How to win lane as Vayne against Smolder · 49.54% win rate over 4,088 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Even / skill | Level 1 is even as both of you farm and neither has a trading advantage yet. |
| Level 2 | Even / skill | Level 2 stays skill-based with Smolder poking and you denying while trading on cooldowns. |
| Level 3 | Even / skill | Level 3 is even since his Q stacks aren't mature and you can tumble his W poke. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | Levels 4-5 are even because Mobile Deathray matches your tumble mobility in the 2v2. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | Level 6 is skill-decided as both ults roughly cancel and fights hinge on cooldowns. |
| First item | Vayne | First item favours Vayne because your W and Q resets out-trade his still-ramping stacks. |
| Two+ items | Even / skill | 2+ items is even because a fully-stacked Smolder executes and kites, keeping pace with your carry. |
Levels 1-3 are a skill matchup: Smolder just wants to farm his Q stacks and poke with W, and you want to deny that scaling. Trade into his cooldowns, take CS on the move to avoid his poke, and keep the lane even without giving him free stacks that snowball his scaling.
The full Vayne vs Smolder report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Smolder vs Vayne guide →
All Vayne bot lane (adc) matchups →