WHAT IS MOVING BETWEEN ZONES?

In Disney Lorcana, cards frequently transition between different zones, which are distinct areas defined for gameplay purposes. Understanding these rules for moving between zones is fundamental to correctly playing Disney Lorcana and resolving card effects.

Here are the primary ways cards move between zones:

  • Hand to Play:

    • Playing a card: To play a card (character, item, or location), you reveal it from your hand, pay its ink cost by exerting ready cards in your inkwell, and then place it faceup into the Play zone.

    • Shift: A character with the Shift keyword can be played from your hand by paying its Shift cost instead of its ink cost onto another character you have in play with the same name. The shifted character is placed on top of the existing character.

    • Playing Actions and Songs: When you play an action or song card from your hand, you pay its cost and resolve its effect. Afterwards, the action or song card is immediately put into your discard pile. Actions and songs never enter the Play zone.

    • Playing during ability resolution: Some card abilities may instruct you to play a card. In this case, you must fully resolve the ability before the card comes into play in the Play zone.

  • Play to Discard:

    • Being Banished: Characters and locations in the Play zone are banished when they accumulate damage equal to or greater than their Willpower {W}. Banished cards are put into their owner's discard pile.

    • Card Effects: Some card abilities or effects can cause a card in the Play zone to be discarded.

  • Play to Hand:

    • Card Effects: Certain card abilities can return characters or items from the Play zone to their owner's hand.

    • Shifted Characters: If a shifted character is returned to the hand, all cards in its stack (the shifted character and any characters it was played on) also go to the hand.

  • Play to Inkwell:

    • This is not a typical movement. Cards generally go to the inkwell from the hand. However, if a shifted character is put directly into your inkwell by an effect (though this is not explicitly detailed as a common occurrence), all cards in its stack would go along with it, each counting as 1 ink.

  • Hand to Inkwell:

    • Inkwelling: Once per turn, during your Main Phase, you can choose a card from your hand and put it facedown into your inkwell to use as ink. The card must have the inkwell symbol {C}.

  • Deck to Hand:

    • Drawing: At the start of your turn (except for the first player on their first turn), you draw a card from the top of your deck and add it to your hand.

    • Card Effects: Some card abilities allow you to draw additional cards from your deck to your hand. Other effects might allow you to look at cards in your deck and add specific cards to your hand.

  • Discard to Deck:

    • Card Effects: Certain card abilities can move cards from your discard pile back to the top or bottom of your deck.

  • Any Zone to Discard (Banishment):

    • When a card is banished, it is put into the owner's discard pile, regardless of its zone before banishment. This applies to cards in the Play zone, and in the case of shifted characters, the entire stack goes to the discard pile.

  • The Bag:

    • The bag is not a physical zone where cards reside. Instead, it's a conceptual space where triggered abilities go to be resolved. When a trigger condition is met, the ability's effect is added to the bag. Once resolved, the effect is removed from the bag; the cards affected by the ability remain in their current zones unless the effect specifies otherwise.

Important Considerations for Moving Between Zones:

  • Triggers on Leaving Play: When a card leaves the Play zone, the game checks for any abilities that trigger as a result of this movement.

  • Loss of Game State: When a card moves from the Play zone to a private zone (like the hand or deck), it loses any previous game state, such as damage counters or being exerted. It essentially becomes a "new" card in that zone.

  • Shifted Stacks: As mentioned, when a shifted character moves zones, all the cards underneath it in the stack move to the same zone. However, once they reach the new zone (except for the Play zone where they remain stacked), they are no longer considered a stack and become separate cards again. Only the top card of a shifted stack is considered banished for effects that trigger upon banishment.

  • Inkwell Rules: Cards put into the inkwell must have the inkwell symbol. Once in the inkwell, their front side has no gameplay effect as ink.

  • Discard Pile Visibility: The discard pile is a public zone, and its contents are known to all players.

  • Deck and Hand Privacy: The deck and hand are private zones, and their specific contents are hidden from opponents unless a card effect or game rule specifies otherwise. However, the number of cards in these zones is public information.