This was an idea I had, no clue as to how balanced it is :-)
had another version that returned the countered creature card to its owners hand rather than you discarding

I could definitely see some monogreen decks running this. But the card disadvantage is significant. Interesting design!

Yeah I wanted to play with a "free" counterspell that wasn't as crazy as Force of Will got

Interesting. Do you have many Ichorids kicking around in your file? Because I get the impression that a number of mono-black decks would love this card...

No, not many Ichorids but I do love cards like this whose drawbacks can lead to new ideas. Also as I cut my teeth in the early days of magic (having played from Alpha on) I do have a nostalgia for older cards that you don't see too often today and that sometimes comes through in my designs (maybe not so much in this case)

This is really, really strong. Like, really. No mana means that black loves it with Bloodghast or Gravecrawler(aka anklebiter), Reanimator strategies LOVE this cause they can counter whatever turn one play while dumping their target, and everyone who plays Legacy (except for the blue mages) go home to cry as they push their decks into their sink's garbage disposal.

I think that if you add something like 3U and "Put that creature into play under your control" then you'd have a decent counterspell, though probably not ever played in limited.

Yes Black reanimator strategies would love this card but then so would any sligh deck that looks to race its opposition.

I could change the extra cost to exiling a creature card but that may be too harsh.

Really, the simple answer, to me, is to force the caster to discard a blue creature. Still really good, and I'm quite sure there are a number of cards that still make this a 5 star card (Wonder anybody?), but you wouldn't have the same reanimator build abusing this card over and over again (which is kind of funny... you know... restricting a card to increase the amount of decks you'd expect to find it in.)

Of course, this can only counter a turn 1 creature spell. But yes, possibly making it exile a creature card might be fairer. Or perhaps make it a Force Spike effect, "Counter target [creature] spell unless its controller pays "?

For a less intrusive option, I do love jmgariepy's suggestion of "a blue creature card".

I like the blue creature limitation I think I'll try that.