Return to hand

A return to hand or return effect is a card effect whereby a minion, or more rarely a weapon or spell, is returned to the controlling player's hand. The target returns to its original card form, complete with mana cost, and becomes part of the player's hand. Any damage, enchantments and Silences on the minion are removed in the process. Permanent effects such as transformations are not removed.

Return effects are distinguished from shuffle into deck effects, which place a card into the player's unused deck, and then shuffle the deck.

Strategy

 * Return effects are best known for allowing players to benefit from repeatedly triggering Battlecry effects. Minions with valuable battlecries can be played, then returned, then played again, in order to maximise the effect.
 * Return effects may be used to repeatedly trigger effects from other minions e.g. Southsea Deckhand may trigger Ship's Cannon or Murloc Tidecaller may be buffed with Murloc Tidehunter.
 * This is one of the only ways to move a currently active minion to another place on the battlefield, which is crucial for positional effects like that of Flametongue Totem. Other options include minion death, re-summoning, and mind control effects, but only playing the minion from the hand allows for choosing where it goes on the board.
 * Return effects can also be very effective for making use of Charge minions multiple times in a single turn. This is a key part of many finishing combos, especially for rogues.
 * Since minions lose all damage once returned to hand, return effects can be used to "heal" powerful but damaged minions, improving card efficiency. For example, a 6/7 minion which had been damaged to a 6/1 could be returned to the owner's hand and re-summoned as a fresh 6/7.

Known bugs
When a minion is returned to a full hand, it will be killed and trigger its Deathrattle; it is likely that they are intended to be considered "died" rather than discarded. However, Feugen and Stalagg do not count as "died" when killed by return effects, preventing their counterparts' Deathrattles from triggering properly. It is unknown whether other death-related effects are similarly affected.

Cards
Return effects are a rogue speciality, with almost half of all such cards available exclusively to rogues.