Well, AP Shaco laning phase is kinda hard. That's why you wanna use your boxes to gain a little advantage at early game. At the beginning of the game, go to the wolves pit and put your first box right front of the big wolf spawn at 0:55. Once your fourth box is set, go on your lane ; the boxes will solo kill the big wolf, and you will only need 2 creeps to level up and take your dagger, so you can begin to harass. However, the xp advantage you obtain that way is only maintained until lvl 3-4, but it's still helpful !

Ap Shaco's gameplay in laning phase really depends on who is your opponent, but there are still some priorities :

- Use your boxes to push your lane : Ap Shaco pushes very slowly and your boxes are your only way to not be pushed under your turret, where you will lose cs and get harassed.

- Try to dodge skillshots as much as you can : If you successfully bait an enemy skillshot and dodge it, that's a window to throw a dagger and harass safely. If your opponent has all his cooldowns, your dagger damage will probably not be high enough to win the trade.

- Against melee, use your autos : Remember that you have ad on runes, and if you attack them from behind you have +20% bonus damage. If the melee midlaner choose to take the fight, you'll just have to put a box on him to force him to disengage (otherwise he will lose the trade).

- If the lane is too hard, no worries ! Remember that thanks to your q, you are basically unkillable and ungankable. Then you have two options : Either you wait for your jungler to come when your enemy is at your turret, or you choose to roam bot (roaming top is often useless since you're not able to burst tanks).

- At last, your opponent will often be ahead in cs because of your low waveclearing. Thats why you need to roam, to get more kill than him and most importantly, to not die for no reason. You're theorically unkillable in lane.

As ap Shaco, the mid-game is your highest scaling phase, and in most cases you want to quit your lane as quick as possible. You need to be everywhere, spamming your boxes to give your allies opportunities and harassing with your dagger which will be very harmful once your luden's echo is finished.

In teamfights, you'll need to focus on carries : Use your stealth to reach the max range of your dagger, throw it and then outrange them. If the enemy team is packed, thats an opportunity to use your clone as an aoe : Just ult and throw your clone is the melee. With the aoe damage of the teamfights, it will explode fast enough for them to react. At last, put your boxes either in the escape ways of the enemy carries, on in the backline of your team to give kite opportunities (the second option is often the better).

End game is kinda hard for AP Shaco : Tanks are not killable anymore, and the teamfights will be quicker than mid-game fights, so that your daggers and boxes will have less impact. However, your exploding kamikaze clone stays useful and your daggers can make a carry half-hp if you're fed enough. But in the case you're useless in teamfights, you can splitpush :

First of all, even if at this step of the game, you have luden's echo so your waveclear is better, you're still not Tryndamere or Zed. To splitpush, try to go on a lane which has already a huge wave. Once you're on the turret, put a box between the turret and the wall, so that the box won't attack the enemy creeps. The box damages on turret are incredible, so that's the thirst thing to do. If you're in haste, ult before putting the box to add some damage : Indeed, the turret's aggro priority goes that way : Clone > Canon > Box > Melee > Range. So if you put your clone on the turret, your box will be able to do its entire damages. On inhibs, you can also put a box near it and near a creep (alone in the best scenario). As the inhib do not trigger the box, the creep will trigger it, die, and then the box will damage the inhib.

I played Ap Shaco a lot, and thanks to guys as Shaclone or Pink Ward, I can give you some protips which are as useful than fun to do :

1 : The jukes
Shaco's q is your stronger way to make your enemy look very stupid. In most cases, you want to use it in the opposite direction of your obvious way of escape. For instance, you can approach a wall as if you wanted to jump over it, and then q towards the other side. If your enemies are dumb enough, they can even waste a flash.
Another juke that I use a lot : When an enemy is pretty low, pretend to roam bot or return to your base with your q and then pop on him to burst him down.

2 The Clone

Shaco's ult is the tricky part of the gameplay, and has many uses, that I will try to recap :

- Avoid damages : As you may know, when you split yourself during the ult animation, there is a frame where you're untargetable, and you can dodge for instance Karthus, Cait or Zed ults that way, as well as all the skillshots of the game. Combined with your Zhonya, you will be very hard to catch, even without your q.

- The diving clone : Your clone can be used to tank turrets when you wanna dive, and in the best scenario, to explode at the face of your target. By the way, if you ult when you have turret aggro, the aggro will switch to your clone (unless you have put an ignite before, but don't do that of course).

- The baiting clone : Braining the enemy team with your clone is kinda hard, as they all know that AP Shaco will try it. The best way to bait them is to move your clone as if you were in danger, when the enemy team is chasing you for instance. The classical "hey I'm Ap Shaco I am running towards the whole team I'm so dumb xD" doesnt work at all.

- The Shaclone trick : When your clone is too far from you and you want it back to your position, move it far away from you so that he will reappear on you. If you enter in a bush when it happens and then use your q, it can be a deadly trick.

- The Pink Ward illuminati trap : Pink Ward invented a creative way of using your boxes as trap : He puts them in a triangle so that the first box the enemy encounters will lead him to the second, which will lead him to the third. Nevertheless, those kind of traps are long to set up, so the illuminati trap stays very situationnal.

- The Ult + Zhonya combo : When a bruiser or assassin is gonna burst you, you can ult then Zhonya instantly : He will generally waste his burst on the clone because he will spam his spells at your position.

As I told you before, AP Shaco's laning phase is very dependant on which champion you are facing, so here my advices about the most played midlaners atm :

1 Zed : Zed is a kinda even match-up : You'll need to dodge his q as much as possible and to never be at melee range. If you do that correctly, the harass of your dagger will make his laning difficult. At level 6, you'll have a window to kill him. Prepare some boxes (2 are enough) in the backline, but close enough to you. Try to make him ult you and then q on your boxes and ult at the moment when the shadows of his ult pop to avoid the death mark. If you do that correctly, his burst will be completely wasted and the daggers + clone + boxes will be enough to kill him

2 Katarina : An even match-up again. Use the same tactic as against Zed with the backline boxes in case she shunpos on you (remember she always pop behind you). Stay away from the creeps when her dagger cooldown is up, and then throw yours. When she ult you, ult as well : Not only will you avoid some of her burst, but she will also deals damage to the clone which in the best scenario will explode at her face.
If you're confident enough, try to get under your turret with low hp with a box behind you to bait her, then ult + q when she shunpos + ult

3 Leblanc : A skilled match-up, which can be very difficult if you fail, but pretty easy if you outplay her at the first levels. First of all, you and her share the same weakness : The lack of waveclear. So you will be able to be even in terms of cs, ahead if you play well.
The most important thing againt Leblanc is to make her waste her mana : She has a low manapool at early levels and her W cost is really high. To do so, it's pretty simple : when she q's you, q as well on the side to dodge her w : She will waste 2 spells and you will even be able to punish her with a dagger. At level 6 though, things get more difficult. The diversity of the combos she will be able to do will make her harder to brain. That's why you need to win the early levels, and push her with your boxes so you can roam bot and get ahead.

4 Ahri : Not much to say here. Her passive make her relatively difficult to harass, and you'll need to use your q to dodge her spells. Moreover, she has the waveclear you have not. So that's a difficult match-up overall, but you can still outplay her if you dodge correctly.

5 Counters : All the long range champions (except Lux), so don't pick Shaco against Xerath, Azir or even Viktor (even if he has not that much range, his shield makes your dagger useless, and his laser deals too much damage). Yasuo is kind of a counter as well because of his high mobility and shield (dagger useless again), but the outplayed is still possible.