Zyra Counters: How To Counter Pick Zyra

Longing to take control of her fate, the ancient, dying plant Zyra transferred her consciousness into a human body for a second chance at life. In this article, we explain how to effectively counter Zyra.

Best Zyra Counters

• Fizz
• Katarina
• Talon
• Diana
• LeBlanc
• Kassadin

Dragon Sorceress Zyra

Zyra Counter Picks

Now that you know who counters Zyra, you can finally counter pick Zyra in any matchup. Let’s take you through some tips on how to use a few of these champions who are counters to Zyra. After, there is a general section explaining how to use any LoL champion as counters for Zyra. After all, if you know how to play against Zyra, you can play safely and effectively to defeat Zyra in a lane.

Haunted Zyra

Tips For Countering Zyra

• Zyra’s seeds can be destroyed by stepping on them. Crush them underfoot if she is using them to give her team vision of an area. Remember that they cannot be crushed right after being planted. Be careful if Zyra is hanging around near the seeds as she may be trying to lure you into a trap by setting off the seeds with her other spells.
  • Zyra’s seeds have a short invulnerability timer, which lasts for 1.5 seconds. Be very careful and move away immediately from seeds if she places near or BEHIND you. If she places them behind you, she will likely attempt to land her Grasping Roots, rooting you and leaving the plants for massive damage, followed by a Deadly Spines and a finishing Stranglethorns if you are not quick.
  • Garden of Thorns makes it easy for Zyra to spawn plants. Be cautious of the area.
• Moving closer to Zyra can be a smart move if she places plants too far away from herself.
  • This, however, can be a risky tactic, because she will likely fire Grasping Roots if she sees you retreating near her seeds and will follow with a Q > R > Q leaving you extremely wounded or even dead.
• Plants can be killed by three basic attacks or a single target spell and one basic attack. They also grant a little extra 5 gold if you land the finishing attack.
• Early game Zyra will attempt to combo you with seeds behind or under you, followed by Grasping Roots and Deadly Spines. The damage from the plants is insane and can leave you in a terrible position or force you to go back to the base.
  • Here, however, dodging Grasping Roots will completely mess her up costing her a lot of mana. If she has bad aim with Grasping Roots or you are easily avoiding it, she will instead use Deadly Spines to harass with the ranged plants.
• Be wary of chasing Zyra as she can easily place seeds in her wake, creating a pseudo obstacle course of plants which may cause your pursuit to result in death.
• Attempting to connect skill shots with Zyra over her seeds can be problematic. Zyra may use her seeds as shields, activating her plants in front of your shots. It is important to note that, although plants will block skill shots, seeds in and of themselves will not hinder shots of any kind.
• During early game, try to determine which skills Zyra is leveling first. A Zyra that levels Deadly Spines first will rely more on direct damage and less on CC, so she should be harassed more aggressively. When she levels Rampant Growth first, she will try to harass more often than usual but rely on seeds more for damage, so staying away from the seeds or forcing her away from them will hurt Zyra‘s game. A Zyra that levels Grasping Roots first will have powerful CC, but since the plants and Grasping Roots have short range (narrow hitbox), moving around a lot will leave her struggling to deal damage.
• Stranglethorns has a large AoE, but it can be evaded at the edges, since it takes a while before the vines damage the edges, so a quick Flash or simply moving away will leave her ultimate wasted. So Zyra, when trying to set up for a good ultimate, will usually plant 1 or more seeds and activate them with Grasping Roots to keep her target in place.
• Since Zyra has no targeting abilities, a teleporting champion such as Ezreal, Kassadin or Katarina can prove to be very problematic for her.
• As a jungler, wait for Zyra to use Grasping Roots, as it is her only escape mechanism, and then strike. Just remember that her plants can continue to attack no matter what happens to Zyra.
• Zyra is quite squishy if she plays support. Try to play aggressively when her spells are on cooldown to effectively zone her and her Marksman.

Wildfire Zyra

By using the champions who counter Zyra and the LoL Zyra counter tips above, you can now develop a strategy to help you, as a summoner, become an effective counter to Zyra players.