Glossary

The following is a list or glossary of some common phrases, terminology, and abbreviations relating to Clash Royale.

While the wiki does not typically use many of these phrases in articles (with the exception of several pervasively common ones such as "tank" and "splash damage"), they can be common in videos, blogs, tutorials, community conversations, battle deck pages, et cetera.

(#) [Deck Name]: A deck with an Average Elixir Cost of the number stated. For example, "2.6 Hog" has an Average Elixir Cost of 2.6 with a focus on the Hog Rider card.
(#)-(#): A format commonly used in games and sports to denote score lines or a player's win record. In Clash Royale, it is commonly used to state the record of a Challenge (e.g. 9-3 refers to having 9 wins and 3 losses). It can also be used to describe the outcome of a battle (e.g. 2-1 refers to scoring 2 Crowns whilst conceding 1 Crown to the opponent), though that's less common. Can also refer to a building's placement relative to the player's Crown Towers, with the first number denoting the distance the building should be from the bridge, and the second number denoting the horizontal distance the building should be from the player's defending Crown Tower.
(#)-Chain Attack: An attack that hits another target in a chain, with the number denoting the number of targets a single chain can do. For example, the Electro Spirit has a 9-Chain Attack.
(#)HKO: Variable Hit Knock Out, Referring for the number of hits that a card requires to defeat another one. For 1 hit, the term can be also changed to OHKO.
360: Refers to the AoE attack of certain cards that can hit through all directions. Some good examples are the Valkyrie's attack, Dark Prince's charge, or the Mega Knight's jump.
3M/Musks/Muskies: Three Musketeers.
8CSS: Eight Card Slot Syndrome. A case where a deck's main flaw is that it not fully functional with just the 8 cards that it has and would require additional cards that it is unable to slot in.
A(#): Stands for whatever Arena the number is. For example, A3 means Arena 3 or Barbarian Bowl.
Ability: A collective term to refer to the abilities of every Champion and Hero card without saying the name of the Ability.
AEC: Average Elixir Cost.
AFK: Away from Keyboard. In Clash Royale, it happens when a player leaves a match, either accidentally or intentionally.
Aggro: Short for "aggravate". Refers to a card targeting an enemy unit, or causing a card to target/move to an enemy unit. Sometimes, a card can change their target with the use of cards that have a stun, pull, or a knockback effect like Zap/Freeze/Lightning, Tornado, or Fireball/Giant Snowball/Rocket/The Log, respectively.
Alt: Alternative account, an additional game account independent from the player's original account.
Alternative: A card that can serve a similar function as another card.
Anti-Air: A card which excels at dealing with Air units.
Anti-Meta: A card or deck particularly good at countering the Meta. A notorious example is Guards gaining popularity to counter the omnipresent Mini P.E.K.K.A. or Prince.
Anti-Tank: A card that is good against Tanks. They can either have high damage per hit, like Mini P.E.K.K.A., P.E.K.K.A., and Sparky, high hit speed, like Evolved Dart Goblin, Lumberjack, and Phoenix, ramp up damage like Inferno Dragon and Mighty Miner, or pushback like Monk, Heroic Giant, and Evolved Mega Knight. Also called tank busters. See Tank.
AQ/Queen: Archer Queen.
AoE: Area of Effect. Can be used to describe a certain troop that deals area damage, such as the Wizard, Witch, Sparky, Princess, or Bomber, or to describe the range of a certain troop (e.g. The Bowler, Executioner, Firecracker, Magic Archer, and Evolved Bomber have a linear AoE attack).
Arch: Archers.
Archetype: A play style. A deck which follows an archetype is known as a (Archetype) Deck. Decks in an archetype can have different cards but use similar tactics.
Arr: Arrows.
Assist: A card that primarily improves offensive and defensive plays and has almost no value on its own, like Skeletons or Rage.
Att: Attack.
Attack Spammer: A troop that has a very fast hit speed. For example, the Lumberjack and Monk have a hit speed of 0.8 seconds, allowing them to quickly attack.
Baby D/Baby Drag/BDrag/BBD: Baby Dragon.
Backline: The two rows on the back in Merge Tactics.
Bailout: A card that's depicted to be an easy way to get out of a hard situation (or cause a hard situation to get out). Infamous examples include Evolved Valkyrie, which is considered a bailout in both offense and defense, and Evolved Mega Knight, which is considered a bailout in defense. See Cheese.
Bait Deck: A deck built to coerce an opponent into playing a certain card, usually spells, which is then exploited by the bait deck user in some way that would be very damaging to the opponent. For instance, a Zap-bait deck would likely consist of many units that are vulnerable to Zap, such as Skeletons and Inferno Tower, with the primary purpose being to force out the opponent's Zap (if they have it) on particular units so that other units will be able to attack without fear of being damaged by Zap before the opponent cycles back to the Zap. Can also be used for baiting out cards other than spells like using a Prince or Skeleton King to bait out a P.E.K.K.A. so that a Giant or Golem can attack unguarded. In 2v2, baiting can also refer to tricking both opponents into using spells, resulting in a waste of one or possibly both spells.
Barb Hut: Barbarian Hut.
Barb(s): Barbarians.
Barrage: The Evolved Cannon's ability when deployed.
Barrel: Can refer to either Goblin Barrel or Barbarian Barrel or sometimes the Skeleton Barrel.
Barb Barrel/Barbarrel: The more common abbreviations for the Barbarian Barrel.
BB: Boss Bandit, or less commonly, Battle Banners.
Beatdown Deck: A deck archetype with a primary focus on using investment to build large pushes that can destroy the opponent's Crown Towers in one fell swoop, sometimes ignoring damage dealt on their own Crown Towers or even tower trading. These decks almost always carry a tank such as the Giant, Lava Hound, or Golem.
BH/Healer: Battle Healer.
Big Spell: Refers to any damaging spell card that costs 4 Elixir or more. Sometimes referred to as large, heavy, or strong spells.
Big Tank: A tank that costs 5 Elixir or more. Sometimes referred to as large or heavy tank.
BM: Bad manners. Usually means spamming an emote, especially on winning. For example, a major BM would be saying "Thanks!" and spamming the laughing or crying emote while landing the finishing hit on an enemy Crown Tower. Can also refer to Battle Machine.
BoB: Book of Books.
BoC: Book of Cards.
Bolt: Lightning, or to use said spell.
Bot: Robot, referring to players that are played by an AI. Most commonly seen in lower Arenas, where human players are less common.
Brawler: Goblin Brawler, the troop that spawns after the Goblin Cage is destroyed.
BRam: Battle Ram.
Bridge: The narrow piece of land connecting the allied and opponent sides of the Arena. Some Arenas, like Arena 7 and 10, have wider bridges than others.
Bridge-block: The act of playing any card in the bridge to stop an opposing troop from attacking, like Mortar, X-Bow, and Princess, or tanking for another card, which happens with cards like Goblin Barrel, Skeleton Barrel, and Graveyard.
Bridge Spam: A deck archetype that focuses on punishing the opponent's Elixir over commitments with fast, cheap punish cards on the bridge like Bandit or Wall Breakers, or high damage cards like Prince, Mini P.E.K.K.A., Balloon, Hog Rider, Lumberjack, or Battle Ram.
BS: Bridge Spam, or the decks that utilize the aforementioned tactic.
Broken: A term used in reference to a card when it has a lot of unintended mechanics that can be considered bugs. A lot of the time, those bugs can make the card appear much stronger than it should be. An infamous example is Executioner during launch.
Buff: When a balance change strengthens a certain card, or a balance discussion that requests a card to be strengthened. It can be a direct one like being affected on the card itself or indirect which could be making its synergies better or its checks, counters or alternatives worse or introducing a new card that is countered by it. Can also refer to a card's statistic increases caused by other mechanics, such as Dark Elixir, Rage's movement and attack speed buff, and Rune Giant's enchantment.
Bug/Glitch: A mistake in the code that causes the affected element to behave in an unintended way.
Busted: A term used in reference to a card when it is much, much stronger than it should be. An infamous example is Archer Queen or Little Prince during launch.
Bypass: Refers to a situation where a troop skips a building or distraction unit played by the opponent that would normally pull the troop towards it.
Cage: Goblin Cage.
Captain: The troop assigned by the Ace trait.
Cart: Cannon Cart.
CC: Can refer to either Cannon Cart or Classic Challenge.
CCGS: Crown Championship Global Series, the earlier competitive Clash Royale format.
Chain Pull: Using multiple cards to lure a troop farther from its destination, or onto the King's Tower.
Champ(s): Champion cards.
Cheese: Getting through something easily, usually due to an exploit, unexpected strategy, or card. An example is using Goblin Barrel, Mirrored Goblin Barrel and Clone on the opponent's King Tower. See Bailout.
Chef/RC: Royal Chef.
Chip Damage: Small increments of damage dealt to a Crown Tower, like that of a Goblin Hut's Spear Goblins when the tower is undefended.
Chip Deck: A deck archetype which involves doing repeated, small amounts of damage to the enemy tower, eventually destroying it. This exclusively focuses on defeating one or two Crown Towers.
Clan Hopping: An act where a member constantly changes clans, never dedicating to one clan.
Clash of Clans/CoC Base: A deck that is mostly, or completely made out of building cards.
Clean State: When a match enters in a state where there are no troops or buildings in the Arena because the previous ones were eliminated.
Clickbait: Flashy titles and thumbnails that are considered irrelevant to the video. Usually found in Youtube.
Clone Shifting/Clone Skipping: The act of cloning a troop to displace it for various purposes, such as to protect it from a spell, such as a Rocket, which would have hit the troop if it had moved a few more steps forward; or to bypass a defensive building that a troop would have targeted otherwise, and directly target a Crown Tower.
CoC: Clash of Clans, another game made by Supercell that is set in the same universe as Clash Royale and shares many of the same characters, designs and other elements.
Collector/ECollector/EC: Elixir Collector.
Combo: Combination.
Control Deck: A deck archetype primarily focused on continually making positive Elixir trades on defenses, either with cheap units or a strong emphasis on defender's advantage in order to have an easier time on offense or defense. These decks usually accrue damage through punishment plays or quick counterpushes.
Counter (Card): A card that can efficiently defeat another card. For example, Wizard and Arrows counter Minion Horde and Skeleton Army, Fireball counters Barbarians, and Rocket counters Elixir Collector, Baby Dragon, Elite Barbarians, and Sparky. Spells cannot truly be countered, as their effects are unavoidable, but some cards or strategies can weaken the value of their effects. See also: Hard counter, Soft counter.
Counterpush/Counterattack: This form of push involves using leftover units from a defense to make the following push more threatening. It may also refer to deck archetypes that utilize the aforementioned strategy.
CR: Clash Royale.
CRL: Clash Royale League. See Esports.
CT: Crown Towers.
Cups: Trophies.
Curse: Goblin Curse.
Cursed: Can refer to either the effect Mother Witch applies to her targets, the Cursed Hogs spawned by said cursed troops once they are defeated, or Goblins originated from defeated troops inside a Goblin Curse.
CW: Clan Wars.
CW1: Clan Wars 1.
CW2: Clan Wars 2.
Cycle (noun): Refers to the order of cards in the player's or opponent's deck. A cycle that has an order of units that is awkward to attack or defend with is known as a "bad cycle". It can also refer to the number of times a card has to be placed in order for its Evolution to become playable.
Cycle (verb): To play cards with low Elixir costs in order to get desired cards back into the hand during battle more quickly. Can also refer to cycling a card to its Evolution variant.
Cycle Deck: A deck archetype that revolves around having both a low average Elixir cost, and a low cost four card cycle, allowing them to play more cards for the same amount of Elixir. This helps the player to more quickly get to a specific card, and helps them to line up their card rotation appropriately with the opponent's.
Damage Spell: Any spell that is able to deal damage by itself. Also known as offensive spells.
DCed: Disconnected.
DD: Can refer to either Dagger Duchess or the Double Dragon combo.
Death Nova: Ice Golem’s death damage and death slow effect.
Decoy: Can refer to either the fake barrel thrown from the Evolved Goblin Barrel, or the Goblins that spawn from said barrel.
Defender's Advantage: Refers to the free damage that the Crown Towers deal to enemy units. For example, defender's advantage allows an Ice Golem to soft counter an Electro Wizard or Witch.
Deflection: The ability to bounce an attack back at the opposing troop. This is possible to do with the Monk's ability that can deflect back projectile attacks.
Delivery: Royal Delivery.
Demolisher/GD: Goblin Demolisher.
DG/Dart/Dart Gob/Dart Goggins: Dart Goblin. The latter one is used in a jokingly manner.
Distraction: A cheap card used for distracting enemy troops while doing some damage, such as Goblins, Skeletons, Bats, Minions, Spirits, Ice Golem, Guards, Archers, or Berserker.
DMG: Damage. Refers to the stat that troops, spells, and buildings use to decrease the opposing troops and buildings' hitpoints.
Dolphin: A player that spends a light amount of money in the game. Usually these players spend money only on Pass Royale, or on certain special offers in the Shop.
DoT: Damage over Time.
DP: Can refer to either Dark Prince or the Double Prince combo.
DPH: Damage per Hit.
DPS: Damage per Second. Can also refer to a card whose main function is to deal high amounts of damage on defense. See Anti-Tank.
Draft: A game mode where the players do not use their own decks; instead they create their decks right before the match starts.
Drill: Goblin Drill.
Dropping: Losing high amounts of trophies, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Drop Trolling: To intentionally drop trophies and then use cards which are either at a higher level than expected for the Arena or cards unobtainable in that Arena with the goal of trolling players. This is now impossible because you cannot drop arenas anymore. However, level trolling is still possible.
Dual Lane (card): Cards that can be split across both lanes to attack or defend, like Three Musketeers, Zappies, Royal Recruits, Elite Barbarians, Skeleton Dragons, Archers, and Royal Hogs.
Dual Lane Deck: A deck archetype centered around applying pressure to both enemy Crown Towers at once to spread the opponent's defenses thin, overwhelming them.
Elite Barbs/EBarb(s): Elite Barbarians.
Elite Musketeers/EMusks/Elite Muskies: Each of the three troops spawned from the Three Musketeers card.
EDrag/Electro Drag/EDragon: Electro Dragon.
EGiant: Electro Giant.
EGolem: Elixir Golem.
Elixir Leak: The action of unintentionally or purposely keeping 10 Elixir on the Elixir bar. When the Elixir bar is at 10 Elixir, it cannot produce any extra Elixir until at least 1 Elixir is spent on a card.
Elixir Overcharge: Refers to the mechanic where the Elixir could be produced over 10 Elixir that built up after the Elixir bar becomes full, allowing players to store up to 0.9 Elixir. This was the 11th Elixir, a common issue in the past.
Elixir trade: The increase/decrease in the amount of Elixir a player has versus their opponent after playing some cards. For example, suppose both players started with the same amount of Elixir, but then one of them used a Minion Horde, defeated with Arrows. This would mean that the first player used 5 Elixir to play their card while their opponent spent only 3 Elixir to defeat it, so the first player would then have less Elixir versus their opponent. This would be a positive Elixir trade of 2 (or a +2 Elixir trade) for the player that used Arrows. Same applies on the opposite approach. For example, a Wizard defeated with Rocket or Lightning would be a negative Elixir trade of 1 (or a -1 Elixir trade) for the player that used either spell.
Emergency Balance: A balance change that had to be done as soon as possible because said card was extremely effective or ineffective. Infamous examples are the Archer Queen and the Electro Giant respectively.
Emote: Refers to the text or animations that can be displayed during a game by tapping the speech bubble. It usually refers to the animations.
Enrage/Enraged: The Evolved Barbarians' ability and staying in such state.
EQ/Quake: Earthquake.
ESpirit: Electro Spirit.
Esports: Electronic Sports, i.e. video games played as competition.
Evo: Evolution/Evolved.
EWC: Elite Wild Cards.
Ewiz/EWizard/Electro Wiz: Electro Wizard.
Exe: Executioner.
ExeNado: The Executioner + Tornado combo.
F2P: Free to Play. Somebody who has spent no money on the game.
Fair Play: The principles of fair play and safe play that discourage bullying. Usually associated with sports.
Four Card Cycle/FCC: Refers to the least amount of Elixir a deck can spend in order to get back to a certain card. For example, a deck where the four cheapest cards are Dart Goblin, Skeletons, The Log, and Knight has a FCC of 9.
FB: Fireball.
FC/Cracker: Firecracker.
Features: Special things the game lets you do, such as request feature, clan feature, even tournament tab is a feature.
Feeder Clan: A clan that is associated with another clan. Usually a part of clan families or alliances.
Field: Another word for Arena.
Fireballie(s): Units that are either defeated by Fireball in one shot or get severely crippled by it.
Fisher/Fishboy: Fisherman. The latter is more common on RoyaleAPI.
FM/FMachine: Flying Machine.
Frag/Frags: Hero Fragments. Can also be used for Evolution Shards, mainly specifying when a card only has a few shards rather than all 6.
FreezeLoon: The Balloon + Freeze combo.
Frontline: The two rows on the front in Merge Tactics.
FSpirit: Fire Spirit.
Gatekeeper/Goalkeeper: Players that have high Card levels but stay at low Trophy ranges, either intentionally or due to lack of skill.
GB/Gob Barrel/GoBarrel: Goblin Barrel.
GC: Can refer to either Group Chat, which can either mean a Clan or on other apps, or Grand Challenge.
Gemmer: A gem buyer. Someone who uses gems to accelerate their progress in the game. Someone who spends money on the game to get Gems. Also see P2P.
General/General Gerry/Gerry: The Evolved Skeleton Army's shielded Skeleton, referred to as such due to the card's description.
GG: Can refer to either Goblin Giant, the Good Game taunt, or less commonly, Goblin Gang.
GGWP: Good Game Well Played. Taken from two of Clash Royale's taunts, "Good Game" and "Well Played".
Ghost: Can refer to either Royal Ghost or, less commonly, the Evolved Lumberjack's Ghost.
Ghost (verb): The act of where a player is not playing their 2v2 match, leaving their teammate to play the match alone. See AFK.
Giant Bomb: The bomb dropped by Giant Skeleton when he gets defeated.
GK: Golden Knight.
Glone: The Golem + Clone combo.
Glass Cannon: A relatively troop that deals a lot of damage compared to their hitpoints, such as the Musketeer, Mini P.E.K.K.A., Wizard, Hunter, Night Witch, Spirit Empress, Mega Minion, or Flying Machine. Could also be an attack spammer (Lumberjack, Dart Goblin, Little Prince, or Berserker).
Glass Cannon Deck: A deck archetype with strong pushes but relatively weak defense. Also know as Hyper Offense.
GM/GobMachine: Goblin Machine.
Gobs/Stab Gobs/Stabs: Goblins.
Gob Gang/Gang: Goblin Gang.
Gob Giant/GGiant: Goblin Giant.
Gob Hut/GHut: Goblin Hut.
Goison: The Giant + Poison combo. Also refers to the old state of the game when Giant + Poison was meta (see Meta) and Poison was able to slow down enemy units more significantly.
Golden Elixir: Merge Tactics' Elixir re-skin.
Good Stats for Cost: A meme referring to the Knight due to his high health and damage for his lowly 3 Elixir Cost, originating from Heartstone.
GM: Good Manners. When somebody uses emotes to show good sportsmanship and appreciate the opponent’s play, even with your loss. Also Goblin Machine.
GMachine: Another way of saying Goblin Machine.
Grd: Can refer to either Guards or Little Prince's Guardienne.
Greedycell: A joke term used to describe the heavy monetizing methods of Supercell, which can sometimes cause backlash from the community. Also see P2W.
Grind: A term used for players that dedicate into gaining as many resources from the game as possible. This typically happens by playing in Party Mode repeatedly.
GS: Can refer to either Giant Skeleton or Giant Snowball.
GT: Global Tournament.
GY/Grave/Gravy/Yard: Graveyard.
Hard Counter/HC: A troop, spell, or building that soundly defeats another troop, spell, or building easily without any outside assistance. Usually, this should also be a positive or neutral Elixir trade. For example, Wizard, Executioner, Arrows, and Evolved Zap hard counters the Minion Horde and Evolved Bats, Lightning hard counters the Three Musketeers and Battle Ram, Rocket hard counters Sparky, Elixir Collector, Baby Dragon, and Elite Barbarians, and Skeleton Army and Evolved Skeletons hard counter the P.E.K.K.A., Giant Skeleton, Mighty Miner, Mini P.E.K.K.A, and Prince.
High [Building Name]: When a building is played higher than its usual position and/or to the center of the player's side of the Arena.
Hogquake: The Hog Rider + Earthquake combo.
Homemade: A deck which doesn't follow the current meta.
Horde/Morde/MH: Minion Horde.
Hound/Lava/LH: Lava Hound.
HP: Hitpoints. Refers to the stat that each troop and building has that keeps them alive. If it is decreased to 0, the troop or building is defeated.
HR/Hog: Hog Rider.
HSpirit: Heal Spirit.
Highest: Highest Trophies. Also referred to as PB (Personal Best).
Hut: Can either refer to Goblin Hut or Barbarian Hut.
Hybrid: A deck archetype which involves combining two or more archetypes into one.
Ice Blast: The Evolved Ice Spirit's attack.
IceBow: A deck with X-Bow and multiple ice-related cards, mostly emphasizing the Ice Wizard.
IceNado: The Ice Wizard + Tornado combo.
Ice Wiz/IWiz/IW: Ice Wizard.
IGolem/IG: Ice Golem.
Inferno Drag/IDrag/InfoDrag/InfoDragon/ID: Inferno Dragon.
Inferno: Can refer to either Inferno Tower, or less commonly, Inferno Dragon.
Investment/Setup: The act of playing a card (usually a troop) far back on the player's side so that when it reaches the bridge, the player has more Elixir available to support it.
ISpirit: Ice Spirit.
IT/ITower/InfoTower: Inferno Tower.
JoaT: Jack of all Trades. A card that can fulfill almost any role due to having well-rounded stats, but does not excell in any of these roles. The best example of a JoaT card is the Baby Dragon, due to its well-rounded stats and mechanics.
Kill Zone: The region where both Crown Towers or all three (or four in terms of firepower in 2v2) Crown Towers can target.
Kite: The act of luring troops to the other lane entirely by distracting them with another unit.
KOTH/KOF: King of the Hill, an Esports mode where two teams of three players aim to knock out all players of the opponent team. The abbreviation "KOF" comes from the video game The King of Fighters, which this mode resembles.
KT: King's Tower.
KTA: King Tower Activation. An attack (from a troop or a spell, or rarely a building) that causes the King to activate his cannon to fight along the Crown Towers on defense.
L: Loss/Loser.
Ladder: Standard multiplayer battles that take place in Arenas for Trophies.
Lane: Each of the two halves that leads to the Crown Towers.
Lane Switch: The action of attacking the second Crown Tower before the first one was demolished.
LavaClone: The Lava Hound + Clone combo.
LavaLoon/LaLoon/LaLo: The Lava Hound + Balloon combo.
LavaMiner: The Lava Hound + Miner combo.
Larry(ies): Another way of saying Skeletons. The name is a reference to a Clash of Clans commercial.
Legend/Leg: Legendary.
Lifetime: Refers to the duration of certain cards that allows them to stay on the Arena before they expire, such as buildings or the Goblin Demolisher.
LJ/Lumber: Lumberjack.
LKC: Legendary King's Chest.
Log: The Log.
Log Bait Deck: A branch of the Bait Deck archetype comprised of many cards that are instantly defeated by The Log. These types of decks may also have cards whose mechanics are crippled by The Log, such as the Prince/Dark Prince and their charge. See Loggable.
Loggable(s): Units that are defeated by The Log immediately. An infamous example is Princess, which is normally played at the bridge with the purpose of persuading the opponent to use The Log on her.
Losing Streak: Losing many times in a row. See Tilt.
Loon: Balloon.
Low [Building Name]: When a building is played lower than its usual position and/or to the center of the player's side of the Arena.
LP: Little Prince.
LumberLoon: The Lumberjack + Balloon combo.
Lure: To distract a troop to another area during a battle.
Lv/Lvl: Level, usually of a Card or player (King Level).
MA/Marcher: Magic Archer.
Machine: Can refer to either Flying Machine or Goblin Machine.
Macro: Game knowledge about the entire situation of the match like knowing when to set up an attack, how many hitpoints they need to sacrifice on their Crown Towers and other to get the desired victory.
Mana: Another way of saying Elixir.
Matchup/MU: Refers to when a player has a deck advantage over the opponent.
Maxed: When a certain thing is at the highest possible threshold. In Clash Royale, this takes the form of cards being at the highest possible level.
Melee: A troop or building that has an attack range less than 2 tiles. Melee cards are further classified into smaller categories, those being Melee: Long (1.6 tiles), Melee: Medium (1.2 tiles), or Melee: Short (0.8 tiles or lower).
Meme Deck: Used to describe a deck whose sole purpose is to troll or have fun with, and not meant to be used in a real match.
Meta: Short for Metagame. In the case of Clash Royale, it stands for what cards and decks are the best to use in a certain setting during certain seasons. A card that is weak in that season/section is out of the meta. A Meta can be influenced by balance changes but can also be influenced without them.
Meta Minion: Mega Minion as a Meta card, used when Goison (see Goison) was part of the Meta.
Micro: Game knowledge about individual mechanics for cards like card to card interactions and precise timings and placements for your cards to ensure an optimal outcome.
Midladder: The area in Ladder from 5000 trophies to 10000 trophies.
Midladder Deck: A deck infamous for having an abundance of a card(s) that are mostly annoying in midladder yet average or underwhelming in competitive play, such as the Witch, Wizard, Elite Barbarians, P.E.K.K.A., Electro Giant, or Mega Knight.
Minmaxed: A card with a particular stat far exceeding all of its other stats. An example of a minmaxed card is Sparky, as she has extremely high damage, but mediocre stats in every other category.
Moison: The Miner + Poison combo.
Monster: The Goblin monster-like troop spawned from the Goblinstein card.
MP/MiniP: Mini P.E.K.K.A..
Mirroring/Cloning: Duplicating a card through Mirror or Clone, respectively.
MK: Mega Knight.
MM: Matchmaking.
MMiner: Mighty Miner.
MMinion: Mega Minion.
MT: Merge Tactics.
Multi Drop: The action where two cards are placed simultaneously in the Arena by the same player, which is possible because of the game’s multi-touch ability.
Musket/Muskie/Musk: Musketeer.
MW: Mother Witch.
Nado: Tornado.
Naked: The act of deploying a win condition without support from other cards.
Naked Graveyard/NakedYard: The act of deploying a lone Graveyard directly on the enemy's Tower. This is notable because this is usually an ineffective move.
Negative Gems: Having a negative amount of Gems. This can happen by canceling a purchased offer after the purchased Gems have been spent.
Nerf: When a balance change weakens a certain card, or a balance discussion that requests a card to be weakened. It can be a direct one like being affected on the card itself or indirect which could be making its synergies worse or its checks, counters or alternatives better or introducing a new card that counters or outclasses it. Can also refer to the effects some cards cause that can decrease the statistics of other cards, such as the Ice Wizard, Giant Snowball, Ice Spirit, and the Ice Golem's slowdown effects or the Electro Wizard, Electro Spirit, Zappies, Goblinstein, and the Electro Dragon's stun effects.
Noob: An inexperienced or low-ability player, usually used as an insult to someone's skills. Comes from the word “newbie”, which holds the same meaning, but is not used as an insult.
Noobstomper: A card that is particularly strong at defeating noobs (see Noob), but is ineffective against more experienced players. A good example of such a card is the Wizard, due to inexperienced players clumbing up their units, while experienced ones avoid doing that.
NPC: Non Playable Character, referring to the Trainers fought against in the Training Camp.
NTS: New Toy Syndrome. When a new card or Evolution has a very dominant position close to the date when it was released. An infamous example is Phoenix or Goblin Machine during launch.
Nuzlocke: A challenge where the player starts through the entire game or a Victory Challenge and has to complete it. They can use any deck during that challenge but any loss within it would make the cards in the deck unusable. A Nuzlocke challenge ends when the objective is complete or the player runs out of usable cards.
NW: Night Witch.
OG: Original gangster. Referring to players that are playing the game from very early on.
OP: Overpowered, too strong and powerful. Usually used to refer to cards that are game-changing, busted, broken, dominant, and over-centralizing in a meta. See Busted, Broken.
One-shot/Instakill: When an attack fully defeats another unit in one blow.
Overheal: The extra hitpoints that a troop may have and can reach if it fulfill certain conditions, such as the Evolved P.E.K.K.A gaining overheal hitpoints when she defeats an enemy.
Overleveling/Overupgrading: A practice of excessively leveling up certain cards relative to the player's Experience level, usually Common or Rare cards, in order to gain an advantage in ladder matches. For Clan Wars, overleveled Clan Cards are those with level advantage in the League (e.g. level 12 Cards in Gold League). A card or a deck is Overleveled if those conditions are met.
Overused: When a card is used very frequently and in a lot of decks.
Outplayed: Another word for "did better than".
P2P: Short for "Pay to Play", a term used for players who spend money on the game.
P2W: Short for "Pay to Win", an unflattering term for people who spend money on the game.
Patch: A change made in the game. Can be either a general gameplay change or a change to a specific card, particularly one that involves multiple buffs, nerfs, or reworks.
PB: Abbreviation for Personal Best, which is the player's highest Trophies.
PBS/P.E.K.K.A. BS: P.E.K.K.A. Bridge Spam. See Bridge Spam.
Phantom Skeletons/Shadow Skeletons: The Evolved Skeleton Army's Skeletons after they are "defeated" while the General is still alive. See General.
Pierce: An type of AoE attack that continuously travels towards its destination. Good examples of a piercing attacker are The Log, Magic Archer, Bowler, and Executioner.
Pig Push: Placing the Hog Rider or Ram Rider at the edge of the Arena. This placement is particularly effective because they will jump over that section of the river, which allow them to accelerate faster, while also bypassing certain enemy building setups.
Pigs/Piggies/Hogs: Royal Hogs.
Poaching: An act where a member from a certain clan exits in order to find another clan, where the player will subtly coax other players into joining the previous clan, gaining extra members.
Pocket: The small space in the enemy's area between the Crown & King Towers after one Crown has been taken.
PoL: Path of Legends, which is now called Ranked.
Power Creep: When the standard for balanced cards raises to the point where balanced cards become outclassed by other cards or they struggle against the general battle department. Commonly associated with the introduction of new cards.
Power Shot: The Evolved Archers' boosted attack that happens when their target is at least 4 tiles and at most 6 tiles away from them.
Prediction (Spell): A spell that is played preemptively to anticipate the deployment of opposing cards, and is usually used to support an offensive push. For instance, a prediction Zap may be played over an area where an attacking player thinks an opposing Skeleton Army will be deployed, in the hopes of destroying the Skeleton Army before it can ruin the player's push.
Pro: Professional.
Projectile: An attack that starts from a troop and travels to its target or its ending destination. Usually appears on ranged cards but can appear on certain melee cards like the Mega Minion.
Pulling: To lure a card into a certain area in the Arena, usually where multiple towers can target it, in order to distract it and kill. It can also refer to the act of drawing a troop towards the King's Tower in attempts of activating it prematurely.
Pump: Can refer to either Elixir Collector, or to use it.
Punishment: The act of immediately threatening an opponent's Crown Towers in response to an opponent's lack of Elixir, or a lack of a specific card in their hand (i.e. The Log vs. Goblin Barrel).
Pups: The Lava Pups that spawn after the Lava Hound is defeated.
Push: Refers to a card or cards used in an attempt to get damage on the enemy's Crown Towers. Pushes can be "big" or "small", depending on how much Elixir is spent.
Pushing: Refers to playing a lot of matches in order to advance in Trophy Road or Ranked.
Quit: Refers to the act of stop playing the game. This can happen for many reasons, usually associated with things that can anger the player.
Rage (verb): Refers to the anger a player is feeling, usually from facing a deck they don't like, or from losing too many times in a row. See Losing Streak, Tilt. Not to be confused with the Rage card, though it can also refer to using a Rage to strengthen the player's troops.
RageLoon: The Balloon + Rage combo.
Ram: Can refer to either Ram Rider, or less commonly, Battle Ram.
Range: The distance between a troop and its target.
Replay: The video that appears in the player's log after a battle, for the player to rewatch.
Report: The action of sending a message to Supercell about certain actions in the game that could break their ToS, such as inappropriate names. Usually, these kinds of offense result in in-game bans, temporary or permanent.
Rework: A balance change that changes a feature of a card independent of its stats. An example is Clone's rework when the cloning process was switched from horizontal to vertical.
RG: Can refer to either Royal Giant, or less commonly, Royal Ghost and Rune Giant.
RGhost: Royal Ghost, used to distinguish between him and Royal Giant.
RGiant: Royal Giant, used to distinguish between him and Royal Ghost.
RGV: Real Gold Value. A term describing the value of a Chest if all its Cards are converted to Gold by either donation or overflowing. For example, an Arena 12 Silver Chest with 135 Gold, 2 Rares and 16 Commons has RGV 315.
Rider: The secondary troop on the Ram Rider which can only target troops.
RNG: Random number generation. Referring to a mechanic that is randomly generated, such as the pre-rework spawning pattern of a Graveyard.
RocketNado: The Rocket + Tornado combo.
Rodent: A cheap troop with relatively low health, such as the Bomber, Princess, Firecracker, Ice Wizard, or Dart Goblin.
RPS Meta: A meta which runs on a "rock-paper-scissors" aspect where one part of the meta counters the second, the second counters the third and the third counters the first: for example, single target high damage -> moderate HP and splash damage -> low HP swarm.
RR: Can refer to either Royal Recruits, or less commonly, Ram Rider.
Recruit(s): The more common way of referring to Royal Recruits.
RuneG/Rune: The more common way of referring to Rune Giant.
Runner: The troop spawned by an Evolved Wall Breaker when defeated by the enemy.
Rush: An aggressive attack which consists of a unit or units played at the bridge. Cards that can quickly reach the enemy tower and pose a threat, such as Wall Breakers, Royal Hogs, or Hog Rider, are effective cards to rush with. It can also refer to deck archetypes that utilize the aforementioned tactic.
RWC: Royal Wild Chest.
Salt: Frustration or anger, usually for infamous cards or decks. An infamous example involves players comparing X-Bow deck archetypes to a life-threatening disease (cancer). See Rage.
SC: Supercell. The company that created and maintains Clash Royale and other similar games.
SCID: Supercell ID, the main method to connect a Clash Royale account to be able to be played on multiple devices.
SCMake: Supercell Make.
SkeleDrags: Skeleton Dragons.
Scout: Using a card at the start of the match on the bridge, to identify your opponent's deck. This is usually done with cheap ranged cards like Spear Goblins, Firecracker, Dart Goblin, Archers, Bomber, or Princess.
Shield: A secondary hitpoint bar that certain troops might have that needs to be destroyed before the primary hitpoint bar can be whittled down. Examples of troops with a shield are the Guards, Dark Prince, Royal Recruits, and Evolved Wizard.
Siege Deck: A deck archetype using X-Bow or Mortar (the two buildings and win condition which can directly attack the enemy's towers, without getting attacked back) as the main method of damaging the enemy's Crown Towers. Can also refer to Royal Giant deck archetypes, as it is a ranged win condition, though they usually fall under Beatdown Decks.
SimCity: A deck that utilizes spawners such as Goblin Hut, Barbarian Hut, Tombstone, or Furnace. References the SimCity game.
SK/SKing/SkeleKing: Skeleton King.
Skarmy: Skeleton Army.
Skellies: Skeletons.
Skelebarrel/Skarrel: Skeleton Barrel.
Small Spell: Refers to all damaging spells that cost 3 Elixir or less. Also referred to as cheap, light, or weak spells.
Small Tank: A cheaper and moderate or moderately high-hitpoint troop, such as the Knight, Valkyrie, Miner, Lumberjack, Dark Prince, Mini P.E.K.K.A., Battle Healer, Executioner, Balloon, Cannon Cart, Baby Dragon, Elixir Golem, Prince, Inferno Dragon, or the Ice Golem. Also referred to as mini tanks, semi tanks, or off-tanks.
Smurf: An alt of an experienced player that uses their skill/P2W advantage to new players.
Sneaky: To describe a card in your deck that you tend to not play until later in the match. The most popular example of this is the Sneaky Golem.
Snipe: Refers to the act of queuing up against a specific player at the top spots in a leaderboard with a strategy that is particularly effective against said player.
Sniper: A card that has a long range that can outrange certain buildings, like the Musketeer, Magic Archer, Flying Machine, Dart Goblin, Firecracker, Princess, or the Furnace.
Sniper Shot: The Evolved Musketeer's three bullets that take effect if the target is at least 6 tiles away from her and within a 1.5 horizontal tile range of her.
Snowball: Can refer to either Giant Snowball, or the action to place a card at the back and then amass a push over time, just like how snowballs amass snow over time.
Soft Counter/Check: A troop, spell, or building that counters another card in only one of two ways. One, it only counters the card with the assistance of another defender, such as a Crown Tower. For example, The Log vs. Rascals will defeat the Rascal Girls, who deal high damage per second and can attack air troops. However, the Rascal Boy can still tank for other troops and will deal chip damage if ignored. Two, it has a unique effectiveness in stalling, crippling, denying, or devaluing a card, without fully defeating it. For example, the Ice Golem vs. a P.E.K.K.A. The Ice Golem will kite a P.E.K.K.A. into the other lane for an extended period of time for only 2 Elixir, but the P.E.K.K.A. will still have a fair amount of her health left.
Soldier: The two troops spawned by the Evolved Royal Ghost when he becomes visible.
Spamming: The act of constantly placing cards down.
Spark: Refers to the Evolved Firecracker's paddles caused by her attack, either the big one or the 5 smaller ones.
Spawner: A card that spawns troop(s) periodically after it is deployed. Usually used to refer to the buildings that spawn troops, such as the Tombstone or Barbarian Hut, but can also refer to troops like the Witch and Night Witch.
Spawner Deck: A deck archetype focused around placing many troop spawning cards, overwhelming the enemy over time. This takes advantage of how a spawner over time generates enough troops so that their normal costs far exceed the cost of the spawner, creating an Elixir advantage if the spawner is left alone.
Spd: Speed. Can refer to either movement speed or attack speed.
Spear Gobs/Spears: Spear Goblins.
Speedy Balloon/SpeedyLoon: The Balloon + Skeleton Barrel combo. Created by content creator B-Rad.
Spell (verb): To use a spell on a troop, for example, to spell down a Musketeer or a Wizard with a Fireball or Lightning.
Spirit: A collective term for the Fire Spirit, Ice Spirit, Heal Spirit, and Electro Spirit, but may also refer to each one without specifying one of them.
Splash (Damage): The act or attribute of dealing damage to all units in a specific area, e.g. the Wizard and Baby Dragon's fireball, Bomber's bomb, Sparky's blast, Princess' arrows, Royal Ghost's sword, Ice Wizard's ice shards, Goblin Demolisher's dynamites, Mega Knight's spiked gloves, or the Dark Prince and Skeleton King's club.
Splash Card/Splasher/AoEer/Anti-Swarm: A card which does area damage. Also used to refer to a deck's main area damage card.
SplashNado: A collective term for the combination of splash units and Tornado (ExeNado, WizNado, etc.).
Splashyard: A deck type which involves using a splash unit in combination with the Graveyard. Also usually invokes a control archetype involving counterpushing by combining Graveyard with surviving splash units.
Splank: Short for "splash tank". A troop with medium to high hitpoints which deals area damage, denying tank killers that are compromised of swarms. Only one card has enough hitpoints to justify being a Splank, that being Mega Knight.
Squishies: Refers to units who have somewhat low health compared to their Elixir cost or damage, like a Princess, Magic Archer, or Wizard.
Starting Hand: Refers to the four cards given to the player at the beginning of the match.
Stein: Goblinstein.
Stun: The effect that can delay attacks from happening, or reset charge attacks. Appears in certain cards, such as Zap, Freeze, and Electro Dragon.
Stunner: A troop with the ability to stun. Common examples are the Electro Wizard, Zappies, and Electro Dragon.
Substitute/Sub: See Alternative.
Super Card: A type of temporary card that may exist in certain Events to use it in a deck.
Sus Bush/Bush: Suspicious Bush.
Swarm: A card that spawns multiple troops at once, like Goblin Gang, Skeleton Army, Bats, Minion Horde, Royal Recruits, Royal Hogs, and Barbarians.
Synergy: A card that is good when combined with another card.
Tank: A high-hitpoint troop. Troops that have the ability to withstand multiple attacks such as the Giant, P.E.K.K.A., Lava Hound, Golem, Mega Knight, Giant Skeleton, Evolved Knight, Royal Giant, Goblin Giant, Boss Bandit, Electro Giant, or the Rune Giant.
Target: Refers to the enemy troop or building that is being attacked by the player's troop or building.
Taunt: The text that can be displayed during a game by a game by tapping the speech bubble or after a 2v2 battle.
TD: Touchdown, referring to the game mode, or to score a touchdown in this mode.
Tech: Technique.
TesBow: The X-Bow + Tesla Combo.
To be at (trophies): How many Trophies someone is at without actually saying Trophies.
Theme Deck: A deck that does not play based on any specific strategy; instead it uses exclusively cards that fill a certain theme, like all Goblin cards or all 3-Elixir cards. Sometimes, these decks are named by the theme that they fill.
Threat: Refers to a card's potential to deal damage to an enemy tower, typically if it is left ignored. All win conditions are threats, but not vice versa; there are some cards that can deal a lot of damage unchecked, but it is difficult to get that damage to begin with, such as Prince, Elite Barbarians, Sparky, Monk, Golden Knight, Bandit, or Lumberjack.
Three Card Cycle/TCC: Refers to the act of playing only three cards in order for the player to have their desired card in hand. Made possible when Champion cards could not go back to your hand while they were in the Arena. Also refers to the least amount of Elixir a player could spend in order to get back to a certain card accounting for said Champion in the Arena, much like Four Card Cycle. This feature was removed in the 2025 Quarter 3 Update.
Tilt: A losing streak. A player that is on a losing streak is "tilting". Also refers to the act of getting irritated by entering such losing streak. See Losing Streak, Rage.
Tomb: Tombstone.
ToS: Terms of Service.
Tourney: Tournament.
Toxic: Behavior that is considered to be negative or unsportsmanlike. Can also refer to a playstyle that is considered cheesy by many players such as the Rocket Cycle tactic.
TP: Tower Princess.
Trash can (on wheels): A nickname for Sparky which makes fun of her for various reasons. Originates from a loading screen hint which states that "calling Sparky a "trash can on wheels" hurts her feelings".
Tricky Barrel: Using the Goblin Barrel in such a way that can cause the opponent to miss their spell counter on it, such as by placing it beside or behind the Crown Tower.
Trifecta: A push consisting of three key cards. The original Trifecta consisted of Hog Rider, Valkyrie and Musketeer.
Trolling: The deliberate act of annoying someone else. Some common in-game examples are using many Emotes, or playing cards inefficiently on purpose (i.e. using a Fireball on nothing when the opponent's Crown Tower would be destroyed by it).
True Blue/True Red: The game isn't exactly a grid-based one: it has a map underneath that determines the direction troops will take, and the players' side are determined randomly by the game even though you are always visually blue. This is denoted as True Blue and True Red, and it was a common issue in the past.
TT/Turret: Hero Musketeer's Trusty Turret, deployed by her Trusty Turret Hero Ability.
Underleveling/Underupgrading: To have cards at a level lower than what is to be expected at hat player's level or Trophy range. For Tournaments and Challenges, this refers to cards below Tournament Standard. For Clan Wars, underleveled Clan Cards are those with level disadvantage in the League (e.g. level 10 Cards in Gold League). A card or deck is Underleveled if those conditions are met.
Underused/UU: When a card is used not so frequently in only a select few decks.
Unit: Anything spawned by cards in the Arena, which are troops, spells, buildings, and even Crown Towers and their tower troops. This is also valid for Merge Tactics with their troops, buildings, and rulers.
Valk: Valkyrie.
Value Trade: How much overall is obtained out of plays. For example, one player drops a Furnace behind their Crown Tower. The other player decides to Rocket them both. This would be a negative Elixir trade of 2, but a positive value trade because they have destroyed the Furnace which is a very annoying card if left alone and did a bit of damage to the Crown Tower.
VC: Voice Chat. Communicating with another player through voice in an external application, for coordination purposes. such as in 2v2 battles.
W: Win/Winner.
WB: Wall Breakers.
WC: Win Condition.
Whale: A player that spends a lot of money in the game for in-app purchases. Usually, these players spend multiple thousands of cash in a single sitting.
Winning Streak: Winning many times in a row.
Win Condition: The objective of winning a match. In Clash Royale, that would be having more Crown Towers destroyed than the opponent.
Win Condition (card)/WinCon: An essential card in a battle deck that is the main way of dealing damage against Crown Towers and winning, such as a Giant, Hog Rider, Wall Breakers, Balloon, or Golem. The main attributes of a win condition are that it targets buildings only and can consistently reach and deal damage to a Tower. Some win conditions can have only one of the two qualities. Certain cards that normally wouldn't be considered win conditions can be used as one if they are supported well (which usually means a whole deck archetype dedicated to them), such as Mortar, Three Musketeers, and X-Bow.
Win Trading: The trading of trophies between players that is set up between two players in which one is designated to lose to help the other player gain high trophies or score higher in a Global Tournament. This is against Supercell’s Terms of Service and can result in an account getting banned from the game.
WizNado: The Wizard + Tornado combo.
Wiz: Wizard.
WWV: The Wizard + Witch + Valkyrie combo, commonly used in low Arenas.
Zap (verb): To use Zap on a troop.
Zap Bait Deck: A branch of the Bait Deck archetype comprised of many cards that are instantly defeated by Zap. These types of decks may also have cards whose mechanics are crippled by Zap, such as the Sparky and her charge. See Zappable.
Zappable(s): Units that are defeated by Zap immediately. An infamous example is Skeletom Army, which is normally played at an attacking troop with the purpose of persuading the opponent to use Zap on them. Not to be confused with the Zappies card.
Zapsters: Zappies.
Zeroused/ZU: When a card is almost never used, to the point when it has a 0% use rate.