Venomancer
* Sniper can easily destroy 
Plague Ward from long range.
Pugna
* Sniper's huge range makes him an unviable target to use Life Drain on, forcing Pugna to risk playing out of position to use it on Sniper.
* Sniper's 
Shrapnel can be used to provide vision on Nether Ward, and his range allows him to easily take it out.
* A clumsy Pugna may accidentally boost Sniper's Shrapnel and 
Assassinate damages if he recklessly uses Decrepify on himself or his allies.
Venomancer
* Snowball can be used to save allies or himself during 
Venomous Gale and 
Poison Nova.
* Venomancer lacks mobility and has low base health, so he can be killed by Walrus PUNCH!
Pugna
* Pugna's low health and reliance on channeled abilities make him very vulnerable to Tusk, although Pugna can win in a straight up 1v1 later in the game.
Venomancer
* Fortune's End and False Promise easily dispel many crippling debuffs, such as 
Venomancer's Venomous Gale, or 
Skywrath Mage's 
Ancient Seal.
Additional:
* 
Fortune's End can dispel Venomous Gale and Poison Sting from allies.
* 
Fate's Edict grants 100% magic resistance to target, inhibiting the damage from Venomancer abilities.
Pugna
* All of Pugna's damage is magical, which can get blocked by Fate's Edict's 100% magic resistance.
* Oracle has two abilities that apply a dispel, which can easily remove Decrepify on his ally or Oracle.
Pugna
* Luna can deal constant damage to Pugna through the low-cooldown Lucent Beam and her right clicks.
* 
Life Drain will be always canceled by 
Lucent Beam if Pugna does not have 
Black King Bar.
* 
Decrepify can be suicide against Luna due to Lucent Beam and 
Eclipse.
* 
Nether Ward is rather weak against Luna because unlike other heroes who rely on magical damage to damage or kill enemies, yet their ablities have very high mana costs, Luna does not have abilities that cost a lot of mana and Luna mostly uses her abilities to initiate a teamfight or to finish off fleeing enemy heroes.
* Luna is a common Black King Bar carrier, which allows her to protect herself against Pugna's only-magical damage output.
Additional:
* Luna can deal constant damage to Pugna through the low-cooldown Lucent Beam and her right clicks.
* Life Drain will be always canceled by Lucent Beam if Pugna does not have Black King Bar.
* Decrepify can be suicide against Luna due to Lucent Beam and Eclipse.
* Nether Ward is rather weak against Luna because unlike other heroes who rely on magical damage to damage or kill enemies, yet have very high mana costs, she does not have abilities that cost a lot of mana and Luna mostly uses her abilities to initiate a teamfight or to finish off fleeing enemy heroes.
* Luna is a common Black King Bar carrier, which allows her to protect herself against Pugna's only-magical damage output.
Pugna
* Pugna's squishiness and lack of mobility make him easy prey for a Hookshot initiation.
* Clockwerk's high health, low mana costs, and lack of reliance on Blink Dagger make Nether Ward ineffective.
* Battery Assault shuts down 
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Life Drain, as the repeated ministuns prevent Pugna from channeling for an extended length of time.
Additional:
* Clockwerk loves to 
Hookshot low health, immobile targets like Pugna.
* Pugna's Life Drain gets immediately and repeatedly (if an Aghanim's Scepter was purchased) cancelled due to 
Battery Assault, especially if Pugna is trapped inside 
Power Cogs.
* Clockwerk also loves to build 
Blade Mail, which will deal more damage to Pugna than Clockwerk due to Pugna's low health pool.
* Finally, both Hookshot and 
Rocket Flare can allow him to finish off Pugna out of range of his Nether Ward.
Pugna
* If Ursa uses 
Enrage, Pugna's Life Drain is next to worthless against him, due to Ursa taking 80% less damage, therefor Pugna heals by only 20% of the damage that the spell normally deals.
* It also dispels Decrepify, Even if you wait until he casted it, he can still dispel it with Shard upgraded 
Earthshock
* Ursa also commonly builds 
Skull Basher. With his high Attack Speed from 
Overpower. he can easily cancel Life Drain
* If Decrepify is defensivly casted, Ursa can still cast Earthshock both to slow you, and to deal amplified magic damage. He also commonly builds a 
Nullifier
* If Ursa jumps on you with a 
Blink Dagger he can easily wipe you out with Overpower.
* Ursa's Overpower can destroy a full health Nether Ward and still have a few swipes leftover, Also Ursa's low mana spells means he takes negligible damage from the Nether ward anyway.
* Ursa is also a common 
Diffusal Blade carrier, using it to both amplify his damage, but as his primary way to catch fleeing heroes
* Pugna is also the primary target of Ursa, due to him being both quite squishy, and a serious threat to his team, Ursa prioritizes the weakest link as 
Fury Swipes stacking damage will quickly demolish them, allowing Ursa to safely switch heroes
Pugna
* Pugna is very reliant on his abilities for damage which Silencer can take advantage off. But he has to be careful around the Nether Ward as Silencer's abilities cost a lot of mana to use.
Pugna
* Earth Spirit does not fly a small distance on 
Rolling Boulder using 
Stone Remnant, which will be a big problem for Life Drain, since Pugna will stop receiving health from breaking the distance of the ability, which will give the Earth Spirit team a chance to kill Pugna, by the way, this also works well with 
Boulder Smash, which pushes the enemy and can annoy the distance
* Earth Spirit has excellent control with a small recharge on Rolling Boulder and 
Geomagnetic Grip, which can knock down Pugna`s Life Drain, as well as completely turn him off in a fight, because he is very dependent on his abilities
* Magic damage from Earth Spirit's abilities can be disastrous for Decrepify, as it will kill him very quickly, and if Earth Spirit collects 
Ethereal Blade in such a game, it can easily destroy Pugna in one Rolling Boulder hit
* Earth Spirit also turns out to be a strong decision against Nether Ward, because he experiences it with his large amount of health, and if he collects 
Heart of Tarrasque(and 
Bracerin early game)in such a game, he may not feel it at all and calmly control Pugna with his abilities
Additional:
* Earth Spirit does not fly a small distance on Rolling Boulder using Stone Remnant, which will be a big problem for Life Drain, since Pugna will stop receiving health from breaking the distance of the ability, which will give the Earth Spirit team a chance to kill Pugna, by the way, this also works well with Boulder Smash, which pushes the enemy and can annoy the distance
* Earth Spirit has excellent control with a small recharge on Rolling Boulder and Geomagnetic Grip, which can knock down Pugna`s Life Drain, as well as completely turn him off in a fight, because he is very dependent on his abilities
* Magic damage from Earth Spirit's abilities can be disastrous for Decrepify, as it will kill him very quickly, and if Earth Spirit collects Ethereal Blade in such a game, it can easily destroy Pugna in one Rolling Boulder hit
* Earth Spirit also turns out to be a strong decision against Nether Ward, because he experiences it with his large amount of health, and if he collects Heart of Tarrasque(and Bracerin early game)in such a game, he may not feel it at all and calmly control Pugna with his abilities
Venomancer
* Venomancer is a low health hero and low range hero who is easy to harass with Ion Shell on a creep in the early game.
* Venomancer depends entirely on all his slows to keep distance or chase, but since Surge ignores slows, it is nearly impossible for Venomancer to hunt or run away from Dark Seer or his surged teammates.
Venomancer
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences: 
Shadow Demon, 
Shadow Fiend, Venomancer, 
Ancient Apparition etc.
Pugna
* Pugna is a very fragile hero who can easily get caught and killed by Storm Spirit's long range initiation.
* This is especially true if he has 
Orchid Malevolence or 
Scythe of Vyse.
* Pugna has no disables that can prevent Storm Spirit from escaping.
* Even though 
Ball Lightning requires high amount of mana, Nether Ward is ineffective since Storm Spirit is invulnerable while using it.
* Storm Spirit's other abilities cost very insignificant amount of mana for Nether Ward to be effective.
Pugna
* Heroes with mana burn: 
Nyx Assassin, 
Invoker, 
Outworld Destroyer, 
Pugna, 
Lion
Venomancer
* Voodoo Restoration heals to counter damage over time of Poison Nova and 
Poison Sting.
Pugna
* Both Jakiro's Ice Path and Liquid Frost can be used to cancel Life Drain from either Jakiro or an ally.
* Decrepify only makes Pugna even more vulnerable to Jakiro's magical damage, And it has no adverse effects on Jakiro himself.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded 
Macropyre can deal pure damage-over-time and pierce debuff immunity, which can discourage Pugna from even trying to use Life Drain.
* Bear in mind, however, that Nether Ward can do some considerable damage to Jakiro due to high mana costs on his abilities.
Pugna
* Life Drain does not instantly kill the illusions from 
Phantasm
* 
Chaos Bolt and 
Reality Rift can easily interrupt the channeling from Life Drain.
* Reality Rift makes it harder for Pugna to keep his distance between Chaos Knight.
* Nether Ward barely deals any significant damage on Chaos Knight as Chaos Knight's abilities do not cost a lot of mana
* The overwhelming damage of Chaos Knight and his illusions will do a quick work on Pugna's poor HP pool, or safely remove the Nether Ward from the battlefield.
Pugna
* Primal Beast has multiple ways to cancel Life Drain very quickly.
* Pugna has a very low strength gain and as a support does not have much gold to buy health items, making him vulnerable to Primal Beast's onslaught of magical damage.
* Ironically, Decrepify actually just increases Primal Beast's damage on the targeted ally if Trample is activated. However, it can be used to slow him down and prevent any further Trample damage.
Venomancer
* Venomous Gale is a great ganking and farming skill.
* Plague Ward serves as a flexible ability for pushing, ganking, farming and scouting. The innate Poison Sting also works on the stolen Plague Ward with half the damage.
* Poison Nova, if stolen and cast, puts a huge damage-over-time debuff on the enemy team, even greater than Venomancer himself with the help of 
Arcane Supremacy.
* 
Spell Steal has a greater cast distance than the effect area of Poison Nova, allowing Rubick to steal the spell while staying at the back.
* Venomancer suffers from mana pool problems, while Rubick has relatively high intelligence gain and can cast the same set of spells at ease.
Additional:
* All of Venomancer's abilities are decent choices for Rubick's Spell Steal. Stealing Plague Wards makes them apply Poison Sting as well.
Venomancer
* Teleportation allows Natures Prophet to save himself from the damage over time of Venomous Gale, Poison Sting and Poison Nova.
* Plague Wards can be destroyed with Nature's Prophet's Treants.
Pugna
* Phantom Lancer creates way too many illusions for Pugna's Life Drain to destroy, overwhelming him easily.
* 
Doppelganger can dodge 
Nether Blast or dispel Decrepify.
* Diffusal Blade is a common item for Phantom Lancer to burn Pugna's large mana pool and deals a large amount of damage in the process.
Additional:
* Though Life Drain instantly destroys illusions, Phantom Lancer creates way too many for Pugna to handle.
* A good Phantom Lancer will also dodge your Nether Blast with Doppelganger.
* Phantom Lancer is the most natural Diffusal Blade carrier to burn Pugna's very large pool of mana away and deal a large amount of damage in the process.
Venomancer
* Heroes that deal damage over time will also fail to bring down Abaddon and his allies, such as 
Huskar, Venomancer, or 
Phoenix.
Additional:
* 
Borrowed Time & 
Aphotic Shield can dispel Venomous Gale and Poison Sting.
Venomancer
* Vulnerable spellcasters with no escape mechanisms are easy targets for Huskar: 
Lich, 
Crystal Maiden, 
Silencer, 
Keeper of the Light, Venomancer, etc.
Additional:
* Huskar can easily regenerate lost health from DoT spells through 
Berserker's Blood rendering them ineffective
* Venomancer has little armor and mobility, and rarely builds Linken's Sphere, so he is quite vulnerable to 
Life Break.
Venomancer
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting: 
Arc Warden, 
Chen, 
Clinkz, 
Drow Ranger, 
Lina, 
Mirana, 
Nature's Prophet, Pugna and 
Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
Venomancer
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting: Arc Warden, Chen, Clinkz, Drow Ranger, Lina, Mirana, Nature's Prophet, Pugna and Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
Pugna
* Spirit Siphon does a lot of magical damage, especially in the early game. This allows her to demolish low health heroes such as 
Zeus, Pugna, especially when combined with her other spells.
Pugna
* Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or have any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items can still get interrupted by Dismember: 
Enigma, 
Juggernaut, 
Phantom Assassin, Pugna, 
Elder Titan.
Venomancer
* 
Slardar can attack through Plague Wards and gain 
Bash of the Deep charges, and 
Templar Assassin can spill 
Psi Blades through Plague Wards too.
Pugna
* Heroes who rely on channeling abilities can be interrupted in teamfights by Rolling Thunder: Crystal Maiden, Pugna, 
Witch Doctor
Venomancer
* Heroes with damage-over-time abilities easily allow Bristleback to turn his back in order to proc 
Bristleback continuously and to massively reduce to damage dealt to him: Arc Warden, Venomancer, 
Luna.
Venomancer
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting: Arc Warden, Chen, Clinkz, Drow Ranger, Lina, Mirana, Nature's Prophet, Pugna and Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
Venomancer
* While 
Reincarnation is off cooldown, Poison Nova poses less of a threat as Wraith King will return with all debuffs cleared.
* 
Vampiric Spirit can out-heal the slow {tooltip:DoT|Damage over Time} from Poison Sting.
Pugna
* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify: 
Riki, 
Wraith King, Juggernaut.
Pugna
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
Venomancer
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: 
Jakiro, 
Viper, Venomancer, Huskar, 
Ember Spirit, 
Dark Seer, 
Sand King, 
Doom, 
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
Venomancer
* Venomancer has low health, which makes him vulnerable to Lina's heavy magic damage.
* Fiery Soul attack speed bonus removes Plague Wards easily in all stages of the game.
Pugna
* Nether Ward will be problematic for heavy nukers and spammers like Skywrath Mage, Lina, Lion and Invoker, but Pugna must not use Decrepify defensively against them as he will be helping them out more than anything.
Venomancer
* Untouchable won't mitigate Venomancer's magical damage, and Enchantress is vulnerable to magic damage.
* Both Venomous Gale and Poison Nova lower the amount of healing received by Enchantress and her allies from Nature's Attendants.
Pugna
* Amazingly, Enchantress has even lower health than Pugna. Though she does pack quite a punch through 
Impetus, she can't use it if she is under Decrepify.
* Pugna's Magical DPS is way greater than the heal from 
Nature's Attendants, which will also harm her quite a bit if she's next to Nether Ward.
Venomancer
* Venomancer's spells all deal magical damage, ignoring Bulwark.
* Venomancer's multiple slows are especially effective at kiting Mars.
* Plague Ward can attack through Arena Of Blood.
Additional:
* Venomancer's poison attacks are all magical damage, ignoring 
Bulwark.
* Venomancer's multiple slows are especially effective against Mars' low mobility.
* Plague Wards can attack through 
Arena of Blood.
Pugna
* Nether Blast, Decrepify and Life Drain deal high magical damage and bypasses Bulwark.
* Nether Ward reduces the amount of abilities Mars can use during fights and forces Mars to be careful about the heavy mana cost of Arena Of Blood.
* Pugna is one of few heroes that can contest Mars' ability to push and defend towers early on.
Venomancer
* Venomancer's poison damage over time is very effective against Spectre, who tends to lack magic resistance during the early to mid game.
* Venomancer's multiple slows greatly reduces Spectre's movement speed and mobility.
* Plague Wards can scout out Spectre while she is hiding in trees.
Additional:
* Venomancer's poison damage-over-time are very effective against Spectre, which is lack of magic resistance from early to mid game.
* Venomancer's multiple slows greatly reduces Spectre's low mobility, even through 
Spectral Dagger.
* Plague Wards reveals Spectre while she is hiding on trees.
Pugna
* Nether Blast is one of the best tower pushing abilities in the game, with a low cooldown. A competent Pugna will (at the very least) destroy tier 2 towers and make space for his team before Spectre can finally come online.
* Spectre's spells, while not spammable, have a fairly high mana cost, so Nether Ward can be fairly damaging to Spectre early game. The mana degen will also dampen Spectre's early game power significantly.
* Once Pugna gets Aghanim's Scepter, he can spam Life Drain on any illusion Spectre summons, whether it'd be from 
Haunt, 
Manta Style, or some other means.
* In addition, Pugna can disable Spectre's 
Desolate ability (although its damage is pure, it requires physical attacks) with his Decrepify ability, leaving Spectre only with Spectral Dagger.
Venomancer
* Venomancer's slows and magical damage-over-time work well against Axe's complete lack of mobility.
* Plague Ward is especially useful for slowing down Axe, and revealing him before he initiates, as well as putting his Blink Dagger on cooldown.
Additional:
* Venomancer's slows and magical damage-over-time work well against Axe's complete lack of mobility.
* Plague Wards is especially useful for slowing down Axe, and revealing him before he initiates, as well as putting his Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* For the same reasons, Venomancer is a good ally for Axe when the situation is reversed.
Pugna
* Decrepify can be used on allies to prevent them from attacking Axe and triggering Counter Helix during Berserker's Call. He can also cast it on Axe to prevent anyone from attacking him.
* Life Drain can be used to heal himself or allies caught in Berserker's Call, preventing them from dropping low enough for Axe to kill them with Culling Blade.
Venomancer
* Heroes who thrive on teamfights can be a problem, such as Venomancer, 
Necrophos, 
Centaur Warrunner...
Pugna
* Pugna can save allies with both healing or by making them ethereal but needs to be careful of Sven's Aghanim's Scepter purge.
Venomancer
* Similar to Night Stalker, Venomancer can simultaneously scout Magnus hiding in trees and put Blink Dagger on cooldown with Plague Ward, which gives Magnus problems when trying to blink in and initiate.
Additional:
* Venomancer can simultaneously scout Magnus hiding in trees and putting Blink Dagger on cooldown with Plague Wards, which makes Magnus real problems to blink and initiate.
Pugna
* Any hero who can counter-initiate in anticipation without getting caught in Reverse Polarity: 
Sven, 
Omniknight, Enigma, Luna, 
Naga Siren, 
Mars, Jakiro, Venomancer, Elder Titan, 
Faceless Void, 
Rubick, Keeper of the Light, Pugna, Invoker, 
Spectre, 
Alchemist, 
Treant Protector, Lina, 
Oracle, Zeus, 
Shadow Shaman, Phoenix, 
Razor, Huskar, 
Batrider, 
Kunkka, 
Tidehunter, Wraith King, Sand King, 
Medusa, Dawnbreaker.
Venomancer
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting: Arc Warden, Chen, Clinkz, Drow Ranger, Lina, Mirana, Nature's Prophet, Pugna and Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
Venomancer
* Venomancer's damage over time can force Chen to use Hand of God prematurely, potentially wasting a chance to save his allies during a teamfight.
* Venomancer's Poison Nova, Venomous Gale and Plague Ward can easily kill Chen's creeps.
Pugna
* Nether Blast can deal high damage to Chen and clear waves of his creeps.
* Decrepify can be used to waste the duration of 
Penitence.
* Nether Ward can discourage Chen from using Penitence, 
Holy Persuasion and 
Hand of God due to their fairly high mana costs.
* Life Drain can often kill Chen or any of his allies before he can save them with Hand of God thanks to it's high damage and low cooldown.
Venomancer
* Slardar can attack through Plague Wards and gain Bash of the Deep charges, and Templar Assassin can spill Psi Blades through Plague Wards too.
Venomancer
* Venomancer's entire arsenal deals lingering damage over a long time and therefore burns through her Refraction very quickly. Not only that, his persistent slow from Poison Sting (it can be re-applied again and again with Plague Ward) allows his team to catch up to her even with the disruption from her Psionic Trap.
Additional:
* Venomous Gale and Plague Wards allow to quickly melt through 
Refraction charges.
* Both Poison Nova and Venomous Gale hit invisible units, so 
Meld cannot be used defensively.
Pugna
* Pugna's Decrepify can render Templar Assassin's physical attacks useless.
* Pugna can also cast Life Drain on Templar Assassin, burning her Refraction instances.
* On the other hand, Pugna generally has low health and armor. Use this to your advantage.
Venomancer
* Heroes that commonly attack ethereal units will not have any problems against Muerta's Pierce The Veil: 
Tinker, Jakiro, Lina, Luna, Pugna or 
Ogre Magi, Enigma, Batrider, 
Techies, 
Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Shadow Shaman, 
Bane, Tinker, Venomancer, Arc Warden.
Pugna
* Heroes that commonly attack ethereal units will not have any problems against Muerta's Pierce The Veil: Tinker, Jakiro, Lina, Luna, Pugna or Ogre Magi, Enigma, Batrider, Techies, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Shadow Shaman, Bane, Tinker, Venomancer, Arc Warden.
Venomancer
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats: 
Axe, Viper, 
Meepo, Jakiro, Pugna, 
Slark, Venomancer etc.
Pugna
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats: Axe, Viper, Meepo, Jakiro, Pugna, Slark, Venomancer etc.
Venomancer
* Plague Wards are very hard for Batrider to play against as they provide a lot of vision as well as disable Blink Dagger for a long duration.
Venomancer
* Venomancer's magical damage-over-time poisons will constantly put Tree Dance on cooldown, greatly diminishing Monkey King's mobility.
* Venomous Gale and Poison Nova will hit Monkey King when he is perched on a tree, or disguised with Mischief.
* However, Venomancer is also easily ganked by Monkey King if caught by surprise.
Additional:
* Venomancer's magical damage-over-time poisons putting 
Tree Dance on cooldown, greatly diminishing Monkey King's mobility.
* Venomous Gale and Posion Nova will hit Monkey King when he is perched on a tree, or disguised by 
Mischief.
Venomancer
* 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.
Pugna
* Decrepify prevents Faceless Void from attacking trapped allies inside 
Chronosphere, wasting a large portion of its duration if Faceless Void can't dispel it.
Pugna
* Troll Warlord can't switch targets at will, in order to build 
Fervor stacks, which makes it easy to use Decrepify in order to save allies
* During 
Battle Trance, Pugna can easily use Nether Blast, Decrepify and Life Drain on him
Pugna
* Nether Ward punishes Leshrac's constant mana usage from spamming spells.
* Leshrac needs to be in the thick of the fight to deal damage, and so cannot escape from Nether Blast nor Life Drain easily.
Additional:
* Leshrac needs to be close to target in order to do damage, Pugna can outrun Leshrac with ease due to his superior movement speed.
* 
Split Earth can also be hard to land on Pugna for the same reason.
* Leshrac uses huge amounts of mana to do damage, Nether Ward forces him to either not contribute in a fight or kill himself in the process.
Pugna
* Nether Ward can punish Timbersaw, as Timbersaw is a spell-caster with low cooldowns. Furthermore, Timbersaw usually appears in the midst of battle, placing himself in range of Nether Ward's Mana Flares.
* Timbersaw has no stuns or silences to stop Life Drain. Since all of Pugna's Spells are magical, the damage can be devastating to Timbersaw.
* Decrepify can further increase all the magical damage done to Timbersaw, bypassing the enhanced physical resistance he can get from 
Reactive Armor.
Additional:
* Nether Ward can punish Timbersaw, as Timbersaw is a spell-caster with low cooldowns. Furthermore, Timbersaw usually appears in the midst of battle, placing himself in range of Nether Ward's Mana Flares.
* Timbersaw has no stuns or silences to stop Life Drain. Since all of Pugna's Spells are magical, the damage can be devastating to Timbersaw, especially when combined with Decrepify.
Pugna
* Nether Ward on its own can greatly hinder Invoker from casting many of his abilities, at least until he gets a significant amount of HP or is under the protection of spell immunity from Black King Bar
* Life Drain provides True sight, revealing Invoker through Ghost Walk, and forcing him or his allies to use an ability or item to interrupt its channeling
* Outside of Nether Ward's range, Invoker shall have the advantage, as Invoker has Tornado to purge Pugna's Decrepify when it is used defensively, Tornado or Cold Snap to prevent Pugna from channeling Life Drain
* A poorly used Decrepify on Pugna's allies means Invoker's abilities can be used to deal more damage to them.
Additional:
* Because Invoker relies on casting a large amount of spells to contribute to fights, Nether Ward can force him to not cast anything at all or take a large amount of damage to cast spells.
Pugna
* Due to the high mana cost of his spells and the low cool down of them, Nether Ward can seriously damage Skywrath Mage if he isn't careful.
* Skywrath Mage's fragility makes him very susceptible to Pugna's high burst damage.
Additional:
* Nether Ward will make Skywrath Mage next to useless in fights, as his low hp pool will not allow him to sustain through the damage of the ward should he choose to cast spells. Be wary though that Skywrath's huge burst will make very quick work of Pugna's low hp should the ward be destroyed, and Decrepify won't help Pugna at all.
Pugna
* Pugna easily copes on the line with the Keeper of the Light push with his Nether Blast, and in addition to Nether Ward, the Keeper of the Light is not able to throw 
Illuminate on creeps for a long time, so Pugna earns more gold and a level on the line
Additional:
* Pugna easily copes on the line with the Keeper of the Light push with his Nether Blast, and in addition to Nether Ward, the Keeper of the Light is not able to throw Illuminate on creeps for a long time, so Pugna earns more gold and a level on the line
Pugna
* Nether Ward can do a ton of damage to Disruptor because of his high mana costs.
* Life Drain can be used to heal an ally trapped by Static Storm-Kinetic Field combo (if Pugna is not a target).
Pugna
* Nether Ward causes Death Pulse to actually damage Necrophos rather than heal him. Meanwhile, Reaper Scythe's gigantic mana cost while Necrophos is near the Nether Ward can often instantly kill him.
* Nether Blast and Life Drain both make quick work of Necrophos's small healthpool, especially during Ghost Shroud. The latter also makes him an unappealing target for Reaper's Scythe, and can often force Necrophos to use it defensively as he has no other means of interrupting his channeling.
Pugna
* Decrepify prevents Shadow Fiend from attacking for its duration, potentially preventing him from getting a kill.
* Nether Ward can do heavy damage to Shadow Fiend if he tries to cast his 
Requiem of Souls and his 
Shadowraze.
Additional:
* Decrepify prevents Shadow Fiend from attacking for its duration, potentially preventing him from getting a kill.
* Nether Ward can do heavy damage to Shadow Fiend if he tries to cast his Requiem of Souls or spam Shadowraze.
Pugna
* Even though Pugna's low HP means that he can be quickly burst down, his Nether Ward heavily punishes casters whose spells cost a lot of mana, like Zeus. Casting 4 of his active spells, including Nimbus, close to an enhanced level 4 Nether Ward, can make the ward deal up to 1750 magical damage.
* Decrepify can further increase the damage dealt by Nether Ward upon Zeus. However, if used on Pugna himself or on one of his allies, it will amplify the damage done by Zeus' abilities.
Venomancer
* Due to lack of magic resistance, Venomancer poisons eats through Windranger's health.
Additional:
* Due to lack of magic resistance, Venomancer abilities eats through Windranger's health.
* Venomancer's multiple slows, to an extent, negates Windrun's mobility.
Pugna
* Enigma's abilities have a huge mana cost, meaning that Nether Ward will deal a lot of damage to Enigma.
* Pugna can heal allies trapped inside Black Hole thanks to Life Drain, Pugna can also damage multiple of Enigma's allies around him with Life Drain when he casts it on 
Aghanim's Shard upgraded Nether Ward during teamfight.
* Nether Blast can easily kill Eidolons, especially when Enigma is pushing.
* Even though Pugna cannot cancel 
Black Hole on his own, smart Pugna can buy Orchid Malevolence to stop Enigma from channeling Black Hole and make him more vulnerable to counter-attacks with Decrepify and Life Drain.
Additional:
* Enigma's abilities have a huge mana cost, meaning that Nether Ward will deal a lot of damage to Enigma.
* Pugna can heal allies trapped inside Black Hole thanks to Life Drain.
* Nether Blast can easily kill Eidolons, especially when Enigma is pushing.
Pugna
* Decrepify prevents 
Omnislash damage, until Juggernaut gets a Nullifier.
* Without a disable, Pugna's high movement speed makes it harder to chase him with 
Blade Fury.
* Juggernaut has low mana and his skills cost large amount of mana. Nether Ward will hurt him more and even worse, the damage from the ward is inflicted before the Spell immunity provided by Blade Fury.
Additional:
* Decrepify is the perfect tool against Omnislash until he gets a Nullifier, and even then he will probably waste a couple of slashes before he uses it.
* Without an extra disable, Pugna's high movement speed makes it impossible to chase him with Blade Fury.
* Unlike some other carries like Slark or Phantom Assassin, Juggernaut's spells cost a hefty amount of mana and he will seriously get hurt by Nether Ward. Don't forget the damage from the ward is inflicted before the spell immunity is provided by Blade Fury.
Pugna
* Cold Embrace is a death sentence against Pugna, since its the perfect setup for all his abilities, especially Life Drain.
* Decrepify can be cast to save the ally under Winter's Curse effect, wasting most of its duration.
* Winter Wyvern's abilities require a lot of mana, allowing Nether Ward to deal lots of damage.
Venomancer
* Venomous Gale, Poison Sting and Poison Nova deal damage over time and will chip away at Gravekeeper's Cloak in addition to slowing an already sluggish hero.
* Venomancer's normal attacks deal Poison Sting and will chip away at Gravekeeper's Cloak.
Pugna
* Nether Ward discourages Tinker from using abilities and items due to its high damage against heavy mana usage.
Pugna
* Heroes with high movement speeds like Pugna and Meepo can run around, to, or away from Snapfire during 
Mortimer Kisses and dodge the projectiles easily due to their slow speed.
* Heroes with mobility spells (such as 
Queen of Pain's 
Blink and 
Clockwerk with Hookshot) can easily avoid 
Lil' Shredder and Mortimer Kisses.
* Heroes with high movement speeds like Pugna and Meepo can run around, to, or away from Snapfire during Mortimer Kisses and dodge the projectiles easily due to their slow speed.
Venomancer
* In general, heroes that can slow down Dragon Knight's movement speed will do well against him. This includes Venomancer and others in addition to the heroes mentioned above.
Pugna
* Nether Ward will be problematic for heavy nukers and spammers like Skywrath Mage, Lina, Lion and Invoker, but Pugna must not use Decrepify defensively against them as he will be helping them out more than anything.
Venomancer
* Heroes that can slow Charge of Darkness by a huge amount: Venomancer, Viper, 
Dazzle, Arc Warden, Lion, Huskar, Shadow Shaman, 
Visage, 
Undying, Jakiro.
Pugna
* Pugna: Decrepify prevent the Spirit bear from attacking or protect allies from it.
Pugna
* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify: Riki, Wraith King, Juggernaut.
Pugna
* Pugna's Decrepify makes sure that either Alchemist is unable to hit anyone while also being slowed and susceptible to magical damage, or can protect an ally from physical attacks. Besides, Pugna can push early on, when Alchemist is not strong enough to repel it, so by the time Alchemist comes online, he might be forced to sit in base.
Pugna
* Pugna's Decrepify prevents the target from taking physical damage or doing damage, which poses a huge problem for Lycan, as he mainly deals physical damage.
Pugna
* Any heroes with high intelligence, such as Invoker and Pugna.
Venomancer
* Due to her slow movement speed,heroes with crowd control and slows can shut down Dawnbreaker:Lion, Crystal Maiden ,Venomancer etc.
Pugna
* Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as: 
Leshrac, Shadow Demon, Pugna, 
Death Prophet.
Venomancer
* Heroes who can harass Omniknight out of lane will keep him weak in the mid game: Viper, Venomancer, Clinkz.
Pugna
* Heroes with channeled abilities can be interrupted by a long-range Fissure: Crystal Maiden, Witch Doctor, Bane, Pugna, 
Pudge.
Venomancer
* Venomancer's slows and magical damage-over-time works well against Earthshaker's which completes lack of mobility.
* Plague Wards are useful for slowing and kitting down Earthshaker, revealing him from initiating and re-initiating and putting his Blink Dagger on cooldown if Venomancer has vision over Earthshaker.
Additional:
* Earthshaker can be kited by Venomancer's slows, which is lack of mobility.
* Plague Wards is very useful for slowing and kitting down Earthshaker, revealing him from initiating and re-initiating and putting his Blink Dagger on cooldown.
Pugna
* Pugna's Nether Ward doesn't really hurt Meepo since he usually buys attribute items to tank up and can be killed very quickly by 4 clones. Decrepify can amplify Poof's damage should Pugna use it to avoid Meepo's right clicking.
Venomancer
* Aggressively Poofing and Earthbinding is not going to end well against Venomancer, as he will be an easy target for 
Noxious Plague.
* Venomancer's constant slows greatly reduce Meepo's mobility.
Venomancer
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting: Arc Warden, Chen, Clinkz, Drow Ranger, Lina, Mirana, Nature's Prophet, Pugna and Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
Pugna
* Arc Warden can't use Magnetic Field to stall the damage of Nether Blast on towers, but he can buy Aghanim's Shard to diminish its damage.
* Arc Warden has no innate disables to stop Life Drain and Decrepify
* The short cooldown of both Life Drain and Decrepify also means Pugna can deal with Arc Warden and Arc Warden's clone simultaneously most of the time
* A good Pugna looks to end the match early while Arc Warden, a very item reliant hero, thrives in longer matches.
Venomancer
* Heroes rely on their debuff to control the opponent will have a hard time against Press the Attack: Venomancer, 
Earth Spirit, Ogre Magi
Additional:
* 
Press the Attack dispels Venomous Gale and Poison Sting from Legion Commander or her teammates.
* Venomancer is an ideal target for 
Duel due to his lack of mobility and low starting health.
Pugna
* Decrepify on either hero stops Legion Commander from completing a Duel, and dissuades her from initiating Duels on ethereal allies.
* Life Drain can help Pugna's teammates win a fight, either by killing Legion Commander or replenishing her target's health.
Additional:
* Decrepify prevents Legion Commander from attacking allies during Duel, regardless if it's used on her or on the ally .
* Pugna can easily cast Decrepify, Nether Blast and Life Drain on Legion during the 4/4.75/5.5/8 seconds of duel
Pugna
* Fragile heroes: Bounty Hunter has decent nuking capabilities with Shiruken Toss and Jinada thus making fragile heroes easy picks for ganking. Few examples of such heroes are:Crystal Maiden, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, 
Io, Witch Doctor, etc.
Venomancer
* Venomancer's magical damage-over-time poisons greatly reduce Bounty Hunter's mobility.
* Venomous Gale, combined with Plague Wards and Poison Nova with True Sight items can allow Venomancer and his teammates to gank Bounty Hunter while he is roaming alone.
Venomancer
* 
Dark Rift allows Underlord to transport allies from poison damage-over-time to the fountain.
* Underlord usually buys 
Pipe of Insight that gives a magic resistance to allies, inhibiting the damage from Venomancer abilities.
Venomancer
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damaging and/or disabling abilities will be able to intercept Underlord and his team when they exit from Fiend's Gate: Luna's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Eclipse, Dawnbreaker's 
Solar Guardian, Axe's 
Berserker's Call, Mars's Arena of Blood, Jakiro's Macropyre, 
Dual Breath and 
Ice Path, Naga Siren's 
Song of the Siren, Razor's 
Eye of the Storm and 
Plasma Field, Lina's 
Light Strike Array, Broodmother's 
Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter, Elder Titan's 
Earth Splitter and 
Echo Stomp, Alchemist's 
Unstable Concoction and 
Acid Spray, Queen of Pain's 
Sonic Wave, Dark Seer's 
Wall of Replica and 
Vacuum, Venomancer's Noxious Plague and Poison Nova from Aghanim's Scepter, Oracle's Fortune's End and 
Rain of Destiny from Aghanim's Shard, 
Bloodseeker's 
Blood Rite, Enigma's Black Hole and 
Midnight Pulse, Shadow Fiend's Requiem of Souls, Batrider's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded 
Flaming Lasso, 
Firefly, 
Flamebreak and 
Sticky Napalm, Ancient Apparition's 
Ice Blast, Sand King's 
Epicenter, 
Sand Storm and 
Burrowstrike, 
Gyrocopter's 
Call Down, Ember Spirit's 
Sleight of Fist, Death Prophet's 
Exorcism and 
Silence, 
Monkey King's 
Wukong's Command, Crystal Maiden's 
Freezing Field, 
Muerta's 
The Calling, Medusa's 
Stone Gaze, Zeus's 
Nimbus from Aghanim's Scepter. 
Dark Willow's 
Bramble Maze, 
Pangolier's 
Swashbuckle, 
Grimstroke's 
Soulbind, 
Ink Swell and 
Stroke of Fate, 
Earthshaker's 
Echo Slam and 
Fissure, 
Puck's 
Dream Coil and 
Waning Rift, 
Winter Wyvern's 
Winter's Curse, 
Magnus's 
Reverse Polarity.
Pugna
* Heroes with magical or pure damage output will not have any problems against Atrophy Aura at all: Luna, Lina, Jakiro, Pugna, Bane, 
Snapfire, Muerta, Nyx Assassin, Enigma, Tinker, Witch Doctor, Zeus, Crystal Maiden.
Venomancer
* Sunder can prevent Terrorblade's or an ally's death by swapping health, making damage-over-time abilities inefficient. Heroes that rely on damage-over-time abilities like Venomancer and Huskar will have a hard time against Sunder.
Additional:
* 
Reflection illusion will apply Poison Sting back towards Venomancer.
* 
Conjure Image and 
Metamorphosis will make quick work of Plague Wards.
* While ticking down from Poison Nova, Terrorblade can wait until the last possible moment to 
Sunder a target, either friend or foe.
Pugna
* As Terrorblade's damage output comes mainly from direct attacks, he will struggle greatly against heroes who have abilities that give evasion, trigger on attack or which can disarm an enemy hero: Centaur Warrunner, 
Hoodwink, Huskar, Invoker, Leshrac with 
Nihilism from Aghanim's Scepter, 
Lifestealer with Aghanim's Scepter upgraded 
Infest, Pangolier, Phantom Assassin, Pugna, Techies, 
Windranger etc.
Venomancer
* Venomancer's damage-over-time abilities are easier to heal through with numerous Shadow Waves than other types of damage, and it's simple to time a Shallow Grave until the last possible second to save a teammate from them.
Pugna
* Pugna can turn out to be an effective hero against Dazzle due to the fact that he does not allow him to extend his 
Poison Touch with his Decrepify, which is why Dazzle cannot keep the enemy under prolonged deceleration.
* Pugna has a very strong ability against casters with a small health reserve - Nether Ward, which is why heroes like Dazzle will not be able to constantly throw their Poison Touch 
Bad Juju and 
Shadow Wave at enemies under the action of Nether Ward or will be forced to take a lot of damage
Additional:
* Pugna can turn out to be an effective hero against Dazzle due to the fact that he does not allow him to extend his Poison Touch with his Decrepify, which is why Dazzle cannot keep the enemy under prolonged deceleration.
* Pugna has a very strong ability against casters with a small health reserve - Nether Ward, which is why heroes like Dazzle will not be able to constantly throw their Poison Touch Bad Juju and Shadow Wave at enemies under the action of Nether Ward or will be forced to take a lot of damage
Venomancer
* 
Dark Pact can dispel Venomous Gale and Poison Sting.
* 
Shadow Dance allows Slark heightened regeneration when out of vision making DoTs effects less threatening.
Pugna
* Nether Blast will still hit Slark even if he is hidden during Shadow Dance.
* Even though Pugna can rarely target Slark directly with Decrepify, he can still use it defensively on an ally to prevent Slark from getting stacks.
* Despite being somewhat easy to break with Pounce, Pugna can damage Slark and provide vision over him with Life Drain.
Pugna
* Puck can dodge Nether Blast and Life Drain with his Phase Shift, easily avoiding Pugna's strong burst magic damage.
* Waning Rift's silence allows Puck and its teammates to easily deal with Pugna, which cannot do the same to it, because with Puck it will be easy to avoid such an attack from the Decrepify.
* The Puck's combo: Waning Rift + 
Illusory Orb + Dream Coil doesn't have a huge amount of damage to feel the damage of the Pugna from Nether Ward, however, it may be quite enough to kill the Pugna solo at an early stage of the game with 
Witch Blade
Additional:
* Puck easily dodges the Nether Blast and the Pugna Life Drain with his 
Phase Shift, which is why he can easily avoid his strong magic damage
* The Puck's silence from the Waning Rift ability allows her team to easily cope with the Pugna, which cannot be said about the Pugna, because with the Puck it will be easy to avoid such an attack from the Decrepify
* The Puck's combo: Waning Rift + Illusory Orb + Dream Coil doesn't have a huge amount of damage to feel the damage of the Pugna from Nether Ward, however, it may be quite enough to kill the Pugna solo at an early stage of the game with Witch Blade
Venomancer
* Unless Puck is facing the direction he wants to blink while in Phase Shift, the Venomous Gale and Noxious Plague combo consistently ticks many times over several seconds, making it very difficult to use Blink Dagger towards the other direction. Puck's slow turning rate makes this even worse.
* Venomancer can use Plague Wards to reveal Puck's position before he even gets a chance to initiate.
Venomancer
* 
Corrosive Skin means Viper can often outlast Venomancer in a battle of attrition.
* Venomancer has no mobility without items, which makes him vulnerable to constant slows.
Pugna
* Pugna's Decrepify allows him to save allies from being ganked by Viper, since Viper mostly relies on direct attacks in order to deal damage.
* Nether Ward can discourage Viper from spamming his abilities.
* Viper's damage over time is not enough to kill Pugna as he will have more than enough time to save himself (or his allies) with Life Drain and Viper has no solutions to cancel it.
* Pugna has no passive abilities, which renders 
Nethertoxin nearly useless.
Venomancer
* In the laning stage, making illusions of Venomancer will turn his Poison Sting back at him, making for an easy gank at level one, and for later when your mid comes for ganks.
Pugna
* All of Pugna's abilities are active, making Demonic Purge break from Aghanim's Scepter useless.
* Nether Ward punishes Shadow Demon's constant mana usage from spamming spells, especially Shadow Poison.
* An attempt to save an ally using Disruption can easily become a perfect setup for a Nether Blast for the enemy.
* Life Drain can be used to heal Pugna or an ally to save them from Shadow Demon's abilities.
* However, it can be cancelled by Disruption unless Pugna buys defensive items.
Pugna
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: 
Dragon Knight, Jakiro, Pugna, Earthshaker.
Pugna
* Pugna's Nether Ward damages Sand King when he channels Epicenter, preventing him from using Blink Dagger afterward.
Venomancer
* Venomancer's damage-over-time abilities do little damage against Counterspell.
Counterspell provides magic resistance, diminishing the effectiveness of Venomancer's spells.
Blink, circumventing the slows Venomancer depends on.
* Blink helps Anti-Mage get away from Venomancer's slows.
Additional:
*
* Venomancer's lack of hard disable allows Anti-Mage to use
Pugna
* Pugna only deals magical damage, which Anti-Mage is exceptionally resistant due to Counterspell.
Decrepify with 
Manta Style.
Mana Void on Pugna if he's missing a considerable portion of his mana.
Mana Break almost always dealing the bonus damage from the mana burn.
Counterspell negates a large amount of Pugna's damage, as most of Pugna's damage comes from his spells. 
Blink can be used to get out of a bad situation, and Pugna has no way to prevent him from casting it.
* Anti-Mage can dispel
* Pugna has a very large mana pool. This allows Anti-Mage to constantly deal bonus damage to Pugna with Mana Break and devastate Pugna's entire team with Mana Void.
Additional:
* Since Pugna relies on his teammates for protection, it is fairly common for Anti-Mage to get multiple kills with a single use of his
* Pugna's massive mana pool will result in Anti-Mage's
*
*