Forgot about the new ruling, you can safely cage a CioP effect friend, so that being said Herc can become a good target for cage if you don't want them getting rid of cards like Behemoth or sneak. Havoc pretty much just reiterated my point, caging fatties is usually bad...even leon, I tend to abuse the ruling when he is out so he's the only thing left when they go to fight behemoth, granted they will kill it but they don't have that friend security anymore. You have to smart when playing with cage.
*realizes how off topic this now is*
Phil is just something you have to learn to play around, look at the magic cards in your deck and ask yourself if there is any better alternative to it and run that instead. Gravity spells have their Tidus and Simba replacements, Fire/Thunder/blizzard spells can be replaced with things like Dumbo/Mushu or a friend card (like phil) Aero has Pinocchio and HaW. The only spells I think would be worth keeping are things that are necesary, like a graviga, a aeroga, a stopra...things like that...I'm kinda convinced aeroga could be mad good against WR. Most good WR decks run anywhere from 4-6 lvl 1's and if you're playing control, discarding 2 cards is rarely a problem.