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An Ionian of deep resolve, Yasuo is an agile swordsman who wields the air itself against his enemies. As a proud young man, he was falsely accused of murdering his master—unable to prove his innocence, he was forced to slay his own brother in self defense. Even after his master's true killer was revealed, Yasuo still could not forgive himself for all he had done, and now wanders his homeland with only the wind to guide his blade.
Debuting in the initial set, Origins, Yasuo combines Calm with Chaos, to be able to slice through the noise and take the tempo rapidly, much like in the game he originates from.
Both domains don't mix up very well together, at least from a design standpoint. Calm cards tend to be support cards, designed to control the pace of a match through buffing our units or countering opposing spells. On the other, Chaos plays at 100 miles an hour, looking to cheat energy or leverage certain synergies.
At first, it can feel difficult to both invest into our Chaos cards while keeping some runes for our Calm spells. Yet, when we manage to find the right balance, it just clicks. Indeed, the tempo developed by our purple cards forces the opponent to play from a reactive stance, the ideal position for our green cards to shut the door on any comeback attempt.
The legend suits that play style well, allowing to move a unit one more time per turn. With that ability, we can use a unit as if it was ready, either sending it to a battlefield for a conquest, or return it to our base to keep it safe. This dual purpose is exactly what we discussed with the mix of Chaos and Calm.
So far, OGN-259 mostly emerged a rather fast-paced champion, aimed at cheating cards out for cheap (OGN-194, OGN-195) and use its ability to move them immediately.
Yet, there are other scenarios which call for using our ability as a protective measure, for example if we were at 6 points and plan to win through conquering both battlefields next turn. In that scenario, we might as well return our unit to our base instead of having it fight in a showdown we won't benefit from anyway.
Best Yasuo Decks
Budget Yasuo Deck
Yasuo Signature Cards
Like most fragile cards for their cost in this metagame, OGN-205 has failed to become a staple, and isn't seeing much play at the moment. The ability is appealing, but the card typically requires us to invest too much into it. Indeed, if we keep some runes open to protect OGN-205, it is difficult to move it three times, while if we go broke to score that extra point, our opponent will be quick to punish us with a removal we can't act against.
OGN-205 suffers from that same cost problem, as recycling two runes is quite an investment at any point except late in a match. Then, while one copy occasionally makes it into a deck, the signature spell tends to be cut in favor of more cost-effective cards, such as OGN-173.
With two out of three cards out of the way, OGN-076 has become the default chosen champion. Once again, the card is quite pricey as recycling two runes in the mid-game can set us far back tempo wise. However, OGN-076 is more of an opportunistic play against a tapped out opponent, we know unable to react to our card.
In that scenario, we can play OGN-076 and use OGN-259 or a spell to move it immediately. As a conqueror, the 6-cost will tie with most large units in the game, and defeat the others without giving them a chance to take part in the showdown.
Yasuo Staple Cards and Synergies
OGN-189 is a big reason why we don't need OGN-205 in our deck, as the card is much safer to build around due to its extra 2 Might compared to the 5-cost. Plus, this one only needs to move twice to get the payoff, which can be achieved with our legend's ability only.
The other synergy OGN-259 will rely on is trying to cheat out midsized units, or find must-remove targets early in a match. Indeed, this legend is much stronger when able to play proactively, while our legend's ability and green spell also require runes to be played.
Then, the duo of OGN-194 and OGN-195 will serve as bursts of tempo when we manage to get them out for a discount. These are particularly important to match aggressive decks, or to outpace slower strategies able to take out OGN-189 or OGN-076 before we can leverage their ability.
OGN-185, OGN-183 and such abilities will serve as enablers for OGN-194 and OGN-195.
