Graveyard

Game terms · beginner

A player's graveyard is their discard pile: a face-up stack anyone may read, holding everything that has been countered, discarded, destroyed, sacrificed or finished resolving.

How it works

• Any object that is countered, discarded, destroyed or sacrificed goes on top of its owner's graveyard, as does any instant or sorcery spell that has finished resolving. Each graveyard starts empty. [404.1]
• Each graveyard is a single face-up pile. Any player may examine any graveyard at any time, but normally can't change its order. [404.2]
• If two or more cards hit the same graveyard at once, their owner chooses the order. [404.3]

Rules notes

• Cards go to their owner's graveyard, not their controller's, so a stolen creature dies to its owner's pile.
• Counters on an object do not travel with it to the graveyard; they simply cease to exist. [122.2]
• A card in a graveyard is a new object each time it arrives, so nothing it did on the battlefield carries over.
• Order matters only for the handful of cards that care about it, but it is legal information: an opponent may read your graveyard at any time.

Rule reference

[404.1] [404.2] [404.3] [122.2]