Spreading Seas is probably really good in this deck, maybe in a sideboard.

Blood Clock seems like a fun finisher.Surgespanner or Temporal Adept against an empty board is pretty much GG

Capsize is strictly better than Regress for you. And it's cheap, too!

This is so my kind of deck, it's not even funny. Have you played against other decks with it? I'd love to know how it plays because I just might invest.

I would consider running something for their T2 Dragon Fodder because that could be a 10 turn victory, which, while slow, can still beat you. I would consider SOME bounce for creatures. Maybe 2 AEtherize?

Capsize isn't modern legal.

Perhaps running a couple Evolving Wilds might also help you thin the deck on a budget? It does bring land in tapped, but it takes land out of the deck.

I still think this deck needs some draw power. I've playtested it and usually you're bouncing 1 land per turn from turn 2 onward, but that still gives them 5-6 turns of one land on the field to do a lot of damage with. Jace's Archivist looks like it could be very effective at this, as your opponent's hand will be overflowing. Dictate of Kruphix also works. They're cheap too. PLEASE RUN THEM!!!!!! They will improve the deck a lot I think. I also like the idea of 2 AEtherize just in case.

Another suggestion I have would be Call to Mind. That will help keep your opponent down and, unlike Snapcaster Mage, it costs $0.21.

Isochron Scepter would also be hilarious, though it costs about $3 a piece.

I also think Blood Clock would be the perfect finisher here.

I think I'll replace 3x Reality Strobe with like 2x AEtherize and a Jace's Archivist (great find btw). I'll try to make room for the other Archivists as well.

Blood Clock does fit the theme, but it's a pretty slow finisher, so I'd rather not run it. Surgespanner and Temporal Adept were tested (Surgespanner was actually in the deck before I made it public), but I've found that their lack of immediate effect makes them subpar. Call to Mind is interesting, although I don't think I'll be able to find room for it. Isochron Scepter is bad in this deck, because the only thin it can imprint is Boomerang. Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

Vapor Snag instead of Boomerang?

no, the point is to return lands.

Annex, in my opinion, is required in this kind of deck, as instead of bouncing lands, you just take them now instead.

Through some extensive playtesting I've found this deck consistently takes off into unbeatability as soon as Jace's Archivist hits the field, but never before then. When you tap the Archivist, there is no hope for your opponent because then you are able to bounce 2-3 cards per turn until you win, which is nearly unbeatable. The only concern I have is that you either won't draw the Archivist or your opponent will be fast enough to beat you before you can play him.

Two card I still like for this deck are Dictate of Kruphix and Frozen AEther. I don't think full playsets of them is a good idea, but I think 3 Dictate mainboard and 3-4 Frozen AEther sideboard would benefit this deck a lot, and definitely pull one AEtherling because he's a dead draw before turn 9 or so.

In retrospect, if you want to make this deck as competitive as possible for the budget, AEtherize probably isn't the best card because once you use Jace's Archivist, there's no such thing as too many targets to bounce. To play AEtherize you need to miss hitting a land which is ok for Jace's Archivist because you make it all up on the next turn, but not ok for AEtherize because the extra land that they have will cost you too much. You're best off hitting only the lands and waiting until you use the Archivist because less lands for them means less chance your Archivist will be Lightning Bolt'd or worse when he hits the field.

In conclusion, I think you should pull 1 AEtherling and 2 AEtherize to put in 3 Dictate of Kruphix.

I also have found that the set of plays is this:

T1: Island

T2: Island + Eye of Nowhere

T3: Island + any cmc 3 bounce

T4: Island + Boomerang x 2

T5: Island + Jace's Archivist + Boomerang

T6: Use the Archivist and then everything breaks loose. From here it's impossible to lose.

The T5 Archivist can also be a Dictate of Kruphix because it works almost as well. Unfortunately you need 4/8 of the cmc=2 bounces to make it work, so usually they have 1 land to use every turn. Watch out for that land because it might lead to your downfall, but hopefully it won't. In a competitive environment that land will mean death because of cards like Lightning Bolt and Elvish Mystic, but more casual games like the ones at most LGS's shouldn't be a problem. In legacy or vintage and with an infinite budget this deck could be amazing at every level if you had access to cards like power 9 and Lotus Petal.

I wonder what you think about Pearl Lake Ancient as another win condition. It's fairly cheap maybe 1$. Maybe just run 1 and 1 more in the sideboard. It could take the place of a Surging AEther or a Jace's Archivist

if you want, Ebony Owl Netsuke is great in a boomerang deck, just throw a couple Howling Mine type things in

just optimized and purchased it on tcg thanks i love cheap competitive decks like this

I gotta say I love this deck. Ive been play testing it all morning on Untap. Ive only had 1 bad game where I just simply flooded out, it happens but other than that its so much fun and the opponents think its hilarious.

Ooh, definitely put in Howling Mine instead of Dictate of Kruphix if you are willing to pay for it. It's a little expensive... but totally worth it. Ebony Owl Netsuke does look better than AEtherling because you can play a bounce along with on the same turn.

I really do think you should pull AEtherize though to the sideboard. It only clogs the hand and slows the strategy in game 1. The sideboard for this deck should probably have 4 AEtherize, 3 countermagic or life gain cards, 4 Fog Bank, and 4 Pongify because it has amazing synergy with bounces. Those are meant to counter super fast strategies that can use their one mana per turn to kill you. Any strategy that doesn't use a healthy supply of cmc=1 cards will lose every time and need no sideboard.

Definitely don't pull any copies of Surging AEther because it's strongest when you have a playset and don't pull any Jace's Archivist because he consistently gets you 5-9 cards for 1 mana per turn, which is probably a record for card draw. In playtesting, either you hit the Archivist or you lose. Nothing else.

this is pretty decent super budget deck, but 2 surgicals and its gg

@Figag, zenki35f, zerowner: Thanks for your help. Ebony Owl Netsuke looks like a pretty sweet win-con, and your other suggestions look good as well. Sadly, I don't have time to actually test most of your suggestions right now, but they really are helpful.

@guitaraffe: I don't see how 2 Surgicals is going to be GG unless I'm on the draw, with AEtherling and Jace's Archivist in hand against 2 Thoughtseizes in my opponent's hand.

Guitaraffe's saying that if they hit the bounce spells in the grave, it will thin the deck to the point of not enough removal so they get their lands and then you lose.

I don't think it's totally true though. I think that once Jace's Archivist triggers it's game every time so there's no real threat to the extraction. Even if they hit a spell of two in your hand, they might be able to get 1-2 spells from your hand gone, but there's a low chance of you having a spell in the grave with the same name as the hand so only in 1 out of (insert big number here) games will Surgical Extraction actually be an issue. If they do hit you with a Thoughtseize though and hit your Archivist or AEtherling / Ebony Owl Netsuke will you actually be in really big trouble. If that happens then you're probably screwed but it takes a Thoughtsieze and Surgical Extraction in the hand along with our wincons in hand to shut this deck down.

Another nice thing about the Archivist is that he can also double as a wincon to win by mill. If you're on the play or if your opponent draws an additional card at any time then you can mill with him.

In retrospect, I'm not sure if AEtherling or Ebony Owl Netsuke is better as a wincon. AEtherling has the advantages of being nearly unkillable and he can win even if your opponent is playing spells, but Ebony Owl Netsuke takes less mana. In the end I do think AEtherling is better because when the time is right to play him, you will have 9-10 mana anyways so the mana issue isn't actually much of an issue.

One last detail I've noticed when playing: Never be afraid to discard AEtherling with the Archivist because if you have the Archivist it's better to improve your lock on the board than win with AEtherling because even if you discard both of them you can always win by mill which is a very nice backup. In fact, this deck could probably play just fine as a mill deck with no AEtherling at all, but AEtherling is much more fun.

i just meant if jace's archivist and aetherling end up getting Surgical Extraction'd you have no win con that's all

That's true, although getting them both in the yard isn't that easy on 1-2 lands.

Does Quicksilver Fountain have a home in this deck? Maybe sideboard against any sort of multi-color deck?