Garen vs Xin Zhao Counter Pick

Two Demacian fighters with 175 attack range, 32 magic resist apiece, and level-18 armor within half a point of each other at 109.8 and 109.4 make for an unusually symmetrical fight. The record over 325 games on patch 16.13.1 breaks the symmetry anyway: 56.9% for Garen.

• Garen opens 70 health ahead, 690 to 620, and with 69 attack damage against 63, so early trades start from a genuine advantage rather than a rounding error.
• Determination heals Xin Zhao on every third attack, rewarding him for extending a fight — precisely what Judgment is built to make expensive.
• Crescent Guard scales off the current health of nearby enemies and Demacian Justice off missing health, so the two ultimates want opposite moments; whoever forces their window first tends to keep it.

Xin Zhao rates 2 for execution against Garen’s 5, and 345 move speed with Audacious Charge attached means he chooses when contact happens. What he lacks is a slow cleanse. Decisive Strike answers the slow from Wind Becomes Lightning and makes disengaging a real option, and Garen’s kit costs nothing while every Xin Zhao ability draws on mana. Health at level 18 tilts the other way, 2,422 against 2,356, and Three Talon Strike finishes with a knock-up that interrupts a spin at the worst possible moment.