Legends:Terminology

In The Elder Scrolls: Legends and other CCGs, new players may come across unfamiliar terminology. This page attempts to clear up some of this confusion.


Also known as: Spell

Actions are one of the four card types, and are usually only a means of supplementing creatures. They have a one-time use and go to the discard pile after being played.

Aggro
One of the archetypes in card games. Aggro decks are aggressive decks that focus on doing lots of damage quickly. They usually play low-cost creatures and flood the field with cards. Aggro has less focus on card advantage, because it aims to win before the opponent's cards become relevant.


Also known as: Counter

An Answer refers to a card or deck (e.g. counter-deck) that can remove or defeat the opponent's threats with relative ease and without loss of card advantage. For example,   is a strong answer to all creature cards.


Also known as: Colors

Attributes are the five divisions of playstyles within the game: Strength (red), Intelligence (blue), Willpower (yellow), Agility (green), and Endurance (purple). Decks can include up to three attributes, which is then called a class. Additionally, some cards belong to no attributes and are Neutral.

Archetype
Decks have overlapping strategies and playstyles that can be classified into four different Archetypes: Aggro, Midrange, Combo, and Control. Each Archetype has many subdivisions and hybrids (e.g. Mage Combo-Control).

BM
Short for Bad Manners. It refers to when players are spamming emotes, needlessly prolonging their victory, roping, etc. In The Elder Scrolls: Legends, this may also be short for Battlemage, one of the Classes in the game.


Also known as: Battlefield or Field

The Board is an unofficial term used to refer to the playing field or lanes. Creatures and Supports are summoned here, while Actions interact with the board. For example, board control is the state where one player has taken control of both lanes and board wipe is used when most creatures are destroyed and removed from the field (e.g. due to   or  ).

Blink
A loan word from Magic: The Gathering, Blink is the term used for the removal/disappearing of a creature card and is resummoned during the same or next turn. For example, the use of   or  .

CCG
Collectible Card Game. Others include Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone.

Class
A set of two or three attributes. For instance, Intelligence and Agility make the Assassin class, and Strength, Willpower, and Endurance make the House Redoran class. 

Combo
One of the archetypes in card games. Combo decks try to stall the game until they assemble their combo pieces to finish the game quickly.

Control
One of the archetypes in card games. Control decks focus on playing a longer game. This strategy relies on being able to answer early threats played by the opponent until more powerful late-game cards can be played. They usually have Actions or cards with effects that can destroy multiple cards at once, as well as a few high-cost, powerful creatures to finish off the game.


Also known as: Body, Minion, Unit

Creatures are one of the four card types, and in most decks are the main method of getting board control and dealing damage to the opponent's creatures or face.

Curve
Many CCGs have the concept of a curve. This involves playing incrementally more powerful creatures as your available resources increase. As an example, a player could play a 1-cost   on turn one, then play a 2-cost   on turn two. The curve can be improved by ramping.

Defender
A loan word from Magic: The Gathering, Defender is an alternate term for Guard.


Also known as: Graveyard

When creatures or supports are destroyed, they will end up in the discard pile. Actions will be put into the discard pile directly after being summoned. Certain cards like   and   can retrieve cards from here (see reanimate).

Draw Last
This refers to a common mistake made by new players: Expending your magicka before using abilities that cause you to draw cards. The drawn card may have been a better play than the former.

Face
Face refers to the opponent's avatar. The avatar needs to be attacked to reduce its health (e.g. attacking face).

Fetching
Searching for a card in your deck. For example, the summon ability from   or playing a shout while   is in play.

Foil
A loan word from Magic: The Gathering, another name for premium cards.

Going Wide
Going wide refers to summoning a large number of low-power creatures in both lanes. This is the focus of the Imperial race.

Gold
Gold is the in-game currency to buy card packs and event tickets. It can be obtained by winning matches or Twitch drops. It is sometimes used to refer to cards of Legendary rarity.

Greed
Greed refers to ignoring the early game in favor of high-cost cards that have strong effects. This works well against control, but can be weak against aggro.

Item
Items are one of the four card types. They provide a buff to a creature in play.

Keyword
A keyword is a word that shortens a rule used by certain cards. They differ from other card effects by having no additional or changing effects. The keywords are: Breakthrough, Charge, Drain, Guard, Lethal, Rally, Regenerate, and Ward. Other effects that are not keywords, but are occasionally mistaken for keywords are: Last Gasp, Pilfer, Slay, and Summon.

Legend
Legend can refer to the final rank in the game, or sometimes unique legendary cards. It is occasionally incorrectly used to refer to all cards of Legendary rarity.


Short for "metagame", the meta is the current state of the game: which decks and cards are popular and how most players circumvent them. The meta is fluid and changes after every update or even during the same season.

Midrange
One of the archetypes in card games. Midrange decks use control in the early game and change to a more aggressive playstyle in the mid game. This results in a deck that tries to out-control aggro decks and win by aggro against control decks. Instead of focusing on early or late game, they provide consistent power at all stages of the match.

Netdecking
Netdecking refers to the practice of copying a deck from another source, rather than building an original deck.

Ping
Dealing a single damage to a creature or player. For example, summoning  .

Playset
The maximum amount of cards that share the same name that can be played in a deck. Most cards consists of a playset of 3, but unique cards have a playset of 1.

Proc
Short for "process", it is used for cards that trigger or activate an effect. For example, breaking an opponent's rune will proc  .

Prophecy Deck
Prophecy decks are designed to get everything out of their destroyed runes and the Prophecy effect. This allows them to get more free answers against aggro decks. Depending on the card list, the decks tend to be aggro or midrange.

Racing
When both players ignore each other's creatures and start hitting face. They race to be the first to get the other player's health down to zero.

Ramp Deck
Ramp is a special type of midrange where the early game is dedicated to playing cards that give a magicka boost. This allows them to play their larger threats earlier than their opponent.

Ramping
While magicka is limited and only increases by one each turn, some Endurance and Agility cards are available to circumvent this. This is referred to as ramping.

Reach
Dealing damage directly to the opponent in a way that they could not predict in their own turn. For example, by using any effect, such as an Action or a Summon effect, or by summoning a creature with Charge and attacking the opponent immediately. Alternatively, increasing the power and/or health of a creature, enabling it to deal and/or take more damage than it would have by default. Comparable to "growth" in Magic: The Gathering, and absolutely not to be confused with the "Reach" keyword in said game (which gives non-flying creatures in that game the ability to hit flying ones.)

Roping
Roping is a type of BM that refers to allowing the turn timer to reach its end when a play has nothing to play.

SMOrc
A loan word from Hearthstone, referring to decks that always attack face.


Also known as: Casting or Playing

When a card is put onto the playing field, it is summoned. Action cards are directly put into the discard pile after being played, while Creatures and Supports stay until they are destroyed. Not to be confused with the card effect Summon.

Support
Supports are one of the four card types, and provide ongoing benefits or can be activated during your turn for a certain effect. These are comparable to Permanents in Magic: The Gathering.

Target
Certain effects and Actions require a target. The player chooses a target by dragging an arrow towards the desired card or player that will be affected. For example,   can target a creature or player.

Tempo
Tempo decks sacrifice card advantage to play more and/or stronger threats than their opponent. They heavily rely on a good magicka curve. They tend to be aggro or midrange decks.

Token
Tokens are cards summoned by other cards and are not normally obtainable as a card on their own. For instance,   is a token summoned by  . These are often referred to as unobtainable cards.

Topdecking
Topdecking describes an undesirable phase; a time when you have no cards in hand and only draw the top card of your deck each turn. This is undesirable because it is ideal to have more resources than your opponent so you can answer your opponent.

Trade
Destroying one or more of your cards to destroy one or more of your opponent's with an equal loss to card advantage.

Trigger
Cards that get automatically activated due to a certain event or effect are triggered. For example, breaking an opponent's rune will trigger  . See also Proc.