Is that effect really this cheap?

Almost. This is the same cost as Bathe in Light, which is more limited. Maybe ?

Well, see also Brave the Elements. I could certainly see this for , poossibly even .

I actually based this cost on Brave the Elements. My logic is that with BtE, in most cases you’re protecting either all or nearly all of your creatures for one white mana. This protects ALL of your creatures from one color rather than ALMOST all of your creatures. To me, since the difference will usually be negligible, I’ve only boosted it by one colorless.

The added effect of protecting other permanents will often amount to a counterspell than a combat trick; you’re rarely in a situation where saving both creatures and non-creatures will be relevant. You could argue that the flexibility of the card merits a cost of , but I’m not convinced it HAS to be set there.

One last thing to consider is that with Morph creatures available in all colors, there is a relatively high chance that you’ll be facing colorless creatures across the table, in which case protection from a color won’t matter.

­Brave the Elements has a surprisingly high rating in Gatherer. I came across it when doing a quick scan on the highest rated White cards.

I'm not saying that the card is broken... it seems fine by me, but you should probably use a tad of discretion if you want to use BtE to express power level. It appears to be the most powerful of combat trick/protection/counterspell in white, as far as the general public is concerned.

Also, if you ask me, you can't just drop Brave the Elements into any white deck and expect it to work out well. Sure, it may be no skin off your back to move 4x artifact creatures and 4x blue creatures out of your deck to make way for 8x white creatures that can be effected by BtE, but you still had to compromise your deck choices.

Refute is, I think, better used on countermagic or, perhaps, a 'put target permanent/spell X from top' effect. Most commonly associated with legal/verbal arguments, the setting coupled with this effect suggests something more proactive, I think; Rebuff, Flash Barrier; something to suggest an action or product used might feel better.

I’m hesitant to switch it up because I feel like the name and flavor text have to go together, and are fairly crucial to setting up the stories for the second and third sets.

The ability, in this context, says to me that the caster has effectively put forth a blanket categorical denial of something. “I am not a crook.” May not be true, but for the moment it shuts down all further questions.