<p><strong>Your Savage Gorger would remain on the battlefield.</strong></p>
<p>Scourge of Fleets returns all applicable creatures at the same time. What creatures are applicable is only checked once, not continuously: when the ability resolves. What happens afterwards as a consequence of one or more creatures bouncing does not matter to Scourge of Fleets' ability, because its effect is a one-shot effect.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>610.1. A one-shot effect does something just once and doesn’t have a duration. Examples include dealing damage, destroying a permanent, creating a token, and <strong>moving an object from one zone to another.</strong></p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-20T18:55:58.927Z
2021-03-20T18:55:58.927Z
Hackworth
<p>I played <a class="mtg-autocard" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" href="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?name=%2b%5bSavage%20Gorger%5d">Savage Gorger</a> a few turns ago making it a (3/3) before I played <a class="mtg-autocard" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" href="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?name=%2b%5bThirsting%20Bloodlord%5d">Thirsting Bloodlord</a> (3/3) which gives other vampires I control +1/+1, making my Savager Gorger (4/4). If my friend had 3 islands and just played <a class="mtg-autocard" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" href="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?name=%2b%5bScourge%20of%20Fleets%5d">Scourge of Fleets</a> that would return creatures with toughness 3 or less, would my Savage Gorger return to my hand?</p>
<p>My friend believes that returning my creatures with toughness 3 or less would include returning Savage Gorger because it would be (3/3) without Thirsting Bloodlord (which also just got returned).</p>
<p>I thought the stack would happen simultaneously rather than Thirsting Bloodlord getting returned, making Savage Gorger become (3/3) again, and then returning Savage Gorger because it was 3 toughness.</p>

<magic-the-gathering>
If Scourge of Fleets returns creatures with toughness 3 or less, do my vampires at (4/4) get returned to my hand when Thirsting Bloodlord return?
Jacqueline Schrickel
# If Scourge of Fleets returns creatures with toughness 3 or less, do my vampires at (4/4) get returned to my hand when Thirsting Bloodlord return?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-03-20)

I played [Savage Gorger](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?name=%2b%5bSavage%20Gorger%5d) a few turns ago making it a (3/3) before I played [Thirsting Bloodlord](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?name=%2b%5bThirsting%20Bloodlord%5d) (3/3) which gives other vampires I control +1/+1, making my Savager Gorger (4/4). If my friend had 3 islands and just played [Scourge of Fleets](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?name=%2b%5bScourge%20of%20Fleets%5d) that would return creatures with toughness 3 or less, would my Savage Gorger return to my hand?

My friend believes that returning my creatures with toughness 3 or less would include returning Savage Gorger because it would be (3/3) without Thirsting Bloodlord (which also just got returned).

I thought the stack would happen simultaneously rather than Thirsting Bloodlord getting returned, making Savage Gorger become (3/3) again, and then returning Savage Gorger because it was 3 toughness.

**Tags:** magic-the-gathering


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-03-20. Score: 11 | Accepted answer

**Your Savage Gorger would remain on the battlefield.**

Scourge of Fleets returns all applicable creatures at the same time. What creatures are applicable is only checked once, not continuously: when the ability resolves. What happens afterwards as a consequence of one or more creatures bouncing does not matter to Scourge of Fleets' ability, because its effect is a one-shot effect.

> 610.1. A one-shot effect does something just once and doesn’t have a duration. Examples include dealing damage, destroying a permanent, creating a token, and **moving an object from one zone to another.**


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