This Slay the Spire 2 playthrough was my Defect run, which is funny because Defect was one of my worst characters in the first game and I fully expected this to go badly. And, to be fair, it did at first. I accidentally took the Eternal option, bailed out, started again, tried to make dark orbs and power stuff happen, then died in a spot where I honestly thought I was doing okay. This is the classic Defect experience for me. I suspect this or the Regent will be my worst performing character in the future once I hit like Ascension 5.
The second run went much better once the deck stopped pretending it knew what it wanted and started becoming a real power/orb pile. Tesla Coil, Rainbow, Hotfix, Hailstorm, extra block from unique orbs, and a bunch of awkward-but-useful power choices turned into something that could actually survive. I still made plenty of questionable plays, and I kept wishing for more orb slots, but the deck got there. By the end I beat the Defect run on Sanction 0, then immediately realized I still had Ironclad cleanup to do before I could actually say I cleared every character. Of course.
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