Aatrox

Poppy has the advantage against dash champions, but Aatrox is very strong and shouldn't be underestimated. Even if he hits like a truck and is tricky to dive, you can outplay him by e'ing his first or second q, q yourself and walk away with w once he has his last q. Always use grasp passive after and before each fight to win all the trades.

Akali

You have have a lot of room to outplay her, but she has a lot of room to outplay you as well. Even after the nerfs, she hurts quite a lot and try not to walk in a shroud unless you have a bigger health pool than her. Take sunfire cape and build mr to be able to punish her if she tries to stale the fight in shroud.

Alistar

Alistar is undiveable and unkillable. This will become a farm lane. Just slow push, crash the waves and look for tp, invade or roam mid to impact the map where you actually can. Luckily, his waveclear is questionnable and he has no kill pressure on you neither.

Ahri

Ahri top is a troll. bait her charm and all-in her. Don't try to read her dash because it is so fast you will likely miss it. Build merc threads and early sheen and dive her over and over.

Ashe

This is a tricky matchup. Her slow is very annoying and she will chase you for the kill if you are not careful. Play safe and farm until you have sheen and tabis, then wait for her to use her w to e on her and burst her down while using w to stick to her. Take second wind and doran's shield. Don't commit too hard when she has ult up or you will regret it.

Braum

Don't be afraid of him because you outdamage him for quite a lot. The only things to keep in mind is that you need to bait his spells before diving him, you need to use minions to block his q and you need to put vision because he can setup ganks pretty well.

Caitlyn

annoying matchup because of her massive range, but manageable. Play safe until you have sheen and tabis and try to jump to her after she uses her spells. Use w right after you e to block her escape and if she holds on to it just auto her and back off once your w ends because she will use her net and start to kite you. If you do not greed for more you will win every trade. If the jungler comes it might be a good idea to commit on the caitlyn because she might ult you and kill you even if you are stronger than the jungler.

Cho'Gath

This is a matchup that is played early in the game. If you destroy him early, and it is very doable, his level 6 powerspike will be much weaker and you will be able to snowball. If you go even, he will be very threatening level 6 and you will need to give up on abusing cho'gath because the true damage is very strong against poppy.

Darius

Darius is ban worthy while playing poppy. This monster will make you give up lane as soon as he has level 3. Never go past the river against him, especially if he goes ghost or ignite. I personally ban him every game, but if you prefer to ban someone else and have the bad luck to face him, you can build a early bramble vest to punish him and get greavous wounds. Sunfire cape is also a good option. The real challenge is to not die in laning phase: it takes a lot of discipline and do not get cocky if he is playing more passive than usually because he is most likely baiting you. If you do survive laning phase, It become much better in the teamfights because he won't be able to destroy you anymore, but I suggest going for a more support build to let others carry for you since you will be short on gold after that rough laning phase.

Dr. Mundo

This is one of the lanes I consider free. Your q damage does so much to him it is actually disgusting. Just stay behind your wave and whenever he gets close, just q him and proc grasp, chunking him for free and for a lot of damage. He is easily divable, but you will most likely just bully him out of lane since in most cases he will pop ult and flee to go back to base. Try to deny him as much waves as possible undertower by doing so and you can try to aim for first tower in this matchup.

Fiora

This is a skill matchup, but if I had to choose I would say that fiora has the advantage. While you rely on your e to kill her, she doesn't need her parry to deal damage. That means she can just hold on to her parry until you use e and make you lose a lot of kill pressure by doing so. I suggest that you wait for her to come to you and kite her with q and use grasp passive while she walks away so she doesn't use your animation to create an opening. You can try to bait her parry with your first-cast ult or by walking to her when she is next to a wall and walk away right after. Never use your w unless she all-ins you because she will just walk away and abuse your cooldown.

Galio

He has poke advantage and is very tanky, potentially tankier than you. I wouldn't try to dive him unless you are ahead or he can outplay you quite a lot. Again, react to him instead of trying to force fights and you will win the trades.

Gangplank

This is a very rough matchup. I wouldn't say it is worth baning him, but he will give you a hard time. The only chance to win lane is to kill him before he has enough gold for a sheen. If you can hit your powerspike before he hits his, you should be able to lane against him. If not, he will q you over and over, eating oranges to cleanse your e. Very annoying matchup and I tend to try to switch with mid if he gets trinity before I get my first item.

Garen

This either an easy matchup, or a living hell. If you don't play aggressive from level one, you will fall behind every second the game progresses. In order to win trades, you need to bait garen into fighting you and then q him while you walk away. Once he turnes away, be sure to proc a grasp passive to remove him a lot of kill pressure. Be vary careful once he hit 6, especially if he runs ignite, because the true damage is huge versus poppy.

Gnar

This lane is very strange because gnar is a ranged champion, but he turns into a melee for a couple seconds every once and a while. If you aren't able to get gnar into kill range, just wait for him to turn and start to fight him then. Even if this is supposed to be his powerspike, poppy can abuse it quite a lot and if he gets too confident while empowered, try to kill him then.

Graves

Graves is just a melee with more reach than usually, and without the benefits of a melee. You can fight him easily, wait for him to use q and e to him, blocking his dash to prevent him from kiting. If he lands a w on you, it is safer to just back off and try again later. It also means he is wasting mana and you can abuse this to reduce his mobility, his damage output and make his level 6 useless.

Illaoi

Irelia

Irelia wins in the early levels, but once you got sheen and hit level 3-4 you can start playing aggressive. The only difficulty is to not die in a early all-in, which is not hard to do, and then she cannot fight you anymore. wait for her to mark you before using w because she is likely waiting for it before dashing to you to get a reset.

Jarvan IV

I always find funny to play against jarvan because his dash is very telegraphed, especially in top lane, and if he ults you he just gives you a free combo to outplay him. I usually try to play very aggressive in this matchup to bait him into fighting me and then kill him over and over. Try not to dive while he has ult because you might need to burn flash.

Jax

You have a lot of tools to fight jax, so use it. Keep distance to be safe from his counter and try to w once it is going for a sec or two to make sure he isn't jumping on you while it is still active. Abuse the window where is counter is on cd to dash to him and fight him. If he counters you and you can't create distance fast, don't waste your passive and use q since it is aoe.

Kayle

Freeze in front of your tower and play overaggressive. she can't do anything to you until she gets range, so abuse that power advantage. It is ok to sacrifice cs in order to zone her out of exp range since she scales much more than you anyway. Once you get sheen or your first item, depending on how long you want to freeze, start a slow push and do a fake dive to force her to ult, then dive her for real. Repeat for as long as you can.

Kayn

He is so weak early that it is actually funny. Try to poke him from a distance using grasp passive to prevent him from stacking orbs and all-in him once he his in kill range. You can dive him incredibly early, but use vision carefully by doing so since you are weak to ganks before 6 and your first powerspike item.

Kennen

Kennen is tricky because of her range poke and movement speed. Since your w don't do much here, try not using it to save up mana. You probably can't kill him unless you land a e so you might need to land a early flash e to win the lane. If you are ahead, you will prefer to fight him under his tower or under yours rather than fighting him in lane because it will allow you to get more e angles. Do not e to him freely because he can dodge your q with his movement speed and outplay you.

Kled

This matchup is very similar to darius, but it MUCH more manageable. You win the fight early, but if you die even once, he will become stronger, so be careful not greeding. Do not dive him ever, unless you are VERY confident you can kill him before he remounts. That means if the bar gets every close to half do not even think about it. I prefer to push my lead elsewhere in this matchup by invading, tping or roaming mid, for example.

Lissandra

Very hard to deal with. Don't ever try to dive because she has way too much cc. Actually, don't try anything against her, you won't gain much out of it anyway. If the mid is a bruiser or an assassin, try to ask for a switch because getting fed out of her is impossible for you.

Malphite

His passive is annoying because it counters yours. He out-tanks you the longer the game goes so try to kill him early if you can pull it off. He is diveable, but try to bait the ult before or you might have a bad time. A good way to play around him is making him waste his mana early and fighting him while his damage output is greatly reduced.

Maokai

Tough lane. He out-tanks you, out-sustains you and out-scales you. You do more damage than him, but he heals so much that it doesn't matter. try to crash the lane undertower and make plays elswhere because if you force anything against him he will most likely not become fed.

Mordekaiser

A lot of mordekaizers underestimate poppy and you can abuse this. Fight him in front of his wave and once he gets his passive and/or conqueror, flee with your e on his minions to win the trade. Try to avoid getting poked by his q as much as possible because he will get more and more kill pressure on you each time he does so. If he ults you, use w to escape to the edge of the arena and ult him away. try to be a little unpredictable with your r because he can flash it and kill you. Get an early manttle and bamis. If the enemy jungler is ad you can also get bramble vest for greavous wounds.

Nasus

You win hard early and he wins hard mid game. The overall winner will be decided over if you deny him in the early game or if you don't. Be aggressive, do not give any cs for free. If you get sheen before him you will be able to dive fairly easily and he won't be impactful until the lategame, so use your lead to finish the game fast. If you do fall behind, stay undertower because you won't survive a wither ult combo alone. He is very easily gankable, but I'm not a fan of bringing the jungler top lane so try to deal with him by yourself.

Olaf

Olaf is ban worthy while playing poppy. This champion is overpower against you. If he ever lands a q, back off and try to dodge the next because you won't be able to fight back. You need to get good at dodging those or else you won't be able to go even in the lane. If he ever misses and he is low on mana, try to dash to him to get him away from the reset and combo him. He should use his last bit of mana and you will either be able to gain lane priority for a little time or you will bully him out of lane and get room to breathe. Don't try a wall stun past lvl 6 because you will just help him to kill you. Get bramble vest for greavous wounds, tabis and get sunfire cape to be able to even stand a chance against him. Don't ever build bruiser in this matchup, go tank ever single time.

Ornn

You might win in the early levels, but he will most likely win lane because he will out-tank you before long. Poke him with grasp passive and dodge his poke to get him low enough to be able to fight. Get bamis then sheen to be able to burst him down. If he lands his dash on you he will chunk you for a lot and he can setup good ganks so be careful. Don't forget that you can block his ult with w but this is less likely to happen in laning phase unless ornn ints.

Pantheon

Frustrating matchup if you don't know what you are doing. It is ok to let him poke you a bit with long range q because it does not do much damage early, but avoid being all-in'ed. You can bait his stun with you w and if you do block it, don't put this opening go to waste and attack him. Let him use e before you q, do your trade and back off. If you go even in the lane it is perfectly fine. Against a pantheon, it is sometimes worth to just let the lane phase go and prevent him to get fed and roam. keep him pressured under tower, do not force unnecessary fights and you will instantly win.

Poppy

This matchup is all about mind game. She knows you can block her e. You know she can block her e. Play this the same way you play a fiora, by baiting the w when you fake an engage. Nothing much to be told here other than this is a skill matchup of course and the winner will be the one who use her ability the best.

Quinn

She might be ranged, but she has a very punishable dash and she is incredibly squishy. Just rush sheen and e to her to burst her down and repeat. I believe she can interupt your e, so use w before engaging for short trades or when you dive.

Tryndamere

This, here, is the easiest matchup you will have in top lane. You need to play hyper aggressive from level one to be able to hit level two and deny the only time he COULD be stronger than you. Don't be afraid of him, just stomp him and do not push lane to deny him as much as possible.

Renekton

I believe this one to be a skill matchup. Renekton being a lane bully himself, it is very hard to punish him as well as other champions. In order to win, you need to abuse cooldowns and whenever he wastes one, dash to him and trade. The bami - tabi - sheen rush is very good against him and, if you are not beating him, add a bramble vest on top of that. If you plan on diving, fake your first attempt if you can make him use cooldowns and do not proceed if you can't kill him with one combo because his ult is very powerful. Let him dash to you and use w on his second when he tries to create distance. Be careful because he sometimes, if not always, get the dash reset even if you block it with your w. One last thing, never underestimate the renekton heal.

Rengar

Tricky at early levels, but once you get to lvl 3-4 and have bamis, it is your turn to bully him. A pink ward in his favorite lane bush can hurt him a lot and also opens punish windows with e if he ever tries to clear it. His strenght is playing around bushes, so when you fight be sure to enter in them before he does to have the upper hand. Get early tabis and sheen to shut him down. Easy to dive so abuse this.

Riven

Very easy lane, but you still need to respect her. This is just a harder tryndamere. She can all-in you at level 2, so I suggest you play passive until you hit 2 yourself so you get w and remove all her kill pressure. Do not try to guess q, just wait for her to use two charges and once she gets close, use w right away. Bait the shield before diving, or you will give her the opportunity to outplay.

Ryze

Quite a rough matchup, but still it is manageable. He will root you when you try to engage on him, so you'll want to bait him into using it and then go for a short trade by dashing on him. Rush mercury threads and sheen, because you will need the tenacity and mana to be able to contest lane priority.

Sett

This matchup is very hard because you need to abuse short times where you have the advantage and need to respect him when he has the upper hand. This is all about knowledge, and a little text won't be enough to give the tips on this champion. Everything will be down in the matchup section.

Shen

Singed

Sion

Sylas

Teemo

Trundle

Urgot

Vayne

Vladimir

Volibear

Wukong

Xin Zhao

Yasuo