How to win lane as Graves against Yasuo · 47.27% win rate (4,231 Emerald+ games, lolalytics, sampled July 2026) · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
He wants the same close-range brawl — your E grit-armor decides who actually wins it.
Track: Yasuo's W — Wind Wall (25–17s cooldown). Blocks every projectile for its duration — hold your poke until it is spent.
Read from Graves's seat: which stage windows this plan plays for against Yasuo.
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Yasuo | You have one E charge, short shell range, and no burst yet -- Yasuo pokes with Q and dashes the wave freely on his low-cooldown E. |
| Level 2 | Yasuo | He out-trades your early kit with Q poke and Windwall blocking your shells, and his E mobility refuses your point-blank range. |
| Level 3 | Graves | Fully online at 3: Quickdraw to close, the point-blank shell spread and a Smoke Screen that blanks his sight win this window if Wind Wall's 25s is down. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | True Grit resists and a Quickdraw your autos refresh hold the trade, but his crit shred out-stats that armor -- even and read-dependent. |
| Level 6 | Yasuo | Last Breath off a third-Q tornado knocks you up and chains his crit combo, and Windwall has already eaten your Q or R. |
| First item | Graves | Your Eclipse/Youmuu's first-item spike beats his -- force every all-in here on a down Windwall before he reaches two items. |
| Two+ items | Yasuo | Crit shred plus Windwall denies your projectile shells and Q entirely, and his R is a pick button -- he hard-outscales you. |
Yasuo's Windwall (W) is the whole problem: your shell autoattacks, your Q powder trail, and your R are all projectiles, so a well-timed wall eats your entire burst for its full 4 seconds and leaves you reloading for nothing. At 1-2 he pokes with Q and dashes through the minion wave on E (Sweeping Blade) -- which has only a short per-target cooldown -- so you can't pin him down. Your one real opening is level 3, when Quickdraw and the point-blank 4-shell spread come online: E-in, drop smoke so he loses sight of you, and burst him before his third-Q tornado is up.
Pooled Emerald+ win rates from Graves's side, sampled July 2026.
The full Graves vs Yasuo 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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Yasuo, slightly — Graves wins 47.27% of 4,231 games; winnable with the right plan.
Mostly — Yasuo has a small statistical edge (52.73% win rate), but execution decides this lane far more than the pick does.
No — if anything Yasuo has the slight edge (Graves wins 47.27%), though it stays close.
Graves takes Fleet Footwork on the Precision tree with Triumph, Legend: Alacrity and Coup de Grace, and Resolve secondary (Second Wind and Bone Plating) vs Yasuo.
Start Doran's Blade + 1 Health Potion and back for Serrated Dirk (≈1100g) — lethality spike. Build Eclipse / Hubris first, then The Collector, with Plated Steelcaps.
Playing the other side? Yasuo vs Graves guide →
All Graves top lane matchups →
More Graves top lane matchups: vs Volibear · vs Warwick · vs Wukong · vs Yone · vs Yorick · vs Zaahen