Swain vs Zilean Counter Pick
Matchup Summary
What the Data Means
In Support, this is Swain versus Zilean — a mage/support hybrid against a support/mage hybrid. 358 tracked games on 16.13.1 put Swain at a 42.5% win rate into Zilean. Sitting 7.5 points below the 50% line marks Zilean as a genuine problem pick for Swain.
This is a magic-versus-magic exchange between Swain and Zilean. Starting health splits 595 to 574 in Swain’s favour, with armour at 25 against 24. By level 18 that becomes 2278 health and 105 armour for Swain against 2206 and 109 for Zilean. On autos alone the numbers read 58 AD for Swain and 52 for Zilean. Zilean moves quicker at base (330 against 335), which shows up on roams.
Vision of Empire (W) and Chronoshift (R) are usually what decide a trade between Swain and Zilean. Whoever spends Demonic Ascension or Chronoshift first hands the other a window.
With both sitting in ranged range (525 against 550), neither side gets a free poke pattern.
Stats for Zilean in this matchup are recalculated automatically for Support.
FAQ
No — current data marks this as a counter matchup: Zilean has the statistical edge. Swain wins 42.5% of the recorded games.
42.5% from Swain's perspective, measured on patch 16.13.1.
358 ranked games at Emerald rank and above, across all regions.
The current Swain build — items, runes and skill order from the same data set — is on the Swain build page.