Hey guys !
This is gonna be my second guide, in the first one i talked to you about Elise support, an exotic pick that i really enjoy playing.
Here is the guide about Elise if you want to check it

But now lets be more serious and talk about a real support.
Zyra is an incredible champions in my eyes, she's my main and i never got bored of her no matter how hard i spammed her in solo or duo q. Even tho, i am actually really affraid of what Riot will make of her with the rework, i just hope they wont destroy her in my eyes. But anyways let me present her to you.

Zyra is a support really different to other ones. She shine on the botlane not by her peel or her tankyness but by her burst. And thats actually her way to peel, deletting people that bother your adc, or their carries before they kills yours.
She have awesome Teamfights with tons of AoE damages, and some insane controls if you use your spells well.

But of course, she also have insane drawbacks, and its why she isnt played that much compare to other supports.

First of all, Zyra is really all in, and basically, its hard to have a lane without seeing it covered in blood, may it be your opponents ones or yours. Or Zyra dominate the lane, or she loose it, there isnt much half.

Zyra is really skilled and thats something you need to know before playing her, she have one combo, but doesnt have much to do while cd, and even if your combo can take many forms. There is always a way of missing it, may it be a Rampant Growth bit late or a Grasping Roots missed.
And as we talk about it, the Grasping Rootsis a slow spell, you can hit it, and that for sure on every one, but its way slower than a Morgana binding for example. And even if your burst is way better than Morgana, your crowd control are also, way shorter, especially in early game. (knowing i max the deadly bloom before the Grasping Roots)

Zyra is for sure a huge carry in the lane, and thats why there is already a first choice you need to make.
Will you pick Zyra to dominate the lane with another lane bully ADC like Lucian Kalista or Caitlyn ? Or will you pick zyra in order to have enough pressure to let your ADC farm up till his/her late game ?

In the first case, those 3 marksmans are my favorites with Zyra. They give you so much dammages in lane that ennemies cant even try to trade you, and if you engage the fight you're most likely to kill them before they disengage.
If i had to put an order to those 3, i would do something like

3rd place: Lucian, he is for sure a huge lane bully and a strong pick with Zyra but you will see it feel like it lack of something, in my opinion he lack one thing the 2 others ADC have, a CC.

2nd : Caitlyn, her Yordle Snap Trap allow you so much easier to hit your Grasping Roots "fixing" one of the main problem of Zyra, the fact that her spells can be easy to dodge. Caitlyn makes you able to full combo a target snared by her traps and more, she is a safe ADC, able to peel herself with her range, snare and slow/dash while you engage.

1st : Kalista is there a support main who really hate having her by your side ? Kalista is for sure the ADC i have the more fun supporting. Her kit is, really offensive and aggressive on the lane, her passive allow her to dodge a lot and to position safely, her
Fate's Call is so good to engage, cause it allow you to full combo to 100% while they are bumped and cant dodge. And dont forget the Sentinel passive making you win every short trades on the lane, while the long one are handled by her Rend

Lets start first with the match ups that are in my opinion positive.

Zyra is a really offensive support, and so, you will crush most really passive support. For exemple Janna is totally ok, her shields are far from covering your full burst, you will be able to poke the ennemy lane down. Morganais actually ok, only her Black Shield is a pain for sure, but you will easily break it. Soraka isn't that hard to face either, the only problem is her Equinox cause you depend of your spell, but the moment she use it not on you, if she is in range of Grasping Roots she is dead.

Now the hard lanes, in early game, you will have less hp, and im not kidding, than your adc, you dont want to paly Zyra against really offensive support with engage. Champions like Leona Nautilus are hell to play against as Zyra.
Knowing if you make a plant with a good timing you can cancel most skillshots, making them hit your plants, its hard to do, but it's really useful. Tho some are really hard to cancel in time, like Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab because its really fast. And even worst, Leona's Zenith Blade cause it goes through your plants.
But my point is remember, in hard lane like Thresh or Nautilus your only chance might be to counter their engage like that. And as you understood Leona might be your worst match up.

Zyra is a huge damage dealer, and you shouldnt forget that. What i mean by that is if you see your team lack of some AP damages, tipically Zed midlane Fiora top Kindred jungle and most adc dealing nearly no AP damages, dont hesitate picking her to bring the AP.
You can also pick her for sure when you want to dominate the lane.

And most importantly, dont pick Zyra if your team lack of frontline, your peel is already not the best, so your ADC wouldnt live without a tank.

Lets start with the runes first. The hybrid penetration marks are a must have for the laning phase, they give you the dammages needed on both auto attacks and spells. Same for the seals, armor ones, well cause you're support and your direct match up will be an adc.

The real choice start here, There is 2 way to build Zyra in my opinion. Or you want to max the CDR, which is what i most of the time do, in order to do that, you take enough to 10% cdr /lvl in blue (so 6 runes) and then you complete your glyphs with 3 flat AP runes. Once you have that done you finish your Rune page with 1 flat armor and 2 AP ones, it will give you :
8.1 magic pen/5.5 armor pen + 13 armor + 10%cdr at level 18 and finally 13 ap
Its the page i use the most on Zyra, my favorite one.

Tho there is another that i use time to time against other heavy dammages support. You still go hybrid penetration in red, and armor flat in yellow. But then you go flat magic resist in blue and 3 AP quintessence.
With this page mmh you wont be max cdr, its true,but its not that much a problem as anyways Zyra is combo based. And it give you a much better laning phase against pick like Brand typically.
Which would give you 8.1 magic pen/5.5 armor pen + 9 armor + 12 mr and 15 AP.

So make your choice between those 2 pages.

The masteries, Zyra is a really aggresive pick as i said, and its why the new mastery fits her perfectly Expose Weakness . I tried it a lot and i find it really good, it turn your lane into an even more killing one. It gives you much more burst on the laning phase. And it also grant you personnally more dammages cause going in this tree allow you to go for Oppressor which synergy a lot with your rilay in teamfight.
For the Cunning tree its a classic support tree, with the CDR, i used to go for Precision but since his nerf i always go for Intelligence .

And summoners spells, well, Flash of course, like on most champions, and then its your choice, the without end questions between support players : "To Ignite or to Exhaust ?"

Well in my opinion, Zyra is a really good scaling champion, its already one reason to go for the Exhaust cause its better in late. The other reason of why i play Zyra with Exhaust is her lack of peel, this summoner spell give you some peel to catch up your natural lack of it compared to other supports.
But you have to understand that this is my personnal view of it, and that most Zyra players go for Ignite.

On Zyra i nearly every game go for the same build actually, I know its far from supposed to be good, but i just find this build good in most situations.

The synergy Liandry's Torment more Rylai's Crystal Scepter is more than strong, especially on zyra cause all your spells have area effects. Boots i nearly always take Ionian Boots of Lucidity but many go Sorcerer's Shoes and its an option you need to keep in mind.

If i have some tips to give you, dont rush the Frost Queen's Claim i see many support doing that, and well personally at least, i dont like it. In my opinion you need to have it at a moment you will need to catch people. And that doesnt happen in lanning phase, finish it later for the mid/late game.

I most of the time go Sightstone/ Sweeping Lens then Ionian Boots of Lucidity before doing my Liandry's Torment and then i finish Frost Queen's Claim then do my Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

To finish your build you have some choice here. Or you go more full magin penetrationwith a Void Staff. Or you go Zhonya's Hourglass if you feel like you need the active. And of course dont forget to go for an Aegis of the Legion if needed.

We will cut this chapter in different parts, the lanning phase, the roaming and the teamfights.

1) The lanning phase, Zyra lanning phase is really strong, but really risky, you want to play aggresive, but you are really squishy so you need to care. You need to poke with your spells and auto to let your ADC farm freely and punish the ennemie ADC when he greed for one creep too close to you.

You can time to time, try to start aggressions with Zyra but care, dont get yourself out of position or it would be your death. Its why i recommend to play "passive" by that i dont mean being Soraka, by that i mean always being close enough and ready to punish every misspositioning of ennemie ADC but not you forcing.

Zyrafollow up on ganks is pretty awesome, her root is slow to come and easily to dodge, its why her follow up is huge, if the jungler land the first CC.

2) Roaming,well to make it simple : Flash in.
Roam midlane and try to oneshot the ennemy midlaner with your burst more your mate dammages. Or try moving with your jungle and catch people. But snowball or get fed like that.

3) in team fights, your role is eaasy on the paper, but hard to do, cause if they arent dumb you will often be focused cause you're really easy to kill.
You here have two choice, or you engage, flash in, whole combo, most of the time you will die of that but it will be worth if your team can follow up.
Or you are engaged/another mate of you engage, here you stay behind and follow up with your whole combo.

Zyra rocks, you will see if you give her a try, tho be ready and aware, she might need a spamm to get good, she is more skilled than she look.

Thanks for reading my guide and i hope it helped you, see you guys on the rift !