Sion vs Malzahar Counter Pick

Malzahar’s defence in this matchup is a passive, not a spell. Void Shift grants heavy damage reduction and crowd control immunity whenever he has gone a stretch without being hit, and Sion’s whole opening, a charged Decimating Smash and a Roar of the Slayer armor break, exists to strip it. Once Void Shift is down, an 18-armor mage with 580 starting health has nothing standing between him and 68 base attack damage. Over 642 mid games logged on patch 16.13.1 that pattern produced a 57.8% win rate for Sion, graded Easy.

• Reach: 500 against 175. Malzahar farms with Malefic Visions and Void Swarm rather than stepping forward, so Sion’s pressure comes from wave control, not from auto attacks.
• Damage type: pure magic from Malzahar, mixed from Sion. Sion’s 32 magic resist is his weaker side, and armor items do nothing here.
• Nether Grasp: a channelled suppression rather than a stun, so a cleanse effect is worth more than tenacity.
• Complexity: Malzahar sits at 6, Sion at 5, and neither champion punishes small execution errors severely.

Unstoppable Onslaught covers the range problem from level 6 onward, since Sion steers the charge and Call of the Void’s silence cannot stop it once he is moving. Sion’s own 175 attack range means the whole plan is to arrive; Malzahar’s 335 movement speed against 345 is why arriving works. Reference pages: Sion and Malzahar.