Updated for Vendetta

Master Yi

Wuju Bladesman

Calm

BodyIntermediate

Wuju Bladesman makes a lone defender two Might larger without spending a card. The rest of the deck uses that bargain to keep another unit, another answer, or another attack available.

Should you play Master Yi?

Pick Wuju Bladesman if you enjoy defending efficiently and making the opponent commit first. One supported unit can hold a lane while the rest of your board prepares the counterattack.

Best for: Midrange players who like cheap card flow, patient reactions, and keeping their threats spread across the board.
Think twice if: You naturally pile several units into every defense or want the Legend to improve attacks. Its bonus only applies while a friendly unit is defending alone.

Key Cards

Lonely Poro gets the plan started without asking much from the hand: two Energy buys a four-Might lone defender, and a death while alone draws a card. Rengar supplies the opposite end of the turn. He can Ambush into an enemy-occupied battlefield without a friendly foothold, punishing the opponent for committing too much elsewhere. Tempered remains the chosen Champion, with Hunt building toward his own Deflect and Ganking.

Master Yi’s Field Guide

This is Wuju Bladesman, the lone-defender Legend, not Wuju Master, the XP-based Legend. While a friendly unit defends alone, it has +2 Might. Alone means no other friendly unit is at that battlefield; the opponent can have several attackers. The bonus costs nothing, but it is not permanent. It disappears when the unit stops defending or another friendly unit joins it. That makes reactions which improve the existing defender especially useful. You can change the combat calculation without spending another body or switching off the free Might.

How Master Yi wins

Make the opponent spend too much to take one battlefield, then use the resources you kept to take the other. Cheap units and draw effects keep the hand moving, while a larger threat makes the next attack difficult to contain. The Legend is doing its job when one defender lets the rest of the deck stay flexible. Do not turn that into a rule that you must always defend alone. Adding Rengar may lose the two-Might bonus but add six actual Might and save the point. The question is whether the new unit earns more than the bonus you gave up, not whether the board still looks perfectly arranged.

Key interactions

Improve the defender without adding another unit

En Garde · Discipline · Wuju Bladesman - Starter

A lone defender gets the Legend's +2, and En Garde can add another two Might for one Energy. Discipline adds two and draws a card for two Energy. Those are temporary increases, not buffs to keep next turn. En Garde checks whether the chosen unit is your only unit there when the spell resolves. Its resolved bonus lasts for the turn; the Legend's separate bonus continues checking the board. An opponent moving another friendly unit into the lane can remove the Legend's contribution even after your trick has resolved.

Know which death you are choosing

Lonely Poro · Scuttle Crab · Zhonya's Hourglass

Poro draws when it dies alone. Crab draws when played, then its Deathknell reveals the opponent's hand, allows you to inspect their facedown cards for the turn, and gives an XP. Hourglass replaces a friendly unit's death with a heal, exhaust, and recall to base while killing the Gear instead. That preserves the unit, but you do not also get its Deathknell. If the saved unit was the only defender, the lane may still be lost. Be clear about whether you need the body next turn, the death effect now, or the point neither option can protect.

Use Tempered's XP for a real second attack

Master Yi, Tempered · First Mate · Scuttle Crab

Tempered gets two XP whenever he conquers or Holds. At six XP he gains Deflect and Ganking; the Legend itself does not change. Crab deaths can help reach that total. If a conquest takes you from four XP to six, First Mate can ready Tempered and his new Ganking permits a move directly to another battlefield. Before six XP, readying him does not grant that route. Leaving the first battlefield empty also means giving up its defense, so take the extra attack when it advances the score more than staying would.

Strengths

The defensive bonus asks for no Energy, Power, or card. That leaves more resources for the response which actually decides combat.
Cheap draw effects and units that replace themselves help the deck keep developing after the first exchange.
A lone defender leaves other threats available. Rengar and a leveled Tempered can punish an opponent who commits everything to one lane.

Weaknesses

Adding or moving another friendly unit into the defense immediately removes the Legend's bonus. Tokens count too.
The bonus does nothing outside a defense. A unit that survives comfortably in combat can be much easier to remove during the opponent's open Main Phase.
Protecting every small body can exhaust the hand without improving the score. Know which lane can be surrendered and which point has to be defended.

Shadow's Pick

Master Yi tournament list by HBG·Tаng

24th place · S4 Wuhan Regional Open, 2026-08-30

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Deck total $203.03

Legend (1)

1x$17.82 ea.

Runes (12)

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

Battlefields (3)

1x$0.10 ea.
1x$0.12 ea.
1x$0.12 ea.

Spells (19)

3x$3.42 ea.
Power
1
Energy
1
3x$0.96 ea.
Power
1
Energy
1
3x$0.21 ea.
Energy
1
3x$2.24 ea.
Energy
2
3x$0.16 ea.
Power
2
Energy
1
3x$15.03 ea.
Power
1
Energy
1
1x$0.19 ea.
Energy
3

Gear (3)

3x$12.86 ea.
Energy
2

Units (18)

1xChosen$0.20 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
3x$4.09 ea.
Might
0
Energy
2
3x$0.20 ea.
Might
3
Energy
3
3x$19.41 ea.
Might
6
Power
1
Energy
5
1x$1.98 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
3x$0.16 ea.
Might
2
Energy
2
2x$0.10 ea.
Might
2
Energy
2
2x$0.37 ea.
Might
5
Energy
6

Sideboard (10)

1x$1.98 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
1x$0.37 ea.
Might
5
Energy
6
2x$0.19 ea.
Energy
3
1x$0.24 ea.
Energy
1
2x$0.24 ea.
Energy
1
3x$0.19 ea.
Might
3
Power
1
Energy
3

Shadow's take

This is my Wuju Bladesman pick because it keeps the opening simple and spends the larger slots on threats that ask different questions. Poro, Crab, and Clockwork Keeper give you eight two-Energy bodies. Poro wants to trade alone, Crab replaces itself immediately, and Keeper offers a card if you can spare an extra Calm Power. The three copies each of En Garde, Discipline, and Defy make leaving resources available worthwhile. I like the two Ruin Runners here because the opponent cannot simply choose the lone defender with removal. They still have to win combat or find an effect that does not target it. Akshan gives the main deck a way to take a Gear instead of trying to fight through whatever it enables. Three First Mates then help a preserved threat take another action rather than demanding a fresh five- or six-Energy unit every turn. The list does not need to win every exchange. It needs one affordable defense and a counterattack the opponent can no longer afford to answer.

The Game Plan

Early gameKeep a two-Energy unit and enough follow-up to make it matter. Poro is the cleaner fighter, Crab is the immediate draw, and Keeper is a flexible body with an optional Calm payment for a card. Do not spend that Power if it leaves Defy unavailable when the answer matters. Crab can conquer with zero printed Might, but its two Might as a lone defender is not a reason to force it into every attack. Develop at base when placing a second unit at the defended battlefield would remove the bonus. The chosen Tempered is a four-Energy follow-up, not a reason to keep an otherwise empty opening.
MidgameDefend the important point with the smallest commitment that still works, then attack where the opponent has left room. Discipline and En Garde can preserve the one-unit defense. Punch First is an Action, not a Reaction to a spell already on the chain, and its two Body Power are a real cost. Defy needs both limits to be met: the opposing spell must cost no more than four Energy and one Power. Use Sabotage before the attack when the dangerous non-unit answer falls outside that protection. Charm moves an enemy during your open Main Phase; it cannot be saved as an emergency Showdown response. Rengar can join a fight or attack an enemy-held battlefield directly through Ambush, but entering combat does not mean he gets the Legend bonus while attacking.
Late gameChoose the threat you need to keep and the point it is supposed to win. Runner is useful when targeted removal would otherwise break the defense. Tempered gains Ganking only after six XP, which can make First Mate much more threatening. A different ready unit at a battlefield still needs to return to base before it can make an ordinary move to another battlefield. Akshan costs four Energy and another two Body Power to steal a Gear; stealing Equipment also attaches it to him. The theft lasts while he stays on the board. Moving or recalling him to base preserves it, but returning him to hand gives the Gear back. Do not use a battlefield reset on him automatically just because it was good with Crab.

Battlefields

Blind

Star Spring · Rengar, Trophy Hunter · Scuttle Crab

The first non-token unit you play here each turn can move another friendly unit here to base. Rengar can arrive through Ambush, send the old defender home, and leave his own eight Might defending alone. A normal Crab or Keeper play works when you already control Spring, trading the old body for a new defender and the play's card flow. The unit sent home does not ready. The opponent can use Spring too, and simply moving a unit here does not trigger it.

Going First

Seat of Power · Master Yi, Tempered · Rengar, Trophy Hunter

Seat draws a card for each other battlefield you control when you conquer it. Protect one lane cheaply, then use the stronger threat to take Seat while that first lane is still yours. There is no draw if you control no other battlefield. A leveled Tempered leaving your only other lane empty to conquer Seat may gain the point but lose the expected card, so count actual control after the move rather than the board you started with.

Going Second

Emperor's Dais · First Mate · Scuttle Crab · Akshan, Mischievous

After conquering Dais, you may pay one Energy and return one of your units here to hand to play a two-Might Sand Soldier here. That token is a four-Might lone defender, while the returned Crab or First Mate can provide its play effect again later. Returning Akshan ends control of the Gear he stole. Keeping Rengar or Runner in place can also be better than replacing the threat with a smaller token. Take the reset for a specific next play, not because a conquest made it available.

Sideboard

Make the answer fit the opposing engine

Akshan, Mischievous · Ruin Runner

The second Akshan is for a Gear worth paying the additional two Body Power to steal. The third Runner is for games where targeted removal is the main obstacle to keeping a defender. I would trim a Keeper when its small body and optional draw payment are no longer useful, or Back Off when stun has few meaningful targets. Avoid turning the opening into a hand full of expensive protection carriers. You still need a cheap unit before those cards can take over.

Kill the obstacle before starting combat

Rampage · Rengar, Trophy Hunter · Ruin Runner

The two Rampages add a mutual-damage answer for your own open Main Phase. Your lone-defender bonus is not active there. Rengar deals six, Runner deals five, and paying the extra Body Power gives the chosen friendly unit +2 before the damage. Check that the fighter survives the return hit instead of borrowing its defensive Might. I would replace Back Off when a permanent kill matters more than one stun, or a Defy when the opponent has few spells it can legally counter.

Use the Decree that actually matches the threat

Decree of Focus · Decree of Strength · En Garde

Focus is a one-Energy Reaction for +4 Might, but its target must be in combat with an enemy Fury unit or be chosen by an enemy Fury spell. It is not a generic upgrade to En Garde. Strength instead removes a Mind card from the revealed hand, including a unit. Bring the appropriate answer when those conditions describe the card you need to beat. I would exchange an En Garde for Focus in the relevant fights and trim a less useful interaction slot for Strength, keeping the cheap response count high.

Let Fiora punish the single attacker

Fiora, Peerless · Discipline · En Garde

The three Fioras give you a cheaper fighter for one-on-one combat. As a lone defender she starts at five Might with the Legend, and her trigger doubles her current Might when it resolves. A Discipline played before that doubling takes her from seven to fourteen; played afterward, it adds only its normal two. Once the one-on-one ability has triggered, a later unit does not cancel the trigger, although another friendly unit still removes the Legend's two Might. I would replace a slow Runner or Keeper when forcing those individual fights is realistic, and leave Fiora out when the opponent can consistently attack with a group before she triggers.