The Square, Temporary, and Force Zone are shared by all players (although each player has their own Player Square), while the rest of the zones are individually possessed by each player (i.e., each player has their own Deck Zone, Trash, Charge, etc.).
During the game, cards in all zones have known owners and controllers (with the owner of a card usually also doubling as the controller of that card), and are put in either face-up (表向き Omotemuki) or face-down (裏向き Uramuki) position depending on the zone or as instructed by abilities or effects. In addition, cards in both Square and Resource are either put in Reboot or Sleep State.
If a card is moved between zones except when being moved from a Square into another Square, that card will be treated as a new card in the destination zone without any relation to or being affected by effects that previously applied to it in the original zone, even if it moves back into that zone again later. For example, if a Z/X that appeared by the ability of "Stabbing Spinel, Spinel Penguin" is destroyed and put into Charge, that Z/X will not be removed by the effect of "Stabbing Spinel, Spinel Penguin" at the end of turn.
Public & Hidden Zone[]
Zones are separated into 2 kinds based on the availability of information for cards in said zone, public zone (公開ゾーン Kōkai Zōn) and hidden zone (秘匿ゾーン Hitoku Zōn). Cards in public zone are generally put in face-up position with all of their information available to all players, while cards in hidden zone are generally put in face-down position and have their information except the basic ones such as ownership and states concealed to all players, although there are also some exceptions to this (e.g., the hand and Dynamis of each player, face-up cards in Dynamis, face-down Force).
If an ability or effect moves a card from a public to a hidden zone and need to refers to the information of that cards after being moved, it will refer to the information last possessed by that card when that card was still in the public zone.
Among the zones, Square, Trash, Charge, Resource, Temporary, Remove Zone, and Force Zone are all categorized as public zone. While Deck Zone, Life, hand, and Dynamis Zone are categorized as hidden zone.
Comprehensive Rules[]
300 Zone
301 Zone Fundamentals
301.1 Zone is the area where cards can be put during the game.
301.2 Zone includes Square, Deck Zone, Trash, Charge, Life, Resource, hand, Temporary, Remove Zone, Force Zone, and Dynamis Zone.
301.2a Square, Temporary, and Force Zone are shared by both players.
301.2b Each player possess their own Deck Zone, Trash, Remove Zone, Charge, Life, Resource, hand, and Dynamis Zone.
301.3 Zone includes public zone and hidden zone.
301.3a Cards that were put face-up in a public zone can have their contents seen by either player at any time.
301.3b Cards that were put face-down in a public zone are hidden, but a player can freely look at their own cards.
301.3c Cards that were put in a hidden zone cannot be seen by either player, unless otherwise specified.
301.3d All players are able to know the number of cards in every zone, regardless of whether that zone is public or non-public.
301.4 If a card is moved from a zone to another zone, unless that card is moved from a Square to another Square, that card is considered as a new card and all effects in regards to that card in the previous zone are not applied.
301.5 If several cards are moved from a zone other than the deck zone to another zone, those cards are put simultaneously into the another zone.
302 Card Information and State
302.1 Each card has the information of its owner and controller in all zones.
302.1a At the start of the game, cards put in a player's deck and Dynamis, as well as cards with Player card type prepared by that player, are owned by that player.
302.1b Unless otherwise specified, the controller of a card is the owner of that card.
302.1c Unless otherwise specified, the controller of an ability (801) is the controller of the card that possessed that ability.
302.1d Unless otherwise specified, the controller of an effect (802) is the controller of the ability that generated that effect.
302.1e If the rule or the card text refers to "you", it refers to the controller of that card. Likewise, if the rule or the card text refers to "your opponent", it refers to the player that is not the controller of that card.
302.2 Cards on Square or in Resource has either Reboot or Sleep State.
302.3 Cards can be put in face-up (the front side) or face-down (the back side) state in every zone.
302.3a The back of a card points to the side where the common side of a card is located, and the front points to the opposite side of the common side of a card.
Common side of a card
302.3b If a card is face-up, that card is put so that all players can see the information on that card. It is put so that all players cannot see the information of that card.
302.3c Cards in public zone are generally put in face-up position. Cards in hidden zone are generally put in face-down position.
302.4 If a card is moved to a zone that is individually possessed by each player (301.2b), that card will be moved into the corresponding zone possessed by the owner of that card.
