This was the response on FB to that question: "Defend was novice for two reasons. First, we felt that this was a simple order. Any intellegent living creature could be ordered to guard something, so this was a a simple spell to encourage them to do so. Second, when we wanted to have spell to encourage more creature combat. That was something we wanted everyone to have access to.
When looking at the Warlord and command spells, it's good to keep in mind that he has three cards for him alone that improve the use of commands, Gurmash, Helm of Command, and Ring of Command. Of these Gurmash and the Helm are superb with this command."
seems like pretty weak reasoning to me.
