Karthus vs Xayah Counter Pick

Featherstorm is the interaction worth studying. Xayah leaps into the air and becomes untargetable, which is a clean answer to Requiem — a three-second channel that damages every enemy champion the instant it resolves. Timed correctly she pays nothing; timed a second early she lands back into the damage she meant to dodge. Across 124 games on patch 16.13.1 the result is 58.1% for Karthus, so that timing is missed more often than it is hit.

The rest points the same way. She fights at 525 units and he at 450, but his damage is placed rather than aimed, and Clean Cuts requires her to cast an ability before her attacks pierce and drop feathers. Bladecaller then recalls those feathers for damage and a root, which ties her strongest tool to ground she has already covered — the same ground Defile can sit on.

The statistics reinforce it: 330 movement speed against 335, 96.4 armor and 2,449 health at level 18 against damage that armor does not reduce, and 60 attack damage that has to be delivered from a position Karthus is actively punishing. His own frame stays fragile at 620 base health and 21 armor, so Double Daggers into Deadly Plumage still removes him if he is caught without vision.