Don’t cast Phantasmal Killer. Sure, it sounds cool and edgy and invokes the feeling of a twisted mental mage torturing their foes with their worst nightmares, but if you want that, just take Phantasmal Force. Don’t waste your time on Phantasmal Killer.

Eyebite is a modern example of how to do save or sucks. It harkens to older versions of itself by offering repeatable lockdown, and can have massive encounter implications, but unlike the one attempt on cast save or sucks, Eyebite has a higher floor on its utility. Even if the first monster succeeds on the save, you still have access to the magic for a full minute to take out other creatures.

Animate Objects is the kind of spell you’ll find nearly endless applications for including mass murder. Here are some basic ways to use the spell to its maximum depending on the size of objects you want to animate.

The idea behind Antilife Shell is epic; a veil of force that keeps life out feels like it belongs with the edgy necromancer or introvert illusionist. You may want to take the spell for the aesthetic; that's a valid thing to do, just hear my warning and be aware it will fail you in more ways than one when you need it most.

Awaken isn’t going to wildly empower your character or break the game in unforeseen ways. At its best you might be able to use it to turn a murder victims parakeet into an invaluable witness, or create a sentry that looks exactly like a potted flower.

Blade Barrier exists for high level clerics who want to mirror what Wizards can do with their fancy wall spells while simultaneously chopping enemies into mince meat.

The spell is ripe for party abuse, and can easily be manipulated to output huge amounts of damage over and over again.

Enter Circle of Death: a 6th level spell that is outperformed by nearly every other damage spell in the game. Functionally, you are getting triple the area of a Fireball for a slot three levels higher.

On paper this might sound great; you can hit triple the creatures Fireball can! Practically, you will nearly never find times where you are going to NEED to hit that many more creatures.

For those rare moments when you need to transform the swarm of zombies into a snowcone, Cone of Cold has got your back. Beyond that, it's AGGRESSIVELY average.

A spell’s power is majorly tied to three elements: how often you are able to cast it, how large of an impact it has on the game, and how steep of a cost the cast is. Absorb Elements can have a monumental impact on fights at all stages of the game, has an extremely low cost to use, but doesn’t necessarily have constant moments where it’s usable.

If you already have Burning Hands, you probably don’t need Aganazzar’s. If you don’t like Burning Hands, but still want AOE fire damage for some reason, give the scorcher a try. This spell really needs something else, any other effect, for it to have a meaningful place on your sheet. As is, it’s one of a dozen damage spells for your evokers out there.

Beast Bond has a lot of the right words. Telepathic communication can be useful; sometimes you don’t want enemies to hear you command your bear to eat them. Granting advantage on attack rolls is pretty great. Who wouldn’t want their panther friend to have advantage on their claw or bite? All of this feels like it should be excellent.

Dust Devil conceivably could lead a charge up against overwhelming numbers of ranged foes and majorly detract from their ability to hit everyone behind it. This feels like it COULD be amazing. If you’re in a cold, damp, lizard infested cave, this probably does nothing, and you really need it for this to be worth a 2nd level slot, and it won’t be able to do that in a lot of places.

Earth Tremor is a solid 1st level option you can use all throughout the game, and it really only gets better with age. This comes with two monumental caveats: the initiative order and the spell’s range.

Ice Knife serves a noble purpose as an alternative longer ranged AOE option for your full casters, and a much needed AOE damage option for levels one and two druids. Druids in the PHB can struggle in the early tiers with their spells, as many, especially in the hands of newer players, can feel weak or challenging to use. Ice Knife comes to save the day

Out of initiative, Catapult is a way to move light things quickly and far. Throwing something ninety feet is more than a turn of dashing for most people. When the game of poker goes south and all the gold is on the line, Catapulting the bag across the room to a buddy instantaneously can facilitate a smash and grab approach many adventures favor.

Magic Stone: a bonus action cantrip that gives you a lower range shortbow with the upside of using your casting modifier instead of Dex mod. Cool, I guess?

As far as the cosmetic spells go, Shape Water might be the best mechanically. This is a spell that has basically one practical use effect and three dedicated to presentation, but man, freezing a five foot cube of water has all kinds of useful applications.

Thunderclap isn’t going to change your life, but is a massive upgrade over Acid Splash and some of the other weaker damage only cantrips out of the PHB. This affecting an area highlights what casters feel like they’re designed to cover well: area of effect damage.

Conjure Celestial, or as it should be known, Conjure Couatl, exists as a means of getting a couatl or pegasus on your team. You can up-cast it to get a Unicorn as a 9th level spell which can be fine, but the unicorn and pegasus can’t compete with their CR 4 snake brother.

Of all the summoning spells in the SRD, Conjure Elemental feels the most fair. It is incredibly consistent, offers a fair amount of versatility, and delivers on the summoner and elementalist fantasies superbly. The four main elementals (water, air, earth, and fire elementals) all are bruisers built to smash, yet have niches that can encourage you to switch them up fight to fight.