Weird Picks #63: Morgana Top

Morgana is known for her extremely safe laning phase. Her ability to push indefinitely from long-range combined with her gank-proof Black Shield means that staying even is a cinch, even if you get camped. She used to be an extremely popular pick from Asia, but has since been replaced by faster AOE crowd-control champions like Gnar. However, she can still be viable, especially in solo queue.

Introduction

Morgana is known for her extremely safe laning phase. Her ability to push indefinitely from long-range combined with her gank-proof Black Shield means that staying even is a cinch, even if you get camped. She used to be an extremely popular pick from Asia, but has since been replaced by faster AOE crowd-control champions like Gnar. However, she can still be viable, especially in solo queue.

How to Play

Runes: Ability Power Quints, Magic Penetration Reds, Flat Armor Yellows, Flat Magic Resist Blues
Masteries: 12-18-0, Thunderlord Masteries
Abilities: W, Q, E, then prioritize R > W > Q > E
Core Items: Rod of Ages, Sorcerer's Shoes, Zhonya's Hourglass, Rabaddon's Deathcap, Void Staff, Rylai's Crystal Scepter

Why It Works

Safe Laning Phase

As described in the introductory paragraph, Morgana's main strength lies in her ability to clear from long-range while sustaining through via her personal passive and Doran Ring's passive. This means that as long as she does not get cheesed during the early period of the game, she's almost guaranteed to be safe pick. Additionally, it is unlikely to get specifically countered since most people don't play her top.

Great Teleport Ganks
In comparison to other top laners, Morgana has one of the stronger post-6 teleport ganks to bot lane, especially since she can multi-target CC and push her own lane extremely hard. Although her post-6 is where she shines, her pre-6 ganks are also pretty good if your bot lane has another form of CC to guarantee her snare.

Excellent Against Invisible Champions
If the enemy team is packing an Evelynn, Rengar, or Shaco, Morgana's post-6 allows her to easily warn allies if the assassin is near, meaning that you no longer need to camp on pink wards to save your marksman from impending doom.

Unbreakable Black Shield vs AD
If you happen to be fighting against a purely AD based champion, it is impossible to break your black shield. Although you do not gain the pseudo-HP advantage the shield provides against magic damage, they also have no way of CC'ing you.

Potential Pitfalls

Weak to Strong Auto-Attack Champions
Although her waveclear is excellent against tank champions like Shen, she may suffer against strong auto-attack based champions like Jayce who can actually out-sustain her fairly easily as a result of his truly free waveclear by way of autos.

"Slow" Front Line CC
Morgana is great as both a peeler and an engager. However, she is still much better as a secondary CC since enemies tend to split off in opposite directions once she uses her ultimate. As a result, she only shines in select team compositions and is very average in others.

Conclusions

Morgana top is a fun flex pick that works, but is slightly out of date as a result of champions like Gnar and Jayce. However, if the enemy team ends up picking someone like Shen or Sion, Morgana top actually works extremely well as a counter.

Suggested Rating: High Tier 3

What do you think about Morgana Top? Comment below!

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