Updated for Vendetta

Kai'Sa

Daughter of the Void

Fury

MindAdvanced

Kai'Sa keeps runes on the board while her spells buy time. Thousand-Tailed Watcher turns small damage into a clear, and Temporal Breach lets this list get that play effect again before Time Warp closes the game.

Key Cards

The Legend's Power is restricted to spells, so it keeps your interaction affordable without paying for your units. Watcher is the big turn: its play effect gives every enemy unit -3 Might, to a minimum of one, making cheap damage much more effective. Temporal Breach can replay Watcher for another reduction without paying its printed cost. Survivor remains your chosen Champion and a useful way to turn an open battlefield into a card, but these three cards explain why the control plan works.

Kai'Sa’s Field Guide

Kai'Sa makes a long game easier to afford. Daughter of the Void exhausts to add one Power that can only be spent on spells. That sounds small until you count how many runes you would otherwise recycle for removal. Keeping those runes in play leaves more Energy for the next turn, which matters when your best units cost seven or more. The early job is to stay involved in the scoring without spending the whole hand to defend a small unit. Sentry and Yordle replace themselves, cheap spells make awkward fights manageable, and Survivor can take a cleared battlefield and draw. You still need bodies. A hand full of answers can stop an attack and then have nobody available to take the point.

How Kai'Sa wins

Trade through the early turns while building enough resources to make one expensive turn decisive. Watcher reduces the opposing board so that a cheap damage spell can remove units it could not have killed on its own. An accelerated Watcher can then attack immediately, while Survivor rewards the easier conquests with cards. Once you own a battlefield that is likely to survive, an extra turn can turn that control into another Hold before the opponent gets their next turn. Do not wait for the most impressive possible finish when a normal attack is enough. The expensive cards are there to convert a stable position into points, not to justify giving up points while you collect them.

Key interactions

Preserve runes without pretending the units are free

Daughter of the Void · Hextech Ray · Kai'Sa, Survivor

The Legend can supply Hextech Ray's Fury Power, leaving you to pay its one Energy. That saves a rune from being recycled. It cannot pay Survivor's Accelerate cost because Survivor is a unit: entering ready costs five Energy and one Fury Power in total. The distinction becomes more important with Watcher, whose accelerated play costs eight Energy and two Mind Power. Decide whether spending the Legend now saves a rune you actually need later, or whether you should preserve its activation for another spell before your next turn.

Follow the reduction with damage

Thousand-Tailed Watcher · Bellows Breath · Falling Star

Watcher's play effect reduces an unmodified four-Might unit to one. Bellows Breath can then deal one to as many as three units at the same location, making it an efficient follow-up against several reduced bodies. The reduction alone does not kill an undamaged unit. Falling Star gives you two separate three-damage instructions and can reach a unit at base, but it is a normal spell for your own turn. Bellows Breath is an Action and can also be used in a showdown. Neither is a Reaction to a spell that is already pending.

Choose what the replay is worth

Temporal Breach · Thousand-Tailed Watcher · Brynhir Thundersong · Rockfall Path

Breach banishes a unit and has its owner play it back to the same location, ignoring its printed cost. Replaying Watcher repeats the board reduction; replaying Brynhir gives you another turn where the opponent cannot play cards after his trigger resolves. The returning unit normally enters exhausted. You may still pay an optional Accelerate cost, but that payment is not waived. At Rockfall Path the choice changes completely: units cannot be played there, so the banished unit cannot return. Use that on an enemy, not your own Watcher. A Breach in hand is not a Reaction; hide it on an earlier turn if you want to use it during the opponent's turn at that battlefield.

Strengths

The Legend lets repeated spell exchanges consume fewer runes, preserving the Energy needed for later threats and draw spells.
Small damage remains useful against larger boards because Watcher lowers the amount required to finish those units.
Play effects, conquest draws, and extra turns give the deck several ways to make a stabilized battlefield pay off.

Weaknesses

Expensive cards do not rescue an opening that cannot develop a unit or contest the first points. A good late-game hand can still be a bad keep.
The Legend supplies one Power, not Energy, and cannot fund units. Repeatedly recycling Mind runes can leave the finish out of reach.
Several important spells require your own turn. Recognize which answer can be played now before letting the opponent start the decisive exchange.

Shadow's Pick

Kai'Sa tournament list by 未中选脖子捂汗

30th place · S4 Wuhan Regional Open, 2026-08-30

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Deck total $406.90

Legend (1)

1x$0.28 ea.

Runes (12)

7x$0.10 ea.
5x$0.16 ea.

Battlefields (3)

1x$0.15 ea.
1x$0.26 ea.
1x$0.06 ea.

Spells (23)

3x$0.23 ea.
Energy
1
3x$0.14 ea.
Power
1
Energy
1
2x$3.23 ea.
Power
1
Energy
1
1x$0.68 ea.
Energy
1
3x$17.35 ea.
Power
2
Energy
2
3x$0.64 ea.
Power
1
Energy
2
1x$0.13 ea.
Power
1
Energy
2
1x$0.17 ea.
Power
1
Energy
3
2x$1.34 ea.
Power
1
Energy
6
1x$0.89 ea.
Power
2
Energy
6
3x$58.52 ea.
Power
4
Energy
10

Units (17)

1xChosen$62.18 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
3x$0.20 ea.
Might
1
Energy
2
3x$0.15 ea.
Might
2
Energy
2
3x$0.12 ea.
Might
2
Energy
3
2x$0.35 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
2x$2.77 ea.
Might
5
Energy
6
3x$20.58 ea.
Might
7
Power
1
Energy
7

Sideboard (10)

3x$0.16 ea.
Might
3
Energy
3
2x$0.24 ea.
Energy
1
1x$0.23 ea.
Power
1
Energy
1
1x$0.13 ea.
Power
1
Energy
2
1x$0.30 ea.
Power
2
Energy
5
1x$0.20 ea.
Energy
2
1x$29.61 ea.
Power
2
Energy
7

Shadow's take

This is my Kai'Sa pick because three Temporal Breaches give the Watchers more work to do than one big entrance. Once Watcher is in play, Breach can repeat its reduction for two Energy and one Mind Power. If you need it ready as well, pay the extra one Energy and one Mind for Accelerate; otherwise keep those resources for the spell that finishes the reduced board. I also like that Breach has a completely different job at Rockfall Path, where an enemy it banishes cannot be played back. The cheap units keep this from becoming a hand full of setup. Yordle draws immediately, Sentry replaces itself when it dies, and a Poro conquest makes Gold for a later turn's Power costs. Those savings matter with three Time Warps in the list. I would work toward a battlefield worth holding before spending ten Energy and four Mind Power on an extra turn. Taking another turn with nobody in position to score is a very expensive way to postpone the same problem.

The Game Plan

Early gameKeep an opening with a cheap unit and a useful next play. Sentry or Poro can get you onto the board, Yordle keeps the hand moving, and Stupefy can lead into a two-Energy Noxus Hopeful. Survivor is already available from the Champion Zone. I would send back multiple Watchers and Time Warps unless the remaining cards can genuinely carry the early turns. Use the Legend for spell Power when it saves a rune, and remember that Poro's Gold enters exhausted. It will help on a later turn, not pay for the next card in the same attack. You can let Sentry trade if the alternative spends the resources needed to stop a more important conquest.
MidgameWork backward from the battlefield you want to take. Watcher plus Bellows Breath can clear several four-Might units at one location. If Watcher is already at base, Breach with Accelerate costs three Energy and two Mind Power to replay it ready, then Breath costs another one Energy and one Mind. The Legend can cover one of those spell Power payments, but not the Accelerate payment. That leaves a ready seven-Might attacker after the reduction and damage resolve. Spend Breach differently when the board demands it: remove a large enemy at Rockfall, reuse Yordle when you need another card, or repeat Brynhir before committing your important spell. Retreat is the one-Energy Reaction save that returns your unit to hand and channels a rune exhausted; you still have to pay to play the unit again. Do not confuse that with Breach's cheaper replay.
Late gameCount the next points before reaching for Time Warp. A stable battlefield makes the extra Beginning Phase valuable immediately, and the new turn also readies your board and gives you another channel. The spell still needs ten Energy and four Mind Power; the Legend can supply one of the Power, and mature Gold can help with the rest. Brynhir can stop opposing card plays after his trigger resolves on the casting turn, but that restriction ends before the extra turn begins. Leave room for what the opponent can do then. Use Progress Day when you have time to reload, Singularity for two large targets, and Perfect Execution when a ready attacker actually has a useful destination. It grants Assault, not Ganking, so it does not let Survivor jump straight from one battlefield to the other. Take the clean winning point instead of spending another turn arranging a larger combo.

Battlefields

Blind

Rockfall Path · Temporal Breach

Rockfall gives the three Breaches a hard-removal role: a unit banished here cannot be played back because the battlefield prohibits unit plays. Movement is still allowed, so your attackers can arrive normally. The same restriction means you cannot play a fresh defender directly here or blink your own unit for value. I would start with Rockfall when removing one important enemy matters more than keeping all the friendly replay options available.

Going First

Startipped Peak · Plundering Poro · Time Warp

Choose Peak when the opening can take a battlefield and defend the first Hold. Its Hold trigger can channel an extra rune exhausted, which helps build toward the expensive turns without spending another card. Poro can contribute Gold from the conquest, but neither reward is immediate Energy for the current fight. If your opening cannot plausibly hold the location, I would not choose Peak just because Time Warp is in hand. The opponent can collect that extra channel too.

Going Second

Frozen Fortress · Watchful Sentry · Retreat

Consider Fortress when the opponent relies on fragile defenders or tokens. It deals one to every unit here at the start of each player's Beginning Phase, before scoring. Your one-Might Sentry dies to that damage too, so it cannot carry an unsupported Hold here. A larger body is a better long-term defender. Retreat can preserve a unit before it dies, but saving the last defender still gives up the battlefield. Prefer Rockfall instead when the problem is one large unit rather than repeated small bodies.

Sideboard

Match the Gear answer to the board

Pickpocket · Brittle Steel · Thermo Beam · Singularity

The three Pickpockets are for Gear costing one Energy or less; a successful kill also produces exhausted Gold. The extra Brittle Steel handles a larger individual Gear, while Thermo Beam clears all Gear, including your own Gold and Garbage Grabber. I would trim a slower removal spell such as Singularity when cheap Gear, rather than large units, is the problem. Do not spend five Energy and two Fury Power on Beam just to do Pickpocket's job against one token.

Use the domain-specific answer when it fits

Decree of Insight · Decree of Rage · Bellows Breath · Falling Star

Insight gives an enemy Body unit -5 Might as a one-Energy Reaction and ignores Deflect while paying its cost. Pair that reduction with damage or use it to change combat; an undamaged unit does not die merely because its Might reaches zero. Rage is an uncounterable Action that deals four to an enemy Calm unit. I would replace less effective damage, such as Breath against a few large bodies, rather than automatically adding both Decrees against every opponent. Check the actual unit's domains before boarding them in.

Choose between more cards and a reset

Garbage Grabber · Unchecked Power · Progress Day · Time Warp

Garbage Grabber is for a game where you can repeatedly pay one Energy, exhaust it, and recycle three cards to draw. Keep Brittle Steel or Perfect Execution in the trash when you still need their Flow use. Unchecked Power is the opposite choice: exhaust your friendly units, then deal twelve to all units at battlefields. It hits your board too. I would trim a slow draw spell or a Warp when surviving the current board is more important than the eventual finish, and keep a threat at base that can help rebuild after the reset.

Updated for Vendetta

Kai'Sa

Daughter of the Void

Fury

MindAdvanced

Key Cards