Trade

What does trade mean in CCGs?

Destroy or counter an opponent's card with your own

In combat-oriented CCGs like Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering (MTG), a trade most commonly refers to when two players' creatures kill each other. Trades usually occur during combat, when one creature blocks another. However, trades can also result from other actions, such as sacrificing your creature as part of an effect that kills an opponent's creature.

Experienced players use the term trade to refer to expending any resource, such as a removal spell or weapon, to negate or destroy any opposing card (or cards). For example, using a single removal spell to destroy two opposing creatures may be referred to as a "2-for-1 trade" (in which the player who cast the removal spell gained card advantage).

The term trade often confuses newer Magic players, because that game is a TCG in which players actually exchange cards outside the game. If you are in the middle of a game of Magic, and your opponent says, "Our creatures trade," it does not mean your opponent wants to swap creatures with you. Instead, your opponent is stating that their creature and yours will kill each other in combat.

Example

Do I want to trade this removal spell for her Serra Angel? Or should I wait for a better target
Magic players love to debate whether trading is correct
Magic players love to debate whether trading is correct

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Updated July 29, 2021

Trade definition by Slang.net

This page explains what the slang term "Trade" means. The definition, example, and related terms listed above have been written and compiled by the Slang.net team.

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