Hi folks, just sharing my thoughts on a niche role I am rather fond of - I've been playing this style since S2 and have had mixed success with it as teams don't quite understand how to play around it.

Malzahar is a niche champion, no doubt about it and this will explain why:

Pros:
- very easy CS'ing
- good AoE poke
- super-strong 1v1 ultimate
- multiple damage sources and directions (Q, E bounces, voidlings)

Cons:
- not mobile
- positioning is very difficult to get effective poke
- does not burst anything (just whittles them down)

When it comes to skills - Malzahar has them all including the dancemoves too.

Summon Voidling (Passive) - Summons a voidling after 4 skills have been cast
Call of the Void - AoE long range magic damage poke with silence
Null Zone - % health magic damage zone which can be cast while moving
Malefic Visions - magic DoT with mana restore if it 'bounces' to another target
Nether Grasp - single target channelled DoT and suppress ultimate with mid range damage and cooldown

As you can see Malzahar is a 'fire and forget' farmer with a 'stand and deliver' ultimate. His objective pushing and killing is immense with his kit, so challenge those dragons and destroy Baron whenever you get the chance (only Karthus and maybe Azir have more objective control).

Your Malefic Visions will be the first thing you max - as the CD on this ability at early levels is quite long but will drastically be reduced the more points you have in it. Having said that, due to the requirement of junglers needing assistance with their first buff, always skill Call of the Void as it will do burst damage to the camp and will not take EXP away from your jungler (who knows, they might help counter-gank for you in the early levels).

Null Zone does no damage to a target that can move around freely, so you don't need to skill this until you intend to go for a kill (I get it at level 4 in preparation for a 1v1 kill in the early game).

Always E the minion wave - nobody really understands how much the spell bounces between targets, and you'll often chunk the enemy midlaner since they stood too close to the minion line as the last creep died and even if they try to deny you CS by absorbing the bounce themselves, that's just silly, throw a second one back on to the minion line and see if they do it again :)

Lots of people ask me why Teleport, well I'll explain why.

Malzahar has a seriously strong waveclear, and that naturally means you will push your wave in mid lane making you extremely vulnerable to ganks. To counter this - I don't shy off, I put the pedal to the floor and bring the jungler to me, the Teleport is my way of getting back to the lane fast with an item advantage over the opponent midlaner/jungler in preparation for that.

It is also useful for pushing those sidelane towers fast during the midgame - if your midlane is under siege, make your way to a side lane via a safe jungle route and drop your combo ... head back to mid lane and defend your tower before heading to the other side lane and push that out ... then what do you know you've now got a 4v3 in the mid lane since 2 people need to clear the waves on either side ... push the 3 back and TP to your own splitpusher for a 2v1 if required.

Malzahar is the ultimate pushing midlaner, due to the increased map pressure you create, Baron becomes something highly desired, and your kit is built to kill him quick too. While you've got the time, drop your combo on Baron - however if the enemy team shows up, you will need to help zone the opposing team away. Alternatively, TP to a side lane to push a tower again :)

This is where Malzahar will excell - due to his 'fire and forget' skill functions. An entire creep wave will die with just 1 combo in the midgame and you can often stack a wave and kill it all just with a single Malefic Visions (you'd need a Deathcap to pull that off successfully though).

For this reason - I take this ability to the extreme and I turn Malzahar into a splitpush champion, his tower killing ability is very strong also since you'll get to the turret with 2 minion waves and with your ability spam clearing the wave you'll get lots of voidlings to help with absorbing tower shots also.

Unfortunately, Malzahar is a bit of a mana-hog, and in order to duel most champions you'll need your ultimate on a very short cooldown.

For this reason, Athenes is a very good buy, however most Malzahar players will focus on getting a RoA since his E will restore mana for him. It also helps having the Magic Resist on Athenes as Abyssal is not typically something that Malzahar will pick up and there aren't many other Magic Resist items that an AP Carry can get.

Distortion enchantment on your boots will only help if you can get it early. This is a priority for the playstyle that I use, but you can easily use Alacrity or Homeguards if needs be.

Malzahar's Ultimate is NOT an initiation tool, do not put yourself in a compromising position to suppress their out of position Carry. Use your poke, zone, and bounces to get damage on to their team and just push them off the tower you are sieging.

However, if Braum has wandered down the ramp to Baron or Dragon ... by all means just blow him up. Your other alternative is to poke and push down their team and pick off the straggler towards the end of the fight.