This is more than double the standard Strike. Clash, a card that costs 0 to play but can only be played if you only have attacks in your hand, deals 14 damage without being upgraded. This build, available from the beginning, is the most simple and best way to kill the enemy. Each Strike and Defend has the same power across all three characters, but to me, it’s felt especially necessary on the Defect. Personally, I’ve found that getting rid of Strikes and Defends is most important on the Defect. Personally, if I’m picking up lots of defensive cards, I get rid of my Defends, and if picking up lots of Attacks, I focus on throwing out my Strikes.
Another important thing to consider is that the player should try and get rid of their base Strikes and Defends while climbing. For the Defect, consider Auto Shields, Ball Lightning, Beam Cell, Boot Sequence, Cold Snap, Core Surge, Double Energy, Echo Form, FTL, Fusion, Genetic Algorithm (if you can pick it up on the first or second act), Go for the Eyes, Hyperbeam (if you don’t want to focus on orbs), Leap, Melter, Reboot, Seek, Stack, and Turbo. For the Silent, these cards are Adrenaline, After Image, A Thousand Cuts, Backstab, Cloak and Dagger, Dagger Spray, Die Die Die, Escape Plan, Glass Knife, Malaise, Noxious Fumes, and Slice. For the Ironclad, Clothesline, Flex, Cleave, Shrug it Off, Pommel Strike, Thunderclap, Battle Trance, Infernal Blade, Seeing Red, Uppercut, Demon Form, and Offering are all generally good cards to pick up, especially when not going for a very specific build. There are also cards that are good in just about any deck. This is because you’ll never be able to get the “perfect” deck, or at least not reliably enough to warrant listing how many you should aim for. One thing to keep in mind that there are no recommendations on how many of each card you should have in each deck. Each character has their own card libraries and a few relics unique to them, and some of these builds are more or less reliant on relics.
In order to find success, you’re going to have to have some level of consistency and synergy in your decks.