That is a consideration. The Fear is real and I could see players abandoning affected decks despite everything I said. Which would lead to Sphere seeing less play, thus the decks come back and the cycle repeats.

I know they used to do that, but I never understood why. The deck draws so many cards that I can’t imagine you actually need the tutoring. I’m actually surprised that Ballista isn’t included now considering how often it’s a kill on its own.

I just see a whole lot of storm players saying, “Eh, now seems like a good time to try out that esper mill deck I’ve been working on. Or the old Merfolk deck I put away when 8 months ago.” Again, I’m speaking about play at the LGS level, but in a large pool a small stone can cause potentially large ripples. And a lot of spheres are gonna be tossed in the pool.

Complacency + silver bullets is an easy way to lose for sure. As far as Eggs playing Emrakul goes, I’m not an eggs player so I don’t know how big of a commitment it is, but I think it’s mostly only played online because it kills faster. My impression was that playing Emrakul requires some significant deckbuilding concessions, including adding Sanctum of Ugin to the manabase and a decent number of Walking Ballista/Hangarback Walker to the main to find it, which would obviously be a big hit on your redundancy and therefore consistency.

I’m not saying it’s easy, but it is definitely possible. While I was testing Sphere against those combos their pilots were able to navigate through the Sphere to victory a number of times without removing Sphere, so it is possible. Once the Ironworks player knew what was up he actually boarded in Emrakul, and if Sphere becomes a problem that kind of shift is very easy for Ironworks and may be a better option in general. As I understand it, the only reason they stopped going for the big creature kill was that graveyard hate was down and so the loop was faster.

I agree that Sphere is a hoser in the artilce, but my argument is that it’s far weaker than you think. It’s the kind of card that looks like a hard lock but isn’t, and this leads players into complacency. I’ve seen too many players mulligan for hate and die because they only see the hate and not the strategy behind it as you state. Because of how easy Sphere is to cast and how many decks it has game against, it will be overused and misunderstood because the barrier it raises isn’t as high as players think.

Of course, those decks will be able to win if given enough time. You can’t just slam Sphere and expect to win; you have to have some sort of a clock along with it. This is true of all silver bullet cards though. Eventually Affinity will kill you through Stony Silence, or Dredge will cast 3/3s for 3 under RIP. Amulet will find a second Forest and cast a Titan, or make a huge Ballista. However, while Moon/Sphere/RIP/Stony is on the battlefield, their main avenue to victory is blowing it up, not trying to ignore it. The number of times these decks will actually win with a hoser on the battlefield is very low.

Tron is a little different. Since they can ignore Sphere better than Storm or Eggs can, it’s even more important to have a clock. If Sphere remains unanswered, you can expect it to buy you 3-4 extra turns against them, which should easily be enough to finish them off if you have a ‘goyf on the battlefield. Having a clock has always been the number 1 priority against Tron though; trying to outgrind them never works, which is why you see even control decks flash in Snapcasters early or side in Geist in an attempt to kill them before they inevitably win.

But yes, Damping Sphere is a true hoser. While it is easier to answer than many other hosers, I argue that its effect is just as strong.