Well, from a Deck Builder's point of view I think that Denethor and Faramir do directly compete each other. As has been said, they are both 4Cost Leadership allies, which means they are likely to compete for the same slot in a deck. And there I would - given the current metagame - always prefer Faramir because he is less likely to end up being close to useless.

In general it seems (probably no accident, too) that the core set cards are powerful...very powerful. There are already so many new cards out, but still there are many staples coming from the core set, which is a bit surprising. I would expect that the new Denethor should be more powerful in a pure Gondor deck given the current cycle's theme. This would reward me for building a thematic deck with lots of cards from the new cycle, something many players like.

So, rather than debuffing Denethor conditionally I'd have added some Gondor-related conditional buff such as Base willpower 2, but +1 WP for every Gondor hero or so. At 4 cost this would give me a 5 WP ally in a purely Gondor Deck. Insane! Admittedly a bit too strong, but you get the idea

Denethor ally can be good in Outlands deck - Denethor with Sword Of Morthond can even have 7 willpower, 5 attack, 6 defense, and 7 HP.

But Framir can be better with Sword Of Morthond - maybe can have max 6 willpower but have great ability.

Bad Shot.

Denethor ally is definitely better for the sword of mothrond buff. Giving it to Faramir instead would mean he can give you 6 willpower OR his great ability. (And with all the outlands cards in play you'd definitely get more out of Faramir using his abiity than questing even at WP 6).

Although you would clearly want Faramir and Denethor in said deck, this is a good example of how having them both would be really good. (Showing that the two can work together).

Additionally Gondor is clearly a trait about resource generation, so I think running two 4 cost allies will not be difficult as the theme evolves.

Although I do think Faith_Star83 raises a good point - I would argue that Faramir with his massive global buff is far far too good, rather than Denethor being weak. Like many of the early cards this is a sign of an unfortunate card design as the game was first created. I think that Faramir will probably stand as one of the best 4 cost allies for the entire life of the game.

Denethor with Sword of morthond can be good in outlands deck on 2 or more players, when another player chose Faramir hero. for example I want play Campaing Lotr on 4 players. one player play Archers deck (Legolas, Bard the Bowman and Faramir), so in my Outlands deck Denethor and Sword Of Morthond can be a good choose.

I think Denethor ally and that new sword is useless cards.

There is always question, what you will do with this card in bad situations?

if you draw Denethor and all your heroes have a wound you cannot even play him! Ups! I dont need this card in my deck.

And sword??? What is that. Better to put one more ally.

What a point of this card? Sound interesting but practically there is a lot more effective cards for play.

Morthond's Sword is quite underwhelming. Were it not unique, then maybe, as a unique card it would probably be crazy to have more than one in a deck. As that, it is nice to upgrade a Gondor ally into an Outlands ally (though thematically absurd), but probably makes little difference in a game. As repeated many times, why is it that Outlands outshine Gondor? They were supposed to be the least strong of the two. I like that they get better when together but still, perhaps there should have been a Gondor Leader to unite them (and thus give them the power).

Coming back to Denethor, it is just hard to justify playing such a card, really. There is no trick in it (or it seems so), it is just a poor design, especially given the easy comparison to the allies of the same sphere and cost (or similar). And why the Steward works just the same in a non-Gondor deck is beyond me... He would actually work better with the likes of Elrond or the Lore sphere - not very supportive of the idea of making mono-sphere theme decks, really!

The sword is amazing. Outlands is all about weak useless allies that buff each other, the sword lets you give their super buffs to a strong ally instead.

How about having a white tower watchman that has 6 hp and defense 3 (as well as 4 wp and 3 attack), and if you run 3 purple heroes it can also take the damage of an undefended attack.

Or what about giving it to a knight of Minis Tirith (giving it an impressive attack 6).

If you have a lot of outlands allies in play it's the most cost effective buff in the game. (with 3 spirit heroes on the new craftsman ally you can get willpower 6 on a 3 cost ally + 1 for the sword).

Obviously all of these require you to get out and keep out a stack of outlands allies, but that's the whole concept of the outlands trait anyway.

Denethor ally is a much harder sell. He's definitely situational. His situation is (I feel) in decks with few allies, where Faramir may not be the best choice. Also decks with healing so you can negate the penalty to his wp.

Remember, the Outlands only boost the player who controls them. So it doesn't work with the Knight (unless you run three Tactics heroes for the Outlands, which I'm sure doesn't work). It is more lucrative for the likes of the Watchman, or even making Envoy or Errand-rider a quick champion. It is nice, surely, but I guess it won't matter that much once you've already had many Outlands out in play. Perhaps I'm wrong, and I will certainly try the card out...

I have Denethor in my Gondor Deck, solo I play Easy Mode and I could play Denethor in the first round what helps a lot for questing. Also I drew him already many times with A very good story, so for free such a nice guy, why not?

The drawback is his "ability" (lol) 2 or 3 times I had to cancel my turn and rethink everything cause a third hero would have taken a damage and then poor denethor disappears in the void. :-/

But I like him. Faramir is also in that deck so whatever :-D

The big advantage with Denethor is that he is very useful early in the game. With all the resource synergies that Gondor offers, you can play him on turn one already. He offers 3 WP immediately without exhausting one of your heroes. That's a huge benefit when you start a quest, as the first turn is crucial in many scenarios. For solo players Faramir needs some time to fully use his potential. Also, with Gondor you mostly have an overflow of resources, so why not spent the for an ally that has great stats?

I wouldn't say that Denethor is super powerful, but he's not without use.

Edit: crossposted with rekath. Very Good Tale is of course also a nice synergy.

I think this Denethor ally is a bad design. He costs too much, offers no good stats and possesses a drawback text which will get him killed. His real costs is 3 tops.

Remember, the Outlands only boost the player who controls them. So it doesn't work with the Knight (unless you run three Tactics heroes for the Outlands, which I'm sure doesn't work). It is more lucrative for the likes of the Watchman, or even making Envoy or Errand-rider a quick champion. It is nice, surely, but I guess it won't matter that much once you've already had many Outlands out in play. Perhaps I'm wrong, and I will certainly try the card out...

You can run the knights without 3 tactics heroes. at 3 cost for 3 attack it's still good. (you lose the reaction ability that lets them attack as soon as you play them).

The sword is amazing. Outlands is all about weak useless allies that buff each other, the sword lets you give their super buffs to a strong ally instead.

How about having a white tower watchman that has 6 hp and defense 3 (as well as 4 wp and 3 attack), and if you run 3 purple heroes it can also take the damage of an undefended attack.

Or what about giving it to a knight of Minis Tirith (giving it an impressive attack 6).

If you have a lot of outlands allies in play it's the most cost effective buff in the game. (with 3 spirit heroes on the new craftsman ally you can get willpower 6 on a 3 cost ally + 1 for the sword).

Obviously all of these require you to get out and keep out a stack of outlands allies, but that's the whole concept of the outlands trait anyway.

Denethor ally is a much harder sell. He's definitely situational. His situation is (I feel) in decks with few allies, where Faramir may not be the best choice. Also decks with healing so you can negate the penalty to his wp.

that what i mean. If you have already a lot of Outlands allies in the game you dont need sword or something. You just need go quest quickly and win the game. yes you can play sword to some gondor ally but this is just for fun......this card is just a fun...

Sword is great on 2 or more players, when one play Outlands deck. Another player who have in deck gondor ally and have leadership hero can put this attachment in deck and play in own gondor ally. Or even player who playing Outlands deck can play sword on some gondor ally in another deck

like Ithilien Archer - with sword he can have high statistic and he are Ranged. Or Warden Of Healing, he have 1 HP, so quickly can die, with sword he can have high HP, and healing don't afraid he quickly fall.

And we have two AP to release, so still can show up some good gondor ally.

you do not need to have any Outlands allies in a game to the sword was useful. Just warden of healing with a sword and two anfalas herdsman. When some nasty card be revealed which deal 1 damage to all allies, wandering survives, and can then heal anfalas herdsman

you do not need to have any Outlands allies in a game to the sword was useful.

lol you mean many

Heard of the new treachery card?

No?

It's called:

Nostalgia

Forced: Every Outlands character goes home to mummy.

“He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back,' he said.”

Sanwise Gamgee, The Return of the King

i havent been following this thread so have no idea what that means leptokurt, but it did make me laugh, so well done

Sword of Morthond basically gives you an incredibly strong ally, in case you need an ally to have a great amount of something if you wanna do it with just that character and save your other outlands allies for something else, for example.

Sword is great on 2 or more players, when one play Outlands deck. Another player who have in deck gondor ally and have leadership hero can put this attachment in deck and play in own gondor ally. Or even player who playing Outlands deck can play sword on some gondor ally in another deck

Nope. Outlands characters' boosts work only for the other Outlands characters controlled by the same player. So playing the swordon a other player's Gondor ally who has no Outlands characters esentially gives him a worthless trait.

Outlands i crazy powerful....... But for NM is ok

The funny thing is there would be an easy, and thematic, way to fix the Denethor's ally problem. Just add "When Denethor enters play, search your deck for 1 Gondor card and add it to your hand." This could of course bring your Steward of Gondor, for instance. Or even better perhaps "After you play Denethor from your hand, search your deck for 1 title card and add it to your hand." Which could bring either Steward of Gondor or Lord of Morthond. This addition would make the card intriguing for me, and an obvious inclusion (perhaps even more than a single copy), and would stop me from ranting about the card.

Outlands i crazy powerful....... But for NM is ok

Just got 1st season NM packs, outlands solo was able to handle PTM and JDtA.

I cant imagine any other solo deck being able to win JDtA. Have you been successful with any others?

As for Denethor ally card, it's pretty poor. I cant imagine ever playing it, except for theme. You could use the sword with him, but as Glaurung said, it would be just for fun, outlands does not really need it. Errand Rider is a better target for the card if it is worth using.

Outlands i crazy powerful....... But for NM is ok

Just got 1st season NM packs, outlands solo was able to handle PTM and JDtA.

I cant imagine any other solo deck being able to win JDtA. Have you been successful with any others?

As for Denethor ally card, it's pretty poor. I cant imagine ever playing it, except for theme. You could use the sword with him, but as Glaurung said, it would be just for fun, outlands does not really need it. Errand Rider is a better target for the card if it is worth using.

Yes i done it with other decks as well. But still even with outlands deck there is big chance to lose. I found it fair enough.

What about HFG? I heard it was easy for you?