This ally is very useful with lore Faramir but also can help leadership Eomer to take down a big enemy before it could attack again in the next round. Beside those characters this one is still not bad for cost 3.
This card has quickly become a staple of my Bond of Friendship decks. You will very often end up not spending a resource from 2-3 of your heroes during each given turn with those kinds of deck so a "0-cost gain 2-3 resources" event is extremely powerful, especially in the crucial early game. This has enabled many powerful 2nd turns for me in the past and I will keep including it in any Bond of Friendship decks I make (especially Hobbit ones for the Saga).
Why does this card not have the ranger keyword?? Otherwise pretty solid card. Good in combination with Thirundir since you can then play it early and immediately get the benefit of the extra questing power.
These guarded cards can be phenomenally powerful, but can come with game wrecking effects if the wrong encounter card is triggered by them. I recommend using either scrying effects to mitigate the risks and/or traps. Its hilarious, for example, when you scry with Henemarth Riversong and discover a 2 threat enemy is coming, and so play Ranger Spikes and then Necklace of Girion to trap the enemy and grab up the treasure with little fuss.
Using Ranger Spikes on an enemy you will then (most likely, unless you are playing a direct damage or staging area attack deck) engage and kill seems a bit of a waste.
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Alonewolf87
He never said he want to engage. You're the one who tell that. You put your words in his mouth.
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perseflamme
The thing is, an enemy guarding a card needs to be killed to get the guarded card, and most often this is done by engaging and then killing it. Now, the Ranger Spikes are only good if the enemy remains in the staging area, but then you cannot get the guarded card you want; Maybe Poisoned Stakes is the better option (or a combination of bot traps) to have the enemy killed in the staging area, but that would be quite an investment of time and resources just to get that guarded attachment.
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Taudir
@perseflamme if you keep the enemy with the Necklace of Girion in the staging area with the Ranger Spikes attached you cant "grab up the treasure with little fuss". I am not putting words in anyone's mouth, I am simply pointing out something that stands out for me in the review.
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Alonewolf87
For a long time, Glorfindel was the go to glue hero for a deck. Low threat, great stats, the whole shebang. While he still serves that purpose extremely well, Denethor has replaced him for me.
While obviously very different roles, Denethor and Glorfindel both are used for their early game upside: low threat or free resource. (I won't compare these two any further, as they have more differences than shared traits, but I think that it's worth mentioning.)
Denethor's ability is quite possibly the best resource acceleration in the game not called Steward of Gondor. Of course, it's a one time thing, but with two extra resources turn one, the amount of things you can do is crazy. Drop Steward of Gondor on a hero, then play Gandalf, on your first turn, for instance.
His second ability is less amazing. Of course, it still has it's uses, but they are far less powerful than two free resources.
His stats are fine. Three defense and three hit points make him an okay defender, but nothing more. The threat cost is low enough to be thrown into just about any deck.
Last but not least, the art is stellar. This is up there with some Magali art in terms of how good it is IMO.
All in all, Denethor is an excellent hero who should get more love then he does.
Final Verdict: 8.5/10