Table of Contents
Master Yi has tempered his body and sharpened his mind, so that thought and action have become almost as one. Though he chooses to enter into violence only as a last resort, the grace and speed of his blade ensures resolution is always swift. As one of the last living practitioners of the Ionian art of Wuju, Yi has devoted his life to continuing the legacy of his people—scrutinizing potential new disciples with the Seven Lenses of Insight to identify the most worthy among them.
Play Style
The new iteration of Master Yi is built exclusively around the new mechanic introduced in the Unleashed set: Hunt. To be fair, Riot gave us exciting rewards to work towards, as all our units getting +1 Might is already pretty good, while every unit entering ready is a fantastic late game ability. Unfortunately, these also come with two downsides:
- Our deckbuilding is quite limited, as we need to aggressively gain XP to get to level 6 as fast as possible, and level 11 not too long after.
- We have no legend ability in the early turns, meaning we are playing at a disadvantage during a core section of a match. Indeed, Riftbound is a game with a lot of snowball possibilities, while many removals don't care how big the unit is.
These two elements collide to determine this Master Yi's playstyle. On one hand, we want to build to gain as much experience as possible. On the other hand, we don't want to be passive early on, and give our opponent too much of a lead during that period we have no legend ability to leverage.
As a result, Unleashed Yi as I like to call it, is playing a midrange, off-tempo play style, with the goal to overwhelm the opponent once at 11 XP. Against a control deck, the goal will be to get to 6 XP quickly to get beefier units, more resilient to damage spells. Against an aggressive opponent, removing opposing units will become more important, even if it means less XP is earned.
Key Cards
UNL-059 for six runes and ready is the ultimate goal with this deck. However, the critical part is to get to that point. To do so, the deck will rely on a mix of solid units paired with support spells, in true Body - Calm fashion. Obviously, we also want those cards to grow our XP.
Early on, UNL-094 and UNL-040, followed by UNL-113 is the default start for this deck. When going second, UNL-100 can be played instead to let our chosen champion rest until we reach 6 XP.
Spells wise, UNL-095 is the staple in the deck. Alongside this one, we find the strong cards in both domains, such as OGN-045, OGN-077 or OGN-058. XP spells can also be considered staples, although UNL-031 and UNL-091 can't be played early on, so will only be played once or twice in the deck.
Competitive Status
Unleashed Yi is struggling to be competitive so far in Unleashed. Its difficulty to seize initiative early in a match gives too much room to its opponent, especially in this tempo oriented metagame.
Best Performances in Unleashed
- Rare Top 8 performances in City Challenges
