the listed materials; Synchro needs one face-up Tuner and face-up non-Tuners whose Levels add up exactly; Xyz needs face-up monsters with the same Level; and Link needs…
Link materials and Link Rating: The Link Rating is both the number of Link Arrows and the number of materials a Link Summon needs, and a Link Monster used as material can count as 1 material or as its whole Link Rating, never a number in between.
Xyz Materials and detaching: Xyz Materials are attached under the Xyz Monster and are not treated as cards on the field; detaching one puts it in the Graveyard, but it was never "sent from the field".
Pendulum Summon: scales, zones and the Extra Deck: To Pendulum Summon, place two Pendulum Monsters as Spells in your leftmost and rightmost Spell & Trap Zones, then once per turn in your Main Phase Special Summon any number of monsters whose Levels are strictly between…
Ritual Summon: the Ritual Spell and the Tributes: A Ritual Summon uses a Ritual Spell Card plus the matching Ritual Monster in your hand, and you Tribute monsters from your hand or field as the Ritual Spell requires; the Ritual Monster then goes to a Main Monster Zone in face-up Attack or Defense Position.
Tokens: which Summons can use them: Tokens can never be Xyz Material, but they can be Link Material when they meet the recipe, and a Token with a Level can be used in a Synchro Summon unless a card says otherwise; because Tokens are Normal Monsters, they…
Extra Deck vs Side Deck: The Extra Deck holds up to 15 Fusion, Synchro, Xyz and Link Monsters you can Summon during the Duel; the Side Deck is a separate pile of up to 15 cards you swap with your Main or Extra Deck between Duels of a Match, never during a Duel.
When can you activate a Set Spell or Trap?: A Set Trap Card or a Set Quick-Play Spell can't be activated in the turn it was Set, but from the next turn on, including your opponent's turn; a Set Normal Spell (or other non-Quick-Play Spell) can be activated in your…
Equip Spells and the equipped monster: An Equip Spell gives its effect to one face-up monster (yours or your opponent's, depending on the card) and stays in your Spell & Trap Zone; if that monster is destroyed, flipped face-down or leaves the field, the…
Chains and Spell Speed: A chain resolves in reverse order, from the last card activated back to Chain Link 1, and you can only respond with an effect of Spell Speed 2 or higher that is at least as fast as the link before it.
Target vs choose: when the choice is made: An effect that targets picks its card when it is activated, before the semicolon, so the opponent knows the target before responding; an effect that "chooses" or affects cards without targeting picks them when it resolves.
Negate the activation vs negate the effect: Negating the activation means the card or effect was never successfully activated; negating the effect means it was activated but its effect doesn't apply, and in both cases any cost already paid is lost.
"When" vs "if": missing the timing: An optional effect worded "When... you can" misses the timing if its trigger was not the last thing that happened, for example because something else happened later in the same effect or chain; Konami ties this risk to optional effects worded "When...
The Damage Step: what you can activate: In the Damage Step you can only activate Counter Traps or cards that directly change a monster's ATK or DEF, and only until the start of damage calculation, unless a card's own text names a Damage Step moment.
Piercing battle damage: Piercing means that when your monster attacks a Defense Position monster with lower DEF, your opponent takes the difference between your ATK and their DEF as battle damage; without piercing, they take nothing.
Destroy vs send to the Graveyard: A card is destroyed only when it goes to the Graveyard through battle or through an effect that destroys; Tributing, discarding, paying a cost or an effect that says "send" puts it in the Graveyard without destroying it.
Owner vs controller: The owner is the player who started the Duel with the card in their Deck; the controller is whoever has it on their side of the field right now, and when the card goes to the Graveyard, hand or Deck it always goes to its owner's.
Face-down banished cards: A card banished face-down is out of play like any banished card, but it isn't public knowledge in the same way: in Konami EU events, names of face-up banished cards are public, while for a face-down banished card the…
Hand limit: six cards at the end of your turn: The hand limit is checked only at the end of your own End Phase: if you have more than 6 cards then, you discard down to 6; you never discard just for drawing a seventh card during the turn.
Empty Deck: when you lose: You lose when you have to draw and can't, not when your Deck becomes empty; a player with 0 cards in the Deck keeps playing until a draw is required.
Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring: what it can negate: Ash Blossom negates the effect of a card or effect whose activation includes adding a card from the Deck to the hand, Special Summoning from the Deck, or sending a card from the Deck to the Graveyard; it doesn't touch anything outside those three actions.
Infinite Impermanence: hand, column and resolution: Infinite Impermanence targets one face-up monster your opponent controls and negates its effects until the end of the turn; you can activate it from your hand only if you control no cards, and its column effect applies…
Nibiru, the Primal Being: counting five monsters: Nibiru checks whether your opponent Normal or Special Summoned 5 or more monsters this turn; it counts monsters, not Summon actions, so one Summon that brings out several monsters adds all of them, and monsters that already left the field still count.
Skill Drain: negated, but still activated: Skill Drain negates the effects of all face-up monsters while they are face-up on the field, but those monsters can still activate their effects; costs are paid as usual and the effect is negated.
Forbidden Droplet: costs and response limits: Forbidden Droplet sends any number of your other cards to the Graveyard as its cost, then at resolution chooses that many of your opponent's Effect Monsters, halving their ATK and negating their effects until the end of…
PSY-Framegear Gamma: empty field and PSY-Frame Driver: Gamma can be activated only when your opponent activates a monster effect while you control no monsters; it Special Summons itself from your hand together with PSY-Frame Driver from your hand, Deck or Graveyard, then…
Super Polymerization: materials and no responses: Super Polymerization discards a card as its cost, then Fusion Summons using monsters from either field, and neither player can activate cards or effects in response to its activation.
Cards and effects not covered here: We left out the difference between "Once per turn" and "You can only use this effect of [card name] once per turn".
Trading for the cards you're missing: If your Pendulum Scales are missing a piece, or you need another hand trap for your Side Deck, TradeMatches lets you keep lists of the cards you have and the cards you want, see matching collectors nearby and chat with players in your province.

One Piece Card Game

How a battle works, step by step: A battle in One Piece Card Game always runs in the same order: Attack Step, Block Step, Counter Step, Damage Step, then the end of the battle.
When can you use Blocker in One Piece?: You can use [Blocker] only during the Block Step of your opponent's attack, when the attack targets one of your other cards (your Leader or a different Character).
K.O. vs trash vs returning to hand: A Character is K.O.'d only when it loses a battle or when an effect K.O.s it.
Rested vs given (attached) DON!!: A rested DON!! has been turned sideways in your cost area to pay a cost, and it stays rested until your next Refresh Phase.
Once Per Turn: what it limits: [Once Per Turn] means that effect on that card can be activated and resolved once in each turn.
Activate: Main: when and how to use it: [Activate: Main] marks an effect on a card on your field that you can choose to use during your own Main Phase, whenever no battle is in progress.
Who can you attack in One Piece?: You can attack your opponent's Leader or one of their rested Characters.
Trigger: what to do when you lose a Life card: When your Leader takes damage, you take the top card of your Life area.
Face-up Life cards: A face-up Life card is still a Life card.
Stage cards: playing and replacing: You play a Stage from your hand during your Main Phase by paying its cost, and you can only have one.
Deck building: Leader, 50 cards and 10 DON!!: A legal One Piece Card Game deck is exactly 1 Leader, a 50-card main deck of Characters, Events and Stages that share your Leader's colours, with no more than 4 copies of any card number, plus a separate 10-card DON!!
The five-Character limit: You can have at most 5 Characters in your Character area.
Rush: attacking on the turn a Character is played: [Rush] lets a Character attack on the turn it is played, against the opponent's Leader or a rested Character.
Cost vs power: Cost is the number in the top-left corner that you pay to play a card.
Character Counter vs Event Counter: A Character card's Counter is the number printed on its side.
Double Attack vs Banish: [Double Attack] makes a successful attack on the Leader deal 2 damage instead of 1, so two Life cards are taken one after the other.
How you lose: zero Life and an empty deck: You lose when your Leader takes damage while you have 0 Life cards, or as soon as your deck has 0 cards.
Mulligan and setting up the game: Each player draws 5 cards and may redraw once: shuffle the whole hand back into the deck and draw 5 new cards.
First turn: draw, DON!! and attacks: The player going first doesn't draw on their first turn and places only 1 DON!!.
On Play vs When Attacking: [On Play] activates once, when the card is played.
DON!! −X: DON!! −X is a cost: choose X DON!! cards from your Leader area, Character area and cost area, in any mix of active, rested and given, and return them to your DON!!
Simultaneous effects: what resolves first: When effects of both players trigger at the same time, the turn player resolves theirs first, then the non-turn player resolves theirs.
Public and private information: You can always ask how many cards are in each of your opponent's areas, and you can look through either player's trash.
Attributes, types and colours: Attributes (Slash, Strike, Ranged, Special, Wisdom and "?") and types (the names in the type line) are separate details on a card.
Finding the cards your deck needs: When a list calls for a fourth copy of a card number or a specific Blocker, TradeMatches lets you keep lists of the cards you have and the cards you want, see matching collectors near you and talk in your province's chat.

Disney Lorcana

Every Lorcana keyword at a glance: If you only need to check one keyword in the middle of a game, look it up in the keyword glossary : it gives the rule in one line, alongside eight other games, and links to its section of this guide.
Shift in Lorcana: how it works: Shift is an alternate cost: if you have a character in play with the same name, you may pay the Shift cost instead of the ink cost and put the new card on top of that character (8.10.1, 1.5.5.2).
Lorcana ink drops: what they are and how to spend them: Ink drops are real: they are a counter added for Hyperia City, which had its prerelease on 16 October 2026 and its general release on 23 October 2026.
Inkwell and inkable cards: A card is inkable when the swirl-shaped inkwell symbol surrounds its cost.
Bodyguard rules: Bodyguard has two parts: the character may enter play exerted instead of ready, and when an opponent chooses one of your characters to challenge, they must choose this one, or another character with Bodyguard, if able (8.3.2, 8.3.3).
Boost in Lorcana: Boost N means: once during your turn, you may pay N ink to put the top card of your deck facedown under this card (8.4.1).
Vanish: when the character is banished: Vanish means that when an opponent chooses this character as part of resolving an action's effect, it's banished.
Ward vs Resist: Ward stops your opponents from choosing the card when they resolve an effect (8.15.1).
Evasive and Alert: who can challenge: A character with Evasive can only be challenged by a character that also has Evasive (8.6.1).
Challenger vs Reckless: Challenger +N gives +N Strength only while the character is challenging, never while it is being challenged (8.5).
Adventurous: the new keyword in Hyperia City: Adventurous, added in Comprehensive Rules 2.3.0, is Reckless turned around: the character can't challenge, and you can't end your turn while it is ready and able to quest (8.16).
Support: adding Strength when questing: Support is a triggered ability: whenever this character quests, you may add its Strength to another chosen character's Strength for the rest of the turn (8.13.1).
Singing songs in Lorcana: Singer and Sing Together: Every song can be played by exerting one of your dry characters whose ink cost is equal to or greater than the song's cost, instead of paying ink.
Rush: Rush lets a character challenge as though it had been in play since the start of your turn (8.9.1).
Turn structure: Ready, Set, Draw: A Lorcana turn has three phases: the Start-of-Turn Phase, with its Ready, Set and Draw steps, then the Main Phase and the End-of-Turn Phase (3.1).
Drying: what a new character can do: A character played this turn is "drying": it can't quest, challenge, or exert to pay a cost, which rules out singing too, until it has been in play since the start of your turn (1.7.5, 5.1.1.11).
Quest vs challenge: Questing exerts a dry character to gain lore equal to its Lore value (4.5).
Damage, removing damage and banishing: Damage counters stay on a character or location until something removes them, and the card is banished as soon as a game state check finds damage equal to or greater than its Willpower (1.8.1.4, 5.3.6.3).
Lorcana locations: moving characters and challenging them: During your turn you can move one of your characters to one of your locations by paying that location's move cost.
How locations gain lore: A location with a Lore value gives you that much lore at the start of each of your turns, in the Set step, as long as it's still in play.
Items: playing, exerting and using them: Items enter play ready and, unlike characters, can be exerted and use their abilities on the turn you play them (5.5.4, 4.4.2).
The bag: resolving triggered abilities: Triggered abilities, the ones starting with "When", "Whenever", "At the start of" or "At the end of", don't resolve on the spot.
Opening hand size and mulligan rules: Each player starts with a 7-card opening hand (5 in Pack Rush).
Empty deck: when you lose: You lose if your turn ends with no cards in your deck (1.8.1.2, 2.3.3.2).
Lorcana with three or more players: Multiplayer Lorcana uses the normal rules with a few additions: turns pass to the left, simultaneous actions start with the active player and go left, and a player who loses leaves the game at once (9).
Lore: how you win, with and without questing: The first player with 20 or more lore wins, at the next game state check (1.8.1.1).
Deck building: 60 cards, two inks, four copies: A Constructed deck needs at least 60 cards, cards from no more than two ink types, no more than 4 copies of any card by its full name, and no banned cards (1.10.1.1, TR 1.3.1.1).
Core and Infinity after the 2026 rotation: Since the release of Attack of the Vine! (set 13), Core Constructed only allows cards from set 9, Fabled, onward.
Lorcana Sealed rules: the 40-card deck: In Sealed, each player opens at least six booster packs, from sets the organiser chooses, and builds a deck of at least 40 cards from them.
Lorcana Draft: the 35-card deck: In Draft, players pick one card at a time from booster packs passed around a pod and then build a deck of at least 35 cards from their picks, with any inks and any number of copies (1.10.1.2, TR 1.3.2.4).
Pack Rush: two boosters, 15 lore: Pack Rush is a quick Limited game: each player shuffles the cards of two unopened booster packs, from any sets, into a deck of about 24 cards, starts with 2 ink and 5 cards in hand, and plays to 15 lore (10.2, TR 1.3.2.3).
Lorcana rarities: Lorcana has eight rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Super Rare, Legendary, Enchanted, Epic and Iconic.
Finding the cards you're missing: Whether you're building a Core deck after the rotation or chasing a shift partner for a character you already own, TradeMatches lets you list what you have and what you're looking for, shows matching collectors nearby and gives you a chat for your province.

Riftbound

Stun: what it does and what it doesn't: Stun is a game action, and Stunned is the state it leaves behind (424).
Equip and Equipment: attaching, moving and losing the unit: Equipment is gear with the Equipment tag (150).
Deflect: the extra cost to choose a unit: Deflect taxes your opponent's targeting. Spells and abilities an opponent controls that target the object cost extra Power equal to its Deflect value, for each time they choose it (809).
Reaction, Action and the chain: Reaction and Action are timing permissions.
Hidden: hiding a card and playing it later: Hidden lets you take a special action called Hide (811, 422).
Tokens: what they are and where they go: Tokens are game objects created by spells and abilities (180).
Recycle, Trash and Banish: All three move cards, but they send them to different places and with different consequences.
Burn and Burn Out: Burn X moves the top X cards of your Main Deck to your trash (441).
Conquer and Hold: the two ways to score: Scoring is how you take points from battlefields, and there are two ways to do it (471):
Ganking: moving between battlefields: Every unit has a Standard Move. You exhaust it as the cost, during your Main Phase, with no chain open and no showdown or combat going on (144).
Accelerate: entering ready: Units enter the board exhausted (143.4). Accelerate is an optional extra cost, 1 Energy plus 1 Power of one of the unit's domains, paid as you play the unit.
Assault and Shield: Assault X means "While I am an attacker, I have +X Might" (807).
Tank: who must be assigned damage first: A unit with Tank must be assigned lethal damage before any unit without Tank that has the same controller, in the combat damage step (815).
Vision: Predict when played: Vision is short for "When this is played, Predict" (817).
Deathknell: when the unit actually dies: Deathknell means "When I die, [effect]" (808).
Mighty: the 5-Might threshold: A unit is Mighty while its Might is 5 or more.
Temporary, Legion and newer keywords: Temporary kills the permanent at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring.
Finding the cards you are missing: If a deck needs a particular Equipment or a few more Deflect units, TradeMatches lets you keep a list of what you have and what you want, see matching collectors nearby and talk in your province's chat.

Star Wars: Unlimited

Grit: +1 power for every damage on the unit: Grit is a constant ability that reads "This unit gets +1/+0 for each damage on it" (7.5.6.a).
Coordinate: abilities that switch on at three units: Coordinate is followed by a dash and an ability, and it means "While you control 3 or more units, this card gains the following ability" (7.5.15.a).
Restore: healing your base when the unit attacks: Restore X resolves like "On Attack: Heal X damage from your base" (7.5.9.a).
Piloting: playing a Pilot as a unit or as an upgrade: Piloting [Y] means "You may play this unit as an upgrade on a friendly VEHICLE unit without a PILOT upgrade on it by paying cost Y instead of its printed cost" (7.5.17.a).
Resources and the regroup phase: Resources in Star Wars: Unlimited are cards placed facedown in your resource zone: you start with 2, and in each regroup phase you may add 1 more from your hand after drawing 2 cards.
Overwhelm: excess damage to the base: Overwhelm means "While attacking, this unit deals its excess combat damage to the defending player's base" (7.5.7.a).
Saboteur: ignoring Sentinel and removing Shields: Saboteur in Star Wars: Unlimited does two things: you may ignore Sentinel when choosing what the unit attacks, and when it attacks, all Shield tokens on the defending unit are defeated (7.5.10.a).
Ambush: attacking as soon as the unit arrives: Ambush lets a unit attack an enemy unit right after it is played, deployed or created, even though it entered play exhausted (7.5.5.a).
Raid: extra power while attacking: Raid X means "While attacking, this unit gets +X power" (7.5.8.a).
The aspect penalty: The aspect penalty in Star Wars: Unlimited is 2 extra resources for each aspect icon on a card that your leader and base don't provide (8.1.1).
Bounty: who collects and when: A Bounty is collected by an opponent of the unit's controller, when that unit is defeated or captured, and collecting it is optional (7.5.13.a, 7.5.13.e).
Deploying a leader and Epic Actions: To deploy a leader you use its Epic Action once you control the resources it asks for; it costs no resources, the leader flips to its unit side and enters the ground arena ready (3.4.4).
Passing and taking the initiative: Passing does nothing and lets you act again later in the phase; taking the initiative ends your participation in the action phase but makes you the first player next round (1.15.5–1.15.6).
The uniqueness rule: You can control only one copy of a unique card with the same name and subtitle at a time; if a second one enters play under your control, you immediately defeat one of them (8.29.3).
Capture and rescue: A captured unit is placed facedown under the unit that captured it, with all damage removed and all its upgrades defeated; it comes back into play, exhausted and under its owner's control, when it is rescued or when the…
Smuggle: playing a card from your resources: Smuggle [Y] lets you play the card from your resource zone by paying Y instead of its printed cost, then replace it with the top card of your deck (7.5.14.a).
Exploit: defeating your own units to pay less: Exploit X means "While playing this card, you may defeat up to X friendly units.
Sentinel: the unit that must be attacked: Sentinel means "Units in this arena can't attack your non-Sentinel units or your base.
Shielded, Shield tokens and Experience tokens: Shielded means "When Played/When Deployed/When Created: Give a Shield token to this unit" (7.5.12.a).
Hidden: Hidden is current in the 9.0 rules. It means "This unit can't be attacked if it was played/deployed/created this phase" (7.5.18.a).
Ground and space arenas: Ground units can attack enemy ground units and the enemy base; space units can attack enemy space units and the enemy base; neither can attack units in the other arena unless a card says so (4.3.3–4.3.4, 4.4.3–4.4.4).
Twin Suns: the multiplayer format with two leaders: A Twin Suns deck has exactly 2 different leaders, 1 base and at least 80 other cards, with only one copy of each card (12.2.1–12.2.2).
Indirect damage: Indirect damage is dealt to a player, who must assign it, divided as they choose, among their own units and base (8.35.1).
Disclose: To disclose aspect icons you reveal any number of cards from your hand that together show at least those icons (8.38.1).
Plot, Support, Fortify and the Force: Plot lets you play the card from your resources when you deploy a leader, replacing it with the top card of your deck; the card must already be a resource when the leader deploys (7.5.19).
Trading for the cards you need: Missing a Pilot for your Vehicles or a third copy of a Sentinel?

Flesh and Blood

The basics: hero, life, intellect and turn structure: Each player plays as a hero, which sets their starting life, their intellect (the hand size they draw up to) and which classes and talents their deck can use; you win by reducing the opposing hero to 0 life.
Pitch: what red, yellow and blue mean: Pitch is what a card gives you when you move it from hand to your pitch zone to pay a cost: usually 1 resource for red, 2 for yellow and 3 for blue.
The pitch zone and end-of-turn order: Cards you pitch stay face up in your pitch zone until the end phase, then go to the bottom of your deck in the order you choose, and your opponent doesn't get to see that order.
Go again and action points: Go again means "gain 1 action point": it lets you play another action card or activate another action ability that turn, usually another attack.
The arsenal: saving a card for next turn: Your arsenal is a private zone where, at the end of your turn, you can store one card from your hand face down to play later; it holds only one card.
The combat chain step by step: Each attack resolves as a chain link on the combat chain and moves through the Layer, Attack, Defend, Reaction, Damage and Resolution Steps; the chain closes when nobody adds another attack.
Attack reactions and defense reactions: Attack reactions are played by whoever controls the attack and defense reactions by the player being attacked, and both can only be played in the Reaction Step of a chain link.
Instants, actions and when each card can be played: An instant can be played any time you have priority, on either player's turn, without an action point; an action needs your turn, an empty stack and an action point.
Defending with equipment: When your hero is attacked, in the Defend Step you can declare the face-up equipment you control as defending cards alongside cards from hand, as long as each piece has a defense value.
Dominate vs Overpower: Dominate stops an attack being defended by more than one card from hand; Overpower stops it being defended by more than one action card, wherever it comes from.
Intimidate: Intimidate makes the affected player banish a random card from their hand face down; it returns to their hand at the beginning of that turn's end phase.
Ward: Ward N means that if you would be dealt damage, you destroy the card to prevent N of that damage; it works against any damage type and it isn't optional.
Quell: Quell N lets you pay N resources to prevent N of incoming damage; if you use it, the card is destroyed at the beginning of the end phase.
Arcane Barrier vs Spellvoid: Arcane Barrier N and Spellvoid N only prevent arcane damage: with Arcane Barrier you pay N resources and keep the card; with Spellvoid you destroy the card to prevent N.
Boost: Boost is an optional additional cost: as you play the card you may banish the top card of your deck, and if that card is a Mechanologist card, the card you played gains go again.
Combo: Combo gives an attack a bonus if the last attack on the current combat chain had a specific name; that earlier attack doesn't need to have hit.
Clash: In a Clash, each clashing player reveals the top card of their deck and whoever reveals the card with the highest power wins; on a tie, nobody wins.
Frostbite: Frostbite is an aura token that makes your next card or ability cost 1 more resource; it's destroyed as soon as you play a card or activate an ability, or at the beginning of your end phase.
Blood Debt: Blood Debt makes you lose 1 life at the beginning of your end phase for each card with Blood Debt face up in your banished zone.
Empty deck and "fatigue": Running out of cards doesn't make you lose in Flesh and Blood: if you try to draw from an empty deck, the draw simply doesn't happen, and you only lose when your life hits 0.
Living Legend: when a hero stops being legal: A hero that reaches 1000 Living Legend points stops being legal in Classic Constructed along with its signature weapon, but stays legal in the Living Legend format.
Silver Age: the young-hero format with commons and rares: Silver Age uses a young hero and a 55-card card-pool in which everything, the hero included, is common, rare or basic rarity, with a deck of exactly 40 cards and up to 2 copies of each card.
Cold Foil vs Rainbow Foil: which version are you trading?: Cold Foil and Rainbow Foil are two different print techniques for the same card, and Cold Foil is far scarcer: in recent English boosters it turns up roughly once every 24 packs, while every pack has a premium foil.
Trading for the cards you need: TradeMatches has supported Flesh and Blood since November 2026.

Digimon Card Game

All keywords and rules at a glance: If a card shows a keyword that isn't in this table, or you recognise the same idea under another name from a game you already play, the TradeMatches keyword glossary can be filtered to the Digimon Card Game and links…
Blocker: when a Digimon can block: A Digimon with <Blocker> can block if it is in your battle area, can be suspended and isn't already the attack target: during the block timing you suspend it and the attack switches to it.
Barrier and Evade: two ways to avoid deletion: <Barrier> stops a deletion in battle by trashing your top security card; <Evade> stops any deletion, from a battle or from an effect, by suspending the Digimon that has it.
Decoy: deleting one Digimon to protect another: <Decoy> lets you delete the Digimon that has it so that another of your Digimon, matching the colour or condition in brackets, isn't deleted by an opponent's effect.
Partition: playing digivolution cards when the Digimon is removed: <Partition> triggers when the Digimon would leave the battle area other than by your own effects or a battle, as long as it has one of each specified card in its digivolution cards; you may then play one of each of those cards for free.
Breeding area vs battle area: The breeding area holds a single card, the Digimon you hatched, and it is almost completely shielded: effects can't choose, affect or reference it, and its own effects don't trigger, unless the effect mentions the breeding area.
Jamming and Piercing: <Jamming> means the Digimon isn't deleted when it loses a battle against a Security Digimon; <Piercing> means that when your attacking Digimon deletes an opponent's Digimon in battle, it checks security just before the attack ends.
DNA Digivolution: costs, stacking and attacking: DNA Digivolution stacks two of your Digimon in the battle area that match the requirements, such as "Blue Lv.4 + green Lv.4: Cost 0", places the DNA card on top, pays that cost and draws a card; the result is a new,…
Rush and Blitz: two different permissions to attack: <Rush> lets a Digimon attack the same turn it was played; <Blitz> lets a Digimon attack while your opponent has 1 or more memory, which is the moment your turn would otherwise end.
Mulligan: redrawing your opening hand: Each player may redraw their opening hand once: you return all five cards, shuffle and draw five new ones, and only after that do you set your five security cards.
Security checks step by step: When your Digimon's attack on the player succeeds and they have security cards, you flip their top security card: a Digimon card battles your attacker, an Option or Tamer card can activate its [Security] effect, and the…
Alliance: adding DP without a second attack: When a Digimon with <Alliance> attacks, you may suspend one of your other Digimon to give the attacker that Digimon's DP and <Security A.
De-Digivolve: trashing the top of a stack: <De-Digivolve X> makes you declare a number from 1 to X and trash that many cards from the top of the chosen Digimon, but it can't trash anything from a level 3 or lower Digimon.
Option cards and colour requirements: To use an Option card from your hand you need a Digimon or Tamer of the same colour on your field, and the field includes your breeding area; a multicolour Option needs every one of its colours.
Inherited effects: which text is active: A Digimon gains the inherited effects printed on the cards stacked under it, but none of their other information: not their name, colour, traits or main effects.
ACE cards and Overflow: Overflow is a rule on Digimon ACE cards: when the ACE card moves from the field, or from under another card, to any other area, its owner loses the memory printed in its Overflow value.
The memory gauge and when the turn ends: Your turn ends when the memory is at 1 or more on your opponent's side and all processing has finished; whatever memory you leave them is what they start with.
DigiXros: materials and cost: DigiXros lets you place cards named in the requirements from your hand and/or battle area under the Digimon you are playing, reducing its play cost by the stated amount for each card.
Armor Purge: which card is trashed: <Armor Purge> prevents a deletion by trashing the top card of the Digimon itself, so the card underneath becomes the Digimon.
Save and Material Save: <Save> lets you place the card under one of your Tamers; <Material Save X> lets you place X of the deleted Digimon's digivolution cards that appear in its DigiXros requirements under a Tamer.
Recovery: adding cards to security: <Recovery +X> places the top X cards of your deck face down on top of your security stack, one at a time, without looking at them.
Retaliation: deleting after losing a battle: When a Digimon with <Retaliation> is deleted in battle, the opponent's Digimon it battled is deleted too.
Reboot: unsuspending on your opponent's turn: <Reboot> unsuspends the Digimon in your opponent's unsuspend phase as well as in yours.
Delay: which turn you can activate it: A <Delay> Option sits in your battle area and you activate it by trashing it, but not in the same turn it was placed there.
Empty deck: when you lose: You lose when your deck has 0 cards and you have to draw in your draw phase.
Collision, Fortitude, Raid and Security A.: <Collision> gives all your opponent's Digimon <Blocker> while the Digimon is attacking and forces them to block if they can (16-30).
Finding the cards you are missing: If a deck needs one more Blocker or the two Lv.5 cards a Partition asks for, write down your spare cards and the ones you want on the printable trade list and take it to your store or tournament, which is where Digimon cards change hands.

Gundam Card Game

Gundam Card Game keywords at a glance: When a card in front of you uses a keyword that isn't listed here, or you want to compare it with another game's version, the keyword glossary has a Gundam Card Game filter and points you to the section of this guide that covers it.
Pilots and Link Units: pairing, links and attacking the same turn: In the Gundam Card Game, pairing a Pilot with a Unit always adds the Pilot's AP and HP, but it only creates a Link Unit when the Pilot meets the link condition printed on that Unit.
Breach: extra damage when your Unit wins a battle: <Breach X> means: when this Unit destroys an enemy Unit with battle damage during your turn, it deals X damage to the first card in that opponent's shield area (13-1-2-1).
Support: lending AP to another Unit: <Support X> is an Activate･Main ability: rest this Unit to choose one other friendly Unit, which gets AP+X during this turn (13-1-3-1).
Blocker: changing the target of an attack: <Blocker> lets the defending player rest one of their active Units in the block step to make it the new target of the attack (8-3-1, 13-1-4-1).
Shields, Bases and Burst: Burst is a free effect printed on some cards.
First Strike: who deals battle damage first: <First Strike> makes an attacking Unit deal its battle damage before the enemy does.
High-Maneuver: attacks that can't be blocked: <High-Maneuver> means "While this Unit is attacking, enemy Units cannot activate <Blocker>" (13-1-6-1).
Suppression: two Shields at once: <Suppression> means that when this Unit deals battle damage to an enemy Shield, the damage is dealt to the first two Shields simultaneously (13-1-7-1).
Repair: recovering HP at the end of your turn: <Repair X> means "At the end of your turn, this Unit recovers X HP" (13-1-1-1): you remove X damage counters from it in your end step.
Attack targets: what you can attack and when: In the Gundam Card Game, a Unit can attack either the opposing player or a rested enemy Unit.
Deck of 50 and resource deck of 10: A Gundam Card Game deck has exactly 50 cards (Units, Pilots, Commands and Bases in one or two colours, with at most four copies of each card number), plus a separate resource deck of exactly 10 Resource cards (6-1-1).
Best of three and the 10-card sideboard: In Bandai's best-of-three (BO3) format you may bring a sideboard of exactly 10 cards and swap cards between games.
Timing keywords: Main, Action, Deploy, Attack and the rest: Besides the keyword effects above, cards carry timing keywords in brackets.
Finding the Units and Pilots you need: Link conditions make the right Pilot worth more than its stats.

How the glossary is built

Each entry is a section of one of our rules guides. The line shown is the first sentence of that section, which answers the question directly; the link takes you to the full section with rule numbers, examples and common mistakes. When a guide is updated, the glossary is rebuilt from it, so both always match.