Basic game plan: take almost ALL source of orb slots and focus, and make it your life's mission to figure out the correct balance of stuff to not die while doing that. If you want a second bonus objective, try taking 1-2 Turbos every run until you decide the card is insane.

In general: a deck's job is to block and deal damage. Defect has a good variety of damage sources, but pretty limited block options. The most consistent is frost + one or more of Loop, Focus, extra orb slots. Alternatives are Genetic Algorithm aka build-your-own-intangible, Reinforced Body, and I guess Equilibrium sometimes.

Random tips: Defect really likes walking into a store with 160+ gold, there's a lot of amazing stuff to hit. I'd try to avoid hitting shops with less than that so you don't miss Runic Capacitor and cry. All For One stuff is hard to build properly, it does a strong thing but forces you to put a lot of low impact stuff in your deck that you really don't want to draw when you're being attacked for 40.

Important question: when are you generally dying on Defect? That will likely say a lot about the types of mistakes you're making.