LoR Deck Guide: Irelia Azir

How to Play Irelia Azir

Hey guys NicMakesPlays here and today I’m going to go over the new Irelia Azir deck.

This deck is explosive and a ton of fun so I hope you enjoy it!

At the time of writing this article, the various Irelia Azir deck variations are ranging between 56%-60% win rate based on our Meta Stats.

If you found this article because you’re trying to learn how to beat it, fear not!

We’ll be releasing a guide on specifically how to beat it very soon, so keep an eye out.

Deck Code: CECAKBACAQCQSCYPAQCAOAY2GM4QEAICAYVACAQCBIAQEAYCAUKAA

[See NicMakesPlays Irelia Azir deck details]

Win Condition

Irelia Azir combines Sand Soldier generators like Azir/Emperors Dias + Blade Dance to swarm the board.

This deck can easily kill the opponents or create continuous swarms each turn your opponent can’t deal with. This deck can win around turn 5-7.

Mulligans

In this deck, you always want to mulligan for Azir + Emperors Dias to get the Sand Soldier generators.

This deck’s strength comes from Sand Soldier + Blade Dances so you need to make sure you have the Sand Soldier generators.

Sparring Student is a really strong card in this deck and seeing it can make a huge difference in most matchups, so it’s a good keep as well.

Card Choices & Key Synergies

Azir + Emperor’s Dais

These cards enable all the combos by summoning Sand Soldiers.

The Sand Soldiers allow you to level Azir and Irelia easily, swarm the field, push huge damage, buff Sparring Student and Greenglade Duo, and make Blade Dances stronger.

Irelia + Blossoming Blade

Blade Dance is the new keyword that summons x amount of blades attacking.

If you combo this with Azir/Emperors Dias then Sand Soldiers are also attacking with the blades as well.

Irelia gives you a Flawless Duet to your hand during your attack turns to help push damage and buff your Sparring Student/Greenglade Duo.

Blossoming Blade summons 2 Blades attacking with Blade dance and is really strong on your opponent’s turn to keep up the pressure even when it’s not your attack token.

It’s an extremely strong card to recall off Lead and Follow/Retreat because it allows you to reuse Blossoming Blade to activate her Blade Dance again.

Irelia when leveled can swap places with Allies to remove blockers with her Quick Attack or push for huge damage.

Sparring Student + Greenglade Duo

Sparring Student and Greenglade Duo are two of the strongest cards in this deck.

Sparring Student regularly gets to 5+ attack in this deck which is a huge value for a 1 drop.

It’s is part of what allows you to push huge damage or get rid of their blockers since they are forced to block him and he will usually live through most combat trades due to his health buff.

Greenglade Duo is also extremely strong because she can also get to 5+ attack and can’t be blocked by most units due to her Elusives keyword.

These cards are really important against Aggro, which is this decks weakest matchup. Sparring Student + Greenglade Duo allows you to race aggro, as well as Sparring Students health buff, is great for blocking.

Lead and Follow + Retreat

Lead and Follow + Retreat allow you to recall your units to protect them and reuse powerful effects such as Blade Dance.

Lead and Follow is perfect for this deck because you can recall units being targeted by removal such as Mystic Shot, and then replay them while also getting a Flawless Duet to your hand.

Retreat is also good to recall units being targeted by removal and then putting them back into play to keep up the pressure.

You can recall Dancing Droplet with these cards to draw a card as well.

Inspiring Marshall + Homecoming

Inspiring Marshall and Homecoming can close the game out in the late game.

An unanswered Inspiring Marshall creates boards that output insane damage, especially since you can use Blade Dance to attack multiple times per turn with buffed Blades and Sand Soldiers.

Homecoming is used as key moments in the game to swing tempo in your favor and win from there.

A lot of matchups in this deck such as against Overwhelm or Thresh Nasus come down to them having one turn to kill you or they lose, then you just Homecoming their Overwhelm unit or Nasus and win the game next turn.

Good Matchups

This deck does amazing at decks that can’t deal with the continuous pressure from Emperors Dias and Azir.

Lissandra Trundle struggles against this deck because their removal spells such as Withering Wail and Ice Shard are removing generated units such as Blades and Sand Soldiers which will reoccur.

They are using real cards to remove generated cards and you can keep up the pressure from there.

The key to winning these matchups is not to rush things, they can’t deal with the board stats of Irelia + multiple Blade Dances and Sand Soldier generators so just keep up the pressure without playing too hard into Avalanches and removal and you win.

You can also use Lead and Follow + Recall at key times to keep your units like Irelia safe.

Bad Matchups

This deck’s weakest matchups are Aggro and Thresh Nasus.

Against Aggro, Sparring Student helps because it can easily gain high health to block with or high attack to try and race them down.

Greenglade Duo also allows you to race Aggro as well by being the main source of huge damage output.

Against Aggro Dunekeeper and Dancing Droplet are great blockers since Dunekeeper is 2 blockers for 1 mana and Dancing Droplet is a 0 mana blocker since it gives you attune.

When your opponent goes for a crucial aggro swing then you can use Homecoming to stop it and swing the tempo in your favor from there.

The same goes for Thresh Nasus – it will farm a lot of slays over time and then go for a crucial Nasus swing and you can Homecoming and then finish them off next turn.

Tech Choices

Navori Conspirator

Navori Conspirator is a great elusive to allow you to reuse Blade Dances by recalling Blossoming Blade or Ribbon Dancer, protect units like Irelia or Azir that were given Vulnerable, or draw a card off of Dancing Droplet.

Concussive Palm

Concussive Palm has a similar role to Homecoming where during crucial turns you can stun their unit and then kill them next turn.

Concussive Palm is slightly better against Aggro since it summons a 3|2 blocker and you can also recall the Tail of the Dragon to reuse Concussive Palm.

Shaped Stone

Shaped Stone allows you to kill enemy blockers that they thought were safe to block against the Blades.

People have to block to stay alive and even block with key units such as Champions, and then you can use Shaped Stone to give +3|+1 to your Blades or Sand Soldiers and kill their blockers in combat.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask NicMakesPlays during his streams (usually 6PM-1230AM EST).

Catch NicMakesPlays live at twitch.tv/nicmakesplays 6PM-1230AM EST