Darius

This is the worst of the worst. A good darius will draw in the first wave, force it to push towards him and zone you from experience and minions. You have to wait for him to mess up his wave state and hopefully push it into you so that you yourself can freeze closer to your tower. DO NOT EVER E IN TO THIS MATCHUP - he will W auto slow you and then pull you straight back with his E. Your best bet if he begins to fight you is to wait for him to use E W and then E out as he tries to Q. Play for the rest of your team and go 3rd rune page with support build items.

Illaoi

This matchup is all about how you play it early. If you dont dodge illaoi e its game over for you as shen, but if she does waste her E, make sure to punish pre 6 by taunting inwards and saving your w for when she comes out of your taunt to block her W auto. Take ignite and TP with dorans blade and possibly run page 1 or 2 if you feel confident about this matchup, but if you dont, then just like darius go page 3 and support build to try and have cross map influence. Unlike darius she has unbelievable split pushing power, so make sure she doesnt get out of hand by you using ult in poor situations.

Olaf

Olaf beats shen 1v1 at every point in the game. The best thing you can do is let him push into you and dodge his Qs. If the wave state is poor and pushing into him look to sac your waves and go for an ult across map to help your team. NEVER USE E TO ENGAGE IN THIS MATCHUP - he will just run you down especially if he takes ghost, so you will need to save your e for a disengage. In the late game try to stay on top of your carries rather than engaging as your W can be very useful in reducing his ult length. If things go poorly by lvl 6 or 7, use 2nd ability path and peel. 3rd rune page is optimal here as you will not win lane unless he is extremely incompetent. Look to rush thornmail rather than heartsteel.

Teemo

This is a pretty obvious counter pick to shen as shens damage comes from his empowered autos and teemo can easily blind you. However, many people may pick teemo first time for this reason and therefore may not have late game impact like most other teemo players. This is definitely a rune page 3 game, as you will not be able to proc grasp for the entirety of laning phase. Go support build as well and rush locket in order to peel for your team. Teemo's shrooms are his only splitting capability so play for ult and have cross map impact in order to reduce the inevitable toplane gap.

Trundle

This matchup is just annoying. You're confined to your lane the whole game without being able to use ult unless he backs and you tp back to turret instantly. Definitely go rune page 1 and look to proc grasp with q-auto and e to disengage the whole game. If you stay in lane you can easily go even by letting him push into you and punish with taunt when he goes to proc demolish. Use your W in the late game to prevent his auto q attack reset and peel for your carries.

Vayne

Impossible matchup. Use the 2nd ability pathing and 3rd rune page to have the most impact in this game. Rush ninja tabis and go dorans shield if you want to survive lane and then look to follow the support build potentially with randuins or iceborn. Her passive forces you to save E for disengage and try to use W to block either her W passive or Q auto (hopefully both). She has horrendous wave clear if she doesnt build statikk so use that to your advantage to have greater impact elsewhere with your ultimate.

Aatrox

Aatrox is beatable but definitely favoured towards him. Look to fight him lvl 1 by walking up to his brush and placing your sword there, so you can threaten an early empowered Q. Use your E to doge inwards from his Q1, and pull your Q through him for empowered Q. He wont be able to hit his Q2 so once he goes for it make sure you focus on dodging his Q3, and then punish with Q grasp again. Use your W to block his passive auto when you can. Also if he hits his W, try to walk out without E, and then E out afterwards, as his W pullback will cancel your dash if you dont E instantly. Rush thornmail and ninja tabis to help your case in this matchup. Ignite is preferable due to its anti-heal it gives you, and you can use ult to have cross map impact as he is a fighting/snowball reliant champ.

Aurora

Pretty much as all ranged matchups go. Look to use W to block her 3rd passive auto and go either 3rd or 1st rune page depending on how confident you feel. 2nd ability path can be good here but it really depends on your team composition whether you have an engaging support/jgl or not to ult on for impact. Go for the anti ap build here but switch out doran's blade for shield. Look to ult in this matchup as her split pushing capability is quite bad especially if she has less than 3 grubs.

Gangplank

Gnar

Heimerdinger

Kennen

Mordekaiser

Pantheon

Quinn

Sett

Smolder

Tahm Kench

Yorick

Akshan

Probably the easiest out of all the ranged matchups you can have as shen. Try to block his 3 hit passive using W and be a pest with your positioning to try and block his E disengage. In my experience akshan is really a feed or famine champ, so if you dont let him punish you early you should outscale him. It will be difficult to trade in this lane so I would recommend 3rd rune page with flash tp but 1st rune page is viable, you just wont be able to proc grasp very often unlike melee matchups. Rush ninja tabis and then build heartsteel and go for 2nd ability build path. Locket can be very good in this matchup to try and block his collector execute but mainly look to ult for the majority of this game or help your jungle with invades.

Gragas

Use your W to block his W auto attack and wait for him to waste E trying to trade with you. Be careful as his E will cancel yours but look to surprise him with taunt the second his starts his Q animation. You lose this lane after 6 when he gets lost chapter to look to beat him early and then proactively look for ult ganks, as his split pushing is not the best. Make sure you use your Q to trigger your passive to block his q poke damage and waste his mana.

Gwen

This matchup is slightly gwen favoured but still a skilled matchup. Go for 1st rune page and anti-ap build or aggro build with titanic hydra second purchase. In this matchup you want to use your W to block her empowered E autos and taunt through her just as she starts Q animation or when you anticipate for her to use it. This way you can dodge her main damage part of her Q and get a good trade off. You beat her until 6 where she can just run you down with ghost+ult. She will outscale you so be careful when using ult so that she doesnt get huge farm. Any combination of summoner spells is good here with each one having their upsides and down sides, personally I think ignite TP is best to stop her early snowball and late game splitting but you are giving up your flash taunt capability.

Jayce

Kayle

K'Sante

Ornn

Riven

Rumble

(skill matchup completely) - In my experience one of the most evenly matched 1v1s in the game. Dodge his E and it should be a free trade as long as you hit your taunt. Space his Q and look to all in when his heat bar is red, or around a 3rd of the way in. If matchup goes poorly you can always use ultimate for impact cross map as his split pushing is poor and he relies on winning his lane for impact. One of the few matchups where his lvl 6 gives him no greater power spike than you. If you want to "cheese him" in this 6 power spike, put a 4th point into Q when you hit 6 instead of upgrading ult, can make all the difference!

Singed

Sion

This matchup is really frustrating. It doesnt matter how many times you kill sion, if you use your ultimate he will get 3 plates for free early and your tier 2 turret later on. Use aggressive build for this matchup and if you will get hit by his Q, taunt into him and pull your blade through him to put his Q on 2 second cooldown. Sion surprisingly hates for you to be up super close, so dodge his E and go for trades right on top of him so that he has the shortest Q width possible that you can step round without him having time to charge a knockup. Look to save your W to protect yourself or your ally when he transitions into passive as it will block his auto attacks resulting in no damage dealt and a quicker death.

Urgot

Volibear

This matchup is all about timing your abilities. Use your Q for passive shield to mitigate his E poke if he goes for it and you really cant dodge it. Volibear's passive makes it difficult for him to refrain from pushing the wave into you, so use that to your advantage and let him push into you. You beat him level 1 if you can dodge his E and get empowered Q, so if you feel confident you can take ignite, but I would recommend TP and the 1st rune page, as he will be a huge splitpushing threat late game. Volibear is reliant on long trades and skirmishes so look to time your W to block his Q auto, taunt through his E, pull your Q through him, proc your autos with grasp and disengage. Your W is crucial in this matchup as it allows you to block his Q and W so do not waste it!

Camille

Go 1st or 2nd rune page for this matchup and doran's blade. She is so weak early so take advantage of that. Unlike most other top lane champs her lvl 6 powerspike is really weak vs shen so you can fight at all time. Use your E when she starts her W animation to avoid her extra damage and land taunt. When she tries to stun you with grapple from the wall, use Q + W to block her stun and taunt her to punish whilst she is in your W. Your W is extremely valuable in this matchup as it can block her true damage auto + reset so do not waste it! She will outscale you so be careful on that front but go the generic or aggressive build for maximum impact.

Fiora

Garen

Irelia

Jax

Kled

Renekton

Tryndamere

Yasuo

Yone

Cho'Gath

Whilst on paper this matchup may look cho favoured, due to his lvl 6 power spike and non-auto damage, he is very easy to beat if you shut him down early. lvl 1 aggro him and place Q near his brush. You should absolutely dominate this lane in levels 2-5 because of your Q max hp damage, and your W block on his E empowered autos. Make sure to use E to taunt him as he begins his animation for a Q knockup on you, as you will surprise him and he wont have time to silence you with W. Then pull your spirit blade through him for empowered Q and use W when he is out of your taunt duration. His Q knockup is very easy to dodge but be careful as it can make him completely dominate the trade. 1st rune page works best here but I like to take tp with doran's blade rather than ignite to prevent him from proccing demolish on your tower whilst you're ulting away from lane. Look to rush mercury treads here to ensure you can dodge his Q.

Dr. Mundo

Mundo is so weak early so use that to your full advantage. Walk up to his brush and place Q there to punish him when he walks up for early minions. Your Q max health damage is so crucial in this matchup so look to play as aggressive as possible. His passive shield cooldown is about 3 taunts worth of time, so look to taunt to get rid of his shield and then taunt soon again whilst keeping track of his passive timer. Your W will block his E empowered auto but only if you are the first target, just like yone/yasuo Q. Go aggressive build here but with a bramble rush to reduce his healing on his ultimate and Q. TP + flash is best here to stop his late game pushing and demolish procs but it should be an easy lane to stomp. Don't use ultimate to often as his waveclear tool on his E can really punish you. He will outscale you super hard so make sure that in the late game one of your allies with better waveclear is up against him, or buy titanic and sunfire to match his wave clear.

Malphite

Malphite is super easy as a matchup. You force him to build magic resist vs you if he wants to survive in lane which is bad for his champ in the late game. Go doran's blade here and 2nd rune page to punish him early by placing spirit blade towards his brush and pulling the first three minions to your river minion. Use your spirit blade to negate his Q poke + arcane comet with your passive shield and go heartsteel rush. He cant really punish you too hard when you ult because of his mana issues and bad tower damage so you can have much more impact elsewhere. Rush merc treads if necessary but look to stomp out his lane levels 1-5.

Nasus

One of the easiest shen matchups you will get. lvl 1 look to put your spirit blade in an aggressive spot near his brush and draw the first three melee minions to your river side melee minion - this gives him the least escape space possible if he wants to get early q stacks in. Punish him with grasp Q every time he walks up for experience or CS and look to all in lvl 2 if you brought ignite. Doran's blade works best here with ignite for maximum early damage, and ignite will have antiheal effect to reduce his passive healing later on. 1st or 2nd rune page is optimum as you really want to punish him pre-6. If things do go poorly in this lane, similar to mundo, you can always block his Q empowered autos for you and your allies.