Tank Support vs. Support....Support

there's kind of a rock paper scissors game in counter picking supports; between poke, sustain, and kill. Sustain counters poke, poke counters kill and kill counters sustain.

Most tanky supports are kill lanes and they lose by getting poked down so much they'd die if they engage

Sustain lanes lose if they're killed before they can heal

Poke lanes lose when their poke is cancelled out by heals.

Most common is kill vs kill lane, I think it's the best choice if you have to blind pick your support as they have the best peel. Pick poke if your team might be lacking damage, and sustain if you're countering a poke lane.

You're almost guaranteed to win lane if you get to counterpick your support.

it definitely does matter. if you team is all squish pick an alistar/braum/thresh. If your team already consists of a tanky top or jungler you can go for a more damage or utility support like a karma/zyra/nami/janna

Most traditional supports bring a different kind of lane than tanks. Tanks, as a whole, bring all in kill lanes.

Soraka sustains and can whittle (very slowly) away her opponent to gain an advantage while keeping hers. Poke lanes take out the enemys hit points to deter engagements.

They also bring more varied abilities. Shields for others, on hit damage, polymorph, flat HP increases, passive speed boosts, active speed boosts. Tanks on the other hand generally focus more on initiation.

So it really depends on how you want to support, I suppose. I'll pick a traditional over a tank 9/10 because it let's me protect my back lines. Only if we don't have a tank or I really want to play Leona, will I play tank just to the team balances out.

Just checking, are you talking about the supports themselves, or itemization?