Updated for Vendetta

Irelia

Blade Dancer

Calm

ChaosAdvanced

Irelia turns a spell or an Equipment attachment into another action from the unit that matters. Fervent carries the attacks, while movement draws cards and builds the resources to keep taking fights.

Key Cards

Fervent gains Might when you choose her and when you actually ready her. Blade Dancer can pay one Power and exhaust to provide that ready, then pay one Energy after a conquest to ready the Legend again. Astral Heron gives this list another way to sustain those turns: once it is at a battlefield, your first card each turn can set up a two-Energy, two-Power discount on the next card. Establish the board first. Neither engine makes an opening full of expensive cards playable.

Irelia’s Field Guide

Irelia gets more out of choosing a friendly unit than most Legends do. Discipline can win a fight and draw a card, but with Blade Dancer ready it can also give an exhausted unit another action. Fervent rewards both parts: choosing her adds one Might for the turn, and readying her adds another. The important question is what that extra action accomplishes. A ready Fervent without a way to reach the next battlefield may just be an expensive unit waiting at the wrong location. Plan the movement before spending the Power. Boots of Swiftness gives her Ganking, while Ride the Wind and Tideturner offer different ways to change locations. These cards can also go toward Stellacorn Herder when finding another answer matters more than making Fervent larger.

How Irelia wins

Keep one unit useful across several exchanges instead of replacing it after every fight. Fervent grows through the spells and attachments you already wanted to use, and the Legend can ready her for another move. A conquest can then reset the Legend for one Energy, provided you still have the Power and another legal choice needed to ready a unit again. That can put pressure on both battlefields, but it is not a free loop. Sometimes keeping the first battlefield is worth more than leaving it for another attack. Herder supplies cards from movement, and cheap interaction lets a smaller board contest expensive enemy units. Turn those exchanges into a Hold or the next conquest before the opponent has time to rebuild.

Key interactions

Spend the ready where it earns another action

Blade Dancer · Irelia, Fervent · Discipline · Defiant Dance

Choose an otherwise unmodified, exhausted Fervent with Discipline. Paying the Legend's one-Power cost and exhausting it readies her; being chosen and actually readied each give her +1 Might for the turn. Discipline then adds its +2 and draws a card, leaving her at eight Might once those effects resolve. Defiant Dance offers the same friendly Might increase while reducing another unit by two, but does not draw. You pay the Legend's cost when committing its trigger, not after seeing whether the opponent answers. If Fervent is already ready, she cannot ready again for another bonus. Save that Power unless the ready changes what the unit can do.

Choose between a larger attacker and another card

Boots of Swiftness · Irelia, Fervent · Stellacorn Herder · Ride the Wind

Boots gives its wearer +2 Might and Ganking, allowing a standard move directly between battlefields. The move still exhausts the unit. Equipping Boots also chooses its target, so the attachment can start the Legend's ready sequence when you pay the Equip and Legend costs. Ride the Wind instead moves and readies one friendly unit. Fervent gains Might from the choice and the ready; Herder draws from the move. Decide which payoff the board needs. Ride already supplies a ready, so paying the Legend to ready that same exhausted unit first usually buys nothing extra. Ride is an Action, not a response to a removal spell already on the chain.

A saved unit still needs a way back into play

Tideturner · Zhonya's Hourglass · Stellacorn Herder

A Tideturner hidden on an earlier turn can swap itself with a unit you control at another location. That is movement, so swapping Herder draws a card. The swap does not ready either unit by itself, though choosing an exhausted target can let the Legend ready that target before the swap resolves. Hourglass does something different: it replaces a friendly unit's death by killing itself, healing the unit, exhausting it, and recalling it to base. Recall is not movement and does not draw with Herder. It can preserve your best unit while still costing you the battlefield. Work out how that unit will return before treating Hourglass as a complete answer.

Strengths

Choosing and readying Fervent adds combat strength while giving her another useful action, so a protection spell can also support the next attack.
Movement can produce cards with Herder instead of only moving damage around, helping the deck keep enough choices for later turns.
Equipment, Hidden cards, bounce, and counters give you several ways to contest a battlefield without matching the opponent's board unit for unit.

Weaknesses

Repeated Legend activations consume Power, and each conquest reset costs Energy. A hand full of tricks can still run out of the right resources.
Ready effects need a useful destination. Without Ganking or another movement effect, readying a unit at one battlefield does not let it standard-move directly to the other.
Saving a unit at base or returning it to hand can concede the point you were defending. Keeping every card alive is not always the winning play.

Shadow's Pick

Irelia tournament list by konаhа

1st place · S4 Wuhan Regional Open, 2026-08-30

Open in Deck Builder

Buy this deck on TCGplayer

We may earn a commission if you buy through this link.

Deck total $226.98

Legend (1)

1x$0.23 ea.

Runes (12)

7x$0.11 ea.
5x$0.11 ea.

Battlefields (3)

1x$0.10 ea.
1x$0.23 ea.
1x$0.17 ea.

Spells (15)

1x$1.27 ea.
Power
1
Energy
2
2x$1.37 ea.
Power
2
Energy
2
2x$3.42 ea.
Power
1
Energy
1
3x$2.24 ea.
Energy
2
2x$0.27 ea.
Power
2
Energy
2
2x$0.58 ea.
Power
1
Energy
2
3x$19.23 ea.
Power
1
Energy
1

Gear (8)

3x$0.35 ea.
Energy
3
2x$0.30 ea.
Energy
3
3x$12.86 ea.
Energy
2

Units (17)

1xChosen$18.45 ea.
Might
4
Energy
5
1x$0.46 ea.
Might
3
Energy
3
1x$13.91 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
3x$10.53 ea.
Might
7
Energy
7
3x$1.15 ea.
Might
3
Energy
4
2x$0.14 ea.
Might
1
Energy
2
3x$3.47 ea.
Might
2
Energy
2
3x$4.09 ea.
Might
0
Energy
2

Sideboard (10)

2x$0.46 ea.
Might
3
Energy
3
1x$13.91 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
2x$0.25 ea.
Might
3
Energy
4
1x$0.16 ea.
Power
1
Energy
3
2x$0.29 ea.
Energy
2
1x$0.27 ea.
Power
2
Energy
2
1x$0.58 ea.
Power
1
Energy
2

Shadow's take

This is my Irelia pick because the three Astral Herons give the deck a way to keep playing after the first Fervent turn. Once Heron is established at a battlefield, a cheap first card can make Rebuke or Switcheroo cost no Energy or Power before any extra taxes. That leaves more resources for the Legend, Equipment, or a counter. Treasure Hunter helps with the same problem from the other side: its movement produces Gold you can use on later turns instead of recycling another rune for Power. Herder keeps the cards coming, and Boots lets whichever unit matters move directly between battlefields after a ready. I like having those choices instead of asking Fervent to carry every fight. Scuttle Crab can even become the real attacker when Switcheroo trades its zero Might for the enemy's larger body. The three Hourglasses help preserve the board, but I would be careful about relying on them when one defender is all that stands between the opponent and a point. Saving the unit is useful; sending the whole defense back to base is not.

The Game Plan

Early gameLook for Scuttle Crab or Treasure Hunter, a way to develop toward Herder or Fervent, and a useful follow-up. Crab draws when played and can score an empty battlefield despite having zero Might. Hunter's first move makes an exhausted Gold, so do not count it as Power for the same turn. Fervent is available from the Champion Zone; you do not need to find her in the opening hand. I would send back multiple Herons when the rest of the hand cannot establish an early unit. Boots also needs a wearer and a Chaos-Power Equip payment after its three-Energy play cost. A hand of Gear and seven-Energy bodies is not an engine yet. Take an early battlefield when you can support it, then choose the Hidden card that solves the likely next fight rather than filling the slot automatically.
MidgameUse Fervent to pressure the battlefield that matters, and Herder or Hunter to keep the resource plan moving. If Heron is already at a battlefield, let the first card and Heron's trigger resolve before spending its discount. Rebuke can then clear a battlefield unit, while Switcheroo can turn a Crab beside a large enemy into a real combat threat. Both are Actions unless Switcheroo was prepared in Hidden on a previous turn; neither is an ordinary response to a pending spell. The swap uses the units' current Might and can change if the opponent interferes, so do not assume the printed numbers are the final result. Establish Vex at a battlefield before the enemy plays the unit you want to restrict. Her trigger does not stop that unit's play effect, and it does not catch an older unit moving in. I would use the extra time to secure the Hold, not spend the whole turn collecting another Herder draw.
Late gameKeep track of the resources each remaining point needs. Mature Gold can pay Power for the Legend or Equipment, but it does not supply Energy. If you are planning two conquests, budget the Legend's one-Energy reset separately from the next one-Power ready. Hourglass can keep Fervent or Heron available for a later turn, while a prepared Tideturner can put the right unit back on the contested battlefield. Neither promises a ready unit without another effect. Pyke produces one exhausted Gold per turn when an enemy dies while he is at a battlefield; a Rebuke does not trigger him. Near the last point, spend counters on the exchange that decides the game. Rebuking an expensive enemy is good only if you use the time before it is played again, and a large Fervent is useful only if she can reach or defend the remaining scoring route.

Battlefields

Blind

Abandoned Hall · Irelia, Fervent

Hall is my starting choice when the fight is likely to be decided by several cheap spells. Once your spell resolves, Hall can give a unit you control here +1 Might for the turn. Choosing Fervent with that ability also triggers her own Might increase and can offer the Legend another ready if it is available. The spell does not have to target Fervent, or even affect this battlefield. That flexibility helps you defend one location while interacting elsewhere. A countered spell does not trigger Hall, and the opponent receives the same battlefield benefit from their spells.

Going First

Sunken Temple · Boots of Swiftness

Choose Temple when your opening can put a Mighty unit into the first conquest and afford the extra one Energy to draw. Boots or Fervent's temporary increases can reach the five-Might threshold; Heron already exceeds it. The draw payment competes with the Legend's conquest reset, so decide which actually advances the turn. If readying Blade Dancer enables another important attack, I would fund that before paying for one more card. Temple does not need every attacker to be Mighty, and it offers the same draw to an opponent who meets the condition.

Going Second

Targon's Peak · Defy · Not So Fast

Peak is useful when you expect to spend resources retaking a battlefield and still want interaction for the opponent's turn. Its conquest effect readies up to two runes at the end of the current turn, not during the retake. Leave the runes you intend to use on the board; Peak cannot recover one recycled for Power. Keeping Calm available for Defy or Not So Fast can matter more than another unnecessary ready. I would choose Peak with a defender I can protect after the resources return, not as permission to spend everything on a fragile conquest.

Sideboard

Add bodies that disrupt the next attack

Pyke, Returned · Vex, Apathetic · Treasure Hunter · Astral Heron

The sideboard adds two Pyke and one Vex. I would consider them over Treasure Hunter or a Heron when the opponent's new units and repeated small fights matter more than slow resource setup. Vex needs to be at a battlefield before the new unit is played; Pyke needs enemy deaths while he is at a battlefield. Neither gets its payoff merely for being in the list. Keep enough actual attackers and do not turn every flexible slot into another spell.

Make a conquest answer the Gear

Adaptatron · Treasure Hunter

Bring in the two Adaptatrons when a persistent Gear is making normal trades unfavorable. Its conquest can kill a Gear without requiring that Gear to share its battlefield, then buff Adaptatron if it is not already buffed. I would start by trimming Hunter when future Gold is less important than removing that permanent. Adaptatron must still conquer before it can do the job. It is not an immediate answer you can play while already losing the decisive fight.

Use the counter that covers the real spell

Abandon · Defy · Not So Fast

Abandon is useful against spells outside Defy's printed four-Energy, one-Power limits. It costs two Energy without Power and Predicts, but usually returns the countered spell to the opponent's hand, so you are buying a turn rather than removing the problem permanently. A spell played with Flow is banished instead. I would replace a Defy when its range is the issue, while keeping Not So Fast for threatening abilities that choose a friendly unit or Gear. Abandon does not counter abilities.

Replace the trick that has stopped doing work

Rebuke · Ride the Wind · Star-Crossed · Switcheroo · Zhonya's Hourglass

The extra Rebuke and Ride the Wind can replace a Switcheroo when swapping Might is less useful than removing a blocker or moving another attacker. Star-Crossed is the Reaction option when you need to save a friendly unit and return an enemy at the same time; an Hourglass is a possible cut when recall after a would-be death is the wrong kind of protection. Both units returned by Star-Crossed leave the board. Do not make that exchange with your only defender unless the lost battlefield is worth the rescue.

Updated for Vendetta

Irelia

Blade Dancer

Calm

ChaosAdvanced

Irelia turns a spell or an Equipment attachment into another action from the unit that matters. Fervent carries the attacks, while movement draws cards and builds the resources to keep taking fights.

Key Cards