Serious discussion: Xayah and Rakan counter-play.

Okay hear me out, the newest champions have been revealed, Xayah and Rakan, our newest additions to the avian overlords.

This duo the first in league history, specific champion game-play interaction. Being a first, no one can predict all that well how the strategy around them will work, or how strong they will be separate.

However there is no doubt they will be much stronger together than apart, and should I or you have the misfortune of getting matched against them, I want to figure out an appropriate response to such a potentially powerful duo lane.

I gave some thoughts to counter lanes, and because my mind is pitifully lacking for ADC counter and such, I made assumptions based on there strengths and weaknesses in there kits, and how other kits could exploit that. Thats why I am reaching out to you guys and gals to help me and everyone prepare for the unstoppable hoard of players trying to test out this new duo.

Here's my thoughts: Xayah is immobile, high damage, and ultimately a cunning adc that thrives with kite more than chase, here AOE is potentially really scary for a duo lane, if she could get her splash on each of her opponents. She relies heavily on positioning feathers and has a powerful ultimate that makes it easy, but also become invulnerable during that so able to dodge high stake ultimates and turning the tide quickly.

Rakan is interesting, and I think is more threatening of this duo because he benefits more from having her than she does him, that being longer dashes, bonus feathers, and of course the dual backing. If I could only ban one of them he would be the guy. He is extremely mobile unlike his female counterpart and has a little bit of everything. From the looks of it so far hes going to make it very hard for you to kill anyone in battle, where he will hit with his heal and shield to block a good chunk of damage, while also having a "taunt" just running through you. The thing is, He can get around more with Xayah, making him even more annoying and mobile(reminds me of a certain champion everyone hates...) He has in-battle sustain, engage and disengage(but not both at the same time), but ultimately lacks any form of poke, his range on his heal skill shot is pathetic, making him a very poke/disengage susceptible, while probably being very strong on people with poor disengage skills. I do not know how he would fair against supports who also benefit with all-ins(Hi Leona!).

In conclusion, when together its just as the lore says, Rakan the distractor and Xayah just hopping on his back.

So heres my proposed ultimate counter lane.

Lucian and Braum.

Braum can screw up Xayahs feathers while also his stun is very easy to proc with Lucian's double shot, and theres very little Rakan can do about it besides desperately trying to heal and shield Xayah. Lucian is mobile enough to dodge Rakan's knock-up, and also can dodge the return trip for Xayah's feather daggers if needed. Plus Braum Lucian are very strong skirmishers and work just as well together as Xayah and Rakan, just without the love bit, though I suspect a mutual understanding and respect for each other.

What do you think? Give me some thoughts!