I absolutely adore this card purely for it's fun factor and the animation that plays when you play this card.

I actually really want to make this good but my brain can't get over how strange this card plays. 

My main issue is how "go big or go home" it feels.

If you play most of ironclad's strikes for this, I'd ask why wouldn't you just use bloodletting or expect a fight instead?

There's no big advantage for cheating out regular, twin or ashen strike over energy cards. Setup strike can be nice to cheat out but again, energy does roughly the same thing. And with energy cards you can use better overall attacks. 

On the other hand, pommel strike completely justifies the gimmick even without an infinite, and any infinite with pommel strike or pillage wins you the game most fight.

The only real middle ground I can think of is perfected strike, which is a solid payoff for this, being a 2 energy card, but is a gimmicky card in it's own right. 

My only issue is how few cards at all can make this deck good.

Most skills are a burden. 

Most non strikes are a burden. 

Some strikes aren't even worth it. 

And on paper the only way this card would be very strong outside of pommel/pillage is investing in card draw.

But ironclad's draw is very conditional on some cards, or weak. 

Burning pact could be good upgraded, but drum is now only draw 2 at most, battle trance shuts down comboing off, vicious will never work in this, aggression works against it sometimes, and dark embrace needs setup.

Offering is obviously helpful. But when is it not?

Obviously old stoke had to go but it was probably one of the few clear lines to making this work. 

We also have the doormaker, which could be doable but would be a nightmare without a clean setup.

So what am I even bitching about? Idk. I just kinda wish this card wasn't as difficult to take as it is. If I find it late, or have taken too many cards, no way can I take hellraiser. And if I find it early, I'm turning down any card that isn't pillage or pommel strike, at least once I can clear fights well enough. I also just wish he had more "strike" cards that worked well with this. It's just 80 copies of pommel strike. Defect got a rare strike and not the clad. 2 actually.

If I'm missing something lemme know, but I just really want this card to feel good to take more often.

Am I weird for thinking hellraiser is a bit gimmicky?