Zones in detail

Each player has their own copy of every zone except the resolution zone, which is shared.

Three properties#

Every zone is described by three things:

• Visibility — a public zone shows every card's information to both players; a hidden zone does not. Regardless of visibility, either player may count the cards in any zone at any time.

• Order — some zones track the order cards are stacked in and players may not rearrange them; others do not.

• Placement state — some zones let cards be standing or resting. A card placed into such a zone arrives standing unless told otherwise.

The zones#

• Base — public, ordered arbitrarily, uses placement states. Pals, structures and gear live here. Each Pal and structure here tracks its own damage taken. A rule, ability or effect that says "Pal", "Structure" or "Gear" without naming a zone means one in the base.

• Deck zone — hidden, ordered. You may only reorder it or look at it when a rule or effect says so.

• Hand — hidden, unordered. You can see your own; your opponent cannot. Card text writes "N cards from your hand" for what the rules call "N cards from the cards in your hand".

• Graveyard — public, unordered, face up.

• Soul deck — public but not required to be face up, unordered.

• Soul area — public, unordered, uses placement states.

• Exile zone — public, unordered. Cards removed from the game.

• Resolution zone — public, ordered, shared by both players. A card or ability sits here while it resolves.

Moving between zones#

• A card that leaves the base for anywhere else becomes, for rules purposes, a new card in its new zone. Effects that applied to it in the old zone do not follow it.

• When several cards enter a zone at once, the owner of that zone decides the order — except that when cards move from a public zone into a hidden one and the master chooses the order, no other player may learn it.

• A card told to move to an unspecified zone goes to the one belonging to its master.

The Pal limit#

Each player has a maximum number of Pals, which starts at 5. Exceeding it is not illegal — it is corrected by a rule action that sends the excess to the graveyard. There is no limit on structures or gear.

Source: Comprehensive Rules ver. 1.00 (30 July 2026) §4 “Zones”.