Flight of the eagles says "Return an eagle ally to your hand..." Does that mean I can only target an eagle ally that was in my hand at one point? Or can I target any eagle ally in play?

Full text of Flight:

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Action : Return an Eagle ally to your hand to shuffle a set-aside Eagle of the North into the encounter deck. Then, remove Flight of the Eagles from the game.

"Return an Eagle ally to your hand to…" is a cost , and thus RR Cost applies:

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When a player is paying a cost, the payment must be made with cards and/or game elements that player controls.

Thus, you can only return an Eagle ally you control, not one elsewhere on the board.

That said, if you control an Eagle you don't own —say, via Reinforcements—you should be able to play Flight on it, even if that Eagle immediately returns to its owner's hand once it leaves play (see RR Ownership and Control )… The semantics of "return" have previously been clarified to not necessarily require the card in question to have actually been in your hand previously, as you can see with things like Silvan bounce events played on allies that were put into play via The Tree People.

2 hours ago, RogueSeventeen said:

Flight of the eagles says "Return an eagle ally to your hand..." Does that mean I can only target an eagle ally that was in my hand at one point? Or can I target any eagle ally in play?

Are you thinking about Wilyador in Return to Rhosgobel/Misty Mountain Eagle in On the Doorstep/Gwahir in Black Gate Opens & Mount Doom?

I assume Flight of the Eagles has to target a eagle ally currently in play (that I also control). That is, I couldn't use Flight of the Eagles to return a Vassal of the Windlord in my discard pile back to my hand... could I?


Follow-Up bonus question: if I have an Eagle of the North player encounter card under my control, can I target it with Flight of the Eagles to put it into my hand and shuffle another set aside copy of Eagle of the North into the Encounter deck? I assume player encounter cards cannot be taken into hand, but even if cannot can the encounter eagle still be used to pay the cost for another Flight of the Eagles (and then would just go out of play?) If they can be taken into hand... once in my hand, the player encounter card could not be played again, since it has the "--" cost... but what about through an effect like Timely Aid or Vilya should it be somehow added to the player deck?

You cannot target an ally in your discard pile, unless the card clearly specify it (that is not the case of Flight of the eagles).

I'am not sure abouit eagle of the north because I don't have it, but I think I read somewhere that when they leave play they are removed from the game (so they don't go in your hand, but somewhere in the deep void).

12 hours ago, Miceldars said:

I'am not sure abouit eagle of the north because I don't have it, but I think I read somewhere that when they leave play they are removed from the game (so they don't go in your hand, but somewhere in the deep void).

It is from the Encounter keyword rules, first set out in The Lost Realm rulebook, and replicated here :

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If a player card with the encounter keyword leaves play, it is removed from the game. Do not place it in a player's discard pile or in the encounter deck discard pile.

Thanks again, Sappidus. That makes a lot of sense. No wonder my play group was so confused when I was exhausting their istari to pay for my word of command. 😂