Nyx Assassin
* Lycan's high health allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off.
* As Lycan commonly buys 
Black King Bar, he can use it to freely attack Nyx Assassin and chase after him with 
Shapeshift.
Techies
* He can send wolves to defuse 
Proximity Mines, and he can catch up Techies and kill him before they can deny themselves. Even if the suicide is successful, Lycan can still survive because of his tankiness.
Nyx Assassin
* Like with Juggernaut's 
Blade Fury, 
Rage allows Lifestealer to freely attack Nyx Assassin and hunt him down if Vendetta is on cooldown. Nyx Assassin cannot counter Rage with Spiked Carapace because Rage gives Lifestealer spell immunity. And besides Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Lifestealer while he is spell immune.
* 
Open Wounds from 
Aghanim's Shard allows Lifestealer to severely slow down Nyx Assassin while also allowing his team to recover themselves while attacking Nyx Assassin. Open Wounds can also fester and spread if Nyx Assassin takes enough damage that will trigger the spread while he is affected with Open Wounds.
* 
Infest combined with an ancient creep makes Nyx Assassin an easy target to surprise with 
Dust of Appearance or a 
Gem of True Sight. And similarly to Juggernaut's 
Omnislash and 
Swiftslash from 
Aghanim's Scepter, Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest can also allow Lifestealer to infest, disarm and freely attack Nyx Assassin from within. and Nyx Assassin cannot counter this with Spiked Carapace because Lifestealer is invulnerable while attacking the infested enemy hero from within.
* Like with Juggernaut, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Lifestealer will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Lifestealer.
Techies
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Techies' abilities. 
Reactive Tazer's disarm will also not work on Lifestealer under Rage.
* Rage can also be used to trigger Techies' Proximity Mines safely.
Additional:
* Lifestealer's Rage lets him clear Proximity Mines without taking damage, and allows him to hit heroes whom Techies has used Reactive Tazer on.
Nyx Assassin
* 
Corrosive Skin minimizes the damage from 
Impale and 
Mind Flare.
* Nyx Assassin cannot survive several poison damage-over-time, even 
Spiked Carapace is activated.
Techies
* Corrosive Skin will protect Viper from Techies' magical damage.
* Even though Reactive Tazer will disarm Viper if he attacks Techies with 
Poison Attack, he does lots of damage with his other abilities that can still kill Techies.
Nyx Assassin
* Blade Fury makes Juggernaut immune to all Nyx's abilities, except 
Vendetta.
* Omnislash. and Swiftslash can burst Nyx down, ignoring Spiked Carapace. However, Vendetta can be used to escape, canceling Omnislash/Swiftslash.
Additional:
* Juggernaut's entire skillset greatly counters Nyx Assassin's Spiked Carapace, his most important ability.
* Blade Fury allows Juggernaut to freely attack Nyx Assassin, and deal heavy damage to Nyx Assassin. Nyx Assassin cannot counter Blade Fury with Spiked Carapace because Blade Fury gives Juggernaut spell immunity. And besides Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Juggernaut while he is spell immune.
* 
Healing Ward allows Juggernaut to recover himself and his allies from Nyx Assassin's damage output.
* Omnislash and Swiftslash from Aghanim's Scepter can quickly finish off Nyx Assassin, and just like Blade Fury, Nyx Assassin cannot counter neither Omnislash and Swiftslash from Aghanim's Scepter with Spiked Carapace because both abilities render Juggernaut invulnerable. And if Nyx Assassin has no Vendetta available to use for escaping, both abilities will kill him very quickly before he can do anything.
* Overall, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Juggernaut will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Juggernaut.
Techies
* Juggernaut can trigger Proximity Mines while in Blade Fury, and can walk away from a initiation with Blast Off if Blade Fury is activated before the silence.
* Juggernaut ignores Reactive Tazer when he uses Omnislash, whether Techies used it to protect an ally or themselves.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who build mana boosting items but have low mana regeneration are especially vulnerable against Mana Break and Mana Void: 
Timbersaw, 
Slark, 
Shadow Fiend, 
Clinkz, 
Bristleback 
Nyx Assassin, 
Magnus
Techies
* Thanks to 
Counterspell's magic resistance, Anti-Mage has a good chance of surviving a Blast Off combo.
* Anti-Mage is a natural 
Manta Style carrier, meaning he can dispel the silence from Blast Off and blink away when Techies initiates on him.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: 
Venomancer, 
Huskar, 
Ember Spirit, 
Dark Seer, 
Sand King, 
Doom, 
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
Techies
* Plague Wards may reveal a hiding Techies. If there's a sentry nearby, they may also reveal a stack of mines hidden in a juking spot.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: 
Spectre, Nyx Assassin, 
Clockwerk, 
Spirit Breaker, 
Omniknight, 
Pudge.
Techies
* 
Dark Ascension also allows Night Stalker to fly over Proximity Mines without triggering them.
* 
Crippling Fear is effective in stopping Techies from using Blast Off and 
Void is effective in stopping them from running to the safety of their mines.
Nyx Assassin
* Impale and Spiked Carapace stun can be instantly dispelled by Aphotic Shield.
* Abaddon can use Borrowed Time and easily heal for the duration of Borrowed Time by Nyx's burst damage.
Techies
* Aphotic Shield makes it less likely for allies to be killed by mines.
* Because they explode in very short intervals, a stack of 
Remote Mines will always trigger Borrowed Time, making them impossible to kill Abaddon unless his resistances are lowered enough or Abaddon is affected by Break.
* Abaddon can easily dispel the long-lasting root of 
Stasis Trap on himself and on an ally, while at the same also providing protection against the other mines' damage.
Additional:
* 
Borrowed Time's automatic activation will help Abaddon survive a field of Proximity Mines or a Blast Off combo. However, the damage from a single mine can kill him if his HP is low enough.
* 
Aphotic Shield's can easily break Techies' Etheral Blade combo.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin might not kill Abaddon with his nuke, but a support Abaddon will struggle to protect an ally from him.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with very little to no area-of-effect abilities will struggle greatly against Broodmother: 
Sniper, 
Phantom Assassin, Nyx Assassin, 
Bane, 
Visage, 
Bounty Hunter.
Techies
* Heroes with summons like 
Broodmother, 
Enigma, 
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like 
Naga Siren, 
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin's skillset is mostly single-targeted, therefore he will have difficulties against heroes with illusions and summons: Naga Siren, Broodmother, 
Lycan, Visage, 
Phantom Lancer. And to make things worse, Nyx Asassin is not a common 
Battle Fury, 
Maelstrom, 
Mjollnir, 
Gleipnir or 
Radiance wielder to counter this problem.
Techies
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother, Enigma, Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like Naga Siren, Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin's skillset is mostly single-targeted, therefore he will have difficulties against heroes with illusions and summons: Naga Siren, Broodmother, Lycan, Visage, Phantom Lancer. And to make things worse, Nyx Asassin is not a common Battle Fury, Maelstrom, Mjollnir, Gleipnir or Radiance wielder to counter this problem.
Techies
* Illusions can be sent out to destroy 
Techies mines.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: 
Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, 
Jakiro, 
Legion Commander, 
Lina, 
Luna, Lycan, 
Slardar, Slark, 
Troll Warlord, 
Witch Doctor.
Additional:
* Duel's long duration prevents Nyx Assassin escaping from Vendetta. With Aghanim's Scepter, she can also bypass Spiked Carapace.
Techies
* Heroes with low health will die easily during Duels, and can be farmed for damage in the early game: 
Crystal Maiden, 
Lich, Techies, 
Rubick
Techies
* Wraith King is not afraid to walk into mines, whenever he goes with his Reincarnation ready.
Techies
* 
Fate's Edict gives 100% magic resistance, which prevents most of Techies' damage.
* Oracle's 
Fortune's End dispels Reactive Tazer buff from Techies allowing him to be attacked. However, Reactive Tazer will instantly perform the area of effect disarm that is normally applied at the end of the duration.
* Fortune's End will also dispel Blast Off silence, Techies' Etheral Blade, Proximity Mines' magic resistance reduction, and Sticky Bomb's slow. However beware that it will only dispel Sticky Bomb's first or second instance of slow and not the damage, which will trigger as normal.
Additional:
* Oracle can negate all of Techies' skills with Fate's Edict, as they are all magic damage. Fate's Edict can also be used to search and trigger Proximity Mines when crossing mined territory.
* Oracle can dispel Reactive Tazer off Techies, as well as the silence from 
Blast Off!, with Fortune's End.
* Oracle can further delay Techies' burst damage capability with False Promise.
Nyx Assassin
* Even though Nyx Assassin can easily kill Luna with his high burst damage, Luna can also do the same to him if he is not careful.
* 
Lucent Beam can deal a fair amount of damage to Nyx Assassin if he has no Spiked Carapace available to use. Although Luna should be patient using Lucent Beam on Nyx Assassin when he uses Spiked Carapace.
* As Luna commonly buys Black King Bar, she can use it to freely attack Nyx Assassin whenever he tries to defend himself with Spiked Carapace during teamfights. Luna can also buy 
Eye of Skadi and Manta Style to survive Nyx Assassin's burst damage and distract him.
* Though Vendetta can deal serious damage to Luna and avoid 
Eclipse, smart Luna will always buy Dust of Appearance to provide vision on Nyx Assassin to her and her team.
Additional:
* Even though Nyx Assassin can easily kill Luna with his high burst damage, Luna can also do the same to him if he is not careful.
* Lucent Beam can deal a fair amount of damage to Nyx Assassin if he has no Spiked Carapace available to use. Although Luna should be patient using Lucent Beam on Nyx Assassin when he uses Spiked Carapace.
* As Luna commonly buys Black King Bar, she can use it to freely attack Nyx Assassin whenever he tries to defend himself with Spiked Carapace during teamfights. Luna can also buy Eye of Skadi and Manta Style to survive Nyx Assassin's burst damage and distract him.
* Though Vendetta can deal serious damage to Luna and avoid Eclipse, smart Luna will always buy Dust of Appearance to provide vision on Nyx Assassin to her and her team.
Nyx Assassin
* Centaur's low Intelligence makes Mind Flare do low damage.
* With some creative skill builds, Centaur's Hoof Stomp stun duration should always last longer than Spiked Carapace stun, so escaping unscathed is hard for Nyx.
* With 
Blink Dagger and detection, Centaur can devastate Nyx in the open.
* However, bear in mind that Nyx can also easily initiate on Centaur Warrunner as well if he uses Spiked Carapace in anticipation, and with Vendetta. The damage from Retaliate will be reflected back to Centaur Warrunner, stunning him with no chance to react after he's revealed himself, and should guarantee a successful Impale.
Nyx Assassin
* A well-timed 
Berserker's Call can expose Nyx Assassin while he is invisible with Vendetta, and prevent him from using Spiked Carapace.
* Axe can use 
Battle Hunger's damage over time to minimialize effects of Spiked Carapace.
* Axe's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off. Especially since Axe is a common 
Heart of Tarrasque wielder, which can completely eliminate any chance for Nyx Assassin to kill Axe alone.
* 
Culling Blade can often kill Nyx Assassin as he is very fragile and vulnerable to damage while Spiked Carapace is on cooldown.
Additional:
* A well-timed Berserker's Call can expose Nyx Assassin while he is invisible with Vendetta, and prevent him from using Spiked Carapace.
* Axe can use Battle Hunger's damage over time to minimialize effects of Spiked Carapace.
* Axe's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off. Especially since Axe is a common Heart of Tarrasque wielder, which can completely eliminate any chance for Nyx Assassin to kill Axe alone.
* Culling Blade can often kill Nyx Assassin as he is very fragile and vulnerable to damage while Spiked Carapace is on cooldown.
Nyx Assassin
* 
Cyclone from Storm in 
Primal Split can waste Nyx's Spiked Carapace, since its duration is shorter than the Cyclone's.
Techies
* 
Exorcism's ghosts will automatically clear all Proximity Mines revealed when Death Prophet walks near them, provided that the ghosts do not have a specific target at that time.
* Death Prophet is a natural 
Eul's Scepter of Divinity carrier, meaning she can easily escape a Blast Off initiation.
Techies
* Techies spends lots of time standing still planting stacks of 
Land Mines away from creep waves.
* Sacred Arrow can be used to scout hidden Land Mines among trees and at uphill places. It can also be used to catch Techies while he's planting them.
* If Techies is hit with a Sacred Arrow, he can be killed before he has a chance to use Blast Off!.
* Mirana has a high attack range to destroy his traps from a safe distance.
Techies
* Shadow Demon's spammable illusions can be used to scout Techies' Proximity Mines. The illusion of your carries can be even used to trick Techies into detonating his precious Remote Mines.
Techies
* 
Refraction can be very useful in safely neutralizing Proximity Mine fields, or absorbing Techies' Blast Off combo.
Nyx Assassin
* Dragon Knight's heavy armor negates Vendetta's burst physical damage. His large HP pool also gives him a good chance of surviving Nyx Assassin's follow-up nuke damage.
Nyx Assassin
* A well-timed 
Doom prevents Nyx Assassin escaping with Vendetta and fighting back with Spiked Carapace.
* Doom's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin's Vendetta can be revealed easily by Corrosive Haze
Additional:
* 
Corrosive Haze hinders Nyx Assassin's ganking attempts with Vendetta, as well as reducing his armor and make him very vulnerable due to his low health pool.
Techies
* Slow heroes that have a hard time escaping the Echo Stomp radius: Crystal Maiden, Pudge, Techies.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, Jakiro, Legion Commander, Lina, Luna, Lycan, Slardar, Slark, Troll Warlord, Witch Doctor.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, Jakiro, Legion Commander, Lina, Luna, Lycan, Slardar, Slark, Troll Warlord, Witch Doctor.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, Jakiro, Legion Commander, Lina, Luna, Lycan, Slardar, Slark, Troll Warlord, Witch Doctor.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer, Huskar, Ember Spirit, Dark Seer, Sand King, Doom, Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on invisibility, such as Bounty Hunter, Clinkz, 
Mirana, Nyx Assassin and 
Riki, as they will be revealed if caught by Chronosphere.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with invisibility will be detected by Thirst when they have low enough health: Bounty Hunter, 
Templar Assassin, Riki, Clinkz, 
Weaver, 
Treant Protector, Nyx Assassin.
Additional:
* While Burrowing, Nyx is an easy target for a 
Blood Rite, although he can at least partially counter it with a well-timed Spiked Carapace.
* 
Thirst is always a threat to Nyx Assassin, hindering his attempt of escape using Vendetta.
* 
Rupture also prevents Nyx Assassin from escaping with Vendetta, as it forces him to stay still.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer, Huskar, Ember Spirit, Dark Seer, Sand King, Doom, Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, Jakiro, Legion Commander, Lina, Luna, Lycan, Slardar, Slark, Troll Warlord, Witch Doctor.
Techies
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as 
Lion, 
Drow Ranger, Magnus, 
Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, Jakiro, Legion Commander, Lina, Luna, Lycan, Slardar, Slark, Troll Warlord, Witch Doctor.
Techies
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother, Enigma, Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like Naga Siren, Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
Nyx Assassin
* Enigma is fragile, and lacks escapes, being dependent on Blink Dagger for mobility. Ganking Heroes or Heroes with burst damage will likely kill him before he can do anything. Such Heroes include: Lina, Lion, Luna, 
Puck, Slark, Nyx Assassin, etc.
Additional:
* Enigma's uncontrollable damage from 
Malefice and 
Midnight Pulse make him easy to stun with Spiked Carapace.
* 
Black Hole can be easily interrupted by Impale or Spiked Carapace.
Techies
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as Lion, Drow Ranger, Magnus, Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
Techies
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as Lion, Drow Ranger, Magnus, Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin wants to start ganking as soon as he gets his Vendetta. Keeping him Tracked prevents him from ganking, and thus from doing his job in the game.
* Nyx Assassin has a lot of armor and health regen, making the nuke damage from Shuriken Toss very good against him.
Additional:
* 
Track hinders Nyx Assassin's ganking attempts with Vendetta, making him an easy kill for gold as well.
Techies
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter, Riki, Weaver, 
Earthshaker, Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
Nyx Assassin
* Vendetta is capable of removing most of Storm Spirit's large mana pool, along with dealing heavy damage and quickly depleting his chances of escaping a gank or fight.
Additional:
* Mana Burn removes much-needed mana for 
Ball Lightning.
* Spiked Carapace triggers on 
Static Remnant for an easy stun.
Techies
* If Storm Spirit isn't careful, he could fall into a trap set by Techies and another hero acting as bait.
* Stasis Trap roots Storm Spirit for 2/3/4/5 seconds and Blast Off! silences for 4/5/6/7 seconds, which effectively prevents Storm Spirit from using Ball Lightning to escape for a lengthy duration.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx's Spiked Carapace can reflect the damage of 
Sharpshooter, instantly killing hoodwink. Nyx can also use Vendetta to position himself in such a way to screen allies from Sharpshooter and catch Hoodwink by surprise.
Techies
* Remote Mines are frequently placed in trees, and can thus kill an unwary Hoodwink should she 
Scurry away due to her low HP pool.
* Blast Off! can clear out trees, denying the tactical advantages from Scurry.
Nyx Assassin
* Vendetta can deal great damage against her. However, it requires an direct attack, so Nyx Assassin may have difficulties applying Vendetta on her.
* Enchantress's lack of mobility makes her a primary target for ganking with Vendetta.
* Mind Flare can deal a great damage against her due to being an Intelligence hero.
* Spiked Carapace can reflect Impetus and stun Enchantress.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace reflects the damage from 
Impetus.
* Enchantress is a rather squishy hero, making her fall easily to Nyx Assassin's high burst damage.
Techies
* Heroes with nukes that can jump her: Clockwerk, 
Snapfire, Spirit Breaker, Techies
Additional:
* Techies does huge amounts of magical damage, which will bypass 
Untouchable.
* Enchantress depends on abilities to do damage and heal, which Blast Off's silence prevents.
Nyx Assassin
* Spiked Carapace allows Nyx to get an easy long-duration stun on Weaver once he uses Shukuchi, and then he can follow up with Impale.
* Vendetta works as a great setup for both Impale and Spiked Carapace and can deal decent damage to Weaver. Additionally he can neutralize The Swarm beetles due to his invisibility duration.
Techies
* Techies has both a silence and a powerful nuke in Blast Off!, root from Stasis Trap and even more magical damage in Proximity Mines and Remote Mines.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst can often kill Chen or his allies before he can use Hand of God: Lina, Luna, Techies, Shadow Fiend, 
Pugna, Nyx Assassin.
Techies
* Techies can easily catch Chen off guard and kill him quickly with Blast Off! and 
Ethereal Blade combo, especially because Blast Off! can silence Chen and stun him when upgraded with Aghanim's Shard.
* However, Chen's converted creeps can trigger Proximity Mines, wasting them.
Techies
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother, Enigma, Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like Naga Siren, Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin deals large amounts of pure damage with Vendetta and magical damage with Impale and Mind Flare, allowing him to ignore Terrorblade's armor and burst his low health pool down before he can use 
Sunder.
* Nyx Assassin commonly buys 
Urn of Shadows, 
Dagon and 
Meteor Hammer which deal magic damage that ignore Terrorblade's armor.
Techies
* Techies deals lots of magical damage with 
Sticky Bomb, Blast Off! and Proximity Mines that bypasses Terrorblade's high armor and can punish his low max life.
* Sticky Bomb is easy to land on a large clump of Terrorblade illusions and will damage and slow Terrorblade and all of his illusions if he can't quickly move the right one away.
* Reactive Tazer upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter can be used to protect an ally getting attacked by Terrorblade. Further, it disarms all of his illusions even while he has activated Black King Bar, greatly decreasing his damage.
* Blast Off! stuns Terrorblade, preventing him from casting Sunder.
Nyx Assassin
* Spiked Carapace stops Snapfire's 
Mortimer Kisses.
Nyx Assassin
* With her passive 
Split Shot, Medusa can be easily interrupted by Spiked Carapace during combat, especially during her precious 
Stone Gaze.
* Mana Burn quickly destroys 
Mana Shield, especially if Medusa only increases her mana pool by bolstering intelligence (which has the added bonus of increasing Mana Burn's damage).
* Uncontrollable damage from 
Mystic Snake and Split Shot can trigger Spiked Carapace.
* 
Medusa lacks single target damage, making a Burrowed Nyx Assassin hard to kill.
Additional:
* Vendetta burns a significant amount of mana on hit, and the damage from the ability drains Medusa's mana pool even further.
* Due to the passive nature of Mystic Snake and Split Shot, it can possibly proc Nyx's Spiked Carapace if he's within range of Medusa's abilities and isn't invisible.
* Medusa lacks single target damage, making Nyx with Aghanim's Scepter extremely hard to deal with if Medusa is the team's main damage source.
Techies
* Morphling usually has low max health due to shifting strength into agility, which combined with Blast Off's silence will prevent him from using 
Waveform and 
Adaptive Strike (Strength), leaving him defenseless and making him an easy target to burst down.
Techies
* After using Snowball, Tusk can't control where he's going, allowing Techies to make him roll onto mines.
Nyx Assassin
* Ravage's travel time allows Nyx Assassin to easily stun Tidehunter with Spiked Carapace.
* Vendetta can instantly deplete Tidehunter's low mana pool, especially in the early game, potentially preventing Tidehunter from casting Ravage.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin can take advantage of every one of Puck's weaknesses. His entire skill set is very effective in countering Puck.
* Because Illusory Orb is such a slow moving projectile, Nyx Assassin can simply walk into the orb and activate Spiked Carapace, stunning Puck and setting up an easy Impale. This can be circumvented by using Phase Shift while the orb is traveling, however, that means that Puck cannot use Phase Shift to dodge any other skill nor use it to safely blink away from a fight.
* Puck is an intelligence hero that likes to build intelligence items such as Eul's Scepter of Divinity, 
Scythe of Vyse, and Dagon. This makes Mind Flare that much more deadly against Puck.
* An ill-timed Phase Shift can turn into an easy setup for Impale.
Additional:
* 
Illusory Orb is easy to reflect with Spiked Carapace, either stunning Puck and setting up an easy Impale or forcing a premature 
Phase Shift.
* Puck is an intelligence hero that tends to build intelligence items, making it vulnerable to Mana Burn.
* An ill-timed Phase Shift can easily set Puck up to be stunned by Impale.
* Puck's low base armor and below average agility gain mean it is always susceptible to Vendetta.
Techies
* Techies can turn his tree jumping ability against him, by placing Proximity Mines that will detect him near trees, and then destroying the trees around him with Blast Off, stunning him and dealing high damage, on top of him being silenced when the stun expires.
* Monkey King's mobility is also severely limited around Techies' mines as he will almost always trigger them due to the cooldown time between tree jumps. Monkey King will be forced to take mine damage or escape with 
Primal Spring.
Additional:
* Proximity Mines can be placed near trees to detect Monkey King.
* Follow up with Blast Off! to destroy the tree, causing Monkey King to take high damage, fall from the tree, and become stunned.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin's high burst damage can be the bane of Dark Willow, as her low health makes it difficult to survive long enough to escape through Shadow Realm.
* Spiked Carapace can be triggered by walking deliberately into Bramble Maze, leaving Dark Willow stunned and defenseless.
Nyx Assassin
* Crystal Maiden has a very bad movement speed, so Impale is easy to land against her. Furthermore, even while trapped by Frostbite, Nyx Assassin can still cast Impale.
* Crystal Maiden has very low armor, so Vendetta is very effective.
* Nyx Assassin has two ways to stop Freezing Field, provided she doesn't get a Black King Bar. He can either pop Spiked Carapace and simply walk into the field, or he can use Impale to interrupt the field, since Crystal Maiden has to channel it.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace easily interrupts 
Freezing Field.
* 
Frostbite's damage over time sets up an easy Spiked Carapace stun.
* Crystal Maiden is extremely fragile and dies quickly to Nyx Assassin's burst damage.
Nyx Assassin
* Many of Nyx Assassin's abilities are good against Windranger.
* Impale is great for stunning Windranger and allowing additional disables to be landed.
* Mind Flare is useful against Windranger's decent intelligence growth.
* Spiked Carapace is easy to use against Powershot.
* Vendetta allows Nyx Assassin to sneak up on and deal massive damage to Windranger without giving Windranger a chance to use Windrun to evade it.
* Nyx Assassin's item build allows him to easily deal with Windranger.
Nyx Assassin
* 
Assassinate is easy to reflect with Spiked Carapace for massive damage.
* 
Shrapnel's area damage can set up an easy stun with Spiked Carapace, especially when combined with Vendetta.
* In the early game, Sniper's low health pool and high intelligence makes him easy prey for Nyx Assassin.
Nyx Assassin
* Impale and Spiked Carapace can be used to cancel Dismember easily, and can even do so when Pudge uses it on Nyx Assassin, if timed correctly.
Nyx Assassin
* A good Nyx can reflect Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave with his Spiked Carapace, or even initiate a gank on her in Vendetta while she farms a creep wave with Scream of Pain.
* Her strength to intelligence ratio is bad enough that he should be able to kill her without even requiring a Dagon, provided he can get his full combo off.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin's high burst damage, excellent ganking potential and multiple disables pose a threat to Muerta at all stages of the game.
* Mind Flare abuses Muerta's high intelligence to make short work of her low health.
* Spiked Carapace and Vendetta allow Nyx to escape or initiate well against Muerta's low mobility.
* As with most retaliation based abilities, Spiked Carapace can easily take advantage of Gunslinger's stray shots.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin can simply activate Spiked Carapace while under many Invoker's abilities to stun him.
* Nyx Assassin takes advantage of Invoker's massive intelligence gain to do tons of damage using Mind Flare, as the spell does more damage based on the target's intelligence.
* Vendetta burns a large amount of Invoker's essential mana pool.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin's Spiked Carapace will stun Leshrac when hit by any of his AOE abilities.
* Mind Flare deals high damage due to Leshrac's high intelligence gain.
* Vendetta burns a large amount of Leshrac's essential mana pool.
Nyx Assassin
* Silencer is rather squishy and has poor mobility without items, making him an easy target for Nyx.
* Silencer's intelligence steal ability is a complete disadvantage against Nyx Assassin as Mind Flare will deal increasing damage for each point of intelligence Silencer has stolen, turning Silencer's intelligence steal against him.
Additional:
* 
Last Word is extremely easy to reflect with Spiked Carapace for large amounts damage, due to triggering when Nyx Assassin casts a spell, but can still silence Nyx Assassin. It also has the added bonus of dealing more damage the more Intelligence Silencer has.
* 
Glaives of Wisdom quickly builds Silencer's Intelligence, making him a particularly prime target for Mana Burn.
* Silencer rarely builds survivability items, nor is he able to steal much Intelligence while surrounded by his team, and so is an excellent target for Vendetta.
* Silencer has no reliable way of dealing with a burrowed Nyx, and also lacks the ability to prevent Nyx from escaping with Vendetta,
Nyx Assassin
* Spiked Carapace reacts on any of the damage over time from Phoenix's abilities and can interrupt 
Sun Ray and 
Icarus Dive.
Nyx Assassin
* Vendetta disables Vengeance Aura and allows him to attack Vengeful Spirit with Impale and Mind Flare.
* Spiked Carapace is easy to use against a Wave of Terror or Magic Missile.
Nyx Assassin
* Impale and Spiked Carapace interrupts Upheaval with ease.
* Warlock's low health pool, mobility, and high intelligence gain makes him a prime target for Nyx Assassin's burst damage.
Nyx Assassin
* Due to Pugna's incredible intelligence growth and terrible strength growth, Nyx should always be able to take you out with his combo, with or without an added Dagon. Mind Flare will deal a large amount of damage in particular, especially in the late game.
* Spiked Carapace is also a great tool versus Pugna. A good player will wait for you in Vendetta until you farm a creep wave with Nether Blast and reflect it back at you as their initiation and setup for Impale.
Additional:
* 
Nether Blast's animation makes it easy to time Spiked Carapace for a stun.
* Pugna has the largest intelligence gain in the game, making him a prime target for Mana Burn.
* Pugna needs to channel 
Life Drain, making him easy to hit with Impale.
Nyx Assassin
* The huge physical damage taken from Vendetta will force Necrophos to use Ghost Shroud, which is good for a followup with Dagon and Ethereal Blade, both of which are common items on Nyx Assassin.
* Using Ghost Shroud also sets Necrophos up for a Mind Flare or Impale.
Nyx Assassin
* Outworld Destroyer's high intelligence makes him a good target for Mind Flare.
* If timed correctly, Spiked Carapace will return the full damage from Sanity's Eclipse back to Outworld Destroyer. Even a reflected Arcane Orb can deal significant damage and make him vulnerable to a follow-up from Nyx Assassin.
* Spiked Carapace is also the perfect tool against Astral Imprisonment: if used on Nyx, he can reflect the damage back as he comes out of the prison by casting the ability while imprisoned.
Additional:
* Outworld Destroyer's high intelligence gain and fragility makes him an easy target for a massive Mana Burn, as well as killing him outwards with Nyx Assassin's high burst damage.
* 
Astral Imprisonment can be easily exploited by Nyx Assassin with his abilities. As long as Astral Imprisonment was not cast on Nyx Assassin, it will make an opportunity for an easy stun, either by Spiked Carapace (if Outworld Destroyer hid his allies or your allies) or Impale (if he hid himself). If Astral Imprisonment was cast on Nyx Assassin, using Spiked Carapace while banished will proc the stun after the disable, since Spike Carapace has a 0 second cast time and Astral Imprisonment deals damage right after the disable ends.
* An ill-timed 
Sanity's Eclipse and/or well timed Spiked Carapace can deal a lot of damage to Outworld Destroyer and stun him, unless Outworld Destroyer used Black King Bar beforehand.
Techies
* Techies has great area of effect damage to deal with 
Phantasm illusions.
* Blast Off silences Chaos Knight, stopping him from using his disables and allowing his teammates to walk away from his heavy damage.
* Reactive Tazer will disarm all of Chaos Knight's illusions even if he has activated his Black King Bar.
Techies
* Reactive Tazer can lock multiple Meepos in place and prevent them from Poofing.
* Proximity Mines, Sticky Bomb and Blast Off! can deal heavy magic damage to multiple Meepos.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with heavy early and mid-game magical damage are also problematic for Phantom Assassin due to being able to easily kill her before she can gain an item advantage over them: Lina, 
Necrophos, Nyx Assassin, 
Gyrocopter.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes that can pick you off: Clinkz, Nyx Assassin, Puck, Riki.
Nyx Assassin
* Large area-of-effect with delay or require channeling: Enigma, Crystal Maiden, 
Invoker, Shadow Fiend, Pugna, 
Keeper of the Light, Dawnbreaker.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace can be used to reflect Illuminate damage and stun Keeper of the Light.
* Vendetta allows Nyx Assassin to follow Keeper of the Light around if he tries to split-push.
* Keeper of the Light is very squishy and will very quickly die to Vendetta and it's followup abilities.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with high burst damage: Lina, Lion, Luna, Nyx Assassin, 
Queen of Pain.
Nyx Assassin
* Like above, supports with reliable stuns can be a massive problem and force Black King Bar in fights unideally, such as 
Shadow Shaman, Lion, Nyx Assassin.
Nyx Assassin
* Slow-moving projectiles: 
Skywrath Mage, 
Tinker, Necrophos
Additional:
* Skywrath Mage's low health makes him rather easy prey for Nyx Assassin and his lack of armor generally means he'll take the full brunt of a Vendetta strike.
* Mind Flare turns Skywrath Mage's high intelligence growth against him and deals heavy damage.
* Spiked Carapace gives Nyx some degree of protection against Skywrath's spells.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who can drain mana can make Omniknight useless after he uses one or two abilities: Lion, 
Anti-Mage, Nyx Assassin.
Techies
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter, Riki, Weaver, Earthshaker, Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with silence and mana drain abilites, as Ancient Apparition relies entirely on his abilities: Invoker, 
Silencer, Nyx Assassin, Skywrath Mage, Shadow Shaman, Lion and etc.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin, Bounty Hunter and Slark can all sneak up and kill Shadow Shaman, Nyx being particularly deadly. Shadow Shaman must watch out for Slark carefully, as he can break either (but not both unless he makes a mistake) of Shadow Shaman's disables, with 
Dark Pact and leap out of a serpent ward ring. These heroes, however, rely heavily on escape and are themselves not very durable and none of them can survive a full lockdown with Mass Serpent Ward. Having Sentry Wards can turn Shadow Shaman from prey to predator.
Techies
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter, Riki, Weaver, Earthshaker, Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane, Ember Spirit, 
Leshrac, Lina, Luna, Nyx Assassin, Phantom Assassin, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, 
Ursa, 
Void Spirit.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer, Huskar, Ember Spirit, Dark Seer, Sand King, Doom, Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
Nyx Assassin
* Spiked Carapace can be easily triggered by 
Flame Guard or Battle Fury, setting up a deadly Impale.
Additional:
* With Vendetta, Nyx Assassin can move closely to Ember Spirit when he's farming with his Flame Guard and use Spiked Carapace with Impale to provide a reliable and long disable.
Techies
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as Lion, Drow Ranger, Magnus, Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin has a lot of burst damage from his Impale, Mind Flare, Dagon, and the bonus damage from Vendetta. All of this damage is enough to kill Drow Ranger.
* Nyx Assassin is usually invisible most of the time thanks to his ability Vendetta, which allows him to gank Drow Ranger easily.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer, Huskar, Ember Spirit, Dark Seer, Sand King, Doom, Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
Nyx Assassin
* Spiked Carapace interrupts 
Starbreaker before Dawnbreaker has her Aghanim's Shard, as well as 
Solar Guardian during the initial channel, making her ineffective at joining and dealing damage in teamfights.
* The slow projectile and damage over time effect of 
Celestial Hammer makes it easy to stun Dawnbreaker if she attemps to engage or chase.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace can stop Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian which will eliminate her global presence and limits her movement around the map.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, Jakiro, Legion Commander, Lina, Luna, Lycan, Slardar, Slark, Troll Warlord, Witch Doctor.
Nyx Assassin
* Mind Flare does tons of damage against Lina because of her high intelligence.
* The mana burn from Vendetta also prevents Lina from casting her full combo.
* Spiked Carapace can easily be used to counter Lina's abilities because of their long cast animation, and could probably kill Lina outright if Laguna Blade is reflected.
Techies
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden, 
Enchantress, Gyrocopter, Lion, Riki, Techies, Terrorblade, Necrophos, Invoker.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin's whole skillset is good against Tinker:
* Impale prevents Tinker from blinding Nyx Assassin or fighting back, while giving Nyx' allies time to catch up to Tinker's position.
* Mind Flare generally deals more damage to intelligence based heroes like Tinker.
* Spiked Carapace can stun Tinker at a moment of Nyx Assassin's choosing if March of the Machines has been cast. It is also quite easy to time Spiked Carapace against Heat Seeking Missiles.
* Vendetta allows Nyx to approach Tinker in the trees or wait for him in common hiding spots and deal heavy damage to his low armor.
Additional:
* 
Heat-Seeking Missile allow easy Spiked Carapace stuns.
* As a fragile hero that relies on mana and intelligence items, Tinker is vulnerable to Mana Burn.
* Nyx Assassin's stuns can interrupt 
Rearm and leave Tinker helpless.
Techies
* As long as Batrider is under the effect of Firefly, he can safely fly over Proximity Mines (He does not receive vision over the mines).
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx can walk into Firefly with Spiked Carapace and stun Batrider if he has no Spell Immunity, even if Batrider is focusing on other enemy hero.
Nyx Assassin
* In general, attacks of the melee heroes who are entirely reliant on dealing physical damage and/or have very little to no area-of-effect abilities will make Underlord tickle and will have no effect against him, and will be unable to ambush Underlord and his team if Underlord chooses to use 
Fiend's GAte to get to a designated point of the map: Phantom Assassin, Terrorblade, Troll Warlord, Drow Ranger, Phantom Lancer, 
Chaos Knight, 
Sven, 
Wraith King, Bounty Hunter, 
Alchemist, Templar Assassin, Nyx Assassin, Bane.
Techies
* In general, heroes that provide vision will see Fiend's Gate coming: Techies, Templar Assassin, Treant Protector
Techies
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother, Enigma, Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like Naga Siren, Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with invisibility: (Riki, Clinkz, Nyx Assassin.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer, Huskar, Ember Spirit, Dark Seer, Sand King, Doom, Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin can reflect Life Break with Spiked Carapace.
Nyx Assassin
* Even though Visage's Familiars from
Summon Familiars are fragile and can be killed quickly with Nyx Assassin's high burst damage, they can deal many instances of damage quickly, minimizing the effectiveness of Spiked Carapace.
Gravekeeper's Cloak and tanky item builds make Visage hard for Nyx to kill with his burst damage. 
Aghanim's Shard upgraded 
Gravekeeper's Cloak also allows Visage to use 
Stone Form to both recover himself and stun Nyx Assassin if he is close enough to Visage.
Soul Assumption and 
Grave Chill make him hard to escape from, and 
Soul Assumption's low cooldown outmatches Spiked Carapace.
*
* Visage's long range on
Techies
* Familiars can fly over the mines, rendering them safe from damage of Techies's mines. Visage can also use Familiars to check for mines on the map.
Grave Chill.
Gravekeeper's Cloak allows Visage to survive Damage from Techies's mines.
* Techies's low attack speed and damage will give them a hard time in destroying Visage's Familiars, and that can become even worse if they are affected by
*