Talk:Malzahar/@comment-24309189-20140922041323/@comment-1233443-20141107193851

There isn't a single strongest 1v1 mage, though. A well played orianna will stomp malz into the ground in a pure 1v1 fight to the death situation since she can kite, but a well played fizz will kill orianna and a well played malz will kill fizz. In terms of pure "I can 1v1 more champions", the best 1v1 mage is probably fizz, followed by veigar (also veigar played well will win pretty much every 1v1 that malzahar would win and then some, with fizz maybe being the only matchup that veigar is likely to lose that malz will also lose, and even then veigar will win that fight if he can land his stun before fizz kills him).

Also, while ryze has zero ways to screw up, there is also nothing he can do to 1v1 champions that can either counterburst him or have more effective damage+hp. Maybe ryze can kill a late game malzahar in one full rotation, but late game malzahar can also kill ryze in one full rotation and ryze only has a root to malzahar's 2.5 second supression.