Spirit Blossom Master Yi
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Excellent (9/10)
Low Investment
Epic Relics
Spirit Blossom Master Yi is considered an incredibly powerful, overtuned champion capable of massive stat scaling and One-Turn Kills. Players disagree about his playstyle. Some consider his spell-chaining and massive stat growth to be incredibly satisfying, while others find his gameplay repetitive and note that his supporting package is strong enough to win games without even summoning him.
Optimal Scaling
Doubles the stat buffs granted by his spells, leading to overwhelming board presence.
Provides Overwhelm to ensure his massive stats translate directly into Nexus damage.
Ensures consistent access to Fallen Student and the incredibly strong 'Grief's Lesson' spell.- Secrets of the SpiritsRuneGives his Ephemeral units double stat gains.
Strategy
This build maximizes Spirit Blossom Master Yi's stat scaling and consistency. Secret Technique doubles the stats granted by his spirits, while The Beast Within provides the necessary Overwhelm to push damage through blockers.
Lux's Incandescent Baton ensures consistent access to Fallen Student and the incredibly strong 'Grief's Lesson' spell
SpellSlinger
- Doubles the stat buffs granted by his spells, leading to overwhelming board presence.
- Provides Overwhelm to ensure his massive stats translate directly into Nexus damage.
Grants cost reduction and card draw to a spell, ideally Practice Makes Perfect.- Secrets of the SpiritsRuneGives his Ephemeral units double stat gains.
Strategy
A variation of the previous build that forgoes playing Fallen Student in favor of stronger spells. While less consistent, this build can FTK more easily because it can be difficult to make use of Grief's Lesson on turn 1 while the spell cost reduction is immediately useful.
Plunder Yi
Reduces Yi's cost on nexus damage.
Further reduces Yi's cost.- Reduces Yi's cost even more.
- Spell BurnRuneCauses a nexus ping when you play a spell, triggering all of Yi's plunder relics to reduce his cost.
Strategy
In most games, Yi's 8 cost makes him prohibitively expensive to summon, so this build uses three 'Plunder' relics alongside a Spell Burn rune to reduce his cost to 2.
This allows Yi to be put into play in most games, allowing his free ghosts to win the game. This is often slower than the other builds however, since you need to play quite a few spells to boost the power of your ephemerals before playing yi can close the game.
Other Relic Options
Excellent for longer adventures, with rerolls helping Yi find more effective spells to duplicate onto his phantoms.
Inefficient Relic Options
This relic is ineffective because it is very difficult to make use of a second attack with ephemerals. Even when Yi is put into play, and he attacks with a board full of ephemerals, this relic is still ineffective because of board space issues.
Spirit Blossom Yi is a very 'fast' champion and tends to win games in the first round or two. This relic, with its once per round limitation, is very slow and generally provides no value.
Constellation
Spirit Blossom Master Yi performs exceptionally well even at 3 stars, making him a fantastic low-investment option. However, his constellation layout is heavily criticized for causing 'major blocking', making it difficult to access key upgrades.
Lesson One
Each Round, the first time you play a spell targeting only allies, animate it.
Fruits of Wisdom
+1 Starting Mana. Each round, the first time you play a spell, refill 1 spell mana.
Lesson Two
When you play a spell targeting only allies, animate it.
Can't Stop; Won't Stop
Allied "this round" buffs (except Barrier) are permanent.Review
This synergizes exceptionally well with Secret Technique and his signature relic for powerful defensive and offensive scaling.
Manaflow
Game Start: Get a mana gem.
Final Lesson
When you target an ally with a card, grant it stats equal to that card's cost.Review
Accelerates unit growth but is considered less impactful than the Novas of other Spirit Blossom champions, as he is already powerful enough to dominate encounters without it. Note that this is an inherent power effect and is not boosted by spell-cost modifiers like Secret Technique.
Gameplay Tips
- Win Without Him
Because of his high base cost, do not rely solely on summoning Spirit Blossom Master Yi early. His supporting package is incredibly strong, allowing you to win many encounters without him and reserving him as a late-game finisher.
- Spell Targeting Mechanics
His power only triggers from spells that exclusively target allies on the board. Spells that also target cards in hand will not activate his abilities.
- Misbegotten Creation Synergy
He uniquely benefits from the 'Misbegotten Creation' power, as copied spells count as created, granting his Ephemeral units additional stats with his c6 power.
- Avoid Stalker's Blade
Never equip Stalker's Blade. Due to specific interactions with his kit, striking upon summon causes him to defeat himself.
- Spell Item Combos
Yi uses items such as Hextech Fabricator and Brain Worm on his unit-targeted spells exceptionally well since the spell, including its item effects are duplicated onto his ephemeral phantoms, triggering the effect an additional time.