@Riot Repertoir please allow Malzahar to continue to be a good anti-assassin mage after his rework.

A little backstory(tl;dr at the end, turns out not so little after all).

Back in season 3, I was a new player and trying to find a role I liked. For whatever reason i had my heart set on that role being Mid Lane. I had just given up on veigar and was desperately trying to find a new champion to main. So i went into the shop and with some help from my friends I chose a new champion to try to work on. Not Malzahar(not yet anyway), but Katarina, and later on that year i also picked up Yasuo. I was finding some decent success with Kat until i ran into a Malzahar. Malzahar completely left me in pieces all across the rift. Not even kidding, this was probably one of the worst asskickings i received. Every time i had that matchup i was blown out, and whatever confidence i had on Kat at the time was shattered.(rip) Then i finally got Yasuo vs Malzahar, thinking i was going to own his ass and make him pay for all the times I was humiliated before. Yasuo joined Kat in pieces as well. Later i would pick up Lux and have next to no problems with him anymore. But shortly after the rise of assassins (mainly Zed) came. I was so sick and tired of losing game after game after game to those damned assassins, and almost gave up on mid lane completely. I jumped around alot not caring what role as long as it wasnt mid for a while until a bit before the preseason 5 i took another try. It also helped that Rammus was dreadful that preseason so I was kind forced back. Along the way i decided "i havent touched Kat in a while, ill play her." And the memories of how badly i was always losing to Malzahar resurfaced. I got really excited because im my head "if Malz wrecks Kat, what about Zed? Or Fizz? Or Akali?" and saved up IP to buy him, and when I was almost there he was free. My 1st game was against a LeBlanc who I shat on hard. I felt so amazing. I felt like these assassins needed to fear me, and after fearing them for so long, i played Malzahar almost every chance i could. Even the times i did bad i was still useful because of my ult, which further cemented him as a champion i loved. Ever since my 1st ranked game with him a while later, he was my go to pick when i didnt have a chance to counterpick. While he isnt my most played champion anymore, he still is my favorite midlaner. I finished out the year in ranked with a 14-6 w/l record and a 70% winrate, only behind gnar for the most amount of games played in ranked. Then around the summer time that same season i took a break from ranked, and decided that i was just going to go full anti assassin champions because of how much I loved Malzahar. I tried alot of them. Felt very useless as Annie until around 30 minutes in, was bored off my ass my Heimerdinger, felt Lissandra was a bit better but i still wasnt a fan, and Anivia was fine but i never really enjoyed her that much, and Gragas mid felt more like i was screwing around than trying to win. Ahri did manage to stick but i already didnt love to use her because i already saw her so much that she became a bit boring. Malzahar is still the only champion i feel i can trust to do well with. What is sacred to me as a Malzahar player is that he can lockdown a threat even when behind and that i no longer have to fear assassins with him. I dont care if you take away his ability to melt tanks or to be played AD(sorry AD Malz players, its just a nonfactor to me). My fear is that he will lose the power to defeat almost every assassin in lane, and that feeling that I had when i 1st played him will be gone forever. And if that happens, i cant say if i would be able to play him again and still enjoy myself.

td;dr Got crushed by malz constantly, moved to Lux, where assassins crushed me, so i took up playing Malzahar and due to past experiences telling me he would be the answer to the assassins and thats how he became my main. If Malzahar loses that ability to still be a good pick vs them or loses the ability to still have an impact even when behind, i doubt i could still play him.