Now is the best time to play Critplank mid, ever

First off, sorry about the wall of text. This came out way longer than I originally meant it to be.

Hi, I'm BestCritplankNA, an avid player of Critplank mid. Last season I finished Gold 1, with a 4.65 KDA and 65% win ratio on Gangplank. Do you remember pre-nerf ap Lulu where she could cast Help Pix and use Glitterlance twice to chunk 50% of your hp without it really being a true skill shot? Thats what it feels like to play Critplank mid, except you chunk for 50% of someone's health in the form of Parrrley: a point and click nuke that crits for 50% of a squishie's health on a 4.75 second cooldown. Other than staying out of range, which ONLY Cassiopeia (kiting) and Ziggs (satchel charge) can do in mid lane, there is literally no counter play to Parrrley. If you crit someone once, they better have potions because otherwise they risk getting crit again and instantly dying.

So today Riot announced the 5.2 patch is going out tomorrow morning. As an avid fan of Critplank mid, I can tell you this is the greatest patch for Critplank mid in my memory. The amount of stealth buffs this patch is the greatest I've ever seen. If you don't follow the PBE, you can find a list of changes here: http://www.surrenderat20.net/p/current-pbe-balance-changes.html

Lets go over the recent Critplank mid stealth buffs: Morrellonomicon has gotten multiple cost increases and stat nerfs- Nerfs to LeBlanc and most mana hungry mids Chalice mana regen was heavily nerfed- Now most mids don't have the mana or damage to match your poke anymore Syndra's damage and stun width got hit- This combined with DFG's removal made the matchup MUCH less brutal Deathfire Grasp getting removed- HUGE nerfs to LeBlanc, Syndra, Tristana, and Annie. One of Critplank's core counters was 100% to 0 burst in the laning phase, and this takes care of all those people. Akali's Ultimate range got reduced and e no longer triggers her q mark- The e nerf is the big one here. Now you can Parrrley her before she stealths (before it would usually cancel) because she has to auto attack once, making all ins much easier. Zed's attack speed got nerfed- I take exhaust this matchup. If he Deathmarks me when I have shiv, ie, and exhaust, we both use auto attacks and we both kill each other. With the attack speed nerfs, I'll probably start winning these duels. However he is likely to still be a problem between lvl 6 and whenever I buy ie (usually 3rd item including boots). Annie e armor/mr got reduced- Annie is not really a hard counter, but she now takes less damage in trades, so now the trades are more in your favor, where they were about even before. Fizz damage got nerfed on q and w, but ult increases damage- This is the biggest stealth buff here since Fizz was Critplank's hardest counter. Riot is trying to tone down the strength of Fizz's early laning, which was really difficult for Critplank. Fizz could all in at lvl 2, 3, 4, or 6 and either burst or kill Critplank. With that out of the way, he has to play way more passive, letting you actually bully this matchup early. With exhaust instead of my usual barrier in this matchup, it should counter the 20% damage increase mark on his ultimate. Tristana her ap ratios got nerfed and grievous wounds got removed from her e- AP Tristana was a huge problem because of her high burst at all points in the game. With the removal of dfg, the reduction of her ap ratios, and the grievous wounds on her e, she should no longer be able to delete you at full health. I think this may kill ap trist.

So, the only hard counters left in mid lane are Swain, Pantheon, Zilean, and a really good Ziggs. Fizz might still be a problem after 6, but other than that, none of the other hard counters are actually played often. The only matchup that I suspect will get harder is Ahri mainly because she should now be able to kite you with her new movement speed on q and she is now less reliant on charm (which you cleanse) to do damage. Now that assassins got nerfed, I suspect utility and poke mid laners will come back, which just so happens to be the people Critplank does best against. Because of the overwhelming amount of recent stealth buffs to Critplank mid, now is his time to shine like the 0 counterplay, squishy deleting, impossible to kill pirate he is.

Most people don't believe me when I say Critplank mid is a strong pick until they see it in game. If you have any doubts, I'll be streaming some ranked games over at www.twitch.tv/bestcritplankna today and tomorrow around 4 to 6:30 CST. There you can see it in action and ask me any questions on how to play it before you try it yourself.