Mana Drain is clearly superior to Counterspell in your deck. With Zur's Weirding in play, the leading player wins the game. You don't need Ophidian, not Augury Adept to reach this, you need 1 creature, thats enough. I think with that deck, you want to counter, play Weirding, and still keep mana for answers open.
I'd concentrate on more permission, cutting Phidian and Adept, maybe cut all creatures for 1-2 Nether Spirits, these do the trick, and you don't even need them in your hand yet when playing the Weirding.
also, I'd like to see some "draw that isn't draw" in the deck. Think of Fact or Fiction or Gifts Ungiven, maybe Intuition (also gets Nether Spirits).
It seems to me you want to build a deck abusing Zur's Weirding, maybe you can find other ideas in an article I wrote about the card some time ago:
http://www.magic-league.com/article/180/zur's_weirding.htmlAlso I'd like to say that I am the original creator of Nourishing Lich.