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Vayne isn't much of a threat top lane, just take Ghost+Ignite and go all-in every time your summoners are up. Wait for her W to expire when she hits you and play safe near tower if needed. She'll beat you and outscale you in a poke battle, which is why it's important to go all-in when you're at full health. Don't be too afraid of towerdiving, you need her gone.
However, Vayne is an extreme threat when she's bot lane, because you can't do anything about her. After laning phase, she'll shred you. While Tahm is the tankiest champ in the game against Vayne (I'll explain why later), she's still a huge threat if fed. Consider banning, even if you're the top laner.
Ashe
Like Vayne, she's not much of a threat top lane, but is terrifying when bot lane. After laning phase, she'll be able to easily permaslow you and help everybody kite you. She's an even larger threat (6/5) in Season 11 if she builds Kraken Slayer, at which point you'll just have to wait for your teammates to kill/occupy her before you engage. Consider banning, even if you're the top laner.
Zac
The most difficult jungler for Tahm to deal with, even if you're not the jungler. The most dangerous form of CC for Tahm is knockups, and Zac is loaded with them. Knockups can't even be reduced via tenacity, so Merc Treads won't help with that. You'll want to play around your team a bit more if he's on the enemy team, it'll be more dangerous to be solo after laning phase.
Teemo
Unlike most matchups in which you just win lane by default, this lane is definitely a skill check. If the Teemo sucks, you'll be able to completely run over them. However, if they're particularly skilled, they'll be able to prevent you from being able to catch them, especially after level 6.
The goal in this matchup is similar to going against Vayne top lane. If you play safe and aim for a poke battle, you'll lose. You'll want to take Ghost and Ignite, and immediately go for a hyper-aggressive all-in as soon as you enter lane and you see an opportunity. Let them push so you have plenty of chase room, but make sure you have Bami's so you can thin out the wave when needed.
After level 6, his shrooms can destroy your entire chase potential, so you may want to consider grabbing Oracle Lens to use when you activate Ghost.
Play safe, and you lose.
Dr. Mundo
Mundo usually struggles to kill you, but due to his ultimate and MR passive it's incredibly difficult for you to kill him in return (unless he's bad). He then usually becomes more useful than you after laning phase (except not, because your build is too awesome and you're too skilled at the game to let him do that to you, of course).
The solution? Herald. Get Bami's, aggressively push lane, and ping the crap out of Herald once you get the wave to his tower. If the jungler ignores you, just solo the thing. Papa Scuttle is yours and nobody can tell you otherwise.
Once you manage to take down top tower, roam super aggressively. At that stage of the game, you'll be incredibly powerful since Tahm Kench is one of the best early game champs in the game, and if Mundo decides to follow up on your roams he won't be nearly as useful as you yet.
Azir
I've only played against Azir once mid lane, but it was a generally miserable experience, and other Tahm Kench mid lane players tend to agree. I only have them at 4/5 since I don't have a ton of information on the matchup, but a good Azir player should be able to keep you away to the point you can hardly even get them with your Q.
Gragas
Gragas top lane can play super safe, and then becomes much more useful than you later in the game. He can't kill you in lane, but you struggle to kill him as well. Unless they suck.
Irelia
Tahm's easiest matchup by far. Even Yuumi top lane would probably be more of a threat.
Seriously, one time League bugged out and I was stuck with >2000 ms ping and 1 FPS for the entire game, and I still won lane.
She just can't do damage to you. As soon as you get Bramble Vest, I would be legitimately impressed if you managed to die. Nobody else can really pull it off.
If you see Irelia go mid lane and you chose top lane, beg with your mid laner to swap temporarily. Offer to swap back after you get 2 or 3 or 50 kills. Then you'll be fed so you'll win top lane, and Irelia will be weak so your mid laner will win mid lane. Guaranteed win.
Darius
He can snowball pretty hard if you let him get an early lead, but you won't.
Hope that Darius goes for a level 1 cheese. *As long as you get the first auto,* you'll almost always win this fight with Ignite. If he autos first, there's a possibility he can outplay you and get his passive activated early enough for him to win the all-in. If you predict the cheese and you're the first one to auto, you'll win the all-in easily.
Besides that, he really can't be much of a problem. Be extremely aggressive. Don't back off when he uses his Q, or else he'll heal. Note that if you have 3 stacks and he uses his Q, you can use Devour to pull him in so you get hit by the handle instead.
Lee Sin
He can only fight you in melee range, and you win that fight every time.
He's more of a threat top lane since he can play safe, but if he's the jungler, intentionally get hit by his Q and get that free kill. His ult is the only thing that could potentially be dangerous for you.
Hecarim
Oh man, I have some hilarious clips where I finish a tower dive, have 50 HP left, get ganked by a full-health Hecarim, and then walk out with an extra kill and 200 HP left. Hecarim just can't do anything to you, they don't do nearly enough damage. Do whatever you possibly can to get them to gank you, every gank from them is a free kill for you.
Nasus
The biggest mistake you can make when playing against Nasus is playing safe. You need to play very aggressively at levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18, or until laning phase is over.
Don't let him farm. You can poke him to death with Q and destroy him in every all-in if you play well and deny enough farm.
He'll heavily outscale you later on, so try to end the game early.
If he goes for AP Nasus and maxes Wither, you're screwed.
Singed
In lane, Singed is a very easy matchup since you can just facetank their poison. However, they become significantly more useful than you after laning phase. Be careful of that. Try to be aggressive once you get an MR item or two, you're one of the few champions that can violate the sacred rule of League of Legends. Yes. You can chase the Singed.
...within reason.
Skarner
When Skarner is the jungler, he can easily shut down a significant lead you may have via his ult. His ganks are also very potent if he hits his E.
When Skarner is the top laner, they'll probably play very safe. Even if they're down to 5 CS per minute, they'll outscale you hilariously and becomes much more useful than you after laning phase. I've actually never played Tahm Kench against Skarner, but every time the enemy top laner chooses Tahm Kench, I pick Skarner in return. I haven't lost a game as Skarner against Tahm Kench top lane yet.
Tryndamere
His ult is very dangerous. The rest doesn't really matter. It's a fairly easy matchup.
Yorick
I haven't gone against Yorick very many times, but from what I can tell (and as an occasional Yorick player myself), he can stomp you pretty hard.
Note that his ult makes Yorick's next basic attack every 2 seconds do extra %max health damage to you. However, you can negate his ult by Devouring it and spitting it into your own tower.
That being said, he's quite the threat to you even without his ult.
Tahm Kench
(EDIT: This is now outdated info. Riot gutted Ravenous Hunter, making it only viable for the high-DPS champs that were abusing it in the first place. Good job, you played yourself.)
Tahm Kench is your easiest matchup since your build is significantly better than his, and you're a significantly better player. Show him who the better Tahm is.
Reminds me of the time I was playing Tahm Kench jungle and there was an enemy Tahm Kench top lane. I went 12/2 and he went 1/10, and I didn't even gank him once. It was really obvious who had the better build.
Soraka
A skilled Soraka support will make your life pretty miserable after laning phase. They'll be able to heal all of their allies without you being able to get anywhere near them, doing a very good job of removing your 1v5 potential.
Brand
He's not a problem when laning against you of course, but when they're the support on the enemy team it can be pretty difficult to deal with them. They do ludicrous amounts of %max health damage on their passive, and your E passive is delayed by an extra 4 seconds as well.
Skarner
Skarner's E+ult+auto+E+auto combo gives him a very long CC chain... which you can extend by easily getting 3 stacks on them in the process. In a teamfight, you can hit them with Q to give him another 2-second stun, or if it's only you and Skarner you can Devour the enemy to wait for Skarner's E to come off of cooldown again (you'd follow Devour with instant Q for a 3-second 70% slow).
Ivern
His Q and E are very helpful for preventing the enemy from kiting you.
Yuumi
(EDIT: This is now outdated info. Riot gutted Ravenous Hunter, making it only viable for the high-DPS champs that were abusing it in the first place. Good job, you played yourself.)
If you've never played Tahm with Yuumi, you've never experienced true happiness.
Your E multiplies the value of all incoming healing, and your build already revolves around healing boosts (Spirit Visage, Revitalize, etc.), so in the end, you can't really die.
Lulu
ABSOLUTE UNIT
Rammus
Rammus makes up for everything you lack. His Q makes him faster than anybody and his E shuts them down entirely, giving you plenty of time to follow up with your Q slows and passive stacking.
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Skarner
Skarner's E+ult+auto+E+auto combo gives him a very long CC chain... which you can extend by easily getting 3 stacks on them in the process. In a teamfight, you can hit them with Q to give him another 2-second stun, or if it's only you and Skarner you can Devour the enemy to wait for Skarner's E to come off of cooldown again (you'd follow Devour with instant Q for a 3-second 70% slow).
Ivern
His Q and E are very helpful for preventing the enemy from kiting you.
Yuumi
(EDIT: This is now outdated info. Riot gutted Ravenous Hunter, making it only viable for the high-DPS champs that were abusing it in the first place. Good job, you played yourself.)
If you've never played Tahm with Yuumi, you've never experienced true happiness.
Your E multiplies the value of all incoming healing, and your build already revolves around healing boosts (Spirit Visage, Revitalize, etc.), so in the end, you can't really die.
Lulu
ABSOLUTE UNIT
Rammus
Rammus makes up for everything you lack. His Q makes him faster than anybody and his E shuts them down entirely, giving you plenty of time to follow up with your Q slows and passive stacking.
Hey hey hey, this is still a work in progress. I'll continue working on this over time. Remember all the other parts of the guide telling you to read further down? Well, you just got hekkin bamboozled boi.
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