It's funny, I JUST noticed that this episode when Gray used an ice attack right at the beginning and there was no circle(although Garjeel did have one later in the episode), and wondered how long they'd been doing that.
I must be the only one that actually liked those. Made is seem more like they were actually casting spells instead of just having generic shounen powers.
Of course, I'm only referring to the rune circles themselves, not the stock footage that went along with their attacks earier in the series that the circles usually showed up in. I'm glad the stock footage is gone.