The AP Zyra guide has led me to streaks of 6 ranked wins in a row, and that's in MY elo, back in the day, this guide let me to over 20 wins STRAIGHT!

You guys can check my summoner name on NA, Heimerrdingerr. And yea, i play alot of Heimerdinger too ;).

-Rylai's: The reason for buying this item isn't really that it gives you anything special damage-wise, but it provides a nice boost in health for you, and allows better peeling for your ADC, say your Caitlyn gets caught out, you can use your E-W combo (explained later in the guide) to slow their movement speed to 70 percent!
-Void Staff: Be VERY careful when buying this item, only buy it if the enemy team has 3 or 4 spirit visages/banshee's veils. This can provide UNREAL damage boosts, but will make you more vulnerable to enemy assault.
-D Cap: You do not need this item despite what everybody may tell you! Although this item gives you huge numbers, the effect can be less than satisfying if the enemy team is prioritizing for you. You may be better off going Abyssal or Liandry's.
-Seraph's Embrace: Although i have not needed to buy this item except for one time, I always will include this item on here. This item absolutely makes you a stronger threat, with the massive amount of mana you will have (1650 total from this item and Rod of Ages, plus base mana) you can gain a smack-proof 500 shield. In terms, that's enough to completely block out a Lux ult, or negate 1/3rd of Heimerdinger's rockets. Overall, this item is strong and if you are a new mid laner, i would recommend it.
-Liandry's Torment: This item is almost always needed for Zyra, these are the reasons why: 1-Amazing penetration, as much as your boots give you!. 2-Deals 2 percent of the enemies health per second when you land an ability, meaning this is a late game item as much as anything else! 3-Your plants apply and renew the debuff on enemies, constant embarrassment!
-GA: This item is really good if the team is insanely accurate in their focus of you, or if you easily get caught out, this allows you the chance at life a second time, once every 6 minutes. In the heat of a team fight, you get to come back and deal insane damage a second time.
-Abyssal Scepter: Buy this item if an enemy AP carry is insane. If they try to 1 up your team, this will not only boost YOUR resistance, but it will increase ALL magic damage for the entire enemy team!

Hello guys, until recently, i was stuck in the same elo as all of us are, ELO HELL. The place where AD Jannas, AP Rengars, Support Tryndomeres, and Twitch jungles roam free. The place where every single lee sin on your team sucks, and every single lee sin NOT on your team has a 600943/0/1234. I was pondering how i would get out of my bronze 5 placement season 4, then i discovered this crown jewel of a champion, AP ZYRA CARRY! this carry has over 3000 health if built properly, more aoe damage than any champion in the game, and enough cc to slow/snare the enemy team for over 12 seconds straight! This guide will help you beat any lane match-up, and win games strictly off your ability to win! This champion has guided me from bronze 5 elo, to gold 3 elo. Soon to be in the gold division, and i hope to see you there!

Pros:
-AMAZING AoE burst damage!
-Great trading potential!
-The ability to create plays due to your CC
Cons:
-Early game is incredibly vulnerable to ganks
-You're mid lane, everybody can go there and push your tower easier than any lane in the game
-You have a lot of match-ups that are annoying, i'll try to explain how to deal with them later in the guide

1.) Last hitting is zyra's best friend
2.) If a champion tries to poke you, do not panic, simply poke back, and your plants will deal with them
3.) Once you push the enemy up against their tower, go back and farm wraiths, its about 100 free gold per camp
4.) Either roam before the enemy mid lane roams, or push the tower, do not roam after the enemy leaves lane, it will only waste time you could be farming up

The AD marks allow for better farm, but it should still be said, again, that last hitting is the most important part of ANY carry, fighter carry, marksman carry, ability power carry, assassin carry, you name it. Farm means gold, and that builds items.

The following are the basic combinations I use for harassing, i will refer to these combinations later in the guide for use in team fights and peeling:
Q- basic, area of effect poke, cone-shaped damage

E- basic, snare ability, strikes in a straight line, similar in purpose to a Lux snare, with the potential to hit more opponents

QW- This is where you Q then immediately throw down a W (this is a seed, creates the plants that will deal the sustain damage that keeps Zyra's trading potential so high) to create a spitter, this will continuously harass the target that you auto-attack, has a range similar to Zyra's basic attack

EW- This is the snare, and as the snare is about to hit the enemy, throw down a seed to create a thrasher, this will slow the enemy, and deal damage close range

EWW- This is the same as EW, with an extra seed, for extra damage

QWW- This is the same as QW, with an extra seed, for extra damage

Ahri - This champion is extremely good at bursting, and if she lands her taunt on you she can trade with you at will. Avoid being hit by her taunt and you should have a fairly easy time against her, since most of her threat comes from her mobility, locking her down with your snare and ultimate is key.
Anivia - Against Eggnivia, you should try to go and poke her down a little bit, since you basically have to kill her twice. Once she's at about half way, show no mercy.
Annie - The thing you have to worry about Annie isn't her stun as much as it is that she will roam often, since she can push lanes hard. When she gets mobility boots I recommend warding the tri-Region below near dragon, and the region above by Baron, giving your team mates a clear view of where she is going. If you can try to limit her farm and keep her from successful roams, you will out scale her late game.
Brand - This champion has as much AoE as you do. Basically stay out of the circle he will drop, and avoid his combination of abilities that will end up stunning you and you are fine. His passive triggers a mini-ignite if you are hit by videos.
Cassiopeia - She has poison, once she lands her combo she'll try to ultimate you, which will stun you if you are facing her. The best thing to do is to try to predict when this ultimate is going to come out and face AWAY from her. Then after that go back and continue trading, follow up with your ultimate.
Fiddlesticks - First on the list that you hard counter, Since his primary damage ability is channeled, your knock up from the ult will stop him in his tracks, and you can easily plant your plants with your Q and do more damage than he can heal.
Heimerdinger - Avoid letting him place his turrets, because once he does that, he can basically afk farm, and the beams from the turrets harass.
Karma - This matchup is stupid. Just avoid her Q (the little beam that comes at you) and you're fine. If she runs at you pre-6 run away, if she runs at you post-6, then engage.
Karthus - Easy match up, he can't wave clear like you can at level 5 and above, then roam and get kills. Do not let him ult without making him pay, if he tries to kill team mates whom are low then you can burst him down. A fed Karthus is impossible to stop, just don't let him get huge and you win.
Lux - You counter lux, once you get snared she will try to engage, snare her back! :D then burst her down, gg. wp.
Malzahar - Try to time your ultimate right before you believe he will ult. Most malzahar mains in low elo will ult after they Q you, so get your burst off before the Q and then ultimate so you cancel his.
Morgana - This match up is a farming frenzy, you both won't be able to kill each other without assistance from jungles, so just ping like hell, and farm until the jungle comes.
Orianna - She can make farming difficult for you, but once you hit level 6 and have the first item for Rod of Ages, you can out sustain her in lane and force her back. Your health will make her damage useless against you because you can eat most of her burst, after that just win lane and roam.
Kayle - You counter her simply because she can't out-trade you/harass you well since your plants do fair decent sustain, and when you want to burst her she better have two heals with her or she's dead.
Nidalee - She will always be a trouble for every mid lane player due to the harass of her Q, if you dodge that however, just push the lane to her turret, and roam at will.

Zyra's burst is her greatest use to a team. The burst she is able to do comes from her AOE damage, meaning EVERY spell Zyra has effects the entire team, the Snare can grab all 5 of the enemy players, the Q can do the same thing, and the ultimate ability as well.

How to burst with Zyra:
There are a couple of options, some are safe, some are risky, i'll rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 based on riskiness.

Option 1: E-Q-W-W-R-IGNITE (Standard Burst)
Riskiness: 1
-This burst option is safe, and you can 100-0 your opponent with this. The Snare allows you to place your Q-W-W combo with ease, and the ultimate damage + the attack speed / Knock up. You may need to throw a Q again after the ultimate knock up to see the deal.

Option 2: E-W-W-Q-R-Q-Q-IGNITE
Riskiness: 4
-This burst is risky, but easily doable with proper experience. The slow speed of your opponent due to the EW combination allows more Q poke, and this hurts because you ALWAYS upgrade it first! ;). The R allows not only damage, but allows the EW plants to slow more often, more Q usage, and the knock up.

Option 3: Q-Q-E-W-Q-W-R-IGNITE-Q
Riskiness: 5
-This option is really hard to make happen, because of the amount of pokes you will have to do, and the use of the EW and QW combination is hard for a lot of people to get off properly. If you can get it off, however, they have zero percent chance of survival after this, especially before level 11.

These are my burst options, you may create/use other options too! that's the beautiful world of league we love!

Roaming is the best way to get kills mid lane. When the enemy over extends, they often tower dive, thinking they can make an easy escape. If you run in before the team dies, you can almost guarantee the enemies have tunnel vision on your adc and support/top laner/jungler that they are chasing. This allows you to throw down the ultimate, knock them up, and then use EW or QW plant combos as needed. You should roam when:
- Your ally pings for help in the jungle/close to your lane
- Your team is at the the enemy tower, and the enemy is really low on health, and/or has burned a summoner spell that could keep them alive (heal, exhaust, flash, teleport)
- Your team is at THEIR tower, pushed hard, and the enemy is incredibly over extended.
- YOU have pushed the enemy mid lane to their tower, and the enemy can not risk leaving the lane.
Roaming will get you kills really really really really easily, and once you master lane Zyra, i HIGHLY recommend this tactic, for you can snowball yourself, or a team mate.

This is why Zyra is called the "hidden hyper-carry". Her damage is unreal, its like having a fed Akali on your team, except all of your abilities effect every single enemy player caught within the radius. Your primary goal in team fights will either be peeling for your adc, while dealing awe-some amounts of damage, or strictly focusing on their adc.

In team fights, use your standard burst. When your team tank/fighter whom is most likely a jungle/top lane engages with their amazing-ness, follow up with your ultimate, and your snares. This allows you to hit them up in the air, interrupting their damage, while your team gets off all of the damage possible. In a single team fight, you can deal as much as 7-8 thousand damage total, this is basically the same as killing their carries, and half of a tank.

how to survive/peel for yourself/your adc (IMPORTANT INFORMATION!):
-Hint, you will be focused in team fights! If your team gets engaged ON, then you should almost instantly ult the area the enemy team is expected to be in/is in! this will allow the team to peel for you while the knock up assures your safety! They will switch the focus to the ADC about halfway through the fight when they realize you can not die. All you have to do is snare, QWW for your adc, and try to target their carry champion as well. If you EVER get low on health, make sure you pop your Zhonya's hour-Glass, this is 2 seconds of extra life, which can completely turn around a fight.