From the Ashes(Redux)

Hi, i believe you are on the right track with this deck, i had a WR deck with balefires as well, but it focused on early pressure and win through combat/burn dmg rather than stalling until late game to bash face with huge creatures. I like it but have some suggestions you may or may not want to consider. Keeping in mind yo said you do not want to spend a lot of money on the deck my suggestion will be based around replacing a card for other with similar $ cost.

*First. You may notice that if red does not have many cards that let you stall the game long enough so you will be depending on the white cards early to help you survive. you may want to increase your W producing lands (early stall)in favor for the R ones (late finishing spells).

*Second. It seems the only cards you have to help you survive early are Stun sniper (really good in my opinion, but most likely will be dead in 1 or 2 turns, unles you have mother of runes out) , mother of runes (also really good, but she ll die to removal before you can tap her since there are so many 1 mana answers to her that you will depend on luck to have her sticking around) and citadel siege. The problem with siege is that you only run 1 copy , so the chances to play this on turn 3 or 4 are really slim, it will also stop the biggest treat from harming you, but will do nothing against swarm decks.

*Third. Some card choices you made are a bit confusing and seem to lack sinergy with the rest of the deck. Here are some examples:

1.Felidar sovereign. You say this will act as your late game winning condition, but i dont see any other lifegain card besides itself and the balefire lieges ( Balefire lieges are a wincon by themselves, since they pump your creatures for an alpha strike and the dmg ability can be triggered multiple times with your cheap red spells, life gain from liege is just a plus, if your opponent doesnt have an answer for it then you will win in 1 or 2 turns). This is a wincon that depends on a mechanic you do not support to be consistent. Thus i would recommend you to switch it by something with a wider impact like Sun titan (lacks the lifelink, but it is bigger and does something relevant the moment he comes into play and any subsequent turn, he can bring back most of your creatures , and, if you happen to have a scourge of the nobilis in your graveyard, he can bring it back, making him a 7/7 vigilant lifelinker... which in my opinions is better than the cat, or he can put it into someone else).

2. Breath of fury. This card depends on you sneaking an unblocked creature. But the only evasion you have is the one provided by Armored Ascension ( and you dont want to sacrifice your Big Flying Double Striking Monster before it can actually hit the 2nd time, remember the sacrifice happens after your creature deals First strike Dmg but before the regular strike dmg) and the evasion provided by mother of runes. You may want to consider similar options like Aurelia War Leader and Hellkite Charger, which are a little more expensive on the mana cost, do not require to actually hit to grant you an extra combat phase, and have big flying bodies themselves.

3. Splinter Twin. Iknow you said this is there mainly to put into liege and start doing some serious damage, but besides him i dont see any other creature worth put it in. i mean, you have sort of a search engine if you enchant heliods pilgrim with it, immediately searching for the other copy and any relevant auras the following turns. Keep in mind splinter twin has the potential to become a winning condition instead of a ´´do neat stuff card ´´. I would suggest you to back it up with cards like village bell ringers, zealous conscripts,midnight guard, etc.

4.Rite of flame. This card is not that good if you dont commit to 4 copies, either try to get the 4 or swap the for seething songs. You may also want to try Battle Hymn instead ( can produce much more mana, but is board reliant )

5. Wake the refletions. This card is kind of odd and situational since it does absolutely nothing by itself if you dont have a token to populate. And to have such token you require to have a splinter twin + worth creature (like liege, titan or bell ringerif you follow my suggestion) but at that point it kinda lses value since you already won, or are about to. I would recommend swapping it for Sundering growth,it is also situational since you need to target something before you can populate, but it does something and it is less frustating to have it in your hand instead of a wake the reflections with no tokens in play. This is also an Instant so it opens more possibilities. This will also free your Orim´s thunder slot.

*Other observations.

*Safe passage is kind of situational against certain decks (like burning, or life drain) and most of the time will be an overpriced holy day (there is still the rare moment when this card becomes MVP, like opponent playing an x=8 earthquake or so), you may want to try Angelsong (which can be cycled if not needed so it is never a blank draw, or if drawn early against some control decks so you can draw asomething else ) or Dawn Charm, which does almost the same as well, but can also save you against a wide number of decks.

*Consider cards like Windborn muse, ghostly prison, story circle,etc. to help you survive until you reach lategame.
*Consider adding any form of removal, the only sort of removal you have is stun sniper, which can be dealt with, try something like
condemn, path to exile, swords to plowshares. Incendiary and austere commands are flexible enough to deal with specific situations.
*Dont know if you have the possibility to add lightning helix to your list, it is a great answer to most early treats and the life gain is
good, absolutely try to include it and/o rwarleader/s helix if you keep your Felidar wincon for lategame. and oblivion ring to answer problematic cards like Planeswalkers. Serra ascendant is also a relevant card if you draw it lategame, or if you can keep it alive and put an ascension on it. ( these may be expensive but are worth your money)