Hey, everyone. Just wanted to let you guys know to not expect any TCG content until Sunday due to the fact that Cities begin this weekend! Good luck to everyone, and don't forget to check out [mod]Celebi23[/mod]'s article, as well as my article if you're not quite sure what to play. There will be an update added to the Forum Portal on either Sunday evening or Monday morning that will tell you guys what all of our mods have planned for next week. We hope to do those kinds of updates weekly.
One important part of getting into the Pokémon Trading Card Game is understanding the terminology players use. If you're a new player and unable to understand terms such as rogue, google.dek, or staple, then it will be much harder for you to get into the game. This guide was created to cover deck names, abbreviations, and words that a new player wouldn't know to help him or her get into the game and be able to understand what other players are saying.
Deck Names
One important thing to know about are the deck names. There are many different decks, all with different names. While there are some decks with names that make it easy to figure out the important cards in it, such as Magneboar (Magnezone/Emboar) or Reshiphlosion (Reshiram/Typhlosion), other deck names are somewhat confusing. More often than not, a newer player won't understand what deck someone is talking about when he or she says "Megazord", "ZPST", or "google.dek". In this section of the article, we'll be looking at these five names, and many more deck names.
MegaJudge (Primetime) (Megazone) (Yanzone) (Yanmegazone): Yanmega Prime/Magnezone Prime
By getting equal hands with your opponent by using cards such as Judge, Copycat, Magnezone Prime's Magnetic Draw Poké-Power, and more, Yanmega is able to snipe your opponent's Bench while giving time for Magnezone to charge up for its Lost Burn attack.
BearPlume: Beartic (EP 30/98)/Vileplume UD
Although Bearplume was hyped for having Beartic prevent your opponent from attacking and Vileplume to prevent your opponent from playing cards such as Switch to get out of Beartic's effect, the deck ultimately did poorly.
Blastzel: Blastoise UL/Floatzel UL
Using Floatzel's Water Acceleration Poké-Power and Blastoise's Wash Out Poké-Power, Blastzel is able to do 100 damage to any of your opponent's Pokémon each turn.
Blastgatr: Blastoise UL/Feraligatr Prime
Blastgatr plays a lot like Blastzel, by being able to do 100 damage to any of your opponent's Pokémon, but by running Feraligatr Prime instead of Floatzel, Blastgatr is slower but can do 100 damage to any of your opponent's Pokémon much more easily.
Magneboar (Boarzone): Magnezone Prime/Emboar (BW 20/114)
Magneboar utilizes Emboar to attach as many Fire Energy attached to any of your Pokémon as needed in order to do more damage with Magnezone Prime's Lost Burn attack. With Magnetic Draw, the deck has a strong source of drawpower, and has option to many other usable Pokémon thanks to Emboar.
Donphan and Dragons (DD): Donphan Prime/Zekrom BW/Reshiram BW
Thanks to Donphan Prime's Earthquake attack, Donphan and Dragons can do 10 damage to each of your Benched Pokémon, powering up Zekrom's and Reshiram's Outrage for lots of damage later in the game. This deck also has the opportunity to use cards such as Basculin and Zoroark to counter bad matchups.
Donchamp: Donphan Prime/Machamp Prime
Receiving a moderate amount of hype, Donchamp used Donphan to damage your own Benched Pokémon while later moving all Energy attached to Donphan with Machamp's Fighting Tag Poké-Power to Machamp Prime and hitting for at least 150 damage. Donchamp, however, lost a lot of popularity due to its speed issues.
Gothiclus (Gothitelle) (GRE): Gothitelle (EP 47/98)/Reuniclus BW /Electrode Prime (GRE only)
One of the best decks in Japan's format and a powerful contender in the US' format, Gothiclus purposely falls behind on prizes early in the game to setup using Twins, and then prevent KO's by moving all damage done to Gothitelle with Reuniclus while prevent your opponent from playing any Items. GRE plays the same way, but also uses Electrode Prime to help put the deck behind on prizes while helping attach lots of Energy to Gothitelle.
Lostgar: Gengar Prime/Lost World
What was thought to be the best deck in the format, Lostgar functions by sending your opponent's Pokémon from his or her hand into his or her Lost Zone with Gengar's Hurl into Darkness attack and then declaring yourself the winner with Lost World once your opponent has a least six Pokémon in the Lost Zone. Other cards that can fit into Lostgar are Mew Prime, Slowking, and Mr. Mime, and Mime Jr. to help put Pokémon into the Lost Zone.
Reshiphlosion (Tyram): Reshiram BW/Typhlosion Prime
The best deck in the 2011-2012 Autumn Battle Roads, by using Typhlosion to attach the Fire Energy Reshiram discarded to use its Blue Flare attack, Reshiphlosion can do a constant 120 damage each turn.
Reshiboar: Reshiram BW/Emboar (BW 20/114)
While it was a very hyped deck back in the 2010-2011 season, and still sees a small amount of play today, Reshiboar uses Emboar to attach as many Energy as possible to your Reshiram in order to do 120 damage each turn with Reshiram. By using Energy Retrieval or Fisherman, the deck can consistently attach Energy and do 120 damage.
ZPST: Zekrom BW/Pachirisu CL/Shaymin UL/Tornadus EP
ZPS is able to setup very quickly, but playing Zekrom, attaching an Energy to Zekrom, using Pachirisu to attach two Lightning Energy to it, and then moving those Energy to Zekrom with Shaymin for a fast 120 damage. Tornadus functions as a Donphan counter while also setting up a Zekrom or another Tornadus.
KYJ (Horsemega): Kingdra Prime/Yanmega Prime/Jirachi CL
Runner-up of the Canadian Nationals, KYJ functions by sniping your opponent's Bench with Kingdra and Yanmega, and then devolving them with Jirachi.
Megazord: Donphan Prime/Yanmega Prime/Zoroark BW; a specific kind of deck referred to as Stage 1 Rush.
Getting second at Nationals, Megazord is fast, can snipe your opponent, and applies pressure on to your opponent early in the game.
Stage 1 Rush: A deck that uses multiple Stage 1 Pokémon such as Yanmega Prime, Zoroark BW, Donphan Prime, Weavile, Cinccino, etc. that can attack for big damage for low energy.
Although Stage 1 Rush doesn't see quite as much play as Megazord specifically, Stage 1 Rush is still a semi-powerful contender.
google.dek (The Truth): Vileplume/Reuniclus and friends
The Truth got second place at the 2010-2011 World Championships, being played by google, which was a deck that used Vileplume and Reuniclus to prevent Items from being played and deny KO's.
Mewbox: Mew Prime and friends
By dumping multiple Pokémon into the Lost Zone, Mew becomes a very versatile, hard hitting attacker that can keep on coming.
YMCA: Yanmega Prime/Mew Prime/Cinccino BW and friends - sometimes referred to as Mewbox
By using Mew Prime to put Pokémon into the Lost Zone, Mew can be an extremely versatile attacker. Yanmega Prime and Cinccino also act as backup attackers to support Mew.
Kyugatr: Kyurem NV/Feraligatr Prime
With Feraligatr Prime, Kyugatr can attach enough Energy to Kyurem, allowing it to do 30 damage to each player's Benched Pokémon and 30 damage to the Active Pokémon.
Mewlock: Mew Prime/Vileplume UD/Yanmega Prime/Jumpluff HS/Muk UD and friends
By putting Pokémon such as Jumpluff and Muk into the Lost Zone, Mew is able to hit very hard and drag up any Benched Pokémon while using Yanmega as a backup attacker. Vileplume prevents your opponent from playing any Item cards, limiting his or her options.
Cake: Kyurem/Cobalion (NV)/Electrode Prime
By using Electrode Prime to quickly charge up either Kyurem or Cobalion, the deck can do 30 damage to each player's Pokémon very quickly or deny the Defending Pokémon from attacking. Since Electrode also gets Knocked Out as a result of charging up Kyurem or Cobalion, the deck is able to grab any necessary cards with Twins.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
People often use, and even say, the abbreviation of a card name or term instead of typing or writing it out, simply because it takes less time. If someone would have to type out "Professor Oak's New Theory" every time they mentioned that card, instead of PONT, its abbreviation, then so much time would be saved (PONT is a commonly used card as well). Let's take a look at some of the abbreviations players use.
Ability Boar (Abiliboar) (Abilityboar): Emboar (BW 20/114)
Ability Boar has become a staple in Fire deck as Ability Boar lets you attach as many Fire Energy as you want during your turn.
Bad Boar: Emboar (BW 19/114)
The other Emboar from Black & White. It's called "bad" because it does not have the excellent Ability its other card does, but people have made use of it successfully.
BCIF: Best card in format
People are wondering if Yanmega Prime, which was present in many decks in the top cut at Nationals 2011, is the BCIF for this season.
BDIF: Best deck in format
Plox, the BDIF in the 07-08 season, won Worlds.
DCE: Double Colorless Energy
Ever since the release of DCE in HS, many decks have gotten a speed boost.
ERl, RSl, ESl, KGl, RDl, DCl, PDl: Entei & Raikou LEGEND, Raikou & Suicune LEGEND, Entei & Suicune LEGEND, Kyogre & Groudon LEGEND, Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND, Darkrai & Cresselia LEGEND, Palkia & Dialga LEGEND (respectively).
She teched in a 1-1 RDl into my Reshiboar deck for late-game cleanup.
Fliptini: Victini (NV 98/101)
Players run Fliptini to help increase the odds of getting heads in an attack.
FSL: Flower Shop Lady
While FSL can be used to take out three Pokémon and three Basic Energy from the discard, it isn't used much in most decks.
GG: Good game
It is good sportsmanship to say, “Good game.” to your opponent at the end of each game whether you won or not.
PETM: Professor Elm's Training Method
Although PETM is outclassed by Pokemon Communication to search out Pokémon from deck, some decks run one copy of PETM.
PONT: Professor Oak’s New Theory
PONT has become a staple card in many decks, allowing a player to shuffle his or her hand back into his or her deck and shuffle 6 cards.
SDE: Special Darkness Energy
He attached a Special Darkness Energy to Zoroark to increase the damage Zoroark did by 10.
SD: Secret deck
He did not reveal his SD until Regionals where he swept.
SME: Special Metal Energy
He attached a Special Metal Energy to Steelix Prime to reduce damage done to Steelix Prime by 10.
Tournaments
You wouldn't think it, but there are also "special" words used for tournaments. While most of these words are simply the real word shortened, or abbreviated (for example, City Championships are usually called Cities or CC's by most players), I decided to put them under Tournaments instead of Abbreviations because of how many there are, and that there are also several other terms that could go into Tournaments.
Division: What age group you are in in Play! Pokémon tournaments.
Since the player was born in 1992, he was in the Masters division, while the player born in 2001 was in the Juniors division.
League: A P!P event that does not affect a player's record. These events are "fun" events, with no Swiss rounds or top cut, where both TCG and video game players can gather and play against each other. By playing many games in Leagues, you can earn prizes for playing enough games. Some Leagues host mini-tournaments for players to compete in. Leagues can only be run by League Leaders.
He goes to League every Sunday to meet with his friends and play against other players.
League Leader (LL): The person running a League. He or she sets the rules of the League.
The League Leader was nice enough to host mini-tournaments during the League.
Pokémon Professor (Professor): A player who has passed the Professor Test. These players are allowed to judge and host tournaments, run a league, and are able to get cool rewards for doing the stated options.
His league leader became a Professor a long time ago.
Professor Test: A test players can take to become a Pokémon Professor. Players taking the Professor Test must be 18 years old. Failure to pass the Professor Test will result in having to wait before retaking the test.
On the day that he turned 18, my friend took the Professor Test. Sadly, he failed the test, and had to wait a month before he could retake it.
Professor Points: Points Professors can earn for hosting or judging a tournament, running leagues, etc. These points can be spent on cool prizes, and can be added to the opportunity of judging at a very large tournament.
Thanks to him getting a lot of Professor Points, he was able to judge at the World Championships.
Professor Cup: A tournament during Nationals where Pokémon Professors with 75 or more Professor Points or more can compete.
Many Professors judge and tournaments and run Leagues just to participate in the Professor Cup.
30+3: The format's current time limit. Each round lasts for 30 minutes, and at the end of those 30 minutes, players still playing are given three extra turns (each player's turn counts as one of those three turns). At the end of the three extra turns, the player with the fewest remaining prize cards wins the game. If both players have the same number of prize cards at the end of the three extra turns, the next player to take a prize card wins.
Thanks to the 30+3 time limit, tournaments have become shorter, and players still have an opportunity to win even if his or her opponent stalled him or her.
Elo rating: The old rating system, where points are gained or lost, to determine a player's ranking. Still used today as tiebreakers.
Although both players had seven Championship Points, since he had a higher Elo rating of 1642.30, he had a higher ranking.
Swiss: The system used in Play! Pokémon tournaments to determine your opponent in each round, before top cut. Your opponent is determined by how many wins and losses both you and your opponent have. No player can play the same opponent twice during Swiss rounds.
Since him and his friend both were the only players with a record of 4-0, they were paired against each other in the last round due to the Swiss system.
K-value: The amount of points added or reduced to a player's Elo rating by winning or losing a match in an official Play! Pokémon event respectively. The higher the K-value and the difference between the amount of points the players have, the more points won or loss by winning or losing a match.
The K-value of City Championships is 8, so players try to go to as many City Championships as possible to get more points.
Play! Pokémon (P!P): A system of official tournaments and Leagues where plays can compete to win prizes.
She competed in five Play! Pokémon events.
Pokémon Organized Play (POP): Play! Pokémon's old name.
As of Fall 2010, POP became P!P
Top cut (TC): The highest ranking players in the tournament's Swiss rounds play each other in a best-two-out-of-three single elimination game to determine the winner of the tournament. Top cuts can go from top two (T2) to top 128 (T128). The amount of players advancing to the top cut depends on how many players participating in the Swiss rounds and the tournament they are playing.
At Nationals, the TC was T128 because of how high the K-value and how many people participated in the event.
Kicker: The amount of people who receive Championship Points based on the attendance of an event.
There was a kicker of four in the Battle Roads, because 52 people showed up.
Championship Points: Points rewarded to players for having a high standing on a sanctioned tournament. These points lets players participate in large events such as the World Championships. Each type of tournament provides a different number of Championship Points.
He received two Championship Points for winning Battle Roads.
Play! Points: Points rewarded to players by attending Play! Pokémon events. These points give access to special events, and players with the most points in each division earns a special reward.
He had five Play! Points because he attended five Battle Roads so far.
Resistance: In tournament-terms, how often you win your games and how often your opponents win their games. The higher your resistance, the higher your standing will be compared to other players with the same record as you.
Both players had a record of 2-3, but since he had a higher resistance, his standing was higher.
Bye: Automatically winning a round, usually because of having no opponent. Hurts resistance.
He had a bye on the second round, so he didn't make top cut.
Up-pair: Playing against someone with a higher record than you. Winning helps resistance.
Although he was 4-1, he got up-paired against someone who has 5-0.
Down-pair: Playing against someone with a lower record than you. Hurts resistance.
Although he was 3-2, he got down-paired against someone who has 2-3.
Tournament Organizer (TO): The person hosting official P!P tournaments.
The tournament organizer hosted four tournaments in North Carolina.
Battle Roads (BR's): The first and third-to-last P!P tournament of the season. Takes place during the Fall (Fall Battle Roads) and the Spring (Spring Battle Roads). Battle Roads have a K-value of 4, and provides a maximum of 2 Championship Points.
Players begin the season with the Fall Battle Roads, and then if they cannot go to Nationals or Worlds, end the season with Spring Battle.
City Championships (CC's) (Cities): The second P!P tournament of the season. Takes place towards the end of the Fall and ends in early January. City Championships have a K-value of 16, and can provide a maximum of 6 Championship Points.
Many players get a lot of points at City Championships because of its K-value and because there are many City Championships.
State Championships (States): The third P!P tournament of the season. Takes place during two weekends in March. State Championships have a K-value of 32, and can provide a maximum of 10 Championship Points.
State Championships are much more difficult than the past tournaments, since players are more serious due to the better prizes and higher K-value.
Regional Championships (Regionals) (Regs): The second or fourth P!P tournament of the season. Takes place on one weekend in November and April. Regional Championships have a K-value of 32, and can provide a maximum of 10 Championship Points.
Taking place after State Championships, there are very few Regional Championships, so Regional Championships have much more people.
National Championships (Nationals) (Nats): The fifth P!P tournament of the season. Takes place during one weekend in late June/early July. National Championships have a K-value of 32, and can provide a maximum of 14 Championship Points.
Since there are only one National Championships per season in a country, they are filled with players looking for more points. Invites are available as travel money, and even if you don't do well, you can participate in side events.
Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) (Grinders): A tournament right before the World Championships as a last chance for players to enter the World Championships.
By succeeding in the Grinders, the player was able to make it into the World Championships.
World Championships (Worlds): The sixth and final P!P tournament of the season. Takes place during one weekend in August. Only players who have an invite can participate in official tournament in the World Championships, or players who have done well in the Last Chance Qualifiers. The World Championships provides a maximum of 25 Championship Points.
World Championships cycles between a location in Hawaii, California, and Florida, and many players from around the world come to participate in it. Even if you aren't able to compete in the official tournament, you can play in many other side events.
Constructed Format: A tournament where the player enters the tournament with a pre-constructed 60-card deck. There may be no more than four copies of a card, by name, in a deck, with the exception of basic Energy cards. There are six prize cards in games in the Constructed Format. There are two types of Constructed Formats: Modified and Unlimited.
Most sanctioned tournaments, excluding prereleases, follow the Constructed Format, since it's easy to make a 60-card deck with your collection of cards.
Modified Format: The format used at all sanctioned Play! Pokémon events, unless specified, where players are only permitted to use cards from certain sets. All cards that are not in the Modified Format, yet have been reprinted in the Modified Format, are allowed to be used but must follow the updated wording. All new sets are added to the Modified Format. In any tournament where multiple countries are involved, the Modified Format it the United States format.
Every main tournament, excluding prereleases, all follow the Modified Format.
Unlimited Format: The format where all cards released in the United States may be used. Any older cards must follow the wording of its most recent print.
Most tournaments don't follow the Unlimited Format, as it is too unbalanced.
PR (Prerelease): A mini-tournament occurring two weeks before a sets release. This tournament allows players to earn promotional items and the set's cards before it's official release. 6 booster packs from the upcoming set will be given out for the Sealed Deck format of the tournament, and 2 more booster packs will be given to each player after the tournament. Prereleases are not free, and usually cost around $25 (before tax).
Players come to prereleases since the promotional items and 8 booster packs are both worth the entry price.
Limited Format: A tournament where the tournament organizer provides the cards, and each player creates a 40-card deck using the provided cards. All cards, unless specified, are permitted to have more than four copies by name in the deck. There are four prize cards in games in the Limited Format. There are four different types of Limited Formats: Sealed Deck, Booster Draft, Rochester Draft, and Solomon Draft.
All prereleases follow the Limited Format, since it's hard to make an effective 60 card deck with only six booster packs.
Sealed Deck Format: A type of Limited Format, the Sealed Deck Format is where a player receives booster packs of the same set from the tournament organizer and creates a 40 card deck with the cards from the booster packs and basic Energy provided by the tournament organizer in 30 minutes. During the deckbuilding time, players may not trade cards the pulled cards with other players, and after the first round of the tournament, players may not alter his or her deck.
The six booster packs you receive at a prerelease is used for the tournament's Sealed Deck Format.
Booster Draft Format: A type of Limited Format, the Booster Draft Format is where a player receives booster packs of the same set from the tournament organizer. All players split in equal sized groups, and sit in a circle with no more than eight players per group. When the tournament organizer says so, each player opens one of his or her booster packs, and chooses and keeps one card from the booster pack, and pass the other cards privately to the player to the left. The cards should remain private at all times. This cycle continues where a player selects one card from his or her handed until all cards have been passed around, where on the tournament organizer's signal, the process repeats and the direction of where the cards are passed alters. After all booster packs have been opened, each player creates a 40 card deck with the cards he or she selected and basic Energy provided by the tournament organizer in 30 minutes. During the deckbuilding time, players may not trade cards the pulled cards with other players, and after the first round of the tournament, players may not alter his or her deck.
Unlucky for him, the player was constantly handed bad cards in the booster draft.
Misc. Terms
There are other words commonly used that don't fit into any of these categories.
Bench Sitter: A Pokémon that remains on the Bench only to use its Poké-Power, Poké-Body, or Ability.
Vileplume is a powerful Bench sitter, locking Item cards.
Consistency: How often you are getting good hands and constantly being able to draw cards. The more of a certain type of card you have in your deck, the higher the chance you will get that card when you need it.
Due to the deck’s consistency, the player never once had a bad hand.
Copies: The amount of a single card in a deck.
The player ran four copies of Reshiram in his deck.
Dead Draws: Not drawing into anything helpful.
He had dead draws for four turns.
Deck Archetype: Deck ideas that are known widely to the public.
Magnezone Prime/Yanmega Prime is a popular deck archetype.
Donk: KO'ing all of your opponent's Pokémon in play on the first or second turn.
ZPST is a powerful donk deck since it can do 120 damage very early in the game.
FA Legend: Full Art Legend, a card in the BW era where the artwork covers the entire card.
The two FA Legends released in BW were Reshiram and Zekrom.
Lines: The number of Basic Pokémon and its evolution stages in a player's deck. For example, 4-2-4 would mean 4 copies of that Basic Pokémon, 2 copies of its Stage 1 Evolution, and 4 copies of its Stage 2 Evolution. LEGEND cards use this to refer to each half rather than evolutions; 2-2 would refer to 2 top halves and 2 bottom halves, for example.
He ran a 3-2-3 Magnezone Prime line because it was his main attacker.
Lock: To prevent your opponent from doing anything.
Sablelock locked its opponent by using Cyrus' Initiative to get the good cards out of its opponent's hand while making sure your opponent only draws bad cards.
Lost Zone: A location on the board, usually above your prize cards, where cards cannot be taken out of. Cards can only be send to the Lost Zone by an effect of an attack.
Since Gengar Prime send six Pokémon into the Lost Zone, the player played Lost World during his next turn to win the game.
Lucksack: Getting lucky.
He lucksacked four heads.
Matchup: A deck's performance against a deck archetype.
His matchup against Reshiram/Typhlosion was very poor.
Metagame (Meta): The most popular decks in a given area. Metagame can refer to either the most popular decks of the country, or the most popular decks in a certain state.
The current metagame in the United States is filled with Yanmega Prime and Reshiram.
Mill: To discard multiple cards from either player's deck.
KGl, what was once the best miller of its format due to being able to discard the top 5 cards of your opponent's deck, is no longer popular.
Misplay: Making a mistake.
He misplayed, attaching the Energy card to the wrong Pokemon.
Mulligan: Showing your opponent your hand at the beginning of the game because you do not have any Basic Pokémon in your hand.
He had two mulligans, so his opponent drew two extra cards.
PlayTCG (PTCG): An unofficial Pokémon TCG online simulator. This simulator allows players to build a deck without the need of pulling any cards and battle each other.
The more commonly used Pokémon TCG online simulator, PTCG is hosted by bebessearch.com.
Proxy: Putting a card in place for another. Not legal in tournament play.
Players proxy their cards so they can test a deck with cards that they don't have. Most players would then by the necessary cards to fill the proxies.
Pyramid Lines: A line of a Pokemon that has more copies of a Basic Pokemon, less copies of the Stage 1 Pokémon, and less copies of the Stage 2 Pokémon.
The player ran a Pyramid Line in his deck, running four Snivy, three Servine, and one Serperior.
Redshark (RS): An unofficial Pokémon TCG online simulator formerly hosted by PB. This simulator requires the download of Hamachi in order to connect to other players. This simulator allows players to build a deck without the need of pulling any cards and battle each other.
Even though they lived on opposite sides of the country, by using Redshark, the two players could play against each other.
Rogue: A deck that is not seen in the metagame.
Gyarados, what started out as a rogue deck, became a metagame deck after it won Nationals a few years ago.
Rotation: When several sets become illegal to use in the Modified Format starting on a certain date.
The rotation usually occurs on September 1st, where four sets become unusable.
Run (Running): Use (using).
You should run a 1-1 Zoroark in your deck as a revenge killer.
Scoop: Forfeiting the match.
When the player realized he could not win the game, he decided to scoop instead of play out the game.
Snipe: Attacking one of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon.
Using Yanmega Prime’s Linear Attack, the player was able to snipe one of his opponent’s Benched Pokémon for 40 damage.
Speed: How fast it takes for a deck to setup.
ZPS, being able to get out a fully charged Zekrom in one turn, is very fast compared to Steelix which is slow due to needing several turns to setup.
Spread: Doing damage to multiple Pokémon.
Kyurem/Feraligatr Prime is predicted to be a powerful spreader due to being able to do 30 damage to all of your opponent’s Pokémon.
Stacking: Manually reordering the cards in your deck in order to give you an advantage. This is illegal.
He stacked his deck, and thus got into trouble.
Stall: Purposely playing slowly to run-down the clock, illegal in tournaments.
While he attempted to stall his opponent, he get a penalty.
Staple: A card that is required in a deck.
Pokemon Communication has become a staple card in every deck as it can search your deck for a Pokemon card.
Swarm: To quickly be able to constantly get out multiple lines of your attacker out at once.
Jumpluff is able to swarm its opponent, since the deck is able to keep setting up Jumpluffs very quickly.
Tank: Either taking a lot less damage from an attack or being able to consistently heal off any damage done to a Pokemon. Tanks usually can do lots of damage, but are slow.
Steelix Prime is a very powerful tank, as it can reduce damage with Special Metal Energies and heal off any damage with Moo Moo Milk.
TCG Online (TCGO): The official Pokémon TCG online simulator found on Pokemon.com. This simulator allows players to open virtual packs by entering codes found in booster packs, allows players to trade the virtual cards with each other, and battle each other.
He entered all of his code cards into his TCGO and finally got the card he needed to finish his deck.
Tech: A small line of Pokemon used to support a player's problems in a deck.
His 2-2 Zoroark tech slightly helps his matchup against the Reshiram/Typhlosion Prime deck.
Topdeck: Getting a lucky draw at the beginning of your turn.
The player topdecked his Yanmega Prime, allowing him to win the game.
Variants: Different decks based around certain cards.
Many Vileplume/Reuniclus variants are based off google.dek.
Whiff: Not being get a needed coin flip or not being able to draw a certain card.
He whiffed the Energy and thus lost the game.
Credit to Pokemon.com for some of these definitions.
One important part of getting into the Pokémon Trading Card Game is understanding the terminology players use. If you're a new player and unable to understand terms such as rogue, google.dek, or staple, then it will be much harder for you to get into the game. This guide was created to cover deck names, abbreviations, and words that a new player wouldn't know to help him or her get into the game and be able to understand what other players are saying.
Deck Names
One important thing to know about are the deck names. There are many different decks, all with different names. While there are some decks with names that make it easy to figure out the important cards in it, such as Magneboar (Magnezone/Emboar) or Reshiphlosion (Reshiram/Typhlosion), other deck names are somewhat confusing. More often than not, a newer player won't understand what deck someone is talking about when he or she says "Megazord", "ZPST", or "google.dek". In this section of the article, we'll be looking at these five names, and many more deck names.
MegaJudge (Primetime) (Megazone) (Yanzone) (Yanmegazone): Yanmega Prime/Magnezone Prime
By getting equal hands with your opponent by using cards such as Judge, Copycat, Magnezone Prime's Magnetic Draw Poké-Power, and more, Yanmega is able to snipe your opponent's Bench while giving time for Magnezone to charge up for its Lost Burn attack.
BearPlume: Beartic (EP 30/98)/Vileplume UD
Although Bearplume was hyped for having Beartic prevent your opponent from attacking and Vileplume to prevent your opponent from playing cards such as Switch to get out of Beartic's effect, the deck ultimately did poorly.
Blastzel: Blastoise UL/Floatzel UL
Using Floatzel's Water Acceleration Poké-Power and Blastoise's Wash Out Poké-Power, Blastzel is able to do 100 damage to any of your opponent's Pokémon each turn.
Blastgatr: Blastoise UL/Feraligatr Prime
Blastgatr plays a lot like Blastzel, by being able to do 100 damage to any of your opponent's Pokémon, but by running Feraligatr Prime instead of Floatzel, Blastgatr is slower but can do 100 damage to any of your opponent's Pokémon much more easily.
Magneboar (Boarzone): Magnezone Prime/Emboar (BW 20/114)
Magneboar utilizes Emboar to attach as many Fire Energy attached to any of your Pokémon as needed in order to do more damage with Magnezone Prime's Lost Burn attack. With Magnetic Draw, the deck has a strong source of drawpower, and has option to many other usable Pokémon thanks to Emboar.
Donphan and Dragons (DD): Donphan Prime/Zekrom BW/Reshiram BW
Thanks to Donphan Prime's Earthquake attack, Donphan and Dragons can do 10 damage to each of your Benched Pokémon, powering up Zekrom's and Reshiram's Outrage for lots of damage later in the game. This deck also has the opportunity to use cards such as Basculin and Zoroark to counter bad matchups.
Donchamp: Donphan Prime/Machamp Prime
Receiving a moderate amount of hype, Donchamp used Donphan to damage your own Benched Pokémon while later moving all Energy attached to Donphan with Machamp's Fighting Tag Poké-Power to Machamp Prime and hitting for at least 150 damage. Donchamp, however, lost a lot of popularity due to its speed issues.
Gothiclus (Gothitelle) (GRE): Gothitelle (EP 47/98)/Reuniclus BW /Electrode Prime (GRE only)
One of the best decks in Japan's format and a powerful contender in the US' format, Gothiclus purposely falls behind on prizes early in the game to setup using Twins, and then prevent KO's by moving all damage done to Gothitelle with Reuniclus while prevent your opponent from playing any Items. GRE plays the same way, but also uses Electrode Prime to help put the deck behind on prizes while helping attach lots of Energy to Gothitelle.
Lostgar: Gengar Prime/Lost World
What was thought to be the best deck in the format, Lostgar functions by sending your opponent's Pokémon from his or her hand into his or her Lost Zone with Gengar's Hurl into Darkness attack and then declaring yourself the winner with Lost World once your opponent has a least six Pokémon in the Lost Zone. Other cards that can fit into Lostgar are Mew Prime, Slowking, and Mr. Mime, and Mime Jr. to help put Pokémon into the Lost Zone.
Reshiphlosion (Tyram): Reshiram BW/Typhlosion Prime
The best deck in the 2011-2012 Autumn Battle Roads, by using Typhlosion to attach the Fire Energy Reshiram discarded to use its Blue Flare attack, Reshiphlosion can do a constant 120 damage each turn.
Reshiboar: Reshiram BW/Emboar (BW 20/114)
While it was a very hyped deck back in the 2010-2011 season, and still sees a small amount of play today, Reshiboar uses Emboar to attach as many Energy as possible to your Reshiram in order to do 120 damage each turn with Reshiram. By using Energy Retrieval or Fisherman, the deck can consistently attach Energy and do 120 damage.
ZPST: Zekrom BW/Pachirisu CL/Shaymin UL/Tornadus EP
ZPS is able to setup very quickly, but playing Zekrom, attaching an Energy to Zekrom, using Pachirisu to attach two Lightning Energy to it, and then moving those Energy to Zekrom with Shaymin for a fast 120 damage. Tornadus functions as a Donphan counter while also setting up a Zekrom or another Tornadus.
KYJ (Horsemega): Kingdra Prime/Yanmega Prime/Jirachi CL
Runner-up of the Canadian Nationals, KYJ functions by sniping your opponent's Bench with Kingdra and Yanmega, and then devolving them with Jirachi.
Megazord: Donphan Prime/Yanmega Prime/Zoroark BW; a specific kind of deck referred to as Stage 1 Rush.
Getting second at Nationals, Megazord is fast, can snipe your opponent, and applies pressure on to your opponent early in the game.
Stage 1 Rush: A deck that uses multiple Stage 1 Pokémon such as Yanmega Prime, Zoroark BW, Donphan Prime, Weavile, Cinccino, etc. that can attack for big damage for low energy.
Although Stage 1 Rush doesn't see quite as much play as Megazord specifically, Stage 1 Rush is still a semi-powerful contender.
google.dek (The Truth): Vileplume/Reuniclus and friends
The Truth got second place at the 2010-2011 World Championships, being played by google, which was a deck that used Vileplume and Reuniclus to prevent Items from being played and deny KO's.
Mewbox: Mew Prime and friends
By dumping multiple Pokémon into the Lost Zone, Mew becomes a very versatile, hard hitting attacker that can keep on coming.
YMCA: Yanmega Prime/Mew Prime/Cinccino BW and friends - sometimes referred to as Mewbox
By using Mew Prime to put Pokémon into the Lost Zone, Mew can be an extremely versatile attacker. Yanmega Prime and Cinccino also act as backup attackers to support Mew.
Kyugatr: Kyurem NV/Feraligatr Prime
With Feraligatr Prime, Kyugatr can attach enough Energy to Kyurem, allowing it to do 30 damage to each player's Benched Pokémon and 30 damage to the Active Pokémon.
Mewlock: Mew Prime/Vileplume UD/Yanmega Prime/Jumpluff HS/Muk UD and friends
By putting Pokémon such as Jumpluff and Muk into the Lost Zone, Mew is able to hit very hard and drag up any Benched Pokémon while using Yanmega as a backup attacker. Vileplume prevents your opponent from playing any Item cards, limiting his or her options.
Cake: Kyurem/Cobalion (NV)/Electrode Prime
By using Electrode Prime to quickly charge up either Kyurem or Cobalion, the deck can do 30 damage to each player's Pokémon very quickly or deny the Defending Pokémon from attacking. Since Electrode also gets Knocked Out as a result of charging up Kyurem or Cobalion, the deck is able to grab any necessary cards with Twins.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
People often use, and even say, the abbreviation of a card name or term instead of typing or writing it out, simply because it takes less time. If someone would have to type out "Professor Oak's New Theory" every time they mentioned that card, instead of PONT, its abbreviation, then so much time would be saved (PONT is a commonly used card as well). Let's take a look at some of the abbreviations players use.
Ability Boar (Abiliboar) (Abilityboar): Emboar (BW 20/114)
Ability Boar has become a staple in Fire deck as Ability Boar lets you attach as many Fire Energy as you want during your turn.
Bad Boar: Emboar (BW 19/114)
The other Emboar from Black & White. It's called "bad" because it does not have the excellent Ability its other card does, but people have made use of it successfully.
BCIF: Best card in format
People are wondering if Yanmega Prime, which was present in many decks in the top cut at Nationals 2011, is the BCIF for this season.
BDIF: Best deck in format
Plox, the BDIF in the 07-08 season, won Worlds.
DCE: Double Colorless Energy
Ever since the release of DCE in HS, many decks have gotten a speed boost.
ERl, RSl, ESl, KGl, RDl, DCl, PDl: Entei & Raikou LEGEND, Raikou & Suicune LEGEND, Entei & Suicune LEGEND, Kyogre & Groudon LEGEND, Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND, Darkrai & Cresselia LEGEND, Palkia & Dialga LEGEND (respectively).
She teched in a 1-1 RDl into my Reshiboar deck for late-game cleanup.
Fliptini: Victini (NV 98/101)
Players run Fliptini to help increase the odds of getting heads in an attack.
FSL: Flower Shop Lady
While FSL can be used to take out three Pokémon and three Basic Energy from the discard, it isn't used much in most decks.
GG: Good game
It is good sportsmanship to say, “Good game.” to your opponent at the end of each game whether you won or not.
PETM: Professor Elm's Training Method
Although PETM is outclassed by Pokemon Communication to search out Pokémon from deck, some decks run one copy of PETM.
PONT: Professor Oak’s New Theory
PONT has become a staple card in many decks, allowing a player to shuffle his or her hand back into his or her deck and shuffle 6 cards.
SDE: Special Darkness Energy
He attached a Special Darkness Energy to Zoroark to increase the damage Zoroark did by 10.
SD: Secret deck
He did not reveal his SD until Regionals where he swept.
SME: Special Metal Energy
He attached a Special Metal Energy to Steelix Prime to reduce damage done to Steelix Prime by 10.
Tournaments
You wouldn't think it, but there are also "special" words used for tournaments. While most of these words are simply the real word shortened, or abbreviated (for example, City Championships are usually called Cities or CC's by most players), I decided to put them under Tournaments instead of Abbreviations because of how many there are, and that there are also several other terms that could go into Tournaments.
Division: What age group you are in in Play! Pokémon tournaments.
Since the player was born in 1992, he was in the Masters division, while the player born in 2001 was in the Juniors division.
League: A P!P event that does not affect a player's record. These events are "fun" events, with no Swiss rounds or top cut, where both TCG and video game players can gather and play against each other. By playing many games in Leagues, you can earn prizes for playing enough games. Some Leagues host mini-tournaments for players to compete in. Leagues can only be run by League Leaders.
He goes to League every Sunday to meet with his friends and play against other players.
League Leader (LL): The person running a League. He or she sets the rules of the League.
The League Leader was nice enough to host mini-tournaments during the League.
Pokémon Professor (Professor): A player who has passed the Professor Test. These players are allowed to judge and host tournaments, run a league, and are able to get cool rewards for doing the stated options.
His league leader became a Professor a long time ago.
Professor Test: A test players can take to become a Pokémon Professor. Players taking the Professor Test must be 18 years old. Failure to pass the Professor Test will result in having to wait before retaking the test.
On the day that he turned 18, my friend took the Professor Test. Sadly, he failed the test, and had to wait a month before he could retake it.
Professor Points: Points Professors can earn for hosting or judging a tournament, running leagues, etc. These points can be spent on cool prizes, and can be added to the opportunity of judging at a very large tournament.
Thanks to him getting a lot of Professor Points, he was able to judge at the World Championships.
Professor Cup: A tournament during Nationals where Pokémon Professors with 75 or more Professor Points or more can compete.
Many Professors judge and tournaments and run Leagues just to participate in the Professor Cup.
30+3: The format's current time limit. Each round lasts for 30 minutes, and at the end of those 30 minutes, players still playing are given three extra turns (each player's turn counts as one of those three turns). At the end of the three extra turns, the player with the fewest remaining prize cards wins the game. If both players have the same number of prize cards at the end of the three extra turns, the next player to take a prize card wins.
Thanks to the 30+3 time limit, tournaments have become shorter, and players still have an opportunity to win even if his or her opponent stalled him or her.
Elo rating: The old rating system, where points are gained or lost, to determine a player's ranking. Still used today as tiebreakers.
Although both players had seven Championship Points, since he had a higher Elo rating of 1642.30, he had a higher ranking.
Swiss: The system used in Play! Pokémon tournaments to determine your opponent in each round, before top cut. Your opponent is determined by how many wins and losses both you and your opponent have. No player can play the same opponent twice during Swiss rounds.
Since him and his friend both were the only players with a record of 4-0, they were paired against each other in the last round due to the Swiss system.
K-value: The amount of points added or reduced to a player's Elo rating by winning or losing a match in an official Play! Pokémon event respectively. The higher the K-value and the difference between the amount of points the players have, the more points won or loss by winning or losing a match.
The K-value of City Championships is 8, so players try to go to as many City Championships as possible to get more points.
Play! Pokémon (P!P): A system of official tournaments and Leagues where plays can compete to win prizes.
She competed in five Play! Pokémon events.
Pokémon Organized Play (POP): Play! Pokémon's old name.
As of Fall 2010, POP became P!P
Top cut (TC): The highest ranking players in the tournament's Swiss rounds play each other in a best-two-out-of-three single elimination game to determine the winner of the tournament. Top cuts can go from top two (T2) to top 128 (T128). The amount of players advancing to the top cut depends on how many players participating in the Swiss rounds and the tournament they are playing.
At Nationals, the TC was T128 because of how high the K-value and how many people participated in the event.
Kicker: The amount of people who receive Championship Points based on the attendance of an event.
There was a kicker of four in the Battle Roads, because 52 people showed up.
Championship Points: Points rewarded to players for having a high standing on a sanctioned tournament. These points lets players participate in large events such as the World Championships. Each type of tournament provides a different number of Championship Points.
He received two Championship Points for winning Battle Roads.
Play! Points: Points rewarded to players by attending Play! Pokémon events. These points give access to special events, and players with the most points in each division earns a special reward.
He had five Play! Points because he attended five Battle Roads so far.
Resistance: In tournament-terms, how often you win your games and how often your opponents win their games. The higher your resistance, the higher your standing will be compared to other players with the same record as you.
Both players had a record of 2-3, but since he had a higher resistance, his standing was higher.
Bye: Automatically winning a round, usually because of having no opponent. Hurts resistance.
He had a bye on the second round, so he didn't make top cut.
Up-pair: Playing against someone with a higher record than you. Winning helps resistance.
Although he was 4-1, he got up-paired against someone who has 5-0.
Down-pair: Playing against someone with a lower record than you. Hurts resistance.
Although he was 3-2, he got down-paired against someone who has 2-3.
Tournament Organizer (TO): The person hosting official P!P tournaments.
The tournament organizer hosted four tournaments in North Carolina.
Battle Roads (BR's): The first and third-to-last P!P tournament of the season. Takes place during the Fall (Fall Battle Roads) and the Spring (Spring Battle Roads). Battle Roads have a K-value of 4, and provides a maximum of 2 Championship Points.
Players begin the season with the Fall Battle Roads, and then if they cannot go to Nationals or Worlds, end the season with Spring Battle.
City Championships (CC's) (Cities): The second P!P tournament of the season. Takes place towards the end of the Fall and ends in early January. City Championships have a K-value of 16, and can provide a maximum of 6 Championship Points.
Many players get a lot of points at City Championships because of its K-value and because there are many City Championships.
State Championships (States): The third P!P tournament of the season. Takes place during two weekends in March. State Championships have a K-value of 32, and can provide a maximum of 10 Championship Points.
State Championships are much more difficult than the past tournaments, since players are more serious due to the better prizes and higher K-value.
Regional Championships (Regionals) (Regs): The second or fourth P!P tournament of the season. Takes place on one weekend in November and April. Regional Championships have a K-value of 32, and can provide a maximum of 10 Championship Points.
Taking place after State Championships, there are very few Regional Championships, so Regional Championships have much more people.
National Championships (Nationals) (Nats): The fifth P!P tournament of the season. Takes place during one weekend in late June/early July. National Championships have a K-value of 32, and can provide a maximum of 14 Championship Points.
Since there are only one National Championships per season in a country, they are filled with players looking for more points. Invites are available as travel money, and even if you don't do well, you can participate in side events.
Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) (Grinders): A tournament right before the World Championships as a last chance for players to enter the World Championships.
By succeeding in the Grinders, the player was able to make it into the World Championships.
World Championships (Worlds): The sixth and final P!P tournament of the season. Takes place during one weekend in August. Only players who have an invite can participate in official tournament in the World Championships, or players who have done well in the Last Chance Qualifiers. The World Championships provides a maximum of 25 Championship Points.
World Championships cycles between a location in Hawaii, California, and Florida, and many players from around the world come to participate in it. Even if you aren't able to compete in the official tournament, you can play in many other side events.
Constructed Format: A tournament where the player enters the tournament with a pre-constructed 60-card deck. There may be no more than four copies of a card, by name, in a deck, with the exception of basic Energy cards. There are six prize cards in games in the Constructed Format. There are two types of Constructed Formats: Modified and Unlimited.
Most sanctioned tournaments, excluding prereleases, follow the Constructed Format, since it's easy to make a 60-card deck with your collection of cards.
Modified Format: The format used at all sanctioned Play! Pokémon events, unless specified, where players are only permitted to use cards from certain sets. All cards that are not in the Modified Format, yet have been reprinted in the Modified Format, are allowed to be used but must follow the updated wording. All new sets are added to the Modified Format. In any tournament where multiple countries are involved, the Modified Format it the United States format.
Every main tournament, excluding prereleases, all follow the Modified Format.
Unlimited Format: The format where all cards released in the United States may be used. Any older cards must follow the wording of its most recent print.
Most tournaments don't follow the Unlimited Format, as it is too unbalanced.
PR (Prerelease): A mini-tournament occurring two weeks before a sets release. This tournament allows players to earn promotional items and the set's cards before it's official release. 6 booster packs from the upcoming set will be given out for the Sealed Deck format of the tournament, and 2 more booster packs will be given to each player after the tournament. Prereleases are not free, and usually cost around $25 (before tax).
Players come to prereleases since the promotional items and 8 booster packs are both worth the entry price.
Limited Format: A tournament where the tournament organizer provides the cards, and each player creates a 40-card deck using the provided cards. All cards, unless specified, are permitted to have more than four copies by name in the deck. There are four prize cards in games in the Limited Format. There are four different types of Limited Formats: Sealed Deck, Booster Draft, Rochester Draft, and Solomon Draft.
All prereleases follow the Limited Format, since it's hard to make an effective 60 card deck with only six booster packs.
Sealed Deck Format: A type of Limited Format, the Sealed Deck Format is where a player receives booster packs of the same set from the tournament organizer and creates a 40 card deck with the cards from the booster packs and basic Energy provided by the tournament organizer in 30 minutes. During the deckbuilding time, players may not trade cards the pulled cards with other players, and after the first round of the tournament, players may not alter his or her deck.
The six booster packs you receive at a prerelease is used for the tournament's Sealed Deck Format.
Booster Draft Format: A type of Limited Format, the Booster Draft Format is where a player receives booster packs of the same set from the tournament organizer. All players split in equal sized groups, and sit in a circle with no more than eight players per group. When the tournament organizer says so, each player opens one of his or her booster packs, and chooses and keeps one card from the booster pack, and pass the other cards privately to the player to the left. The cards should remain private at all times. This cycle continues where a player selects one card from his or her handed until all cards have been passed around, where on the tournament organizer's signal, the process repeats and the direction of where the cards are passed alters. After all booster packs have been opened, each player creates a 40 card deck with the cards he or she selected and basic Energy provided by the tournament organizer in 30 minutes. During the deckbuilding time, players may not trade cards the pulled cards with other players, and after the first round of the tournament, players may not alter his or her deck.
Unlucky for him, the player was constantly handed bad cards in the booster draft.
Misc. Terms
There are other words commonly used that don't fit into any of these categories.
Bench Sitter: A Pokémon that remains on the Bench only to use its Poké-Power, Poké-Body, or Ability.
Vileplume is a powerful Bench sitter, locking Item cards.
Consistency: How often you are getting good hands and constantly being able to draw cards. The more of a certain type of card you have in your deck, the higher the chance you will get that card when you need it.
Due to the deck’s consistency, the player never once had a bad hand.
Copies: The amount of a single card in a deck.
The player ran four copies of Reshiram in his deck.
Dead Draws: Not drawing into anything helpful.
He had dead draws for four turns.
Deck Archetype: Deck ideas that are known widely to the public.
Magnezone Prime/Yanmega Prime is a popular deck archetype.
Donk: KO'ing all of your opponent's Pokémon in play on the first or second turn.
ZPST is a powerful donk deck since it can do 120 damage very early in the game.
FA Legend: Full Art Legend, a card in the BW era where the artwork covers the entire card.
The two FA Legends released in BW were Reshiram and Zekrom.
Lines: The number of Basic Pokémon and its evolution stages in a player's deck. For example, 4-2-4 would mean 4 copies of that Basic Pokémon, 2 copies of its Stage 1 Evolution, and 4 copies of its Stage 2 Evolution. LEGEND cards use this to refer to each half rather than evolutions; 2-2 would refer to 2 top halves and 2 bottom halves, for example.
He ran a 3-2-3 Magnezone Prime line because it was his main attacker.
Lock: To prevent your opponent from doing anything.
Sablelock locked its opponent by using Cyrus' Initiative to get the good cards out of its opponent's hand while making sure your opponent only draws bad cards.
Lost Zone: A location on the board, usually above your prize cards, where cards cannot be taken out of. Cards can only be send to the Lost Zone by an effect of an attack.
Since Gengar Prime send six Pokémon into the Lost Zone, the player played Lost World during his next turn to win the game.
Lucksack: Getting lucky.
He lucksacked four heads.
Matchup: A deck's performance against a deck archetype.
His matchup against Reshiram/Typhlosion was very poor.
Metagame (Meta): The most popular decks in a given area. Metagame can refer to either the most popular decks of the country, or the most popular decks in a certain state.
The current metagame in the United States is filled with Yanmega Prime and Reshiram.
Mill: To discard multiple cards from either player's deck.
KGl, what was once the best miller of its format due to being able to discard the top 5 cards of your opponent's deck, is no longer popular.
Misplay: Making a mistake.
He misplayed, attaching the Energy card to the wrong Pokemon.
Mulligan: Showing your opponent your hand at the beginning of the game because you do not have any Basic Pokémon in your hand.
He had two mulligans, so his opponent drew two extra cards.
PlayTCG (PTCG): An unofficial Pokémon TCG online simulator. This simulator allows players to build a deck without the need of pulling any cards and battle each other.
The more commonly used Pokémon TCG online simulator, PTCG is hosted by bebessearch.com.
Proxy: Putting a card in place for another. Not legal in tournament play.
Players proxy their cards so they can test a deck with cards that they don't have. Most players would then by the necessary cards to fill the proxies.
Pyramid Lines: A line of a Pokemon that has more copies of a Basic Pokemon, less copies of the Stage 1 Pokémon, and less copies of the Stage 2 Pokémon.
The player ran a Pyramid Line in his deck, running four Snivy, three Servine, and one Serperior.
Redshark (RS): An unofficial Pokémon TCG online simulator formerly hosted by PB. This simulator requires the download of Hamachi in order to connect to other players. This simulator allows players to build a deck without the need of pulling any cards and battle each other.
Even though they lived on opposite sides of the country, by using Redshark, the two players could play against each other.
Rogue: A deck that is not seen in the metagame.
Gyarados, what started out as a rogue deck, became a metagame deck after it won Nationals a few years ago.
Rotation: When several sets become illegal to use in the Modified Format starting on a certain date.
The rotation usually occurs on September 1st, where four sets become unusable.
Run (Running): Use (using).
You should run a 1-1 Zoroark in your deck as a revenge killer.
Scoop: Forfeiting the match.
When the player realized he could not win the game, he decided to scoop instead of play out the game.
Snipe: Attacking one of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon.
Using Yanmega Prime’s Linear Attack, the player was able to snipe one of his opponent’s Benched Pokémon for 40 damage.
Speed: How fast it takes for a deck to setup.
ZPS, being able to get out a fully charged Zekrom in one turn, is very fast compared to Steelix which is slow due to needing several turns to setup.
Spread: Doing damage to multiple Pokémon.
Kyurem/Feraligatr Prime is predicted to be a powerful spreader due to being able to do 30 damage to all of your opponent’s Pokémon.
Stacking: Manually reordering the cards in your deck in order to give you an advantage. This is illegal.
He stacked his deck, and thus got into trouble.
Stall: Purposely playing slowly to run-down the clock, illegal in tournaments.
While he attempted to stall his opponent, he get a penalty.
Staple: A card that is required in a deck.
Pokemon Communication has become a staple card in every deck as it can search your deck for a Pokemon card.
Swarm: To quickly be able to constantly get out multiple lines of your attacker out at once.
Jumpluff is able to swarm its opponent, since the deck is able to keep setting up Jumpluffs very quickly.
Tank: Either taking a lot less damage from an attack or being able to consistently heal off any damage done to a Pokemon. Tanks usually can do lots of damage, but are slow.
Steelix Prime is a very powerful tank, as it can reduce damage with Special Metal Energies and heal off any damage with Moo Moo Milk.
TCG Online (TCGO): The official Pokémon TCG online simulator found on Pokemon.com. This simulator allows players to open virtual packs by entering codes found in booster packs, allows players to trade the virtual cards with each other, and battle each other.
He entered all of his code cards into his TCGO and finally got the card he needed to finish his deck.
Tech: A small line of Pokemon used to support a player's problems in a deck.
His 2-2 Zoroark tech slightly helps his matchup against the Reshiram/Typhlosion Prime deck.
Topdeck: Getting a lucky draw at the beginning of your turn.
The player topdecked his Yanmega Prime, allowing him to win the game.
Variants: Different decks based around certain cards.
Many Vileplume/Reuniclus variants are based off google.dek.
Whiff: Not being get a needed coin flip or not being able to draw a certain card.
He whiffed the Energy and thus lost the game.
Credit to Pokemon.com for some of these definitions.
Since EX SS it's been called either Candy or RC.
