Pyke vs Anivia Counter Pick

Rebirth changes how execute damage reads. Anivia does not die to the first kill: she reverts to an egg and returns at full health, so Death From Below and the extra cast it grants often finish nothing but a shell. Even so, Pyke takes 54.8% of 221 games on patch 16.13.1, and the Easy rating is fair.

The reason is fragility. Anivia carries 550 base health rising to 2,114, 19 armor at level 1 and 88.7 at level 18, and 325 move speed against his 330. Pyke deals physical damage straight into those numbers while opening with 670 health and 37 armor of his own. Her difficulty rating of 10 is not decoration either — Flash Frost has to chill a target before Frostbite doubles its damage, and both casts are slow and readable. Both champions spend mana, but her rotation costs far more for each attempt, and 51 base attack damage leaves her nothing to fall back on once the bar runs dry.

Crystallize is the one ability that reliably ruins him. A wall of ice raised mid-approach cuts the return path of the phantom left by Phantom Undertow and strands a Bone Skewer pull somewhere useless. Glacial Storm punishes anyone who lingers, since it slows and damages continuously rather than in a burst. Pyke answers by opening from camouflage under Ghostwater Dive, forcing the egg early, then leaving and returning once his passive has regenerated the damage he took.