A story of ice, evil, and ninjas. Or, why Lissandra is fotm

As many may have noticed, either consciously or unconsciously, Lissandra has recently become a much more popular pick lately. Myself being someone that loves to over-analyze things whenever I'm working, I thought I might make this thread detailing why I believe she's suddenly in the meta right now. Keep in mind that I am just a lowly fluctuating Gold 2-3 ranked player and so I am hardly some sort of LoL genius, and I am not someone that's into the whole math behind why this or that champ is strong. I am just someone that notices changes and differences in things. That being said, let us get into this.

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/splash/Lissandra_0.jpg

Why is the Ice Witch currently being seen in regular play at the moment after such a long span of time of her being virtually unseen on the rift for so long? Well the reason is likely something others have figured out and will seem obvious, but I notice the boards have a habit of just casually talking about changes in the meta roster as if they were always like that, so.... mana regen got nerfed.

Now one thing some of you may say in response to this is, but Lissandra has the lowest mp5 in the game, and she has very high mana costs on all but one of her abilities. So why is she suddenly more popular despite being one of the mages you'd think was hit hardest? Her passive. Her passive is, as quoted from the wiki.

Iceborn

Lissandra's next ability costs no mana.

The cooldown is reduced by 1 second whenever Lissandra impairs an enemy's movement with an ability (does not apply to movement-impairing effects from items).

But once again you say, but Lissandra has always had this passive and it never made her a go to pick before. Well yes, this is true, HOWEVER, I believe that despite the nerfs to mana regen across the board, I think this has simply narrowed the disparity between her mana regen and that of other mages. Now that mana regen is harder for everyone, having a passive that gives you a no cost spell every couple of seconds has far more value than it did before. While this passive has less importance later in the game, many have said that mana regen is actually better late game than it was before, however we all know that accept for certain champions ( Example, ) mana has never been much of a hindrance late game compared to early.

Another champion that I have been seeing a lot more of in higher ranked play is our favorite master of evil, Veigar.

http://static.mnium.org/images/contenu/actus/LOL/Veigar/lol_champion_vaigar_skin_base_hd.jpg

Now Veigar's rise in popularity I do not believe is all about mana. Yes Veigar's passive is the same as the old passive of Chalice, I can attest that it is much harder to keep your mana up now than it was before the mana regen changes unless I have a decently stacked tear. So what other reason is there for seeing more play from the yordle of evil? Once again we look to what the mana regen nerfs have changed about the meta roster and that is the rise of popularity in assassins, particularly ones like and the one that's been causing a lot of talk on the boards .

Because of the mana regen nerfs, we have seen champions that have no mana to be nerfed or that used energy see a spike in popularity due to mages no longer being able to keep up with them as much as they used to. How this relates to Veigar is that, while it is true that Veigar has no way to protect himself outside of his stun, he is also a mage capable of assassinating his opponent with ease if he gets the chance and especially if he gets rolling into late game. Because of his ability punish an assassin that makes the mistake of getting in his sights, especially an ap assassin, and the power of his e which allows him the chance to catch the slippery assassins and safely unload his combo, he has seen a rise in his popularity.

On the other hand, this does make me question why someone like has not seen a rise in play lately (at least that I've seen), despite having a passive that also helps out with his mana. Though if I were to hazard a guess, it would be that wave clear is currently less popular than just outright bursting down your opponents, and his cc is harder to land on a slippery assassin than Veigar's or Lissandra's (Lissandra even has the benefit of being able to ult herself to dodge a burst combo is she so chooses).

Anyway, that concludes my, perhaps some would say, obvious analysis of some changes I've noticed in the current popular choices of champions lately. If you agree or disagree, please feel free to tell me why. I am like I said before, just a lowly Gold 2-3 player, and so it is quite possible that I am entirely off base about everything I just said. But until then I shall sign off from this thread.