Question: Can zones be targeted?
At first this question might seem silly. After all, what sense would something like "target battlefield" make? (After all, there is only one battlefield, and it would make little sense to "target" it with anything.) However, perhaps a bit surprisingly, the rules of the game support the possibility of targeting a zone. The exact rule that defines targeting is (emphasis mine):
114.1. Some spells and abilities require their controller to choose one or more targets for them. The targets are object(s), player(s), and/or zone(s) the spell or ability will affect. These targets are declared as part of the process of putting the spell or ability on the stack. The targets can’t be changed except by another spell or ability that explicitly says it can do so.There are some zones that are more sensible to be targeted because they exist per player. Namely graveyards, libraries and hands. Of course normally these are always referred to by targeting the player, not the zone (ie. "target player's graveyard", "target player's library", and "target player's hand".)
To my knowledge, however, there exists one card that targets a zone directly: Circu, Dimir Lobotomist.
It says: "Whenever you cast a blue spell, exile the top card of target library." (Also the second ability targets a library directly.)
The funny thing about this card is that there's no reason why it couldn't say "target player's library", other than that the text wouldn't fit if it said so. Even more curiously, as far as I'm aware, the possibility of targeting a zone was added to rule 114.1 precisely for this one card.
