Hello I am 1004 You I am currently gold 2 working my way up to play and see where I get there unlike those high diamond guide I am one of you, low elo but in my low elo I think swain is one of the most underrated champions and will help you get a little high in rank.

I am a top main and I see that swain is very strong and has little counter's to him in the current meta.
PS: this guide is a work on so I will work on it every once in a while after I gather more information and I think you feedback will help make me and other who see this guide become a Swain player (or not)
PSS: I am noob and don't know **** about making guides... better start somewhere

Fun Facts: My name is based off the song 1004 Angel by BAP.
I played against many plats and diamonds before.
I main Zed, Riven and Garen

When using runes for Swain a standard AP mid page will work I'm to broke to try out anything new :(

Change AP Scale if vs a heavy AP laner (or not and just get abyssal)

These mastery's provide a solid AP damage while giving you a decent amount of tank need early game

Go 13/17/0 if you are worried about you lane opposition beating you. (not like to happen)
In offensive tree stop at Dangerous game and in defensive get points in Oppression, Resistance/Hardiness depending on lane opponent and Second Wind.

Farming for swain is difficult but a must have due to his passive since you got butcher it should be a little bit easier (not really :P) once you master farming with Swain you will become master bird o!

I'll explain why farming efficiently with Swain is so important. Since you got the master Feast you get one mana for every CS in you add int the fact that you have a now you gain 6 mana (5+1=6 :O) now add in the his passive he gains another
9mana + (1 x level) now lets say hes level 6 where he start to need mana for his ult
1+5+15= 21 now add in the fact that there is 6/7 cs per wave and you hit all the CS
You get around 126-147 mana per wave at level 6.

Note: at level 6 R the back line for one tic and then you can aa the rest of the creeps for easy gold and mana.

Swain excels at drawn out team fights due to his passive (which provide insane amount of mana) and ult (a good amount of sustain)

In team fight try to avoid getting focused instantly (hourglass here) and try to land you ability on squishy. If you land the combo it will probably one shot them. then the tanks shouldn't be that hard (if you have liandry's/ they didn't build a **** ton of MR)

Like I said before this guide is a work in progress and I hope in the future with feedback from this community this guide will be one of the best and bring the spotlight to Swain in the near future.