Protection doesn't always win battles though, and ultimately that's what you have to do. Giving it the option to discard or protect however would make this a must have and the old version would be obsolete. Maybe it should be "Withdraw an Evil Character from battle or protect your Heroes from opponent's evil and neutral cards this turn."
That would make it a strategic choice of which version to use (much like the two Falling Aways).
Also, there's already an O.T. AotL so I don't see a problem with that. Other themes have ways to search out N.T. cards.
