The Ward ability keeps him well-protected from cards that hurt or eliminate chosen characters, forcing opponents to fight him head-on
I think all the new summons are incredible in general not just in a Counters deck, I think Summon: Yojimbo and Summon: Valefor will be showing up in a bunch of future brews
Throw a few of these out for the cheap cost of two mana each, then move from one to the other for one lore, and youll be gaining a mountain of card advantage and running away with the game before your opponent can do anything about it
That said, it could still be worth it
Its not likely to make it into your zombie typal decks, which arent red that often anyway, but this card puts in exceptional work in a Feather, the Redeemed deck, for example
These abilities dont use the stack , meaning they cant be countered or responded to