Why is Mirana a popular choice in professional games? What role does Mirana play in a team? How is she generally played?

Rwar: Mirana is easy to play & versatile, secured by leap, long range hero with stun & decent AOE. She's good early at ganking, or late at secondary carry. Some people play her as a farmer, others as ganker, she shines in the two roles. She's also hard to get and that's why she's so popular.

MaNia-: It's a good solo laner, but can also be a very strong lane hero, combined with some other stunners. Her ulti is also useful in fights, because it helps confuse the enemy.

Whisper: Well she's popular because she's versatile and can play many roles. Sometimes she'll solo the short lane and farm and survive against a very strong enemy lane, sometimes she'll solo mid and provide rune control and ganking. Other times she'll play in a double lane, and provide a large kill-threat because a good arrow equates to a kill her versatility in being able to be played in so many different ways is what makes her popular.

What's the basic strategy and gameplay for Mirana?

Mirana's long range arrow stun skill.

Rwar: Travels or treads, depends of the use of the hero, and basicly damage items, like Mjolnir, good to push the wave without wasting your mana. Mirana is built as secondary carry, mainly.

MaNia-: Normally, people get few Wraithbands, Point Booster, Boots of Travel, Mjolnir/Desolator. they basically use her as a lategamer.

Whisper: Bottle is generally a very strong item on Mirana, because she can exit a battle with leap, bottle up, and then re-enter with arrow or whatever. Bottle also reflects and improves upon the potm's versatility, because it's itself is a very versatile item that can be used to maintain presence in a lane, gank with rune control, or just keep the hero alive as she farms. Aside from that, people typically go either maelstrom for damage and farming aid, or stygian desolator for pure damage (usually against teams with a lot of Black King Bars or a hard tank like Centaur) Priestress of the Moon is almost always built towards the late game, because she is a powerful agility hero at that stage of the game, and good items on her give the other team a lot to worry about.

What heroes do Mirana counter the best, and what heroes counter Mirana?

Allowing Mirana and his allies to catch up.

Rwar: Mirana is countered by silences, as most of players base all their security on leap, instant stuns (undodgable ones).

MaNia-: Mmm heroes that can instantkill mirana are good, Lina/Nerubian Assasin/Lion etc, Mirana counters targable stuns.

Whisper: Mirana is very good against storm bolts, leap is an instant cast blink, and it is very easy to leap away from storm bolts flying in her direction. That being said, when laning against a sven/leoric a Mirana is a safe bet to stay alive and waste the enemy's mana the best way to counter Mirana is to have fast, spike damage that can hit her before she can leap. Lina's a popular choice because she can stun and use laguna blade to exploit Mirana's relatively low hit points.

What tips do you have for new players trying Mirana ?

Rwar: Just look at some competitive players replays, that might be helpful.

MaNia-: Just play her a lot, you can only get better at using his arrows by massively playing her.

Whisper: Well I only play Mirana in public games and the few inhouse league games, so I can't really offer any sage advice on how to use her, but a good way to use arrows is to wait until a creep is about to die, and the enemy is getting ready to time the last hit that's the best time to send an arrow because they'll be standing still while attacking. Also, keep your eyes on the minimap to see if teammates need help from global invisibility.