I really don't have problems winning games that I am initiating, (excluding crashes) so I am not sure about this.  If the AI could use it properly it might help.

With so many people using Phoenix, BotC will boon bust Focused at least. I don't see many people buffing themselves much. It will mess up Hercules and Blade of the Guardian agent something awful though.

Not as much because he doesn't put up any buffs on himself unlike Hercules.

The crashing of this game this time around is ridiculous.  If I let my screen go black while something is loading it will pretty much black out the game and crash it. But of course it could be crashing anyway so wouldnt make a difference. 

And I have not seen a fantomex since his pvp

I have seen Phantomex a few times. His passive misdirection can be annoying, but he doesn't bring enough oomph to be worth it in pvp, in my opinion.