Janna vs Zyra Counter Pick

Zyra fights with plants, and plants ignore most of what makes Janna effective. Garden of Thorns spawns seeds around her on a timer that accelerates with level, and both Deadly Spines and Grasping Roots turn nearby seeds into plants that keep fighting after the cast has ended. Janna records 48.3% over 507 games on patch 16.13.1 in a matchup computed as even.

• Reach favours Zyra at 575 against 550, small but enough to open exchanges on her terms.
• Eye Of The Storm grants a fixed shield, while plant damage is continuous, so a shield spent early is simply chipped away.
• Stranglethorns expands for damage and knocks enemies airborne as it contracts, giving Zyra a displacement ultimate of her own to trade against Monsoon.
• Both are fragile — 574 health and 29 armor for Zyra, 570 and 28 for Janna, then 2,155 against 2,100 at level 18 — and both carry a difficulty rating of 7.

Janna’s route through it is speed and interruption rather than trading. Her 47 base attack damage against 53 rules out a poke war, but Howling Gale released early scatters a seed cluster before it is armed, and 340 move speed on Zyra against 325 means chasing her is rarely worth committing to. Rampant Growth keeps a planted seed alive for up to sixty seconds, so the threat persists long after the exchange that created it.