Zones are one of the things players usually don’t delve into regularly. However, as is becoming a theme of my rules articles, some functional knowledge of these sections of the rules can help you be a better player.

There are rules for eight zones, but only seven are used regularly. The eighth zone is the ante zone and is only used for games being played for ante. Any card with reference to the ante zone is not legal in any sanctioned Constructed format, so it’s pretty moot for tournament play.

There are a few different types of zones: the shared zones, which are battlefield, exile, stack, command, and ante, and the zones of which each player has his or her own, which are library, hand, and graveyard. There are also public zones, which are the zones in which both players are able to see the card faces: ante, exile, stack, battlefield, command, and graveyard. The library and the hand are always hidden zones, even if there is an effect in play that would make every card in that zone revealed to both players.

There are a few other blanket rules regarding zones, which we will deal with before we get into the actual listing of each zone and the applicable rules for it. If a card would go to a graveyard, library, or hand other than its owner’s, it goes to that of its owner’s instead. If an instant or sorcery would enter the battlefield, it remains in its previous zone instead. If a plane, vanguard, or scheme would leave the command zone, it stays in the command zone instead.

The order of objects in the graveyard, library, or stack can’t be changed unless another rule allows it. The graveyard here is a bit special because the MTR (Magic Tournament Rules) states that you can change the graveyard order however you wish as long as the format you are playing does not include any cards that care about the order of your graveyard. You are also not allowed to change the order of face-down cards on the battlefield or in the exile zones; this is to prevent any funny business of switching around cards so that your opponent cannot remember in which order they were played and thus cannot figure out which to target.

An object that is changing zones has no memory of and is unrelated to itself in its previous zone. It is considered a new object in the new zone. There are some exceptions to this. The exceptions are:

• Effects from spells or abilities that change the characteristics of a permanent spell on the stack continue to apply to that object when it becomes a permanent.
• The same applies to prevention effects that would affect a permanent spell on the stack.
• If an ability needs information about how a permanent was cast, it uses that information.
• Abilities that trigger when an object changes zones can find that object in the new zone as long as it is a public zone (see why knowing which zones are public is relevant?).

If an object becomes exiled that is already in the exile zone, it doesn’t change zones; it just becomes a new object in the exile zone. An object in the command zone that is turned face-down becomes a new object. “Outside the game” includes all cards not in any game zone, like the cards in your sideboard. Cards that let you bring in a card from outside the game are generally only allowed to bring in cards from the sideboard, the exception being silly cards from Un- sets. Without further ado, let’s hit the specific zones! This section is Section 400 in the Comp Rules.

Library

When the game starts, each player’s deck becomes his or her library. Libraries have to be kept in a single, face-down pile. Players cannot look at or change the order of the library unless an effect allows them to. Players are entitled to know the number of cards left in a library at any time. For instance, you may count the cards in your opponent’s library. If you do this every turn, you are going to incur a slow-play penalty, but if it is relevant to know how many cards are left, you may count them.

If something tells you to put cards on the bottom of the library in any order, you do not have to reveal what that order is. One interesting thing here is that if you are instructed to draw a card as part of casting a spell or activating an ability, it stays face-down until the spell or ability is cast/activated. This is to prevent that knowledge from influencing the decisions you make further down in the process of casting that spell or activating that ability. This also applies when you have an effect that instructs you to reveal the top card of your library. If the top card of your library somehow changes while casting a spell or activating an ability, the new top card is not revealed until that process is completed.

Hand

The hand is, obviously enough, where you hold the cards that you have drawn. At the beginning of the game, each player draws seven cards and then proceeds with the mulligan process. There is a maximum hand size, which is seven cards by default, but there are effects that modify this limit, such as Reliquary Tower. During each player’s cleanup step, that player discards down to his or her maximum hand size. You may rearrange the cards in your hand as much as you want and in whatever fashion you wish. You may not look at your opponent’s hand unless an effect is allowing it, but you may count the cards in your opponent’s hand at any time.

Battlefield

This is the old “in-play” zone. “Battlefield” has much better flavor, in my opinion. It’s where we do battle! The battlefield usually starts out empty, and all the permanents a player controls exist on the battlefield, and everything that stays on the battlefield is a permanent. There’s a very important rule here, and that is that a spell or ability only affects and checks the battlefield unless it specifically mentions another zone or player. We’ll discuss an example of this at the end.

When a permanent enters the battlefield, it becomes a new object and is unrelated to any previous permanents represented by the same card, unless one of the exceptions we discussed earlier in the article apply.

Graveyard

Your graveyard is your discard pile. Anything that’s countered, discarded, destroyed, or sacrificed is put on top of your graveyard. Any instant or sorcery is also placed into the graveyard when it finishes resolving. Your graveyard starts out empty.

Your graveyard should be a single, face-up pile. Both players have access to the cards in that graveyard for information purposes, but the order shouldn’t be changed unless the MTR says you can. Much like counting the library, if you ask to see your opponent’s graveyard every turn, you will earn a slow-play warning, but if that knowledge is relevant to making your play decisions, you do have access to it at any time.

If an effect causes two or more objects to go into the same graveyard at the same time, the owner of that graveyard chooses in which order the objects go into the graveyard.

Stack

When a spell is cast, the physical card moves to the stack. When an ability is activated or triggers, it goes on the top of the stack without a card to represent it. The stack keeps track of in what order things are going to resolve. Any time a new object is added to the stack, it is added on top of the things already there.

If two or more effects are put onto the stack at the same time, the active player’s effects are put on first in the order that player chooses, and then the nonactive player’s effects are put on the stack in the order that player chooses (this is the “APNAP order”—Active Player/NonActive Player—you might have heard of). Each spell has the characteristics of the card associated with it; each ability has the text of the ability that created it. The controller of a spell is the player who cast it; the controller of an ability is the controller of the source of that ability.

When each player passes priority in succession, the topmost object of the stack resolves. If the stack is empty when each player passes, the current step of the turn ends and the next one begins. Certain actions don’t use the stack. Those are: mana abilities, state-based actions, turn-based actions, and special actions. When you concede the game, that obviously doesn’t use the stack either.

Exile

The exile zone is just another zone for objects to exist in. There are abilities that permanently exile cards and abilities that exile them only temporarily. When you exile an object, you put it into the exile zone from whatever zone it was in. Exiled cards are cards in the exile zone. This is a public zone, so cards in this zone are kept face-up normally, unless an effect tells you to exile a card face-down. When a card is exiled face-down, no player may look at it unless the effect says you can, like with the Hideaway lands.

An object might have an effect or ability that refers to cards it has exiled with a different ability. These two abilities are linked, and the first will only look at cards that were exiled with the second. This used to be called the “removed from game” zone. Any cards that referenced this zone have been updated in the Oracle database to refer to the exile zone instead.

Ante

This will be a bit of a Magic history lesson. Back when Magic was first created, most matches had each player ante a random card from his or her deck before they drew their hands. The cards were put in the ante zone face-up, and could be examined by either player at any time. The winner of the match would get any cards in the ante zone forever; that player would then own those cards. It was a way to “play for keeps.” Playing for ante is now strictly prohibited by the MTR, and hence is not legal at any sanctioned event.

Command

The command zone is another game zone where we put things that have an effect on the game, but don’t want to be permanents. Emblems, vanguards, Commanders, schemes, and plane cards exist in this zone. All of these, except the emblems, are casual-variant cards put out at various times in Magic’s history.

That’s the trip through the zones! Now let’s get on to some rules examples to illustrate some of the practical applications of this.

Example 1

Let’s take some abilities and see which of them apply only on the battlefield and which apply in other zones. Unearth applies in the graveyard because it specifically mentions returning the card from the graveyard to the battlefield. On the other hand, an ability like the activated ability on Crypt Rats can only function on the battlefield because it mentions no other zones specifically. This is pretty important, because the game would be played a whole lot differently if all abilities worked in every zone!

Example 2

Player A casts Vulshok Sorcerer, a 1/1 pinger with Haste. Player B jumps the gun a little bit and casts Harm's Way in response, choosing the Sorcerer as the source of the damage and Player A as the target for the damage to be redirected to. Player A grins and says, “Okay, now that Sorcerer has resolved, Harm's Way no longer applies. Ping you for 1.” Player B grins even more widely and says, “No way, José, it still applies!” This is absolutely correct!

I hope you enjoyed reading about the different zones in Magic. As always, ask your questions below and I will be more than happy to answer them for you. They don’t even have to be about this article in particular! If you have a burning rules or policy question and would like me to answer it, feel free to put it in the comments. Thanks for reading!