Malzahar vs Sion Counter Pick

Killing Sion does not end the fight. Glory in Death reanimates him with decaying health, rapid attacks that heal him and bonus damage, so the outcome Malzahar spends his mana working toward buys only a few seconds. Over 642 games on patch 16.13.1 the split is 42.2% for the mage, a clearly losing matchup. Sion’s 2,134 health at level 18 is low for a tank and lower than Malzahar’s 2,297, which makes the passive rather than the health bar his real defensive layer, while 68 base attack damage — the highest figure on either side — arrives at 18 base armor.

Three abilities do the work:

• Roar of the Slayer slows and reduces armor on the first target hit, then bounces off minions, turning the wave Malzahar hides behind into a delivery system.
• Decimating Smash knocks up at full charge, interrupting Nether Grasp outright.
• Unstoppable Onslaught arrives from anywhere at increasing speed, and a 335 move speed mage with no dash rarely steps out of it.

Void Shift blanks one charge and Call of the Void’s silence can stop a Soul Furnace detonation before the shield converts into damage. Beyond that, his 36 base armor rising to 107.4 does nothing against pure magic, which is why everything reduces to whether Nether Grasp ever completes. Protecting the 500-to-175 range gap, with Voidlings absorbing the first Roar of the Slayer, is the only sustainable plan.