Veigar vs Riven Counter Pick

Resource asymmetry sets the tone. Riven pays nothing to cast while her opponent spends mana on everything, so the poke war is one-sided from level 1. Patch 16.13.1 puts Veigar at 41.1% over 185 games.

What she does with that freedom:

• Broken Wings is three chained casts of movement and damage, the last one knocking back — enough repositioning to enter and exit Event Horizon without touching its edge.
• Valor steps forward and blocks incoming damage, absorbing a Dark Matter landing outright when the timing is read correctly.
• Blade of the Exile adds attack damage and attack range, shrinking the gap between her 125 units and the 550 Veigar wants at exactly the moment he wants it widest.

Her physical damage meets 18 base armor, the lowest defensive figure either champion carries, while his magic damage meets 32 base magic resistance and 107.8 armor at level 18. She is also the sturdier body throughout — 630 health to 580 at level 1, 64 base attack damage to 52 — and Runic Blade charges her attacks with every ability cast, so her damage arrives before items do. Movement speed is level at 340 apiece, so nobody escapes on foot. Ratings are 8 and 7. The practical answer is farming stacks with Baleful Strike at maximum range and treating the cage as a defensive wall.