Maokai vs Pyke Counter Pick

With 1,104 games logged on patch 16.13.1, this is a well-sampled support pairing, and it settles at 54.9% for Maokai. The margin is modest; the volume behind it means the edge is not noise.

Pyke‘s design explains most of it. Gift of the Drowned Ones prevents him from gaining maximum health from any source, so his 670 base and 2,540 at level eighteen are close to everything he will ever hold, and gold turns into damage instead. That works on squishy targets and poorly against a tank who starts at 35 armor, reaches 123.4, and recovers through Sap Magic whenever a spell touches him. Pyke deals physical damage, which is precisely what that armor curve absorbs, while Maokai’s magic damage meets only 32 base magic resistance.

The danger is never the extended trade. It is Death From Below, an execute that ignores how the fight was going and resets on a kill, so one misstep by a marksman becomes two deaths. Denying the setup is the job: Bramble Smash shoves Pyke outside Bone Skewer range, Sapling Toss lights the brush that Ghostwater Dive depends on, and Nature’s Grasp seals the corridor he retreats through. Maokai is rated 3 for difficulty against Pyke’s 7, which matters at this scale — a sample of 1,104 games averages over pilots of every quality.