Hey guys,
So since you are here, I'll assume that you have an interest in playing Malzahar, or in laneing solo mid in fives classic. In my opinion, Malzahar is one of the best champions to play mid for several reasons. He has amazing farming capabilities, very good AP ratios (especially on his ultimate), the best group silence in the game, a %max health per second ability that destroys enemy tanks, and the ability to regenerate a lot of mana while in the lane which means he doesn't have to waste time heading back to base.

Through the course of this guide, I will try to explain in fairly great detail how to play malzahar, and how to successfully hold a lane, and only need to go back to base when you want to.

For runes, I chose fairly common caster runes. The magic pen can help a lot early game when you don't have a lot of AP yet. It helps burn past your lane partners passive/item magic resist, and apply a lot of pressure early on which is critical since malzahar needs a bit of time to gear up and start pushing really hard. Cool down runes just help with pushing the lane via malefic visions, and reduces the cool downs on his other abilities. MR runes just make him a little less squishy.

I find that I am not hugely reliant on a specific mastery build when I play Malzahar. Overall, a utility build seems to work the best, but he also works well with a heavy offensive tree.

As far as items go, there are only a couple items that are critical to this build. Firstly, the hex tech revolver. I always get this item. Rush this item as soon as possible. Sometimes I end up having to get it before I even get boots of speed. This item gets Malzahar to just about the amount of AP he needs for his malefic visions to farm with out the help of a ton of auto attacks. This lets Malzahar be very defensive, sometimes even sitting on the tower, while malefic visions pushes the lane for you. Secondly, the spell-vamp is enough to make up for most harass damage that you will take, so with the mana return from malefic visions, and the healing from your amazing creep farm and spell vamp, it is extremely hard to pressure Malzahar after about level 6. After the revolver, finish your boots, and start Ramadans death cap. Finish the death cap and then pick your next items off their team comp. Sometimes it is good to get rod of ages before death cap if their mid champion is putting on a lot of pressure. Overall just make smart gear decisions, and you should be fine once you get the hex tech revolver and a death cap.

Put a point into call of the void first. This spell does a lot to stop aggressive long range mids like caitlyn/brand/anivia. It is also very useful against AP carry's. It is especially useful in classic fives so you can bush check the river, and in any other game to bush check. Then max Malefic visions as fast as possible and put points into your ultimate when possible. The faster you can level up your malefic visions, the more effective your farm will be. Then put a point in null zone if you haven't already, and max call of the void, and finish up your points by maxing null zone.

Flash and ignite seem to work the best on Malzahar once you get used to playing him. When first learning to play him, clarity can be helpfull since he is a rather mana expensive caster.
You can take teleport if you want, but if you do things right, you should be putting enough pressure on the enemy lane that you can port back and walk back to lane easily before they can catch up on your lane.

I haven't used surge much on Malzahr yet, so I don't know for sure how good it is on him, but it seems like it could be a viable replacement for ignite. Also, ghost is a decent replacement for flash, but flash has more uses.

You don't need to take heal, or revive, or fortify, or most of the other spells

pros

strong pusher
very good farm
powerfull cc and ultimate
easily counters most mids
very good lane presenc and is hard to push from a lane due to his regeneration

cons

weak early on
lacks burst until level 6
has to play cautiously till level 6 and about 100+ AP
needs a good team late game to keep him alive
can be very much like a glass cannon, but 1v1, he is extremely dangerous and a formidable force to deal with.

Overall, Malzahar easily can dominate almost any champion mid. The only champions I have difficulty with are against a really good: brand, anivia, leblanc, and sometimes caitlyn or akali(akali is needs nerfed right now but that is a different topic).
With some spell vamp, and a bit of AP Malzahar is extremely durable in a lane.
He is capable of extreme burst if he is given the chance. He is extremely hard to face 1v1, and can push ruthlessly even while sitting on his own tower.


Good luck, and I hope you enjoyed this guide, and enjoy playing Malzahr.