Smolder vs Veigar Counter Pick

Event Horizon accounts for most of the 36.1% win rate. Veigar bends space into a cage that stuns whatever crosses its boundary, and a marksman whose only escape is a movement skill that crosses terrain is precisely the kind of champion that gets caught. That number is drawn from 108 games on patch 16.13.1, so treat it as a general trend instead of an exact figure. The rest of the matchup plays out as a plain ranged exchange.

Beyond that, it comes down to scaling. Phenomenal Evil Power builds up each time Veigar hits a champion with a spell, Baleful Strike turns kills into more ability power, and Primordial Burst hits harder the more health its target has lost, which punishes a 2,275 maximum health pool at level 18. Dark Matter makes any stunned target an easy hit. Early on, Smolder has one opening: Veigar starts with only 18 armor at level 1 compared to his 24, which is unusually low, and both champions share a 550 attack range, so neither harass is free. Veigar’s 330 movement speed is also slower than Smolder’s 340, so backing off after a missed cage is not guaranteed. A workable approach for Smolder is to farm first and stay out of cage width until Dragon Practice makes a single trade enough. Achooo! is the only tool that punishes Veigar for hiding behind his own cage on champion contact, and since it has 550 range, Smolder never has to step up to the edge to use it.