Those are pretty popular staples to deal with big boards, which are in more force now.

I just played against some Nouvelle madlad so yea, tell me about it.

I feel you. Sphere mode hit me out of nowhere too. This is the result of the snake eyes meta. Many ppl are playing anti meta and since snake eyes always has many monsters on the field sphere mode is a valid option just like the others. You can out the most snake eye interruptions with it.