I've played a bunch of Sphere of Safety decks ever since that card came out, so I have put a lot of time into playing them and finding out what works and what doesn't. Journey Into Nyx gave me a bunch of new cards to play with that I am in love with.
Oppressive Rays
is an amazing new addition. Not only is it a mini Sphere of Safety on its own, but it has the upside of hosing mana elf acceleration
Banishing Light as Oblivion Ring is awesome for obvious reasons.
Dictate of Kruphix is a sweet card drawing engine and a win condition. I don't care how many cards they draw when they can't attack me anyways, and eventually they will get milled out drawing a bunch of cards every turn.
As for Sphere of Safety it's self, I've found that it's a mistake playing 4 of them. Every other Sphere deck I've seen other people try to make always play 4 of them, but its not needed. The ability stacks and its a bummer having multiples of them in the hand at the same time super early in the game. Most enchantments in this deck are essentially removal spells anyways.
I've also found over the past year and a half of playing this type of deck on and off that a lot of people load these decks up with every single enchantment they can fit into it and that's a huge mistake. You don't need 30 enchantments to lock a player out, and sometimes drawing an enchantment is not what you need. You need non enchantment board control and you need to draw more cards to find the enchantments you do need. Playing Supreme Verdict is a MUST, especially against Mono Black and Mono Blue devotion decks. If you let mono black flood the board with black creatures and you don't get rid of them all, then they can just kill you by playing a bunch of Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Against mono blue, eventually they will overload a Cyclonic Rift and blow you out, which is what the 1 of Quicken is a concession to. Let them EOT Rift you and then kill everything with an instant speed Verdict. Playing Sphinx's Revelation and Divination is super important as ways to draw lots of cards and gain some life at the same time. You don't need to play a 4 of Revelation, as multiples early are bad news.
The sideboard is basically anti control, anti Burn all in one and the Mistcutter Hydras are the balls against Mono Blue as well.Its contents could change as the format evolves.
So,check out my list and try it out because its super fun, especially if you like to troll your friends at FNM and if you like winning because this deck does win.
