Contents
Claimed by the Void when she was only a child, Kai'Sa managed to survive through sheer tenacity and strength of will. Her experiences have made her a deadly hunter and, to some, the harbinger of a future they would rather not live to see. Having entered into an uneasy symbiosis with a living Void carapace, the time will soon come when she must decide whether to forgive those mortals who would call her a monster, and defeat the coming darkness together… or simply to forget, as the Void consumes the world that left her behind.
The daughter of the void, Kai'Sa, has arrived from the bottom lane of the Summoner's Rift right into the first Riftbound set, Origins. Channelling the energy of the unknown, her colours combine the unbound aggression of Fury with the intelligence of Mind.
With Fury being centred around above-rate Units and Mind focusing on casting spells, Kai'Sa promises a fast, aggressive spell-based strategy that seems to play like a tempo deck that wants to gain points as fast as possible while playing as many spells to keep the game in her favour, while also being willing to discard to stay ahead of the curve.
This is all tied together by her champion card, Kai'Sa Evolutionary, which lets her cast a free spell from your trash less than the number of points you've scored this game. With this, you'll want to get ahead fast with aggressive Fury cards while using spells to be able to clear the way for a rapid victory, building around being able to protect Kai'Sa as you constantly gank between battlefields to conquer repeatedly.
Kai'Sa Signature Cards
Kai'Sa's legend, Daughter of the Void, essentially lets you have an additional Rune every turn that can only be used to cast a spell. This heavily telegraphs that you want to be casting spells with her, and that you'll be able to keep your rune count up while playing powerful spells that would otherwise require you to recycle them.
On the other hand, her signature spell, Icathian Rain, is a powerhouse of a sweeper, dealing 2 damage six times distributed among opposing units, and can even deal 12 damage all to the same one if you wanted. With this, even though its cost is massive, it's flexible and can definitely turn the tide of the game.
Kai'Sa Staple Cards and Synergies
This will be updated as cards are revealed over spoiler season.
Kai'Sa wants to be playing spells ahead of the curve, and her legend adding an extra resource means that she can play spells that are 3+ with ease, meaning that cheaper spells aren't super relevant to her. Disintegrate is a great removal option that can replace itself in hand, making it an early-game option to be able to take out units quickly and get ahead.
Promising Future looks like it may have some combo potential, or the ability to close out games as well as being able to be cast from your trash with Kai'sa Evolutionary's ability later on in the game.
Kai'Sa Decks – Introduction to Channelling the Void
Kai'Sa Tempo
To find out more about how to play Kai'Sa tempo, read our guide to the deck!
Kai'Sa tempo seems to be the dominant Kai'Sa deck right now, with possibly the biggest dominance in both paper play and online play over the metagame. It doesn't look like this is going to change as Origins releases in paper worldwide, and so getting to grips with the Kai'Sa Tempo deck is only going to do wonders as we head further down the road.
In Kai'Sa Tempo, the aim of the game is to deploy a few small value-oriented units (like Watchful Sentry) and use those units to get to victory, leveraging strong removal to be able to stay a step ahead of your opponents. With this, there's an incredibly potent removal suite, with Void Seeker being an absolute highlight, turning a 1-for-1 into card advantage if used correctly.
One of the biggest reasons that Kai'Sa seems to be a popular deck is due to her ability to thrive in any metagame. She has her bad matchups, but a lot of her gameplay is skill-oriented and based on leveraging threats and resources to stay ahead. With this, it seems as though she's going to be a huge part of the metagame for a long time, especially if Spiritforged doesn't manage to push her out.
