Beats and Skies

A love letter to Preconstructed Magic

Theme Deck Review Compendium: Stronghold “Call of the Kor”

This probably has some of the most mixed reviews out of any theme deck. I think it looks interesting, but really probably something which you’d have to play to be able to judge. That alone is probably reason enough to try and put all the cards together for it – curiosity!


Nomads en-Kor by Val Mayerik

Call of the Kor

A white black deck which uses the damage redirection ability of the Kor, and other resilient creatures, to overwhelm your opponent.

Official Product information webpage (archived)

Screenshot of the page circa 2007

“Call of the Kor” is a horde deck. Its strength is in its multitude of fast creatures. With nearly 40 per cent of its cards being creatures, evenly distributed in cost between one and five mana, you should be able to play creatures quickly and often.

As with almost all horde decks, the early game belongs to you, so you need to deal damage as quickly as possible. Once you’re ahead of your opponent in life, trading damage is to your advantage, even if it’s at a small loss (such as hitting your opponent for 4 damage while taking 5 in return).

Stronghold Strategy Guide insert (compiled here)

Beats and Skies™ recommends mtg.wtf for your Magic database and decklist needs.


Lab Rats by DiTerlizzi

Look at these little cuties!


Advanced Deck

Land (18)
18 Plains

Creatures (26)
3 Infantry Veteran
2 Shaman en-Kor
4 Order of the White Shield
4 Soltari Priest
4 Warrior en-Kor
4 White Knight
3 Soltari Champion
2 Knight of Dawn

Other (16)
4 Tithe
3 Disenchant
4 Crusade
2 Empyrial Armour
3 Armageddon

Sideboard (15)
1 Angelic Renewal
1 Disenchant
2 Pacifism
1 Tariff
2 Warmth
2 Soltari Monk
3 Ward of Lights
1 Aura of Silence
1 Armageddon
1 Light of Day

From the Stronghold Strategy Guide insert (compiled here)

I’m actually a bit sad that they’ve dropped the black for a pretty conventional White Weenie shell here. It looks effective enough, but even so.


Temper by Matthew D. Wilson

Not a fan of many of the Weatherlight character pieces, but this one of Gerald definitely has a vibe.


Reviews

Cubic Creativity

Budget Deckbuilding: Call of the Kor

… over the years that Magic the Gathering exists power-creep has been a constant companion and having just one effect that can redirect damage from you onto other friendly targets is not exactly gamebreaking. … But I like “Call of the Kor” regardless: The idea is definitely unique and I can see that this amount of Control might tip the tide of battle since you are going to lose a lot less creatures if you play it smart.

Ertai’s Lament

Stronghold: Call of the Kor (Part 1 of 2)

In a nod to pragmatism, Call of the Kor splashed Black for extra utility and removal, but remained at heart a White-weenie deck design. It was robust on the battlefield, sporting 21 creatures (23 if you count the two token-generating sorceries, Lab Rats.)

Stronghold: Call of the Kor (Part 2 of 2)

Overall, Call of the Kor was a resonable outing, nothing exceptionally fun or sexy but still a decent showcase of what life was like in Rath. The damage-redirection engine is fun but seems harder to get moving than it might appear at first blush. Some weak card choices can be a little frustrating at times.

FINAL GRADE: 2.5/5

One of the earlier reviews on the site, it seems, which is interesting as the format hadn’t quite solidified yet! 🙂

Jay Kirkman (coolstuffinc column)

History of Orzhov Theme Decks

Call of the Kor showcases this damage-redirection, a nettlesome ability given its lack of an activation cost. While largely consisting of weenie-sized creatures (the single largest beater is a 3/3), you nevertheless could extend the life of your troops by spreading any damage around.

M:tG Precon Decon

Stronghold Part 1: Call of the Kor

A Top 5 selection on the Tempest to Scourge “Season 1 Finale”:

Season 1 Finale and Top/Bottom 5

Troll and Toad (customer review)

Stronghold Call of the Kor Preconstructed Theme Deck (MTG)

This deck is awfully slow. It just has too many expensive creatures and no means to get them on play quickly before your opponent has set his/her tactic. The mono-white advanced version of the deck blazes, though, and has far better ways to power-up cratures.

1 star. Anonymous

I mean, why not pull some reviews from webstores? Won’t be much to choose from this early, but as we go on I think they’ll be worth looking at.


Skeleton Scavengers by Brian Snoddy

Reimagings

Abe Sargent

Updating “Call of the Kor” for Commander

This deck is built around the redirection of the damage from combat or burn onto regenerators like the Harpy and Scavengers or to give it protection from that color with Flickering Ward or the Knight of Dawn. This is fun and aggressive. There was an infinite life combo based in Standard in mono-White in this tribe which I’ll toss in too, but I’ll just do the White side of things because I don’t need black for regeneration, I can just use indestructible. And I know what mono-White legendary I’d like to build around!


Death Stroke by Colin MacNeil

Unboxing

Doctor Alzheimers Academia Magica 

German language channel

Magic Vintage Schätze 31: BEST OF FLOHMAKRT – Teil 16: STRONGHOLD (1998) Themendeck CALL OF THE KOR

That’s it for another post: all the reviews I could currently find for this. But as always if you want to share your thoughts, if you had the deck or not, then please leave a comment.

Edit 23/10/23: added Abe Sargent article, and another card image given a new section was required!


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One response to “Theme Deck Review Compendium: Stronghold “Call of the Kor””

  1. […] Call of the Kor is at the core a White Weenie deck, but it crosses over into a bit of black too in its basic form. The Kor all have an ability which allows them to redirect damage they’d take onto another creature you control instead. The deck also includes other creatures which have regeneration or are able to give themselves protection from a colour of your choice… essentially you play lots of small creatures and just keep attacking. You’ll have more than your opponent does, and then next turn you’ll still have more and then they’re dead. […]

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