Something Something I Hate Yasuo Players (A chat about a potential off-meta hard counter)

Even though I'm not personally seeing a lot of yasuo's currently in my games (as of February, 2017), I'd very much like to keep it that way. So, in the spirit of hating yasuos, I'd like to impart a small discovery I made to all of the mid laners of NA out there.

Have you considered picking lissandra into yasuo?

I know, all things considered there are almost always better options in terms of mid laners in general and liss is certainly not without her own shortcomings. But can I get a chance to sell this to you? Let's look at yasuo's strengths first.

• high mobility
• pseudo lane sustain (from passive shield)
• projectile negation (from w)
• built in armor pen (after ult)
• easy stat acquisition with crits

So what does lissandra have over other midlaners that makes her potentially a more effective choice against yasuo?

• high cc
• self heal on r or hard cc on r (depends on cast target)(i tend to prefer the latter)
• deceptive harass
• hard to approach in close quarters
• most dangerous when dived (more on this)

Yasuo can be a bit of a lane bully, quickly establishing dominance by making his opponent afraid to approach and then easily poking or forcing a fight when it suits him. What lissandra does that negates a lot of yasuo's power in lane is essentially make it extremely difficult for him to approach her. Lissandra takes away from yasuo his ability to get in and out of a scrap without consequence. A lot of good yasuo players make good use of his E in order dodge skillshots, dive under tower and escape before he sustains too much damage while simultaneously hitting you like a damn truck. Lissandra, with her W, essentially makes approaching her via that means nearly impossible. Lissandra's W is a 1.5 second root on a 10 second CD and while it has a fairly short effective range, it is an instant cast, AOE ability that CAN'T BE WIND WALLED. This ability on its own effectively shuts out almost 80% of yasuo's strengths, and the best part is that it holds him down just long enough for you wail on him like the fragile squirrel that he is.

But what if he walls just after the root?

well, if you're smart you'll try to bait out the wall beforehand. you can do this by poking his shield with autos and harassing him and cs nearby minions with your Q. Yasuo would then be forced to either negate the damage now or hold it for when he thinks he can dive you. Pester him with autos. Make him use his wall so he can safely cs and then punish him during the wall's CD.

But what if he keeps his distance and pokes with his Q?

If that's happening, it means he's probably afraid to approach you. Use his minions to extend the hitbox of your own Q. Remember, he has to openly risk damage to get his tornado. Only his empowered Q can safely damage lissandra without risk but he has to land 2 other Qs before that becomes available. punish him when he tries to get his Q empowered and root him if he tries to harass you.

What about when he uses his ult?

Mash that W key. As soon as it lands and you don't die, back off out of Q range. At this point, when he ults you, it's almost an open invitation for you to get a full combo off (W-R-Q) which will almost certainly force him out of lane if it doesn't kill him.

When can I dive Yasuo?

It's usually enough to just force him from jumping on you. However, further incentivising him not to fight you is never a bad thing. Usually, engaging him directly is best saved for when he's already used his wall. This ensures you can reliably chunk him when he's locked down. In regards to positioning though, don't try to fight him in his half of the lane. Lissandra doesn't have good escape tools and getting ganked in his half of the lane will almost certainly get you killed.

The biggest advantage lissandra has in lane is her ability to force neutral game against champs without long range poke and harass. She can easily force a stalemate in the lane where any offensive decision made by the enemy is punished harshly. Under these conditions, champs like yasuo (who tend to rely heavily on snowballing) are extremely hard pressed to find a way to snowball, either resulting in a frozen lane or forcing the enemy to roam to try to wrest an advantage somewhere else (something easily stopped by wards and counter roaming). Another tip is not to be aggressive. Lissandra is mana hungry and slow, particularly in the early game. Ideally you want to maintain a minion stalemate where the wave consistently isn't pushed far in one direction or the other. Be difficult to approach but also entice him to approach you. Make him afraid of pressing the R key. Lissandra is one of few champs and even fewer mages where you can say to someone, "please dive me".