Witch Bolt is in contention for the worst damaging spell in the game. As an action, costing you your concentration, you can make a spell attack. If you miss, you get nothing. If you hit, you get 1d12 damage. That’s all you get that round, and we’re not above the damage of a cantrip. Yikes.

Tsunami is the pinnacle of the water bending fantasy; you conjure a massive wave and smash everything in a massive square with it, shoving them away from you and dealing substantial damage. Tsunami is what an incredible upper tier damage spell looks like.

Telepathy is a spell that attempts to solve problems already solved by lower level spells better.

Swift Quiver scales with the caster independently of the spell. Building your character to maximize their effectiveness with a ranged weapon improves the power of Swift Quiver, sometimes leading it to nearly double your damage output on its own.

If you’re against a single enemy with no other enemies around, Staggering Smite can be worth casting. Downgrading to d6s is a cost, but the upside of potentially imposing disadvantage on attack rolls and disabling a reaction can change the tide of a fight.

Searing Smite takes a bonus action to use, can potentially do nothing if the encounter ends after you miss an attack or two, and deals a measly 1d6 bonus fire damage on hit. Subsequent damage comes on the hit creatures turn. If it passes the save the first time, you’re out of luck.

Gust functionally offers a five foot push from 30 feet away; that’s the bulk of the spells power. The sensory effects definitely can be done better with the other cosmetic spells, namely Druidcraft, and moving five pound objects is something you’d probably rather do with Mage Hand.

Frostbite takes what was once a tool unique to bards and fitting for them to have and gives it out to every other class that could want it. This, to some level, homogenizes the full casters more.

Create Bonfire isn’t fancy, but levels up cantrips dramatically. Every class that can take this can seriously consider using it as their only damaging cantrip and get what they need out of a damaging cantrip with it.

Beyond just the fantasy it can help facilitate, Control Flames has some neat use cases that establish it as a supportive spell that aids world exploration.

Passwall does one thing: it digs a hole. A shovel, pick, dynamite, or large badger also can dig holes. To then want Passwall over said mundane options, you’re going to need a wall that you don’t want to damage, can’t normally be dug through, or you’re in a hurry to get through.

Planar Ally is neat, but doesn’t really need to exist. If you’re rolling in cash, this spell offers you potentially powerful guns for hire or a rent a Resurrection. Compared to other summoning magic, though, I just don’t see it working out. If you’re in a gold strapped table don’t even think about it.

To get the most out of Planar Binding you need to first contain a creature you want to bind. This is way easier said than done; if you’re using something like Planar Ally or Gate to get aid, you might as well cast higher level summoning magic like Conjure Celestial to get a powerful extraplanar ally

If you’re ever casting your 9th level spell and it doesn’t radically alter a fight, you’re doing it wrong. Power Word Kill compared to Wish, Meteor Swarm, Time Stop, Shapechange, and even something like True Polymorph is sad.

Power Word Stun is one of those effects that can warp an encounter if you have no other spell that does it. Guaranteeing at least 1 round of reprieve from a single entity is massive, and while this spell isn’t the best at getting you that, it still does it.

Prismatic Spray most of the time is dealing 1 less damage, with random damage types, and some chances to restrain a creature or blind then banish a creature. For two spell levels, you’re getting less damage most of the time and otherwise random, sometimes ineffective, sometimes backbreaking, effects.

Prismatic Wall has the opposite problem; this spell does so many individual things that possibly interacting and navigating around a Prismatic Wall feels tedious. From a player’s perspective, the spell is sweet; DMing it is awful.

At its best, Programmed Illusion sets up unique puzzles and traps in dungeons. It's a tool a DM can shape into a hazard, making me wonder if it would have just been better off being in the DMG as such. In the hands of a player, Programmed Illusion can have some neat use cases, but they are rare, and normally could be handled better by other illusion options.

From a villainous and world building perspective, Project Image is great. Having an archmage communicating with officials across the world through Project Image allows for some incredible options to detail the world.

While you probably don’t want to prepare Reincarnate for your average adventuring day, having it on your spell list is a great asset, and casting the spell can lead to the exact right shakeup a table needs after a player character death.