Mordekaiser is a good example of Riot's "Break it 'til you make it" Balance Philosophy

The only reason Mordekaiser is decent is because unless you destroy him in lane, he ends up with a level advantage. He only kills you when he inevitably reaches power spikes before you.

This isn't coming from someone who hates Mordekaiser, by the way. It's someone who used to love playing Mordekaiser and hates Riot for what they did to him.

I've played against New Mordekaiser twice, and laned against him once. I destroyed him when I laned against him, and lost when my bot lane was dumb enough to try to fight him with an inevitable level disadvantage.