5 Champions That Counter Sylas

5 Champions Who Counter Sylas

Sylas is an incredibly dominant champion in League of Legends right now. With high play rates across the board and with the ability to be flexed into Top Mid and Jungle, you must learn how to play against Sylas.

In this Mobalytics guide, we will break down 5 champions that can counter Sylas in the Mid lane. Take note that some of these champions can be flexed into the Top lane too. However, this guide is primarily aimed at the Mid lane.

Before we get into the counter tips, if you want to learn how to play Sylas, check out Sylas’s champion page. You will find the best builds and Runes for him on our Sylas champion page. We also have brand new combos for Sylas too!

The best champions that counter Sylas are Cassiopeia, Kassadin, Irelia, Pantheon and Anivia. You can find all the matchup tips we use in this guide on the Mobalytics App. For plus members, you can get specific matchup tips for the champion you’re playing versus the enemy laner at your fingertips while you load into the game. We have tens of thousands of different, highly specific matchups curated by our challenger level players to help you lane against the enemy champion.

1. Sylas vs Cassiopeia

Cassiopeia is a solid counter to Sylas. The W will make it impossible for Sylas to trade with Cass. Cass can also heavily bully him down throughout the game. Unless the Cass makes a huge mistake, or unless the Jungler sits the Sylas- Sylas will be very behind.

4 tips to counter Sylas as Cassiopeia

Keep the wave in the middle of the lane and ensure that you have a track of the enemy Jungler. Your Passive and mana issues are the main reasons you should be playing in the minion wave during the game’s early stages.
Sylas may try to all-in you with his W>E combo. As soon as he W’s, E him immediately and use your Q>E to poke and kite him.
If you’re out of your minion wave and you see Sylasc cast his first E, W him immediately and walk away from him. Don’t get close to him as long as your W is on cooldown.
While CS’ing, try to dodge his Qs as much as you can. Your abilities cost a lot of mana, and getting poke out will force you to play defensively and make you vulnerable to all-ins from Sylas and his Jungler.

2. Sylas vs Kassadin

Kassadin is a good pick into Sylas. Kassadin will outscale a Sylas as long as he doesn’t fall behind in the early game. Also, to some extent, stealing Kassadin’s Ultimate isn’t that valuable for the Sylas- so it’s unlikely he will be able to kill the Kassadin with it.

4 tips to counter Sylas as Kassadin

Freeze the wave in front of your turret. Preserve HP, farm safely, and avoid giving Sylas opportunities to fight you over a long lane.
Post-6, try to force Sylas to steal your Ultimate. It’s not a desirable Ultimate for Sylas to steal with his own Ult.
Play around Sylas’ Es. Limit its potency in the lane by keeping your distance when he uses it; hide behind your minions for cover.
Avoid extended fights with Sylas, especially when either of you are low on HP. His kit is far better suited than Kassadin’s in an all-in.

3. Sylas vs Irelia

Irelia is an AD champion that gets basically all her damage from auto-attacks. If she commits to a 1v1 on the Sylas, she should win any skirmish with him as he is an AP champion. She also has a lot of sustain thanks to the items she gets, so she should out sustain him.

4 tips to counter Sylas as Irelia

Post level six, Sylas’ Ultimate allows him to steal Ultimat. Be aware of which Ultimate Sylas has stolen because this changes how you should fight him.
Your W only blocks physical damage, and Sylas is an AP champion; use it solely to gain an extra stack of your Passive and not for blocking damage.
His Passive empowers his auto attacks whenever he uses an ability, causing it to do AoE damage. Try to stay a little further away from him while farming not to get hit by the AoE damage.
He has a lot of healing with his W, which gives him increased healing when he is low, so be wary when you engage in fights while you and he have low hp, as he will get his health back faster in fights.

4. Sylas vs Pantheon

Pantheon has a lot of turnaround potential. If the Sylas wants to play aggressive, Pantheon can easily counter it and turn it around. Pantheon is also an AD champion, so he should win any 1v1 skirmish.

4 tips to counter Sylas as Pantheon

His Passive empowers his auto attacks whenever he uses an ability, causing it to do AoE damage. Try to stay a little further away from him while farming not to get hit by the AoE damage.
He has a lot of healing with his W, which gives him increased healing when he is low, so be wary when you engage fights while you and him have low hp, as he will get his health back faster in fights.
Sylas excels in long trades because of how his kit works; you should look for a short burst of trades with your W>Q>E combo to emerge victorious in the trade.
If the lane seems difficult, shove the wave in and look to roam with R and get kills in other lanes to gain a lead.

5. Sylas vs Anivia

Anivia can prevent the Sylas from playing aggressive and doing things in this matchup. Anivia is a pretty safe champion overall, but she can also keep him pushed in post 6. If Sylas wants to roam to try and get a lead elsewhere on the map, Anivia can push the wave into his tower and secure tower plates.

4 tips to counter Sylas as Anivia

Only try to CC Sylas with your Q if he has his E on Cooldown. Otherwise, he will dodge it and have a window to all in you freely due to your lack of hard CC ability.
Try to stay within the minion wave to make it hard for Sylas to all-in you with his E or W. If he does go in, he will take a lot of damage, which will help you kill him really quickly. Your Ultimate is not that powerful on him, so you should have the overall advantage in this lane.
Suppose Sylas tries to all-in you with his W, Q him immediately. He will try to follow it up with an E, so be ready to dodge it with the help of your Ultimate slow and wall.
Try to build a slow push and then crash it into his tower while staying in the cover of your minion wave. Your wave clearing potential is excellent, so use that to force Sylas to be under his tower during the entirety of the laning phase and scale up by farming and getting your items.

Conclusion

Sylas is annoying for many reasons. Picking the right champion into him will make it much harder for him to take over the map and win his team the game.

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