How to win lane as Malzahar against Vladimir · 53.84% win rate (8,322 Emerald+ games, lolalytics, sampled July 2026) · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
His poke pops your shield, your shove pops his tempo — the lane is a war between his range and your metronome.
Track: Vladimir's W — Sanguine Pool (28–16s cooldown). Untargetable dodge — bait it before you spend your kill window.
Read from Malzahar's seat: which stage windows this plan plays for against Vladimir.
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Malzahar | You win level 1 — your shove and trades crush his weak early sustain. |
| Level 2 | Even / skill | Level 2 reads even only because he can hunker down and farm safely. |
| Level 3 | Even / skill | Still even at 3 as he plays for scaling while you hold the initiative. |
| Levels 4-5 | Malzahar | Through 4-5 you're ahead — you out-push and punish his health-costly heals. |
| Level 6 | Malzahar | At 6 your suppress plus shield kills him before Hemoplague, especially with his pool down. |
| First item | Even / skill | With first item your sustained burst out-damages his sustain and you punish every recall. |
| Two+ items | Even / skill | At 2+ items it evens out — his scaling and pool-cleanse on your R level the fights. |
Level 1 is clearly yours — you out-push and out-trade a Vladimir whose early Transfusion is weak, long-cooldown, and costs him health. Levels 2-3 read as skill only because he can play safe and farm with Q, but you still hold the shove and the initiative. Keep the wave crashing into him, deny his CS, and set up your jungler; his lane is a scaling survival act and you want to make the early game as painful as possible. The 55%+ win rate reflects how hard you can bully this window.
Pooled Emerald+ win rates from Malzahar's side, sampled July 2026.
The full Malzahar vs Vladimir report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Malzahar, slightly — a 53.84% win rate edge over 8,322 games; execution can flip it.
Mostly — Malzahar has a small statistical edge (53.84% win rate), but execution decides this lane far more than the pick does.
Not a hard counter — Malzahar has a slight edge (53.84% win rate), and play quality decides the rest.
Malzahar takes Arcane Comet on the Sorcery tree with Manaflow Band, Transcendence and Scorch, and Inspiration secondary (Biscuit Delivery and Cosmic Insight) vs Vladimir.
Start Doran's Ring + 2 Health Potions and back for Oblivion Orb (≈800g) — cuts his sustain. Build Liandry's Torment first, then Rylai's Crystal Scepter, with Sorcerer's Shoes / Mercury's Treads.
Playing the other side? Vladimir vs Malzahar guide →
All Malzahar mid lane matchups →
More Malzahar mid lane matchups: vs Veigar · vs Vex · vs Viktor · vs Xerath · vs Yasuo · vs Yone