Reference
Glossary
Every term The Music Deck uses, and the page that defines it.
Core
The nouns the whole game runs on, inside a battle and out.
DJ — You. The name for a player of The Music Deck, everywhere in the game — collecting cards, building track lists, battling, and climbing a career. In a battle, each DJ loads their own track list and tracks their own DJ vibe score. see → Track list — The track list preset a DJ has loaded into the current battle — exactly 60 cards. see → Track list preset — One of a DJ's saved, named 60-card configurations (cards and stacks), managed outside battle before one is chosen to play. see → Battle
Terms that only mean something inside a DJ battle.
Crate — Each DJ's own discard zone. A card lands here when you discard it from your queue, when a card effect sends it there, or during pre-mix or mix — cards transitioning out of a deck slot, a synergy card replaced during mix, and a playing song displaced by an evolution with no open deck slot to cue out onto, move to the crate. see → Cue in — Move a song or synergy card from your queue into an open deck slot during mix. It doesn't act immediately — starting next turn, a song transitions in and becomes a playing song, while a synergy card instead waits in its deck slot, available to be replaced. Exception: with only one deck slot, there's nothing to transition between, so the card is played immediately. see → Cue out — Move a playing song out of its deck slot during mix, sending it into transitioning out — it moves to the crate at the next pre-mix. A card effect can also send a playing song into transitioning out, outside of mix. see → Deck slot — One scoring slot in a DJ battle. Your slot count is gated by your own DJ vibe: 1 below 100, 2 below 1,000, 3 below 10,000, 4 from 10,000 onward. see → Discard — Move a card from your queue directly to your crate. see → DJ battle — A match between two DJs, played out in turns until one DJ's own DJ vibe reaches 1,000,000. see → DJ Vibe — Each DJ's own score, from 0 to 1,000,000. Reaching 1,000,000 first wins the battle. Also gates which card intensities you can play and how many deck slots you have. see → Draw — The first turn step: draw 1 card into your queue. see → Gear — The name of each deck-slot tier, upgrading mid-battle as your own DJ vibe climbs: MP3 Player (1 slot), Turntables (2), Controller (3), Full Rig (4). see → Mix — The turn step, after pre-mix, where a DJ may cue a card in or out, play a queued song as the evolution of a playing song, replace a waiting synergy card with a song, or discard. see → Play — Move a card directly into an open deck slot, entering play as a playing song immediately, skipping the transitioning-in step. This happens with only one deck slot (nothing to transition between), when replacing a waiting synergy card with a song of that synergy card's own genre — even a genre your current playing song doesn't normally permit — or when playing a queued song into the deck slot of a playing song it is the evolution of. Contrast with cue in, which stages a card in over two turns. see → Playing Song — A song card currently occupying one of your deck slots, contributing to scoring and matchups each turn. see → Pre-mix — The turn step, after draw, where cards resolve automatically: a song card transitioning in becomes a playing song, and a card transitioning out moves to the crate. see → Queue — The cards a DJ holds and can play from, drawn from their track list. Starts at 7 cards (opening queue) and gains 1 card each draw step. see → Resolve FX — The turn step, after mix, where each card's FX box is applied. see → Score phase — The last turn step: each playing song that isn't silenced adds its play vibe to your own DJ vibe; a song transitioning in or out also adds its transition vibe. see → Silenced — A playing song whose genre is weak against one of the opponent's playing songs. A silenced song doesn't add its play vibe or transition vibe to its DJ's DJ vibe during the score phase. see → Transitioning in / out — The state a card holds in its deck slot for a turn, resolved at the next pre-mix. Transitioning in: a card cued in becomes a playing song. Transitioning out: a card cued out — or sent there by a card effect — moves to the crate. A cued synergy card doesn't transition in; it waits in its deck slot instead. Transitioning is skipped while a DJ has only one deck slot. see → Cards
What is printed on a card, and how cards relate to each other.
Advantage / Weakness — The genres a card is strong or weak against; applied as matchup modifiers during resolution. see → Card — The unit a track list is built from — either a song (core collectible) or a synergy card. Exactly 60 make up a track list. see → Country genre — A subgenre parented to a country or region instead of a root genre, its card border showing that country's flag instead of a genre colour, e.g. J-Pop under Japan. see → Evolution — A directional link from one song card to another — a remix, cover, reused melody, inspiration, or sample. During mix, you may play a queued song directly into the deck slot of one of your playing songs it is the evolution of; see play. see → Experimental — The third intensity tier a card can carry, unlocked as your own DJ vibe climbs. see → FX — The name and effect description printed in a card's FX box, required on every card and applied during resolve FX. see → Genre — One of the 8 top-level styles a card belongs to (Mainstream, Rock, Electronic, Hip-Hop, Disco/Funk, Reggae/Dub, Classical, Vintage), setting its intensity colour scale and its position in the genre wheel's advantage/weakness matchups. see → Hardcore — The fourth and highest intensity tier a card can carry, unlocked as your own DJ vibe climbs. see → Intensity — A card's power tier — pop, soft, experimental, or hardcore — set by its genre or subgenre. Your own DJ vibe gates which intensities you can play. see → Play Vibe — A 50-120 score printed on each card, reflecting how broadly the song connects with the audience. Distinct from a DJ's own DJ vibe score; a few special cards fall below 50 or above 120, anywhere in the full 0-200 range. see → Pop — The first and always-available intensity tier a card can carry. see → Soft — The second intensity tier a card can carry, unlocked as your own DJ vibe climbs. see → Song — A card type: the core collectible. Contrast with synergy. see → Song family — A song and its variants (remix, live, acoustic, etc.). see → Stack — A group of linked cards that occupies one deck slot. see → Subgenre — A specific style nested under one or two root genres, each carrying its own intensity tier; a cross-genre subgenre (e.g. Nu Metal, under Rock and Electronic) blends both parents' colours. see → Supplementary stacked card — A linked card in a stack beyond the strongest base card; adds +15% to that stack's value. see → Synergy — A card type. Cue it in like a song card; instead of transitioning in, it waits in its deck slot — for as many turns as you like — until you replace it with a song from your queue. A song of the same genre as the synergy card plays immediately, even into a genre your current playing song doesn't normally permit; a song of a different genre is cued in instead. Either way, the replaced synergy card moves to the crate. see → Transition Vibe — A second 50-120 score printed on each card, alongside its play vibe. It scores only while the card is transitioning in or out of its deck slot, rewarding transition-heavy play; a few special cards fall below 50 or above 120, anywhere in the full 0-200 range. see → Variant — A version of a song. see → Venues
What a battle is worth and who you can face.
VenueDRAFT — Where a DJ battle is played — Bedroom, House Party, Club, or Festival. A venue sets what the battle is worth and who you can face, never the rules of a turn. see → Career
What carries over between battles.
CareerDRAFT — A DJ's progression across battles — rank, battles won, and cards collected. Carries over between battles, unlike DJ vibe, which resets to 0 each battle. Ranks: Listener, Apprentice, Resident, Headliner. see →