User blog comment:Leyrann/Hard counters./@comment-65.184.250.39-20120731072421/@comment-4834593-20120731212313

In lane, I am indeed thinking of it as a 1v1 (or 2v2 for bot). And I see it like this: For things that are not useful later in the game (magic resist with their top only AP, things like that), as long as it costs less than the gold advantage you will get, it's worth it. For example, you spend 1000 gold on magic resist in that lane. If you farm + kill for 1500 gold more than the enemy thanks to this magic resist, you won 500 gold.

Now about the others: If Malphite tries to harras Sivir every ten seconds, it's safe, because he'll have his shield. So that one doesn't work.

You were talking about Malphite starting Glacial Shroud, but for a real AP Malphite, so not tank, this is a less viable option, and it'd be best to buy either just Zhonya's (very expensive) or Ninja Tabi and if REALLY needed some more armor, like a Chainmail later made into Zhonya's. I'd go for that one. And if you are really in need of more armor, then you can, against someone like Fiora, even buy a Thornmail. When I was playing against one with Malphite, she got first blood on me at level one (I still don't know how she managed to do that...), but I just bought a Thornmail. Around level 6, I harrased her with Q, and when she went in, I didn't give a shit, maybe used a Q and/or E, and farmed on. This is how you counter the lane. I think I even bought a Chalice for the mana there, after I had that armor.

There is also always the counter-counter by things like this Urgot. The AD carry knows Urgot will try to land his E, so he'll actively try to dodge it. I must say I don't know Urgot well (little played + I seldom play bot lane), but I don't think he'd land more than one in two or three against someone who knows what he's doing.

And this Swain won't only buy Negatron, but when LeBlanc goes ganking, he sometimes pushes the turret, and sometimes just counterganks. The Negatron Cloak also builds into an Abyssal Scepter, which feels like a viable choice on him to me, because he's always in between the enemies. Plus, if he says ss fast (like, after 3 seconds no vision of LeBlanc) then he can warn the other lanes to watch their wards extra well in time, which means LeBlanc can't gank. And I have seen, in all the time I have been playing LoL, only seen one LeBlanc with decent minion farm (and also decent champion farm, btw. She ended 18/0/2. I was so happy she was on my team...).