Cards And Zones
Where Do Cards Go During a Game?
Learn which spaces are on the board, which hold cards off the board, and why a battlefield is not the same space as its facedown zone.
RiftPal explanation · Answer first
The short answer
Think of the board as the shared area where cards take part in play. Your BaseYour Base is your personal location where your units can be played and return to during the game.View in Glossary and the BattlefieldA Battlefield is a shared location that players compete to control during the game.View in Glossary are its locations. Your hand, decks, TrashA player's off-board zone for cards that are killed or discarded and spells that finish resolving, unless an effect changes their destination. Its cards are public information and their order does not matter.View in Glossary , BanishmentA player's off-board zone for banished cards. Its cards are public information and their order does not matter. It is separate from the Trash; some effects use it temporarily.View in Glossary and Champion ZoneThe separate zone where your Chosen Champion starts the game. You can play it from there using the normal timing, costs and restrictions. It is not a location on the board.View in Glossary are separate spaces off the board.
A card goes where the action or effect tells you to put it. A card hidden beside a battlefield is in its separate Facedown ZoneThe separate board space associated with a battlefield for facedown cards. It is not a location and normally holds one card. The card's controller must control that battlefield; the zone is public but the card's face is private.View in Glossary , not at the battlefield's location.
RiftPal explanation
How it works
Your Base and the battlefields are the board's locations, where units can be present and move between places.
Your hand holds cards you draw. Keep your Main Deck and Rune Deck in separate piles. The Trash receives killed or discarded cards and finished spells. Banishment holds banished cards separately from the Trash; some effects use it temporarily, so a banished card is not always gone forever. The order of either pile does not matter.
Your Champion LegendYour deck's legend card. Its domains set your deck's Domain Identity. It starts in the Legend Zone and stays there; it is separate from the champion unit you choose to play.View in Glossary stays in the Legend Zone on the board. Your Chosen Champion starts in the separate Champion Zone off the board, and you can play that copy from there. A champion does not normally return to the Champion Zone after leaving it.
A battlefield's Facedown Zone is on the board, but is not a location. It normally holds one hidden card, and you must control that battlefield to keep a card there. Effects can change its capacity. If you lose control, its facedown cards are removed in the next cleanup. Everyone can see the zone, but the card's face is private.
The ChainAn off-board zone that holds cards and abilities during the process of playing them. Cards and abilities on it are public information.View in Glossary is off the board. It holds cards and abilities during the process of playing them. A spell on the Chain is not at a battlefield.
In practice
Example
A unit at your Base is on the board. If an effect returns it to your hand, it leaves the board. Moving that unit from your Base to a battlefield instead keeps it on the board.