The level 1 tax

This is why Q goes first every game, not W into a box or E for chip poke. Deceive from a bush buys the one thing a level 1 trade actually needs: they don’t know I’m there until the backstab auto already landed. This one came free because Rakan missed his skillshot first, so the only real risk was the walk out, not the trade itself. Q pays for itself as poke alone, but it scales with the situation: pair it with an all-in and autos if they’re low enough to die for it, or hold it and it’s still an escape if the read was wrong. Box and E both have a job later. Q’s job is level 1, before either of those cooldowns are even worth spending.