Youre not locking yourself into a specific card, youre choosing which half of a complete game piece youre starting with
New cards are continually released, and other cards rotate out of what is currently legal to play in the standard format
Consult is a very efficient draw spell indeed, and will likely be fighting for slots with Stock Up come August
This also gives you a chump blocker if you need it, but you wont feel like it was a total waste of mana since you get that extra card
As you can imagine, under these rulings, your blocking Lifelink creatures could deal Lifelink damage in combat, and you could still tragically lose the game to your opponent's unblocked creatures before your Lifelink triggers go to resolve
While I steered clear of such cards as Prosperity and Skyscribing, I still ran into stuff like Mikokoro, Howling Mine, Font of Mythos, Jace Beleren, Kami of the Crescent Moon, and Temple Bell