But the problem with playing malzahar is that you have to play malzahar. He's an entertaining champ at first, but BOY does he get old fast.

It should be well known that Malzahar is one of the best 1v1 Mages. The fear of a Suppression with good damage is enough to keep you from going total aggro

Pssssst. It's called Elise.

Spiderlings prevent Isolation.

One does not simply beat Malzahar in lane... with anyone.

Yes, that goes for AP assassins too.

You don't need to push lane 24/7, if you're aware of your passive stacks, you can keep very comfortable lane control, he farms pretty safely even without E if your voidling is up (also trades ridiculously well, the minute you throw an AA on the enemy, voidling does a lot of damage in conjunction with your E as well if you want to throw that in), and you just throw damage/last hit the wave at the middle, and if it's pushing, you either freeze it with said voidling, or E and kit it away to clear it up.

bump because i laughed at your name
idk why
but wiggly muffin just struck me

Wait. WAIT. Forget my previous post; WHY IS IT THAT THERE IS ONLY ONE CHAMPION WHO RELIABLY BEATS KHA IN LANE. THIS IS NOT COUNTERPICKING, THIS IS RIDICULOUS

So you're telling me that someone who can farm safely or can hard disengage beats AD mids? Thanks, this is something I've known for a while. Add these to the list: Gragas, Anivia, Cho'Gath, Viktor, Elise, and Fiddlesticks (except not so much Talon/Panth for Fiddle). Malz is a special case because he doesn't actually have to be anywhere near the minions to farm post level 5 once he sends out his space herpes. Then at level 6 his full combo can 100-0 most of the squishy assassins who are building straight AD. He does still lose to more AP mids than he beats though, he just beats assassins.

Except Malzahar gets countered by one measly item as well as stunning himself to stun one person on their team.