Smolder vs Syndra Counter Pick

Identical 550 attack range, 583 health against 575, 25 armor against 24, and 2,283 against 2,275 at level 18 — the two occupy nearly the same physical frame, so the 34.0% recorded over 144 games on patch 16.13.1 is a statement about kits rather than bodies.

• Dark Sphere leaves an object on the ground that her other abilities reuse, so every cast raises the value of the next one.
• Scatter the Weak knocks both spheres and enemies back and stuns anything a sphere touches, which is hard crowd control delivered from maximum distance.
• Unleashed Power fires every sphere she holds at a single champion, and Transcendent upgrades individual abilities as she gathers Splinters of Wrath.

Against that, Smolder needs time. Dragon Practice stacks come from hitting champions with abilities and finishing enemies with Super Scorcher Breath, and Syndra decides how much of that is allowed to happen. Her difficulty rating of 8 against his 6 is the one lever the losing side holds: a mistimed sphere is recoverable, a mistimed approach into her stun is not. Smolder plays the matchup from behind the wave and accepts a slow first fifteen minutes rather than contesting range he cannot win. A shared Mana bar and a shared 330 move speed leave him no disengage that does not involve Flap, Flap, Flap and a wall.