Ahri Kennen Deck Guide

Hi there! Wamuu here!

After a short break I’m back and today I’m bringing you my deck guide for Ahri Kennen.

AHRI KENNEN DECK GUIDE

As we've seen in Leer's latest Meta Report, and Shadawx's article about Top Performing decks, Ahri Kennen has become very popular since the nerf to Ezreal Kennen. Like the Kennen Ezreal deck, this deck utilizes the recall synergy of both the Ahri and Kennen package to level both champions while protecting units from removal or combat. 

There are currently many versions of Ahri Kennen in different regions but usually, it is 37 Ionia cards plus a second region for a finisher. The version I will be covering will be the Shurima version which utilizes two The Absolver as an alternative finisher. Other versions utilize cards like Mind Meld or Go Hard as their second region splash but the deck mostly plays out the same way.

 The main objective of the deck is to deal elusive damage with units such as The Mourned, Dancing Droplet, Navori Conspirator while they recall themselves or with Ahri to level her up. You close out the game by making an elusive chain with leveled Ahri, Overwhelm damage with The Absolver, or a wide elusive board.

CARD CHOICES:

3x Kennen: Kennen in this deck is more of a support champion that helps you prolong the game by stunning your opponent’s big threats.

Leveled Kennen is a great The Absolver target -- when he attacks and gets blocked, he gets two Mark of the Storm which can remove his blocker and lets the Overwhelm damage get through.

Mark of the Storm is also a great trigger for Eye of the Dragon against aggressive decks.

3x Ahri: She is the main win condition of the deck.

Usually, you want to play her and attack with an elusive unit to her right so she strikes her blocker, recalls the elusive unit, and strikes the nexus for free. Once she is leveled she gains the elusive keyword and you can make an elusive chain by placing all your elusive units to the right of Ahri to deal enormous damage to the enemy nexus.

One thing to keep in mind is that even if Ahri isn’t leveled if she is 5/6 on her level up condition you can set up a chain attack anyways because once she recalls the first unit to her right she levels and starts recalling and switching places with all the units to her right.

3x Dancing Droplet: After Ahri this is in my opinion the most important card in the deck.

Each time you recall Dancing Droplet you draw a card. This is the key to why recall synergy works because you don’t run out of cards when playing a recall effect. Be careful when recalling your Dancing Droplet: if your opponent removes it, this can be catastrophic for this deck because you will eventually run out of cards if you don’t find another Dancing Droplet.

3x The Mourned:  Amazing one drop for this deck as it deals two elusive damage and recalls herself on nexus strike, advancing our game plan and champion level up conditions.

2x Eye of the Dragon: This is a tech card for aggro decks as it helps slow down the game by a lot so we can get elusive damage in before our opponent kills us. Our deck’s main weakness is the inability of the deck to block without pre-committing a recall spell, Eye of the Dragon helps cover this weakness and synergizes well with Kennen.

3x Navori Conspirator: Very good two drop as it helps us recall Dancing Droplet or Kennen when needed and also helps get elusive damage in. 

2x Shadow Assassin: Good elusive card that helps us cycle the deck and can be summoned for one mana with Return as well.

3x Kinkou Wayfinder: Since we are running mostly Ionia cards, Kinkou Wayfinder is a natural fit for the deck as it can summon a combination of two one drops in the form of Dancing Droplet, Kennen or The Mourned for a huge tempo swing when needed.

2x Recall: Very cheap recall spell and almost impossible to play around with. Helps you to save important units such as Dancing Droplet or Ahri when you’re in a pinch.

2x Nopeify!: Good anti-removal spell that helps keep our units alive.

3x Retreat: A very synergistic spell that helps us save important units while advancing our game plan and summons a unit for one mana which can be a huge tempo swing.

2x The Absolver: The only Shuriman card in our deck, it works as an alternative finisher once either Ahri or Kennen is leveled.

3x Twin Disciplines: Staple Ionia card that can be used either defensively to protect units from removal or offensively to close out games.

2x Concussive Palm: Amazing spell that helps us stall the game against decks with big Overwhelm units. If you need more answers to big units once you’ve already cast Concussive Palm you can recall Tail of the Dragon to get your Concussive Palm back in hand.

2x Deny: Staple Ionia spell that help us deal with high-cost AoE removal or key spell cards in the opponent’s deck.

2x Homecoming: Very synergistic card in our deck as we already want to recall our units and we can remove an expensive unit from the opponent’s board while advancing our game plan.

MATCHUPS:

Taric Pantheon DE (64,3% WR):

Mulligan: Ahri, Dancing Droplet, Kennen, Navori Conspirator (if you have a one drop), The Mourned, Recall, Nopeify! (if you have a good hand), Retreat (if you have a good hand), Twin Disciplines (if you have a good hand).

This is a pretty favored matchup because their only way to deal with your elusive units is Single Combat or Confront which plays into your recall spells and Sharpsight which can deal with one elusive unit but not with multiple units.

Your main game plan against this deck is to go as wide as possible with elusive units and chip them down, save mana to recall your units when they commit interaction and you should be able to win the game easily.

The main concern you have when playing against this deck is Zenith Blade. The only way you lose this game is via Overwhelm damage. So, you need to watch out when your opponent uses Zenith Blade on Wounded Whiteflame. The main way to stop this is by stunning it with Concussive Palm or recalling the unit with Homecoming.

You should look to finish the game before your opponent gets to level up Pantheon because there are keywords that just lose you the game if he gets them and you can’t stun or recall him. Some of those keywords are Scout, Lifesteal, Spellshield.

You should save mana for Deny if you think your opponent wants to cast Golden Aegis. This should be the only use of Deny for this matchup so don’t waste it unnecessarily.

Gangplank Sejuani (49% WR):

Mulligan: Ahri, Dancing Droplet, Kennen, Eye of the Dragon, Navori Conspirator (if you have a one drop), The Mourned, Recall, Nopeify! (if you have a good hand), Retreat (if you have a good hand), Twin Disciplines (if you have a good hand).

This is a very even matchup on the stats but I feel like it is slightly favored for us. Outside of Zap Sprayfin and Make it Rain or Parrrley they have no way of dealing with your elusive units so most of the time you can get free damage in the early game and hopefully kill them before they can level up Sejuani or Gangplank to shut you down.

Even if the opponent levels their champions you can recall them with efficient cards like Homecoming or stun Gangplank with Concussive Palm if your opponent develops him.

Nopeify! is super important in this matchup because Make it Rain can blow you out if you’re not careful. As long as you play around Make it Rain and deny plunder triggers here and there you should be fine.

Kinkou Wayfinder is a great card in this matchup as it helps you go as wide as them to block and deny some plunder triggers.

Most of the game you want to block with your non-elusive units to keep your health high while dealing damage with your elusive units or Ahri. Kennen can be used to remove some of his units and also a blocker. 

Kennen Ahri (50%):

Mulligan: Ahri, Dancing Droplet, Kennen, Navori Conspirator (if you have a one drop), The Mourned, Recall, Nopeify! (if you have a good hand), Retreat (if you have a good hand), Twin Disciplines (if you have a good hand).

The mirror can be a bit tough because of all the combat tricks this deck has. Depending on the version you need to play a bit faster or a bit slower, but most of the time you want to play for recalls to level your Ahri or Kennen as quickly as possible while disrupting your opponent.

Some good cards in the mirror to disrupt your opponent are: Kennen and Nopeify!. A leveled Kennen can constantly threaten your opponent’s units like Ahri or Dancing Droplet sometimes forcing them to use a recall spell. Nopeify! can sometimes blow out your opponent if he commits a recall during combat to save his unit and you deny the spell. 

Something to keep in mind is that the Shadow Isles version of this deck usually beats the mirror because they run Go Hard so try to play around with this if you face that version.

Lee Sin Zoe (76,7%):

Mulligan: Ahri, Dancing Droplet, Kennen, Navori Conspirator (if you have a one drop), The Mourned, Recall, Retreat (if you have a good hand), Kinkou  Wayfinder (if you have a good hand).

This is a very favored matchup, mostly because Lee Sin Zoe takes time to set up their OTK but our deck goes very wide very quickly with elusive units and they only have one elusive blocker which is Zoe. The way Lee Sin Zoe decks are teching against this deck is by running Wounded Whiteflame and casting Zenith Blade on it to get a lot of Overwhelm damage on us before we can kill them. They also run more copies of Hush to shut down our Ahri attacks or a buffed elusive unit. You just need to play around with these two things and you should be fine.

The way to play around this is by prioritizing your elusive units in your mulligan and just keep attacking over and over again with a board as wide as possible. 

Zoe can be a problem if left unchecked so try to trade her if you have the chance. Supercool Starchart has a lot of cards that can slow us down quite a bit like: Equinox, The Serpent, Crescent Strike and The Trickster so make sure she at least doesn’t connect with your nexus.

If the game goes long enough for your opponent to have a leveled Lee Sin on board, remember you can recall your unit when he tries to kick it into your nexus to avoid half the damage in case he has Overwhelm. You can also use Deny on Dragon's Rage if necessary.

Save your Concussive Palm and Homecoming for big Overwhelm units like a buffed Wounded Whiteflame or Lee Sin.

Bandle Tree (63,1%):

Mulligan: Ahri, Dancing Droplet, Kennen, Navori Conspirator (if you have a one drop), The Mourned, Recall, Nopeify! (if you have a good hand), Twin Disciplines (if you have a good hand), Retreat (if you have a good hand), Kinkou Wayfinder (if you have a good hand).

This is also a favored matchup because you tend to kill them before they win the game with The Bandle Tree. The one thing you need to watch out for is your opponent swarming you with units, especially if they play Poppy. Usually, you want to save your Concussive Palm and Homecoming for Poppy because a wide board attack with Poppy can be detrimental to our strategy.

Bandle Tree no longer runs any elusive units so your game plan is to deal as much elusive damage as possible while staying alive.

This deck has a lot of pings and removal so be careful when committing recall spells. Nopeify! help you keep your units alive as almost all of their removal is three mana or less. Twin Disciplines can also be used defensively to save important units from removal. Because they run a lot of pings you should be recalling units with Ahri so you don’t pre-commit recall spells but save them to react to your opponent’s removal.

Pyke Rek'Sai (60,1% WR):

Mulligan: Ahri, Dancing Droplet, Kennen, Navori Conspirator (if you have a one drop), The Mourned, Recall, Twin Disciplines (if you have a good hand), Retreat (if you have a good hand), Kinkou Wayfinder (if you have a good hand), [[Deny[[ (if you have a good hand).

This is another favored matchup mainly because we can block most of their units and recall our blockers to prevent damage since most of their Lurkers don’t have to Overwhelm. Their deck does not run any interaction outside of Death From Below so you can pre-commit recalls as much as you like.

In most matchups you want to get as much elusive damage in as possible while leveling your Ahri, their deck has no way of blocking elusive units so Ahri gets to attack for free the whole game.

The one thing you need to play around that can win them the game is Death From Below. I recommend keeping a Deny if you have a good hand just to be safe and play around with it.

Save your Concussive Palm and Homecoming for their big midrange units like Xerxa'Reth, The Undertitan and Xer'sai Dunebreaker. Concussive Palm is also an amazing counter if your opponent plays Rek'Sai because you stop her from leveling up and she goes back to their deck.

Twisted Fate Nami (33% WR):

Mulligan: Ahri, Dancing Droplet, Kennen, Navori Conspirator (if you have a one drop), The Mourned, Recall, Eye of the Dragon, Twin Disciplines (if you have a good hand), Retreat (if you have a good hand), Kinkou Wayfinder (if you have a good hand), Deny (if you have a good hand).

This is a very unfavored matchup, mainly because of Red Card. Our only way of beating his deck is by going wide and killing them with elusive damage before they get to play Nami or Curious Shellfolk but Red Card shuts down this strategy pretty heavily. Because Red Card is a skill, it can only be countered by Deny which makes it a bit awkward to deal with.

Prank also counters our deck heavily because we run so many spells. Any spell your opponent hits with a Prank can slow us down significantly. They also run a lot of pings like Group Shot and Pokey Stick so keep this in mind when playing one-health units.

The one way to win this matchup is by turbo leveling Ahri so try to get her in your opening hand and recall as many units as you can while playing around Group Shot and Pokey Stick. Navori Conspirator can help you with this. 

Veigar Senna (48% WR):

Mulligan: Ahri, Dancing Droplet, Kennen, Navori Conspirator (if you have a one drop), The Mourned, Recall, Nopeify! (if you have a good hand) Twin Disciplines (if you have a good hand), Retreat (if you have a good hand), Kinkou Wayfinder (if you have a good hand).

This is a very weird matchup because both decks kind of ignore the other one and just play for their game plan. Darkness wants to wipe your board with pings and like Pokey Stick and Vile Feast and AoE like Withering Wail while pumping their Darkness and leveling Veigar. Meanwhile, you want to kill them with elusive damage since they have no elusive blockers. 

You need to win the game as fast as possible while playing around their two mana pings. Recall and Retreat are great ways of doing this. Do not pre-commit recalls in this matchup, only use them reactively or you will get punished.

Nopeify! is a great card to deny their Darkness and save your units while slowing their gameplan. Twin Disciplines can also help as a defensive card if you need to save a specific unit from removal. 

One problem we have when playing against Darkness is that we can’t remove Veigar efficiently if he gets played so try to win the game as fast as possible once your opponent does this.

Homecoming and Concussive Palm should be reserved for either Senna or Ixtali Sentinel.

Withering Wail can blow you out so try to save your Deny specifically for this card.

Kennen on turn one can be very good in this matchup to make sure you have a blocker for their Twisted Catalyzer.

Lissandra Taliyah (47,8% WR)

Mulligan: Ahri, Dancing Droplet, Kennen, Navori Conspirator (if you have a one drop), The Mourned, Recall, Nopeify! (if you have a good hand), Twin Disciplines (if you have a good hand), Retreat (if you have a good hand), Deny (if you have a good hand).

This is a very weird matchup as well because you need to go wide to kill them but you also need to play around Ice Shard, Avalanche, and Blighted Ravine. 

Ahri is a great card to have in this matchup because of her three-health stat line. She survives most of their removal and can usually attack for free. Just be careful if she gets frostbite.

Weirdly enough in this particular matchup, you want to use Deny on Avalanche instead of Promising Future, because you should be able to kill them before they get their Frostguard Thrall out and even then, we can stun them or recall them. If they have a Lissandra on board though then you might consider denying Promising Future because a leveled Lissandra instantly wins them the game.

Outside of that there is not much else to say, they try to get their thralls out and you try to kill them with elusives before they do.

Teemo Swain (42% WR):

Mulligan: Ahri, Dancing Droplet, Kennen, Navori Conspirator (if you have a one drop), The Mourned, Recall, Nopeify! (if you have a good hand), Twin Disciplines (if you have a good hand), Retreat (if you have a good hand), Kinkou Wayfinder (if you have a good hand).

This is a tough matchup because Teemo Swain runs a lot of pings and Ravenous Flock which is a very hard card to play around with. They are looking to remove your important units such as Ahri, Dancing Droplet, and other elusives. They do this with cards like Pokey Stick, Poison Dart, Death's Hand, Ravenous Flock, etc… So, in this matchup, you have to be very careful and only recall units when they are threatened.

The way to beat this deck is to play your usual game plan but be mindful about their pings and removal spells. One bad pre-committed recall can cost you the game in this matchup. 

Concussive Palm and Homecoming should be saved for Swain and The Leviathan. This deck is pretty much unable to block Swain without it feeling horrible so you want to either stun or recall him, the same thing with The Leviathan. 

When playing against this deck you need to keep in mind that your developments can be punished heavily by Arachnoid Sentry. So, if you already have a recall target to attack with Ahri you should open attack most of the time or your opponent will make your attacks very awkward.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Kennen Ahri is a very strong deck in the current meta as it counters most of the top-played decks in this patch. It is a good deck to climb, especially if you can play it at lower ranks where players don’t play around stuff.  However, it is a very difficult deck to play. Therefore, I recommend you to try the deck in normal games a couple of times before hopping into ranked as you might lose a lot of games due to misplays.

If you are a high elo player I also recommend this deck because it has a lot of outplay potential and can get some wins out of nowhere when your opponent doesn’t expect it. 

Competitively, it is also a very strong deck to bring in certain lineups but I would be very careful as it can get targeted very easily because it has a lot of polarized matchups.

Hope you enjoyed the deck guide and good luck climbing this season!

Wamuu

Top 200 Master LoR player. I have a lot of passion for this game and love sharing my thoughts and game knowledge through deck guides and articles for competitive play. 

If you would like coaching from me you can dm me in Discord at: Wamuu#7531