With his recent buffs, Vlad is seeing some competitive play again. It's very difficult to kill a Vlad who is playing passively and he'll win most lane match up once he gets his revolver and reached level 7. Ryze counter him early game, but it's still a toss up since that requires you to play very offensively early game which is easily punishable.

Even champions like Kassadin that is suppose to counter Vlad would have a hard time doing so without putting himself at risk. In my opinion Kennen and Mordekaiser are the only 2 current AP mid that can safely beat Vlad in lane.