Zilean vs Shaco Counter Pick

Shaco opens with 63 base attack damage, the highest figure either champion brings to level one, and Backstab adds more whenever he strikes from behind. Zilean holds 52. That gap, together with 630 health against 574, explains most of the 45.8% he records over 227 games on patch 16.13.1 under a Hard rating.

Deceive is the specific problem. Shaco turns invisible, teleports to a chosen point, and his first attack out of invisibility is empowered and critically strikes. A support with no dash, 24 base armour and 335 move speed against 345 has no way to contest that opening. Jack In The Box compounds it by seeding fear in exactly the brush he wants to path through, and his mixed damage output means no single defensive item covers the threat. Counterplay has to be anticipatory: Time Bomb placed on ground he must cross rather than on a champion, since it attaches to whatever wanders into it, and Time Warp held for the moment he reappears. Chronoshift stays the strongest answer, because Hallucinate and the burst around it aim at securing a kill outright. A complexity rating of 9 for Shaco against 6 for Zilean means the outcome swings hard on how practised the assassin is. Two-Shiv Poison slows on hit as well, closing the small 335 to 345 move speed gap before it can be used to walk away.