The biggest thing you need to recognize in winning lane is what the matchup is and how it interacts , as well as who scales better . For your particular scenarios of Poppy v Darius and Yasuo v Malzahar where I assume you ' re the Malzahar , you have to pick out the factors . On paper , Poppy doesn ' t really lose too badly against Darius so long as she doesn ' t try constantly dueling . Overall , Darius has a pretty good advantage in his sustainharass with Q , and his true damage ultimate . Realistically , the Darius player could be a potato and the Poppy could solo kill him 5 times over the course of laning phase , so it comes down to how good each player is at the given moment . On the other hand , Malzahar has a very large advantage over Yasuo . Malzahar ' s itemization plus his kit give you near immortality in the face of a Yasuo . Zhonya ' s fits in his core items , exhaust is a fine summoner spell choice , and you have tools for both keeping him at bay and punishing him for coming close not to mention the safety of your passive . While I don ' t condone feeding your lane opponent simply because you ' re too stubborn to stop dueling them in order to regain your pride , the matchups grant you more insight on what should be happening .