As a melee champion with no dash, Malphite eats Zyra's Deadly Spines (Q) and plant poke head-on, and once caught by Grasping Roots (E) he has no way to escape, so he gets pushed around throughout the lane.

Nasus has no dash, so Zyra pokes from outside the lane with plants and Deadly Spines (Q), locks him down with Grasping Roots (E) to force trades, and disrupts his Siphoning Strike (Q) stack farming.

Kassadin is very weak before level 5, and Zyra can poke relentlessly with Deadly Spines (Q) and plants while locking him down with Grasping Roots (E) to delay his Riftwalk (R) power spike.

Early Kayle lacks both range and mobility, so she is fully exposed to Zyra's Deadly Spines (Q), plant poke, and Grasping Roots (E), losing a lot of CS and experience.

Early Aurelion Sol is weak without stacks, and Zyra walls off his approach with Deadly Spines (Q) and plants while pinning him with Grasping Roots (E), preventing him from scaling safely in lane.

Zed dodges Zyra's Deadly Spines (Q) and Grasping Roots (E) skillshots with Living Shadow (W) and Shadow Slash (E) as he closes in, then bursts down the squishy Zyra in an instant with Death Mark (R).

Fizz dodges all of Zyra's skillshots and plant attacks with the untargetability of Playful/Trickster (E), then sticks on and all-ins, and the dashless Zyra cannot escape.

Katarina avoids Zyra's Grasping Roots (E) and closes in with Shunpo (E) and Flash, then deletes the squishy Zyra with her reset-based Death Lotus (R) all-in.

Wind Wall (W) can stop Grasping Roots (E) as it travels, but it does not remove Deadly Spines (Q)'s ground cast or plant attacks. Yasuo can use Sweeping Blade (E) to take a short trade after blocking the root.

Talon avoids Zyra's Grasping Roots (E) and closes in with Rake (W) and the wall-hopping mobility of Assassin's Path (E), cutting Zyra down with strong early burst, making it hard for poke-based Zyra to survive.