“return any that die to your hand”.
For me it means “the minion that died returns to your hand”.
If I have a naga with an active effect (so with the text “ready”) when it returns to my hand it’s the base version and I need to upgrade it again. I honestly didn’t expect this.
Does anyone know what happens to similar nagas when they are shadowstepped or zolad?
What happens to infused minions when they die with devouring swarm?
Infused minions come back as the infused version, cause they are a different cards. The Naga effects trigger while they are in your hand, so I guess you could make the argument that it resets when it goes into your hand (like a handbuff does), but yeah, I would have thought the same as you, intuitively.
The Naga battlecries are also messed up with bolnir, so maybe they are coded weirdly or there is some glitch.
It’s been like this since 2014: Any card that goes backwards (from board to hand or deck) becomes the initial version unless stated otherwise (“They keep their buffs”) - they’re essentially going back to Old Kent Road a.k.a. Square One.
Infused cards, as RinseWizard wrote, aren’t buffed or altered but a new card with each Infusion step.
Works as intended.