And let's go for another hard counter.. I like Counterspell a lot but this card totally destroy any deck based on spell (Bonebolt, fire stall, miracle and such) It VERY close to : you can't play spell till the end of the game.
I agree, it does seem to be a bit of a hard counter to spell decks. I had a couple ideas I thought I'd throw out though:
1) What if it blocked the next offensive spell OR ability. That way it would, for example, block poison from chrysaora. Given a couple in play however, it becomes possible to power through using expendable abilities in order to cast a more potent spell.
2) Another alternative would be to send the spell back to the opponent's hand / deck when countered. That seems to fit with the oracle quote theme as well.
(Option 1 would make for some fun aether life synergy decks since it is then an obvious combo w/ lobotomizer and silence)