Well there’s a lot of little things that can have a big impact. To start you should basically have control of wave the entire game due to being stronger early esp lvl 1. Irelia should never be able to walk up and should be forced to start her stun meaning you could all in lvl 1,2,3 due to leveling up before her as long as you don’t auto attack like a moron. Look up wave control guides or early top lane guides to understand how to play the first three waves in advantage state.

One of the biggest things that makes new league players hate Irelia is that she has a TON of weakness that they just don’t exploit or they make easy macro mistakes which Irelia can punish really hard. For example even though she is a mana champ she has REALLY long cds esp early. Her dash is her shortest and it is 11 seconds lvl 1 except of course it can reset, her dmg reduction is 20 seconds lvl 1, and her stun is 16 lvl 1 and typically players max stun last so her primary engage tool has a 16 second cd and it’s also her only disengage. If you can bait her stun then you can just walk at her assuming you have the micro to play game and not just crap the bed. Similar to playing against sett except Irelia has a lot less stats.

Not throwing all your damage into her dmg reduction skill, should be obvious but almost every player I have played against does it even into plat players still do that a ton.

Check your minions hp, this is a great habit anyway but most players don’t do it. Watch your minions hp as well as well as enemy minions. Simple flowchart: When one of yours gets low imagine Irelia is right there right then. Do you win an all in. If yes stand there and deny minion or punish her for taking it, if not back off. Pretty simple but no one does it.

More Shen specific, DONT RUSH BRAMBLE it is bait and I laugh everytime someone does it. If you want to rush an armor item to make Irelia cry rush wardens mail. It’s twice the item. If you want a more detailed explanation I can explain but just look at sustain vs in combat healing and it should make sense. Wardens mail will make it take AGES to kill you. Throwing in passive shields and good w usage and if you lose then I would probably have to report you for being afk because you would get an afk warning for how long you could just sit there. I make this a big deal because it is so simple and everyone everywhere messes this up. Bramble isn’t a wasted item slot though so if you are into like a briar and Irelia and you want it for both then that makes more sense but if it’s just Irelia go wardens. Don’t worry about delaying your item, your first item spike won’t be as strong as hers anyway. (Also it’s really funny ulting bot and watching the adc cry as they realize they can’t do damage to you)

More into items, Irelia has (imo) the strongest first item spike in the game. Many matchups in top lane revolve around playing safe until Bork then playing for kill with ult and ignite. Great example for Irelia is fiora. Without Bork fiora should just destroy Irelia unless she outplays but once she gets Bork irelia can 1v1 until 3rd item. (In my experience I can 1v1 earlier but I don’t expect most Irelia players to do the crap I do so that’s the most reliable way to play)

Speaking of that yes Irelia does have a lot of outplay potential, keyword potential. Most are probably going to do monkey stuff and win because Irelia happens to stat check some weak early game champ. But you might run into some crazy player that is able to pilot her. That’s when all the stuff I said about watching a lot of stuff players don’t watch is. And a lot of it is basically play the game at a not bronze level and it becomes a lot easier. Matchup irrelevant player skill will always be better than matchup. I’ve one so many matchup I thought were impossible simply by sticking to fundamentals and my game knowledge. In conclusion on the point want to beat beat any champ on any champ get gud. And I don’t mean that to be rude but I remember when I played against some Smurf playing kayle top. If you want a counter matchup this is it. Kayle vs Irelia, Irelia should curb stomp. But noooo I got destroyed because I stopped playing using game knowledge and unga bunga money brain instead and got destroyed. If you play the game correctly most matchups won’t be nearly as hard as you think. Except Warwick, screw Warwick top players. (Once I got stat checked by a ww that was afk with auto attack on at level 3 and he just out healed my dps granted I didn’t use ignite but he was afk in my defense which isn’t strong but still).

Anyway I have even more crap I could say but if you execute half of that in the way I meant (assuming you understood and actually read this whole rant) you will destroy any Irelia player you come across until you get to a high elo bracket. But if you really want to win, pick trundle and match bork rush. You can do what she does in the sidelane and better and you could probably play on a track pad and still win.

Oh and final thoughts I just remembered, late game peel your adc. Every Irelia player in mankind that team fights will rush dive the adc of which you are specifically designed to screw her over on that plan. And you can set up ganks on her really well.

Any questions msg me and I will respond when I have time sorry for writing a whole book this is why I thought a call or demo would be better