Clash Royale Glossary

Game-related terms

Meta (Most Efficient Tactic Available)

Current state of the game, effective decks that are played, cards that are most used.

Meta game means game within the game. Players trying to find the best decks, others reacting to it, finding counter decks.

Meta is influenced the most by balance changes, but it can evolve without it. Big youtubers often influence meta by showing good decks.

Golem lightning has been meta for quite some time.

I wonder if Bomb tower will ever become meta.

Deck archetype

The general play style of a deck, independent of specific cards. Decks within an archetype contain different cards, but the deck is played in a similar way to other decks of the same archetype.

Beatdown deck

Very popular and strong archetype. Based on building a large push with tank and multiple support troops. You're not afraid to take damage, the goal is to overwhelm your opponent.

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Siege deck

Archetype based on playing siege cards on the bridge and defending them. It is a hard archetype to master, it requires predicting your opponent's attacks on your siege.

Bait deck (Log bait, Zap bait, Spell bait)

Dangerous archetype based on the fact that multiple cards in the game have only one or two effective counters. And you don't usually have more of them in your deck. So when you use your counter (it is baited by your opponent), you have trouble with other cards he plays.

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Cycle deck (Hog cycle, Miner cycle, Spell cycle)

Fast decks with a win condition and cycle cards, that play on the fact that you can cycle your cards faster than your opponent. So if your Hog is countered by the Inferno, you can get to your Hog faster than your opponent to the Inferno and you catch him without an effective counter.

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Control deck (Miner control)

With control decks, you set the tempo of the game, letting your opponent come to you, then you defend and counter push with the remaining units. It is very defensive archetype that deals small damage here and there while trying to avoid taking any damage from the opponent.

Micro

Terms related to card to card interactions and various plays and strategies you can do with your units.

Counter (Hard counter)

A unit or spell that is effective against a particular unit. Hard counter means it shuts down the unit completely.

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Push

Another term for attack on your opponent. Pushes can be small or big, depending on the elixir spent.

Rush

Dropping a unit at the bridge in order to surprise your opponent with a fast attack.

Counter push (Counter attack)

Very effective attacking strategy. You use the remaining units from your defense, support them with other units or a spell and potentially deal a lot of damage to an opponent that is low on elixir from his attack.

Switching lanes

Usually you attack on one side, trying to take down the opponent's tower. Switching lanes means you attack on the other side. Depending on the situation, it can be a good play.

Kiting

Using certain units to lure units away from your tower.

Aggro (Pulling aggro, Re-aggro, Retarget)

When a unit starts attacking another unit. Units choose their target based on what is closest but in a few cases, you can reset the targeting.

Pig push (Hog push, Pork push)

Special play with Hog Rider used to bypass buildings. With the recent game update, you can do it very easily by playing Hog at the far left or far right side of the map at the bridge.

Cards

Terms used while talking about cards and their properties.

Win condition

A card or combination of cards that allow you to win the game. You can have a deck centered around one win condition and all the other cards are there to support it. Or you can have multiple win conditions in your deck and prefer the one that is working better in the current matchup. See all the win conditions

DPS (Damage per second)

Each unit can have a different hit speed and damage per single hit (and one card can have multiple units dealing damage). DPS is a one number that is used to better compare damage that a card is doing.

AOE (Splash, Area of effect)

Troop attack or a spell that affects a whole area, as opposed to a single-target damage.

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Glass cannon

Unit that has high DPS (cannon), but very low HP (glass). When protected by a tank, it can do a lot of damage, but alone, it is usually very easy to deal with.

Splank (Splash tank)

A unit with medium health and medium attack that deals splash damage.

Elixir management

Clash Royale is all about elixir. It is the main resource in the game.

Positive elixir trade

Each card costs certain amount of elixir. If you're able to kill Minion Horde (5) with Arrows (3), you effectively gained 2-elixir advantage.

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Leaking elixir

Your elixir replenishes automatically. If it reaches 10, it stops to fill up until you play a card. If you stay on 10 and your opponent does not, you're giving him an elixir advantage. Staying on 10 is called leaking elixir.

Card cycle (Card rotation)

You have a starting hand with 4 cards, other 4 cards are added to your hand after you play a card. The order in which you play the cards is called a rotation or a cycle.

Bad cycle

Starting hand is random. When it contains cards you don't want to start with or you need other cards to react to your opponent's plays, you can be caught in a bad cycle. Meaning you don't have the necessary cards in your hand at the time you need them.

Fixing a cycle

If you play your cards in another order, you can fix your bad cycle to be able to better defend your opponent.

Playing on opponent's cycle

Advanced topic that is harder to explain. But basically it means you're in a bad cycle and are forced to play reactively while your opponent cycles well and is able to attack efficiently.

Terms used in the community

OP (Overpowered)

Card or a strategy that seems to be so effective it is very hard to deal with. Used mainly in the sense of being TOO powerful and in the need of a nerf.

Lava loon is the most OP deck!

Naah, RG lvl 13 is more OP.

RG? Everyone knows eBarbs are OP!

Buff

Increasing some stats of a card to make it more powerful. More hitpoints (HP), damage, less elixir.

Sparky definitely needs a buff!

Yeah, and Tesla needs a buff too!

Nerf

Lowering some stats of a card to make it less powerful. Decreasing hitpoints (HP), damage, hit speed, increasing its elixir cost.

Supercell pls nerf eBarbs, nerf RG, nerf Lava loon!

GM (Good manners)

Showing a good sportsmanship while playing. The ability to appreciate opponent's play even though you lost. Needless to say, this abbreviation is not used nearly as much as the next one.

BM (Bad manners)

Using excessive amount of emotes in the game. For example when you're unhappy in your life and you need to vent your negative emotions through the game. Or when you're just a meanie because nobody likes you.

Ladder (Rank, Ranked, Multi)

When you press Battle on the main screen and you're faced against other opponents, you're playing on ladder. There is a local leaderboard for your country and global leaderboard with all the players.

What's up with the ladder today, so many RGs!

PB (Personal best)

Maximum amount of trophies you've achieved on ladder.

I pushed +300 and broke my PB yesterday!

Pushing (Trophy pushing)

Playing more games on a ladder in a row while concentrating on the game fully, usually with the goal of gaining a lot of trophies fast.

I pushed too, but I still can't break 5K.

Tilt (Being on a tilt, Tilting)

A losing streak, when you suddenly can't win a single game.

I'm so tilting rn, lost five in a row, -200 trophies. Rip me.

Being salty

Being emotionally unstable and expressing this sentiment via various social networks.

Man, don't be so salty on Twitter. So he BMd you after beating you, so what?

Sniping (Sniping someone on a stream)

Watching someone play on stream, choosing a counter deck and trying to get matched with him to beat him.

I watched his stream and sniped him so hard. He was playing Mortar so I took Lava loon. You should've seen him, he was salty.