Is Malzahar an effective choice in high ELO matches? If so what type of role would he play. I use him a lot myself and I have found him very effective for keeping champions from using there abilities but I have also noticed that he can nuke for a decent amount.
Can Malzahar work as an AP carry, or is there a better role for him?
Malzahar is a perfectly acceptable AP carry. He has strong burst, good damage scaling and good teamfight presence.
There are a few reasons why you see him less in tournaments:
A) believe it or not, people got bored of him. Malzahar was a high level pick/ban for a long time, and after his nerf on W, people found different champions to use despite him still being viable
B) QSS can REALLY hurt his ability to fully combo high priority targets
C) No escapes. He's extremely susceptible to ganks. Most picked AP carries nowadays are a little harder to tag down. Think of Kennen, Ahri, Ryze, Morg etc. They all have good ways to ward off ganks. Malz does not
Don't let this sway you from playing and mastering him if you love his playstyle. He's still an extremely potent champion
Malzahar is generally played as AP carry. He is a strong laner, and his E skill will push his lane automatically. His pool also is one of the most damaging potential single spells as it is based on enemy health. So in short he is a situational pick that works against tanky team comps as the pool can destroy teams as it's based on target's health.
Perhaps the two big reasons why he dropped off from competitive scene is that his W pool is short range and his main AOE damage. His silence can hit more than one champ but easy to dodge, and his other skills are single target. Also his his ultimate leaves himself vulnerable as he himself cannot move while he is suppressing the enemy.
