Counter Guide

How to Beat Master Yi

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

Master Yi has one gap closer, no crowd control and no way to disengage, and he still runs away with low elo games because nobody actually stops him.

Watching a fed Master Yi run through your team while every ability you own does nothing is one of the most helpless feelings in the game. It's also exactly what the champion is built to do. Alpha Strike [Q] makes him untargetable and Highlander [R] clears slows, then Meditate [W] undoes a burst you spent everything on. He's a punishment for teams that have no crowd control and no plan for a champion who only wants to right-click.

Matchup Snapshot Master Yi, the Wuju Bladesman

Where You Meet HimJungle

Damage TypePhysical and True

Why He Is FrustratingUnstoppable if nobody stops him

MobilityAlpha Strike [Q]

Biggest ThreatHighlander [R]

Hardest CounterRammus

What a Counter Needs

Hard crowd control, because he has none of his own to trade with
Something that stops or dodges basic attacks, which is his only damage
Terrain or a wall, since Highlander [R] only answers slows

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Master Yi on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Master Yi

Rammus4,425 games56.4%
Wukong4,350 games54.6%
Amumu2,985 games53.2%
Warwick5,417 games52.7%
Evelynn1,567 games52.1%

Picks Master Yi Beats

Rengar1,977 games40.4%
Kindred1,679 games41.8%
Zed1,628 games45.1%
Jarvan IV3,883 games46.0%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the jungle against Master Yi. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 135,316 Master Yi games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Master Yi Overview

Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous

Highlander [R] gives him movement and attack speed plus immunity to slows for its duration. Champion takedowns extend it (that's how one kill becomes four).
Wuju Style [E] adds true damage to every attack, so armor alone doesn't save you and tanks aren't safe from him.
Alpha Strike [Q] makes him untargetable while it resolves, so it dodges most single-target abilities and lets him jump a wall of minions to reach a carry.
Meditate [W] restores health scaled off how much he's missing and cuts incoming damage heavily while channeling, so he can full-clear and duel without ever going home.
Highlander [R]'s passive refunds a large chunk of his basic ability cooldowns on every takedown, so a fight he's winning gets faster as it goes.

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

He has no crowd control whatsoever. Nothing in his kit stuns, roots, slows, or displaces. He can't stop you from leaving or from fighting back.
All of his damage comes from basic attacks. Blinds, attack speed slows, dodge windows, and damage return all hit him harder than they hit anyone else.
Highlander [R] only answers slows. Slow immunity does nothing about impassable terrain (or about stuns, roots and knock-ups).
Meditate [W] is a channel. Any hard crowd control interrupts it, and he can't move while it's running.
Alpha Strike [Q] is on an 18 to 20 second cooldown. Once it's spent, his only way to reach you is walking in a straight line at melee range.

Countering Master Yi

Based on the strengths and weaknesses above, beating Master Yi comes down to champions who can accomplish at least one of the following:

Bring hard crowd control. Any stun ends a Highlander [R] window, and so does a root or a knock-up, because slow immunity does nothing against any of them.
Turn off his basic attacks. He has no ability damage to fall back on, so dodge windows and blinds are close to total answers (attack speed reduction too).
Wall him off. Terrain-creating abilities work through Highlander [R], and that makes them better than any slow you could apply instead.
Punish him before level 6. Without Highlander [R] he's a melee champion with one 600 unit jump, and he loses almost every early duel in the jungle.

If you're already locked into the matchup without any of those tools, these strategies still work:

Playing a Bad Master Yi Matchup

Interrupt Meditate [W] rather than trying to out-damage it. The channel reduces incoming damage heavily, so waiting it out is worse than any interrupt you have available.

Save your escape until Alpha Strike [Q] resolves. He's untargetable while it runs (anything you cast during it is wasted), and he's at his most vulnerable the moment it ends.

Group when his ultimate is up. Highlander [R] extends on every takedown, so the only way he gets a long window is by finding people alone.

Deny the reset rather than the damage. Even a Master Yi who's far ahead in items ends a fight quickly if the first kill doesn't refund his cooldowns.

Best Master Yi Counters

Jax evades his attacks and Rammus punishes them, while Trundle refuses to let him arrive. All three are jungle picks.

Jax Dodges the Autos

Counter Strike [E] is the most complete answer to Master Yi in the game. Jax enters a stance that dodges incoming basic attacks entirely for up to two seconds, takes reduced damage from area abilities at the same time, and then stuns everything nearby when it ends, with the damage growing for every attack he dodged. Master Yi's whole kit is basic attacks.

So the ideal Highlander [R] window (all attack speed and no crowd control) is the exact scenario Counter Strike [E] is best against. Leap Strike [Q] gives Jax the gap closer to start the fight on his own terms. Relentless Assault [Passive] matches Yi's attack speed ramp, and Grandmaster-at-Arms [R] hands him armor and magic resist for every champion he hits during it.

Rammus Turns His Damage Back

Rammus punishes Master Yi for doing the only thing he can do. Defensive Ball Curl [W] grants a large chunk of armor and magic resist and deals magic damage back to every enemy that attacks him (against a champion attacking several times a second, that's a serious amount of damage he can't avoid).

Frenzying Taunt [E] is what makes it inescapable. Taunting Yi forces him to keep attacking into the returned damage for the full duration, and a taunt is hard crowd control, so Highlander [R]'s slow immunity does nothing about it. Powerball [Q] into Soaring Slam [R] then knocks him up, and Spiked Shell [Passive] converts all that stacked armor into Rammus's own attack damage.

Trundle Walls Him Off

Trundle is the pick that beats the specific thing Highlander [R] is supposed to solve. Yi becomes immune to slows for the duration, but Pillar of Ice [E] creates actual impassable terrain from 1000 units away, briefly knocking back anything standing on it. Slow immunity has no interaction with a wall, so a well-placed pillar simply removes him from the fight.

Frozen Domain [W] then gives Trundle attack and movement speed plus increased healing inside a zone he chooses. Yi can't win that duel, and Chomp [Q] saps his attack damage while adding it to Trundle's. Subjugate [R] finishes it by dealing max health damage and stealing his armor and magic resist for the rest of the fight.

Itemizing Against Master Yi

Master Yi attacks with a mix of physical and true damage, so raw armor isn't the whole answer. Slowing his attacks down is:

Frozen Heart is the standout because its attack speed reduction cuts every part of his damage at once, including the true damage from Wuju Style [E] that armor does nothing about. Plated Steelcaps and Randuin's Omen handle the physical portion and the critical strikes, and Zhonya's Hourglass gives a squishy champion a stasis window to survive an entire Highlander [R] duration.