I personally think 20 hp is too low when your unit HP stat follows Hearthstone rules, even if your unit blocking follows Magic rules.
Personally I think the only reason Magic gets away with 20 hp is the fact that pretty much every creature effectively has Regenerate. And healing is incredibly common on top of that, and you can overheal. Where as in Runeterra that is not the case.
But that's just my opinion :/
You do realize its only possible to attack every other turn and oponnents can also play spells there right?
Some decks specifically only play ionia to get access to deny. The tier1 deck with mistwraith uses it for shadow assassin and deny. The rest is SI. That might qualify what Riot thought as a reason to change things
The problem with Deny is that top tier agro decks are build around either Fearsome or Elusive units. So you can't just play minions since they won't be able to trade at all. The only TRUE way to punish those decks is by playing AOE spells, and thats exatcly the reason why they run Deny.
A very easy solution to balance Deny is to Refund all mana from the targeted spell.
Emerald Awakener is staple in every Karma deck i've seem at Diamond+
Must have nerfs:
Deny: 3 mana -> 5 mana OR refunds all mana to the owner of the denied spell
Wraith Caller: 4/3 body -> 4/2 body
Hecarim: 3/2 Spectral Riders -> 2/1 Spectral Riders (Onslaught of Shadows spell must get a buff to 2 mana)
Shadow Assassin: summoned Draw a card -> Last Breath: Draw a card
Might get a nerf somewhere down the road:
Commander Ledros: 8 mana -> 9 mana
Elise: 2/3 -> 2/2 OR 1/3
Glimpse Beyond: 2 mana Fast Spell -> Slow Spell OR 3 mana
Shark Chariot: 3/1 -> 2/1
Lets check if Deny was nerfed... nope, maybe next Tuesday
You do realize its only possible to attack every other turn and oponnents can also play spells there right?
Indeed
The problem with Deny is that top tier agro decks are build around either Fearsome or Elusive units.
So you can't just play minions since they won't be able to trade at all.
The only TRUE way to punish those decks is by playing AOE spells, and thats exatcly the reason why they run Deny.
A very easy solution to balance Deny is to Refund all mana from the targeted spell.