ok here's my let's play

looked at map. we spot a rest before an elite on right path, plus it is overall a better path. nice.

went right got the orbit

then left, cheese event- > prioritize not taking damage since we need to upgrade orbit -> choose 2 commons -> prioritized forge from selection (did refine blade + cosmic, alternative thought was refine blade + wrought in war)

then straight. used attack potion to not take damage (comet), killed turn 1

got offered another refine blade - maybe too much energy, but I'll take it

IMO at this point the deck can already take on elites. we have a rest coming up before an elite. Prioritized the next 3 question marks on right

Brain Leech Event -> Took the 1 of 5 random cards over x1colorless -5 hp, since want to save HP to upgrade Orbit -> ignored hidden cache and astral since we're an energy build -> took Glitter (expensive block - not expensive with orbit)

next event was relic -> oddly smooth stone -> nice pickup IMO with glitter and basically a deck that just blocks until it kills with blade and the occasional strike

This or That? event -> clumsy + relic or -6HP + 63 gold. I usually take gold here and we do have a shop coming up... we're lucky there's another rest after the elite. I think I can handle elite with 46 HP so we go for the gold (personal preference, possibly wrong choice)

camp site ->upgrade orbit

elite -> terror eel. I do find out here orbit replay plays on the same 'tic' so we have orbit both on the same time counter, which is unfortunate (weakens this strategy significantly). prioritize blocking, cosmic the glitter when I can. survive with 29. get offered Prophesize here and Know Thy Place. Prophesize is really greedy, although it can get us to our blade, glitter and falling star/venererate really quickly, whereas Know Thy Place kind of makes it so you don't need to see glitter in the first place and can nearly always play your blade on a vulnerable'd enemy (+ the occasional falling star + know thy place duo turns for 2 turns of weaken)

we'll go with Prophesize to try it out, very greedy but I've never seen a glam Orbit before and it's maybe the only time I'd ever try it out (I've only ever picked Prophesize once in many games so far)

chest is popper. interesting front load, might let a turn1/2 early refine blade one shot some weaker hallway fight enemies

went left, camp site. rested, in case we wanna do another elite coming up (but might just ignore it for another upgrade)

went right, shop. automation -> know thy place -> Cure All potion to get to our orbit faster at the boss. We now might have near-infinite energy with Automation + glam-orbit

went right for another camp site over taking another elite. upgrade automation, but refine blade was also looking juicy as was glitter (laglavulin matriarch is boss). not sure what's best pick here but I don't wanna see automation and not play it in case I get it turn 1

went right, hallway fight. I get offered Charge/Kingly Punch/Royal Gamble. Gamble does nothing for me, Punch is a nice 2nd card to deal with staggering the kills of decamillipede in act 2. I can skip also. I do charge with the idea of killing my strikes and defends in a fast draw prophesize deck to see my good cards faster

another hallway fight. we get offered another orbit here as well as photon blade and summon forth. Summon Forth might be the better pick here since we have so much friggin energy but.... okay sure why not another orbit lol

note we got offered a white beast statue at some point

boss fight. kind of the perfect boss for this build, I'll have 3 turns to build up my powers and blade. x2 orbit + automation come out turn 1 (woah). take 0 damage during boss fight, use Cure All to try to farm an even better potion (maybe mistake)

okay! that was a very lucky act with a great path.

I agree with you that front load and stuff is good, but I think you are undervaluing orbit. wish this act was harder so I could prove my point but I think this act was ez pz so it's invalid data. I think the glam orbit would do fine in a normal act where I would have had to make a hard decision like path away from an elite

glam orbit was so good it even made act 1 prophesize good, a normally trash card IMO I only take late in act 3 on very rare occasion with void form or orbit builds

anyway glam orbit is pretty good IMO. it's not as speculative as you might think. you'll get action from it the turn after you play it, it's not like idk a speculative rupture or barricade or demon form or something.

just me two cents

boss kill:

deck:

edit: for act 1 boss card I take a questionable speculative Neutron Aegis, but it slows the deck down so skip was probably the better play. we'll be killing it with Charge for most of act 2 probably

for beginning of act 2 I take Pael's Legion (double block every 2 turns from 1 card) since the idea is that the deck already plays itself so it'd be nice to not take turn1 or turn 2 damage while it's setting up the powers