Non-Mana Deny Nerf Idea

Deny seems to be a slightly overpowered card, but the developers have stated that they don't want to increase its Mana cost because then it couldn't be cast just with spell mana. One way that they could nerf it without changing the mana cost would be for them to add "Refill 2 of your opponent's Spell Mana" to Deny so that it becomes weaker and allows for your opponent to gain back some of the Mana they lost by casting the spell. This way players could cast expensive spells against Ionian opponents without having to wait for them to fall below 3 Mana.

At least the devs said that they're keeping an eye on this card.  I feel that they could nerf it in a lot of different ways too since there are so many things it can stop.  They could make it a Slow spell or limit what spells/abilities it can stop.  Raising the mana cost seems a bit lazy, but it's an option.  There's also the possibility that they could change it to a 0 cost card and have it operate somewhat like Thermogenic Beam where you have to spend just as much mana to stop the spell that your opponent is playing.

That being said, I do like that "refill your opponent's spell mana" option as well.

I'm actually not wholly against the idea of increasing its mana cost, personally. To be clear - I don't think the spell itself is problematic in a vacuum, but by its very nature, it doesn't exist in that vacuum; in its current state it's going to have a permanent game-warping effect on every expansion they subsequently release.

Making it more expensive would throw off the cost-benefit analysis a little, since at a baseline level countering a 4 mana spell with a 3 mana one is a 'win'. But I don't know that that's necessarily a bad thing - the most impactful cards are at 6+ mana for the most part, and regardless, is it unreasonable to expect a player to pay a premium for a global disrupt to their opponent's strategy?

Quote From Bystekhilcar

I'm actually not wholly against the idea of increasing its mana cost, personally. [...]

Making it more expensive would throw off the cost-benefit analysis a little, since at a baseline level countering a 4 mana spell with a 3 mana one is a 'win'.?

I'm with you there. I will make the claim that you can't always rely on countering a high-cost spell with your Deny: Sometimes you have to 'waste' it on a low-level card because you're struggling to survive / your opponent outplayed you, and sometimes their deck may simply not contain any high-cost non-burst spells. So I don't think a cost of 5 is justified quite yet; 4 seems like a very reasonable compromise to me. Test it out from there and see if it's still to strong.