Zyra Counters Classic 26.22

Rampant Growth gives Zyra passive cooldown reduction. It also places a seed. At its fifth rank, Crescent Slash has a three-second cooldown. Its listed reach is the shortest in Akali's kit. That faster repeat matters after you reach Zyra, not during the approach.

An awakened Thorn Spitter fires at enemies from afar when Deadly Bloom is cast on a Rampant Growth seed. Twilight Shroud makes you invisible and adds defenses only inside the smoke. Following Zyra beyond its edge drops those stated benefits. Treat the smoke's boundary as the end of that exchange.

You must be free to move when Shadow Dance begins. Grasping Roots damages and roots every enemy the vines meet, and a root blocks movement. Zyra can sit within the dash's range while the root still stops you from moving to her. Being close enough does not override that movement block.

Shunpo has the longest reach in Katarina's kit, so where you aim it is the whole decision. Deadly Bloom grows a bud on the ground first and fires thorns out of it a moment later, which means the danger is visible before it hurts anyone. Land past the bud, not on it.

Once Zyra has Stranglethorns, Death Lotus stops being an opener. The daggers throw at three champions and no other kind of unit, so her plants give the flurry no extra targets. The thicket lifts you as it contracts, and a flurry begun ahead of it ends with you airborne and the cooldown running.

Near a Vine Lasher, each attack it lands reduces your movement speed. Grasping Roots grows one of those out of any seed it touches. Sinister Steel returns speed only for catching a champion. No plant is a champion. So a spin among her plants ends with you slower than you arrived.