My first run as the USSR in Slay The Spire. I opted for the Stalin build this time around as he synergized with the 5 Year Plan and Assassinate cards. Unfortunately my deck did not have the tools in it to allow my Fidel to pop off. My Yuri Gagarin was stuck at the bottom of my deck and not even Zhukov could save me. Next time I'll build towards nukes and then we'll see who's laughing.
nukes is a good idea. you want to maximize damage/card against the timekeeper. Playing too many low cost cards will make you lose against them. Unfortunately, there's no way to know if you're going to get them as a final boss when you start act 1. I did an anarchist run. I had both Goldman AND Berkman, but they constantly spawn zero cost cards which doesn't really help against the time keeper