My major suggestion is Swain.
When is he a solid pick ? Against anyone that will want to build tank, because he can do percent health damage, if you build
and he can use this item to its max potencial, because he has both a Dot and a Slow.
His Job in lane is to bully, but never push. You will be the bane of every melee top laner, because if they ever show their face to farm, E and Q them, and it will hurt . But you can never push the lane, or else they can just farm under tower. Mid late game he is a monster. His team fight potencial is one of the highest in the games. Unless the other team kills you quickly, you will do massive damage and take very little, because you have massive sustain.
He has no escapes at all. If you see a gank coming, run and try and hit them with a W, but that is all you have. Master gankers like Shaco, Zac and Vi will make you life a lot harder. He also has massive mana problems, so be carefull, oom you are useless.
As far as the lane in itself, top lane you do not have many counters. Malzahar and Cassie are flex picks that can mess you up, but they are usually in the mid lane. Galio can mess you up big time tho. Galio and Cassie are hard counters and Malzahar is more a skill match up, but tilts in favor of Malzahar most of the time.
His list of champs that he counters is long. First off, Vladimir. He deals with Vlad, because his E and Q will still damage him, even in his pool form. After level 6, you sustain is bigger ( But carefull with the mana), he is rather immobile and you can land you W E Q combo with ease. And finaly if you get Liandrys, you make Vlad pay for his sins with his Crimision Pact. Gragas is also a easy lane. His range is nice, but he has to use his W and E to even try to do damage, and when he gets in your range, its bye bye. Rumble also can't do squat against you. His only reliable damage is his Q, and if you are in range for that, his is in range for your full combo. Unless fed, he will never burst you down in time, and your sustain will drive him mad. And the last Major counter is Nasus. This lane is soooooooooooo easy. He has 0 range, unless he maxes E and goes full ap, that is done 0 percent of the time. He will never be able to stack his Q, because he shows his face, and its a E Q in it. He has no escapes so again, landing those W will not be hard. And he build health and well, . Those are the major counters. Minor ones include any champs with no hard mobility, no farming skills, no gap closers and 100% melee champs. These usually go in swains favor, but he is a soft counter to them. They still tend to go in his favor, unless something happens like a camping jg etc.
I hope that I helped
or 
top with Cinderhulk (I know it's not as good now, but I've still been crushing games with 
