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?Thermo-Alchemist might be a good middle ground. It's also restricted to instants and sorceries, but has the upside of getting in consistent damage which might make it better for aggro decks. For more combo oriented decks, it blocks more effectively and comes down sooner. Heck, the consistent damage might be better here too.
I'm not sure though; We haven't gotten to see Thermo-Alchemist in action since we made the swap. As far as we figured, Guttersnipe was a little too clunky for our normal decks, but didn't fit perfectly into our combo oriented decks either. We expect Thermo-Alchemist to be a better fit in both, with the caveat that my list is higher powered.
In the aggro decks, Guttersnipe was a slow inefficient body that didn't consistently get to attack. It felt bad as a 3 mana investment that only did 2-4 damage and could restrict your sequencing. Thermo-Alchemist feels better here as a "set it and forget it" that fits into the curve better and doesn't feel as bad if you have to run out your spells before playing it.
The non combo "spells" decks tended to take the form of control decks. As control decks, they weren't really looking for value in the form of shocks to the face. The damage never really mattered and it felt like being down a card--especially since the body wouldn't matter or it would eat removal more inconveniently than a finisher would. As a blocker, Thermo-Alchemist feels like it could play similarly to Thing in the Ice which has been perfect for us. It's a balanced form of early game interaction; it's cheap enough that it doesn't feel inefficient to lose; and it's a looming threat that both players can see coming and play around.
For combo decks, Guttersnipe played similarly to as it would in a control deck. It got there more often, but still felt mispositioned. It was too vulnerable and a worse win condition than a spell you could play after. The need for Guttersnipe as a win condition also faded as we've gotten more reliable support since its time. (The best being Mizzix's Mastery for being a lot easier and more forgiving to set up and Jace, Telepath Unbound's -3 for being the best way to double your storm finisher.) So while the switch to Thermo-Alchemist might be worse in direct comparison, we don't expect to miss it too much.
All that was conjecture and environment specific. If your "spells" deck involves more Stormchaser Mage and Bloodwater Entity chip-shots, I can see the Guttersnipe damage adding up better. But at the point of having that much archetype focus, why not also double or triple up with Firebrand Archer and Thermo-Alchemist? They're both viable in non-blue red decks. If you can only fit one, I'd say Thermo-Alchemist is the most flexible and all around desirable.
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I prefer Miscalculation over the rest. I'm more in the market for a counterspell first and I have 1 mana cantrips, so the extra tax is more valuable to me than the cheaper cycling.
I also prefer and do run Mana Tithe over Force Spike. Mana Tithe usually feels more like a defensive protection effect in a low curve white deck, whereas Force Spike in blue decks is more often a cheap catchall answer (and that feels way lamer). I find that Daze is a better Mana Tithe equivalent for blue in that it's less effective as a catchall and fits better in lower curve decks.
. That is excellent utility in the late game leaving you with enough mana to play whatever action you might draw into off that cycle. It could be digging for an answer at your opponent's EOT after a big turn or looking for a threat during your main phase, being able to dig a card deeper in the crucial parts of the game is incredibly clutch.
