Defect

Claw deck

Spam 0-Energy attacks and cheap damage, scaling Claw and cycling the deck until damage snowballs. You largely ignore orb win conditions but may still lean on passive Frost for incidental Block.

Early commons

• Claw — core scaling attack; multiple early copies signal full commit
• Momentum Strike — can hit 0 Energy for synergy with the shell
• Beam Cell — easy Vulnerable
• Go for the Eyes — easy Weak
• Flash of Steel — strong shop pickup to keep the engine turning

Early uncommons

• Scrape — main cycling tool alongside other cheap cards
• FTL — 0 Energy with a little draw
• Skim — draw is the bottleneck when everything costs nothing
• Hologram — returns Claw (later Scrape / All for One); upgrade removes Exhaust

High synergy

• All for One — incredible for dumping Claws and enablers back into hand
• Feral — Echo-Form-like effect for 0-cost cards, cheaper setup
• Machine Learning — draw; slightly redundant once All for One is online
• Panache — rewards playing many cards per turn
• Secret Weapon — tutors All for One or Scrape to jump-start the deck

Relics & items

• Iron Club — extra draw
• Nunchaku, Shuriken, Kunai, Ornamental Fan, Kusarigama — reward playing many cheap cards
• Power Cell — early tempo

Tips

• Without orb focus, passive Frost Block can still shore up defense
• Don’t grab every 0-cost card—you need to actually find and play Claws; deck bloat hides your payoffs

Simple orb deck

Channel and Evoke for a balanced game plan—mostly Lightning and Frost—with Focus and slot management deciding whether you lean passive Block or explosive Evokes.

Early commons

• Ball Lightning — early damage with orb upside
• Cold Snap — Ball Lightning’s defensive cousin
• Coolheaded — staple draw; upgraded draws 2
• Barrage — often efficient single-target with multi-hit upside from orbs
• Compile Driver — powerful draw
• Lightning Rod — weak Block but solid Lightning Channel

Early uncommons

• Glacier — chunky defense
• Chaos — flexible Channel (can hit Dark and Plasma)
• Capacitor — more orb slots for passive value; pairs with Focus, slows Evoke pacing
• Loop — excellent with Focus
• Thunder — damage as you cycle orbs
• Hailstorm — AoE leverage from Frost

High synergy

• Defragment — take and upgrade as many as you can
• Modded — strong until the cost rises to 2 Energy
• Multi-Cast — finisher with Focus, Plasma Energy, or fat Dark orbs
• Voltaic — late-turn finisher; excess orbs Evoke immediately
• Tesla Coil — payoff with extra orb slots and Focus

Relics & items

• Emotion Chip — strong if you can manage self-damage
• Gold-Plated Cables — simple orb passive value
• Metronome — free AoE when you Channel constantly (e.g. ~30 damage)
• Runic Capacitor — optional; strong with heavy Frost or Dark plans
• Data Disk — Focus is always welcome
• Power synergy relics (Lost Wisp, Game Piece, Jeweled Mask, etc.) — Defect runs many Powers

Tips

• Channeling new orbs Evokes old ones—learn when to cycle for burst vs keep passives
• High Focus plus frequent Channel often Evokes naturally; that loop is central
• Defensive stance: more slots + Frost Channel; Barrage likes extra slots, while Darkness-style Dark orbs can “cook” behind Frost with more room
• Multi-Cast spikes hard with Focus, Plasma, or large Dark orbs