Especially in a game without tokens or many ways to play multiple characters with only one card
Essence Flux makes a reasonable replacement, but it lacks Rebound, which is what really lets Ephemerate pile on the value
This creates a tension where some games can be decided early on by an early Mutation running away with the game or that Mutant dying and taking with all their owners progress in a single, disastrous choice
A word of caution before we begin
Let me know which ones in the comments section, or lets discuss them in the Draftsim Discord
Urza, Lord High Artificer isnt a commander that's here to play fair: It's one of the top cEDH commanders (which is even more impressive given the hard time mono-colored commanders have at the highest tier), and it already has another crazily priced printing: Its Mystery Booster 2 version hovers around $380