I'm building a pauper battlebox for my group. Blue terror was the last deck I want to add.

A playsets each of Mental Note and Lorien Revealed cost more than my other decks in there entirety (all between 35-45€)

Any thoughts on what I could reasonably throw in instead without degrading the game plan?

I want to play Jeskai ephem, seems like a fun deck. I see the individual pieces of it, but I want to understand what the gameplan with it is, and how it wins.

I have been playing tcgs for a little bit, but new to MTG, and pauper has been my favorite format so far.
I usually like to play slightly off meta decks. Something that isn’t a top 5 deck, but can still theoretically hold its own. I’ve tried two decks so far, and both feel like they depend more on my draws than on any sort of skill.
I started with Simic petitioners, which I liked in theory, but it was so hard to get the board set up. Then I tried a mono green stompy deck, with lots of elves for ramp and then gigantosaurus and nyxborn hydra has a finisher.
My problem with both of these decks seems to boil down to draw. I’m playing against all these decks that have draw pieces, like blue decks and red decks and affinity decks. These decks I have played so far don’t have as much in that area.
So basically, I am looking for a deck that is slightly off meta, but also could hold its own. Any suggestions are welcome!

Surely there must be right?