During yesterday's LCS matches Reginald brought out the oft-overlooked Xerath. For some time I've considered Xerath to be an underappreciated champion, in particular because of the vast amounts of Magic Resistance he can simply ignore. TSM took advantage of this facet of Xerath by incorporating him into a Double AP team composition.
The cleverness here is obvious. Depending on how many runes Xerath commits to Magic Penetration, he can completely bypass between 105 and 140 Magic Resistance. Even a target with 300 Magic Resistance will effectively be reduced to 70 as far as Xerath is concerned. As a result, investing in Magic Resistance is only effective against one champion, and failing to build Magic Resistance would be equally bad.
While the composition met with mixed success, in large part due to misplaced Xerath ultimates, the principle behind it is sound. Forcing your opponents into suboptimal choices is a very strong strategy, as even if they do what's "correct" they're getting weaker returns on their investments than you are. Xerath in a Double AP composition is a textbook example of that principle.
Still, Xerath himself seems to have a few issues. The awkwardness of his wave clear, his mana consumption, and his dependence on never missing a skill shot were extremely obvious in the TSM versus MRN game. I'm not sure he deserves a buff, but he definitely has exploitable flaws.
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