Historical Rules · 1 February 2010
Rule 403.1
Official source text from the 1 February 2010 Rules release
Most of the area between the players represents the battlefield. The battlefield starts out empty. Permanents a player controls are normally kept in front of him or her on the battlefield, though there are some cases (such as an Aura attached to another player's permanent) when a permanent one player controls is kept closer to a different player.