Card games, like most games, have a lot of jargon in them. This page is a dictionary of terms and acronyms used on this site that I think aren’t immediately obvious.
LGS/FLGS: Local Game Store/Friendly Local Game Store
Generally used interchangeably, your FLGS is your local store that specializes in cards/puzzles/board games, and often runs events or meetups for those games.
CCG/TCG: Collectible Card Game/Trading Card Game
Both of these terms describe card games, usually with some element of deck construction. The “Collectible vs Trading” delineation is usually not relevant in physical card games, but often gets used when discussing digital games. After all, if you could trade cards to other players in a digital game, you might buy fewer booster packs, and wouldn’t that be a shame?
LCG: Living Card Game
LCG’s thread the needle between a board game, and a collectible card card game. They generally have the experience of a CCG/TCG, in that they have a heavy amount of deck construction as a part of the game, but aren’t purchased in random packs.
Because of the fun fact mentioned above, while the gaming community uses LCG to refer to any game using this model, game companies are often forced to come up with a new phrase that means exactly the same thing. Some phrases include “Extendable Card Game” or “Expansion Card Game.”
Set: Trading Card Games and Collectible Card Games come in sets. A set is a single release of a grouping of cards. Typically when you buy packs of cards, they are all from one set. (I think this is one of the most confusing things for kids/parents who aren’t into card games. As a child, I would buy Pokémon boosters from a set called Jungle, and be confused about why I never opened a Charizard.)
Single: A single, known card. When people talk about buying singles, they usually mean buying a specific card, at a specific price. This can be from a store that sells cards individually, or an online site or auction market.
Pack/Booster Pack: A single pack of randomized cards from a specific set. No pack is guaranteed to contain any specific card.
Box: A box containing a large number of booster packs from a specific set.
Case/Booster Box Case: A large number of boxes.
Crack: Not the one you’re thinking of. This generally refers to the process of opening up booster packs or boxes.
Chase/Chase Card: A card that is more desirable than other cards for some reason. Collectors and players may open booster packs to try to get chase cards.
Rarity: Different cards in card games have different rarities, indicating how frequently they show up in a booster pack. For example, there might only be 1 “rare card” per booster pack, so the odds of getting any one particular “rare card” is, well, rare.
Sleeves: Small plastic covers put on cards to prevent them from being scratched or damaged.
Slabbing/Grading: Sending cards to “professionals” to “grade” your cards on how nice they are, and then have them placed in plastic slabs where they can never be used as cards again. coughToyStory2cough