Since artifacts are dependent on RNG, I can only give you a general sense of what seemed to lead to the best results.

I will add more to this later.

For now, I will say that whenever you have a choice, prioritize action economy as I define it in the deck building section. Try not to unnecessarily gain disadvantages as the attached advantages are usually not worth it.

The overarching strategy is "action economy", or "How cheap can I make all my actions?"

The approaches include:

• Streamlining
  
• Reducing costs
  
• Increasing Mana
  
• Trusting the mechanics
  
• Misc.

Streamlining

This just means that as you get better cards, you want to make sure they come up as soon as possible and/or as frequently as possible.

You should resist buying many cards at the shop and concentrate more on using your removal optimally. Only visit the shop if you can afford a removal.

The process for a removal should be, "Do I have a better card than this one for the same or lower cost?" Examples:

• Remove a Magic Missile for every Sadism
  
• Remove a Mana Shield for every Haste
  
• Remove a Magic Missile for every improved Chill
  
• Remove a Magic Missile for every Shock Wave
  
• Remove a Mana Shield for every Ice Wall

Reducing costs

I also heavily employ deck cycling. So, anything that draws cards is huge. There is nothing worse than either wasting mana because you couldn't spend it on anything, or not having a card type (offense, defense) when you need it. So, get you an infusion (or 2) and swap all your missiles for Sadism and shields for Haste.

By doing this, you haven't changed your costs but you have maintained your offense/defense output (if you use the 0 cost shield card, your defense output decreases a tad, but it is still not a bad idea in overall action economy).

0 cost cards are excellent additions, if they are useful. Likewise, prioritize any improvement that reduces a card's cost (assuming you intend to keep that card). Hatred is one of my favorites. I rarely improve it, but I always want a few in my deck.

Giving yourself passive buffs like Amplify or Defensive Posture is another way to improve your overall economy a bit since your cards get more done. I might point out that Impotence is arithmetically equivalent to a defense buff (reducing enemy damage output reduces your defense burden), so consider it as such.

It could also be said that Repulsive Power has good economy since it effectively combines your offense/defense output into a single card. You could jettison one of each of your basics for each Repulsive Power, but it doesn't seem likely that you will have that many card trashing opportunities.

For this process, I went all-in on bleed effects. It's passive damage for you, which is great if you don't get the cards or run out of mana. It also keeps the pressure on your enemies when you can't attack for whatever reason. Also, bleed happens before they attack, so it could save your bacon. So, get Scurvy and Deterioration. Biting Wind is good if you can handle the 2 mana cost. [The only downside was the one goblin who gets power stacks from taking damage. He's literally the only problem and you just have to drag the match out with him by shielding up and winning a war of attrition against him.] If you have the good fortune to have it by the time you encounter him, Curse takes care of the problem by reducing his damage and putting bleed on him without doing any additional damage to him. Remember that bleed counts as a single damage source, so it only buffs him once regardless of the size of your stack.

Increasing Mana

The primary way to do this is from the skill tree. There are some artifacts that can help or you might luck into finding Mana Stream. The rule of thumb is: More mana is always a good idea.

Trusting the mechanics

The idea here is that if the icon above an enemy has no numbers, or otherwise gives no indicator that the enemy will attack you, then play your cards accordingly. You don't need to waste mana on shields if no damage is coming in. So, try to kill off someone or get those buffs out.

Likewise, any card you do not play contributes to your defense (1 card discarded/unplayed = 1 point of defense). Sometimes this can be the difference between getting hit or not.

Misc.

I know other guides hate Temptation, but I like it. It's expensive, but not a lot of lust cards are all that great anyway. The great part is that you can remove someone from combat for a few turns and you gain some essence to boot. Sometimes it's worth it just for the essence, even if you're only dealing with a single enemy. You gotta get that essence so you can trash cards.

I also generally found that it paid off more than it didn't to resolve non-combat encounters as greedily as possible. In other words, does it get you an artifact? Yes or maybe? Then pick that choice.

I'll just say that standard RPG tactics apply. Kill the healers first. Use temptation on the ones you need to take on alone. Use unnecessary cards as shield points.

Group attacks are not easy to build a strong deck upon, so another first principle for most builds is to generally work toward having the fewest opponents. All things being equal, work on the opponents from easiest to kill (usually fewest HP) to hardest. If there are extenuating factors, like healers or summoners, kill them first. Temptation is nice against the slaver, but doesn't work on the healer or the bone pile-- this might be the only reason I agree with many guide writers that Temptation isn't the greatest.

Maybe I'll add more here, but I think this is up to you.

Mostly just save shops for when you can afford card deletes and only buy cards sparingly-- or if there's an improved version of something you intended to get anyway.

Try to mitigate damage so you can use rest areas for card improvement, but heal if you gotta. No card improvement matters if you die.

Take on champs whenever you think you can because the rewards are worth it.

Always explore chests-- i.e. don't fear mimics. They're just chests that have a battle before them and they're generally not bad-- even with your starting deck.

Never choose "Heal" on level bosses as the battle end reward, since you heal to full for the next floor anyway.

Max out your relationship with the merchant girl. It will pay off.

I had a maxed out survivor tree and was built around bleed and deck cycling. When I got to him, I didn't even realize it was the final boss and had noted earlier that werewolves were getting to be easy.

I had 2 Black Holes in my deck and passed on Sexcalibur on that run (though it might have been nice). I did have Blizzard, which I regularly threw at enemies with zero mana pumped into it, because it would stick more bleed on them, if nothing else.

So, I just concentrated as much attack on him as possible and then prepared to soak his occasional attacks. If you pick up a thorns ability (artifacts or the card), then his summons will pretty much kill themselves attacking you.

Seriously, that was it. If you build like I did, you should find him pretty easy. I didn't even use my resurrection artifact on him (though I had it). I also had MIstress, but never ended up using it.

I hope this all helps somebody.

The end scene is actually pretty cool and totally worth working for-- I think.

Now, Go get your depravity on! Woo hoo!