Draven vs Veigar Counter Pick

Event Horizon decides this matchup. Veigar twists space into a cage that stuns anything crossing its edge, and Draven, who has no dash and must hold a small patch of ground to collect Spinning Axes, is close to the ideal victim. The bot lane record reads 41.4% for him across 312 games on patch 16.13.1.

• Scaling: Phenomenal Evil Power grows every time a spell strikes a champion or Baleful Strike secures a kill, so his ability power has no ceiling while Draven’s damage rests on items and 62 base attack damage.
• Execution threat: Primordial Burst increases with the target’s missing health, turning any trade Draven survives into a kill Veigar can close.
• Stat gap: Veigar carries 18 armor at level 1, an unusually soft target for physical damage, but he also moves at 340 against 330.

Both attack from 550, so poking him off the wave is not available, and 30 magic resist does little against Dark Matter falling on a stationary axe-catcher. Dark Matter falls after a delay, the one part of his kit a moving target beats outright, and Baleful Strike only hits the first two enemies, so a thick wave limits how fast his stacks build. The workable plan is an early all-in before that scaling arrives, with Stand Aside knocking him out of his own cage and Whirling Death catching him on the return.