I was trying the gemfinder on ritalin. It's strong but limited. Maybe I didnt make the right deck. If you really wanted to, you could make a fire/life deck. One cost won't kill you. If it's a cremation deck, simply use a photon or a gnome gemfinder or whatever. The ash eater cost is no issue there.
But in all honesty, I can't figure why the ash eater doesn't get the buff.
So really, what did you want with the ash eater if it did get the buff?