6-Card Sanguine Crit

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As soon as the game starts you have to find:

: Blood Ritual - This is our ideal bleed card. It's the new Blood for Blood. Not only does it activate our Axes, but it also activates Frenzy because we pay 1 life for it. The fact that it has 3 charges will probably never come into play. That it returns a card to your hand from time to time is just gravy.

: Lacerate - This is really a late choice if you simply cannot get Blood Ritual. It will do for the purposes of my build but then Sanguine Scrying is practically mandatory. I'll explain why in the next sections.

The other cards you want to find are:

: Exterminate - Yesssss. I know it's a Starter Card. However, I've found that when I start with Exterminate VS Gouge I have a harder time getting where to need to be to make this work. This is likely a personal preference.

: Cleave - This is the card that makes this deck work. It hits with a Battle Axe, which will crit if they're bleeding, and then conjures a Battle Axe to hand that gains attack equal to that damage.

: Rallying Shout - This card is activated by Blood Ritual, provides 1 : energy, heals, and draws a card.

: Vampirism - Our first defense card, not that we really need one. For 2 health(FRENZY!!!) nuke the enemy and heal for the damage.

: Sanguine Step - Our other defense card. Although it's really our alternative bleed card. It also bestows a dodge but your opponent won't get a turn.

This all comes together as such. You want to bleed your opponent first. Then Exterminate to stack the damage onto Cleave, which will crit and drop a Battle Axe into your hand that has the damage of the Exterminate and the Cleave added to it. This Battle Axe will smash easily for for 100 damage without any enchantments if you keep upgrading Exterminate. It also helps to give both Exterminate and Cleave Reliable, but not necessary because of the low count of cards in the deck.

Together that combo will slay most things in the story on Challenge. You can add the Butcher enchantment to upgrade Vampirism or Exterminate evertime you kill a foe. Below I'll discuss some other options.

: Sanguine Scrying - This is an obvious choice for any Frenzy build. It's not 100% necessary here unless you can't find Blood Ritual. I found, with Blood Ritual, this card was overkill for most of the run.

: Sanguine Surge - I didn't see it much but it's also another viable option. Activates Frenzy and bestows energy. Couldn't ask for more.

Getting Exterminate and Cleave to work off of each other is the key to this strategy. It's not as simple as my last crit build but it's also not that hard. Lay down the bleeding and bestow your dodge. Next waste down the last cards in hand, if you don't have Exterminate or Cleave in hand Rallying Shout will draw the only remaining card and you should be able to play both with Flanking.

If they get a turn after this, it won't be earth shattering. You can build the bleed again in the following turn. If Vampirism doesn't kill them, then the next Cleave combo will for sure.

The only issue with this build comes when you run into the Final Boss. At this point it would be wise to have Sanguine Scrying and/or a free Lacerate in addition to the aforementioned build to ensure you can break through his resistance and still reliably lay down the bleed, while maintaining consistency.