Game Zones - Public vs Private Information

A public zone is a zone where cards are visible face-up by default (card face is turned up) and a private zone is a zone where cards are visible face-down by default (card face is turned down; card back is face-up).

1. A card’s visibility in a zone may be different from the default visibility in that zone.

2. Cards in zones that are private have no characteristics apart from being cards by default.

   1. If a card with a specified characteristic is added to a private zone, that card must be revealed if it was not previously revealed.

E.g. The Cosmic Bolts generated from Polaris must first be revealed to all players in a game before being shuffled into the Main Deck.

Face-up cards, their attributes, properties, stats, rules text, and other information are considered public.

A player may look at and examine any face-up cards in a game. If a card is moved this way, it must be returned to the zone it is in and in the same orientation.

Players can’t hide any information about face-up cards or misrepresent information about face-up cards.

All cards in a lineage or similar stack of cards are considered face-up.

Face-down cards are considered private information known only to the player who currently controls that card.

3. Except for cards in the main deck and unknown face-down cards in banishment, all other face-down cards may be looked at by their controlling player at any time. If an effect banished cards from a zone face-down and gave a specific player certain permissions for that card, such as activation or materialization, those cards are considered private for that player.

4. If the control of a face-down card changes, neither the owner nor the former controller of that card can look at that card.

5. Face-down cards have no characteristics except for being considered a card.

6. Cards in all zones except for the Main Deck, Material Deck, Memory, and Hand are face-up by default.