Yasuo Malphite Combo

Written by Sargent Pickle (current Masters Player and Tournament Competitor): This is a standard Yasuo grind deck with Malphite as a secondary win condition in place of The Leviathan. In this guide, I will compare this deck to a standard Yasuo/Swain deck and talk about the bonuses that the Targon cards add and their vulnerabilities FOR EVERY SINGLE CARD. 

Overview: The main issue with Yasuo Swain is that it gets blown out by aggro decks too much and if you play early game cards to counter those decks, it is too detrimental to the midrange and control matchups. Also, Swain can be hard to level without Yasuo, and without both of them leveled you are hard-pressed to win the game. This deck looks to separate the win conditions so that you can win by just drawing one of your champions. Also, the Targon low-cost minions are much better for this deck than the Noxus counterparts. 

Guide:

Dancing Droplet: This card may seem initially underwhelming, but it's actually insane. Pair this with Monastery of Hirana and it becomes a 1 mana 1/1 draw a card. That is a better The Messenger since you play it for the draw, but also because it doubles as an elusive blocker for Teemo/Zoe, etc.

Blue Sentinel: Amazing 2 drop. If it dies on turn 2 you get to play Yasuo on turn 3, or if it dies on 3 you get to play Eye of the Ra-Horak a turn early. Also, the 2 mana Crest of Insight counts 2 mana towards Malphite. Plus is mitigates a lot of the early damage you will be taking from aggro since they won't want to kill it.

Fae Bladetwirler: For obvious reasons, it's insane. Protect at all costs and can be played with Retreat

Retreat: Incredible in this deck. You can save valuable cards and cheat out a Shadow Assassin or Fae Bladetwirler. Depending on if you need the card draw you can also use it on Dancing Droplet.

Solari Sunhawk: Obvious reasons. I think it is overall better than Arachnoid Sentry but only time will tell.

Divergent Paths: For those times you don't hit your landmarks or they have something annoying.

Monastery of Hirana: Absolutely carries the deck with Dancing Droplet. Everyone said Spoken WordsBADCARDNAME was crazy as a 4 mana draw 2. This is a 4 mana draw a card every turn, plus level your Yasuo and 3 mana towards Malphite in a deck where the main reason you lose is via running out of steam.

Shadow Assassin: Good elusive for draw and chip damage.  

Concussive Palm: Amazing Ionia card that can be recycled every turn with Monastery of Hirana.

Deny: Its deny... Why are you even reading why it needs to be in the deck?

Ground Slam: Concussive Palm but it does damage instead of giving a 3/2. I think it is overall worse in this deck but Concussive Palm is so good it doesn't matter.

Spirit's Refuge: I might bump this up to 2. It is such a valuable card against aggro and midrange, but you usually only need 1, and it's often a dead card vs Shadow Isles control.

Yasuo: One of the wincons of the deck, only play him when you think he will live, or if you have the stuff to save him/ another Yasuo.

Eye of the Ra-Horak: Completely insane if you have Fae Bladetwirler or Yasuo on board. It almost completely levels Malphiteas well. You can cheat it out on turn 4 with Blue Sentinel but often you will want to save it unless you already have Malphitein hand.

Malphite: Slightly worse than The Leviathan in my opinion, but the fact that it costs 9 to stun the entire board with him vs 13(The Leviathan  + Swain) is a really big deal. Often Yasuo/Swain decks lose because they don't have time to play the big ship but paying 6 less mana for the combo is a big deal, not even to mention that it comes out a turn earlier.

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