* Heroes who can stop Axe from getting close will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback, Crystal Maiden, Batrider, Arc Warden, Winter Wyvern, Clockwerk

* Macropyre's frequent damage ticks causes Bristleback to activate repeatedly, resulting in free damage as long as Bristleback faces away from Jakiro.

* Heroes who can summon illusions and summons because Terrorblade has no abilities to deal with multiple enemies at once outside Reflection: Shadow Shaman, Naga Siren, Broodmother, Lycan, Enigma, Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Shadow Demon, Dark Seer, Nature's Prophet, Invoker, Morphling, Visage, Grimstroke with Aghanim's Scepter.

* Familiars will easily be able to kite heroes with a short range or with low attack speed. For example, Tiny and Undying have a very hard time killing Familiars.

* 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.

* Enemies that possess high defenses through magic resistance, damage reduction, or high regeneration will make it difficult to whittle their health down to get to Reaper's Scythe's threshold. Such heroes include Bristleback (although only from behind), Spectre, Ursa, and Dragon Knight.

* Grave Chill will make Crystal Maiden's bad movement speed even worse.
* Soul Assumption charges can easily be stacked up from Freezing Field, allowing Visage to nuke enemies multiple times throughout the fight.
* {U:Familiar}'s Stone Form can also be used to interrupt Freezing Field, even while Crystal Maiden is under the effects of Glimmer Cape. Crystal Maiden must purchase a Black King Bar, which is far more costly.

* Viscous Nasal Goo can hinder Crystal Maiden's already abysmal mobility, which allows Bristleback (or his teammates) to run her down and kill her.
* Bristleback frequently builds Blade Mail, which can quickly kill Crystal Maiden if her ultimate is used while he is under its effect.
* The passive part of Bristleback will trigger many, many times under the damage from Freezing Field, and as the stacks increase, the damage output from each successive cast (or proc) will eat away at Crystal Maiden's small HP pool.

* Pudge has a very hard time killing Familiars due to his melee range and low attack speed.
* Stone Form can quickly interrupt Dismember.

* Pudge is particularly susceptible to Bristleback's Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray due to his naturally low armor and poor agility gain.
* Bristleback, in combination with his strength gain, high health, common itemization for magic resistance and damage reduction from Bristleback makes him a poor target for Pudge.
Additional:
* Bristleback is one of the hardest heroes to gank with a Meat Hook and Dismember combo, and attempts to do so sometimes backfire on Pudge.

* Stone Form can easily interrupt heroes with long channeling spells, like Crystal Maiden, Bane, Witch Doctor, or Enigma.

* Bristleback's constant harass from Quill Spray will greatly hurt Enigma's laning and kill his Eidolons.
* However, Bristleback has no way of canceling Black Hole at all. And Bristleback is not a hero that goes for disabling items to counter that problem.

* Stone Form's long stun duration may prevent Puck from using escape abilities.
* Visage frequently builds Rod of Atos for the root that will make Puck unable to move and use his escape abilities. Alternatively, Visage can also build Bloodthorn to prevent Puck from using his escape abilities and make him more vulnerable to damage.

* Bristleback, Centaur Warrunner, Spirit Breaker, Pudge, Huskar: These heroes are too tanky for Puck to burst down. Also, all of them have spells which can deal with and shut Puck down reliably.

* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster, Broodmother, Chaos Knight, Lycan, Naga Siren, Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer, Shadow Shaman, Terrorblade, Visage, Warlock, Wraith King.

* Quill Spray is very effective against Io, as it has very low armor and has to stay close to the fight to not break its Tether.

* Nature's Prophet has no innate way to deal with Gravekeeper's Cloak or kill {U:Familiar}s effectively.
* Familiars can fly over the trees created by Sprout. They can also use Stone Form when Nature's Prophet is trying to use Teleportation.
* Aghanim's Shard upgraded Stone Form alow allows Visage himself to stun Nature's Prophet whenever he is trying to use Teleportation.
* Aghanim's Scepter gives Visage Silent as the Grave ability, which allows him and his {U:Familiar}s to either escape from Nature's Prophet or give him a surprise attack.
Additional:
* Nature's Prophet has no natural method of dealing with Gravekeeper's Cloak and Familiars.
* Familiar's low base attack time can chip away Nature Prophet's health.
* Familiar's Stone Form destroys trees created by Sprout.
* Familiars can scout woods and foggy areas where Nature's Prophet is trying to use Teleportation.

* Heroes that have AoE damage: Lina, Keeper of the Light, Timbersaw, Leshrac, Bristleback, Axe.

* Heroes that deal few, powerful instances of damage, like Oracle, Lion, or Sven, have a hard time breaking through Gravekeeper's Cloak.

* Fortune's End cannot dispel Warpath stacks on Bristleback or Quill Spray stacks on allies.
* Bristleback can heavily reduce Oracle's damage output. With it, Oracle may accidentally heal Bristleback with Purifying Flames, especially if Bristleback has bonus magic resistance.

* Rubick deals little damage on his own, and Bristleback can simply shrug off all his spells and chase Rubick down with his Quill Spray and the damage bonus from Warpath.
* Rubick does not tend to charge forward in teamfights, stay in the front lines under most circumstances, yet effective casts of Quill Spray and Viscous Nasal Goo requires the opposite as they require multiple casts and close range to add up stacks.
* Rubick does not benefit from Warpath through casting the stolen spell.
Additional:
* Bristleback's abilities are nearly useless for Rubick to Spell Steal, as he does not gain the bonuses from Warpath.

* 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.
* 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 Grave Chill.
* Gravekeeper's Cloak allows Visage to survive Damage from Techies's mines.

* Familiars will easily be able to kite heroes with a short range or with low attack speed. For example, Tiny and Undying have a very hard time killing Familiars.

* Tiny's nonexistent armor in the early game makes him very vulnerable to Quill Spray's large amounts of physical damage.
* Bristleback decreases Tiny's high burst damage against Bristleback.
* Viscous Nasal Goo can slow Tiny to a crawl and allows Bristleback to easily kite him with his high movement speed and Quill Spray's long range, as Tiny has no ability to escape.

* Focus Fire potentially trigger with Quill Spray very harassing and passive abilities from Bristleback Bristleback and Warpath stacked damage. Additionally,Combination Quill Spray and Blade Mail is very possible kill her's since Windranger's activated Focus Fire. At the same time,Windrun does not protect from Quill Spray.
* Bristleback's tanky in late game build Heart of Tarrasque and Vanguard until upgrade Crimson Guard or Abyssal Blade is very difficult for Windranger's kill Bristleback and her can need more damage.
* Spamming Viscous Nasal Goo is very harder Windranger's Windrun movement speed. Bristleback combinating build Assault Cuirass also render Windranger's loss armor.
* Bristleback must build Lotus Orb cause make reflects Windranger's target hard Shackleshot and Focus Fire.
Additional:
* Combo Quill Spray and items Blade Mail can easily trigger from Focus Fire damage.

* Viscous Nasal Goo slows down Dragon Knight and lowers armor, locking him down and making him more vulnerable.

* {U:Familiar}s can spot Clockwerk, allowing Visage's allies to dodge or block Hookshot attempts.
* Familiars will not be damaged by Blade Mail or Clockwerk's abilities, dealing dangerous amounts of damage to him.
Additional:
* Familiars can scout for Clockwerk's location allowing Visage to dodge or block Hookshot attempts.
* Gravekeeper's Cloak greatly absorbs damage from Hookshot.

* Quill Spray's constant AoE damage will hit Dark Willow even in Shadow Realm. Its automatic damage will hurt her if she tries to get close and use Bedlam.

* Familiars will be able to chase Spectre through the trees when she uses Spectral Dagger, while Visage can keep blasting her with Soul Assumption.
* Desolate will almost never proc because Visage will always have nearby Familiars.

* Due to their high attack speed, Summon Familiars will destroy Mass Serpent Wards quickly, granting Visage a massive amount of gold.
* Visage can use Stone Form of the Familiars to cancel Shackles. Aghanim's Shard upgraded Stone Form also allows Visage to use Stone Form himself to cancel Shackles while restoring his health.
* Grave Chill can make Shadow Shaman's bad movement speed and attack speed even worse.
* Visage is also a natural Bloodthorn wielder, which allows him to silence Shadow Shaman and make him more vulnerable to damage.
Additional:
* Due to their high attack speed, Visage's Summon Familiars will destroy Mass Serpent Ward quickly, granting Visage massive amount of gold.

* The bonus Backstab damage from Cloak and Dagger is rendered irrelevant with Bristleback and hurts Riki more than him because of the passive Quill Spray.
* Riki can still get damaged by Bristleback's Quill Spray while invisible, and it can be hard to deal with in lane.
* Bristleback is not too bothered by Smoke Screen. Though he cannot use Quill Spray manually inside it, it still procs passively when he takes damage from the back. The movement speed from Warpath allows him to get out of the area easily.
* Due to Bristleback's natural tankiness, he is an ideal Gem of True Sight carrier.
* Riki rarely buys Silver Edge to break Bristleback's passive because the invisibility aspect of it is redundant.
Additional:
* Quill Spray will hit Riki even when he is invisible.
* Cloak and Dagger's bonus backstab damage is rendered irrelevant against Bristleback.
* Smoke Screen does not stop Bristleback's passive from activating.
* Due to Bristleback's natural tankiness, he is an ideal Gem of True Sight carrier, directly countering Riki's invisibility.

* 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.
* Visage's long range on Soul Assumption and Grave Chill make him hard to escape from, and Soul Assumption's low cooldown outmatches Spiked Carapace.

* Quill Spray can be used to kill Lycan's summons.
* Bristleback allows him to stay alive against Lycan while dishing out counter attacks
* He can overpower Lycan with his Warpath instead.
Additional:
* Lycan's wolves deal little damage to Bristleback, and are easily killed by Quill Spray, even when they're invisible.
* Lycan's lack of burst damage makes it very hard for him to kill Bristleback, especially when his back is turned.

* Grave Chill can heavily slow down Chen and boost Visage and his familiars's attack speed and movement speed.
* Chen's Holy Persuasion cannot convert Visage's familiars from Summon Familiars at all, not even when upgraded with Aghanim's Shard that allows Chen to use it on ancient creeps as Visage's familiars are treated as creep-heroes, which could put Chen in disadvantage against Visage if his creeps die.
* Skilled Visage can buy Bloodthorn to prevent Chen from any chance of retaliating or saving himself with Hand of God and Gleipnir to clear waves of Chen's creeps and prevent them from escaping. This can get even better if Visage has access to Silent as the Grave ability from Aghanim's Scepter that will allow Visage and his familiars to be invisible, which they can use either to escape from Chen or to prepare a deadly surprise to him.

* Lone Druid and The Spirit Bear cannot burst down Bristleback due to Bristleback
* Bristleback can easily run to Lone Druid without any hesitation, with Viscous Nasal Goo to reduce armor and slow the Spirit Bear or Lone Druid and Quill Spray can deal damage to both Lone Druid and the Spirit Bear at the same time

* Heroes with summons: Lycan, Broodmother, Visage, Nature's Prophet, Warlock.

* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal: Bristleback, Clinkz, Luna,Shadow Fiend, Slardar, Terrorblade

* Visage can quickly kill heroes with low to medium base armor and no innate escape mechanism. Examples include Alchemist, Crystal Maiden and Zeus.

* Bristleback's Viscous Nasal Goo can catch and slow Bounty Hunter. Warpath and Quill Spray can defeat him quickly due to his small HP pool when compared to Bristleback's.

* Stone Form can easily interrupt heroes with long channeling spells, like Crystal Maiden, Bane, Witch Doctor, or Enigma.

* Heroes with illusions and summons can swarm Bane, who has no area abilities outside from Aghanim's Shard upgraded Brain Sap: Broodmother, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer, Terrorblade, Visage, Warlock, Wraith King.

* Heroes that deal few, powerful instances of damage, like Oracle, Lion, or Sven, have a hard time breaking through Gravekeeper's Cloak.

* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items: Broodmother, Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Lycan, Naga Siren, Shadow Shaman, Visage, Nature's Prophet, Terrorblade, Warlock, Wraith King.

* Visage can quickly kill heroes with low to medium base armor and no innate escape mechanism. Examples include Alchemist, Crystal Maiden and Zeus.

* 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.

Additional:
* Arc Warden has relatively lower armor and mobility, which makes him an easy target to apply Quill Spray and Viscous Nasal Goo stacks.
* Arc Warden also does not like to build a Silver Edge as it takes a long time to build up and may slow down the timings for other important items needed in the game like Gleipnir.
* However, do note that in a game where Arc Warden's team has many jumping capabilities or good passives, like a Tidehunter or Spectre, a Silver Edge becomes incredibly valuable on Arc Warden as not only can he run away from the jumps, he effectively gets 2 breaks, and Bristleback may not be the best pick.

* Quill Spray usually hits Meepo's clones, although Bristleback cannot turn his back when rooted with Earthbind.

* Bristleback reduces most of Broodmother's and her spiderlings' damage.
* Quill Spray will hit any spiders in its proximity, hindering Broodmother's fighting and farming capabilities.
Additional:
* Quill Spray destroys spiderlings, and hits Broodmother even when she's regenerating in her webs. This makes Bristleback one of her hardest counters in lane.

* Bristleback's tankiness and Bristleback allow him to outlast Burning Spears' damage-over-time at almost any point in the game. In addition, if Huskar chooses to cast Life Break on Bristleback, Bristleback can simply turn around before it hits and receive little damage.
* Viscous Nasal Goo will reduce Huskar's low armor even further, and Quill Spray and Warpath will tear him down extremely quickly.
Additional:
* The damage from Burning Spear can be reduced by turning away from Huskar.
* Bristleback can bait Huskar into using Life Break on him, then turn around and receive very little damage.

* Quill Spray quickly destroys Chaos Knight's Phantasms.

* Heroes that deal few, powerful instances of damage, like Oracle, Lion, or Sven, have a hard time breaking through Gravekeeper's Cloak.

* Other heroes who has armor and slow debuffs won't allow Medusa to disengage from combat: Tidehunter, Bristleback, Slardar.

* Quill Spray and Bristleback harass Luna more efficiently than she does with Lucent Beam.
* Bristleback helps return a lot of damage to Luna’s team if she uses her nukes on him and he has his back to her.
* Viscous Nasal Goo and Warpath are enough to outrun a speedy Luna.
* Bristleback tends to be a frequent carrier of Crimson Guard and Eternal Shroud, which are good protection from Moon Glaives and Eclipse.
* For the same reasons, Bristleback makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.

* Heroes who continue dealing damage while being stunned: Luna, Razor, Axe, Bristleback, Leshrac,

* Quill Spray will hit Sand King inside Sand Storm, damaging him and putting Sand King's Blink Dagger on cooldown, preventing him from escaping.
* Epicenter's numerous damage ticks will trigger Bristleback's passive repeatedly during teamfights.

* Gravekeeper's Cloak protects Visage from Legion Commander's attacks for most of Duel's duration.
* Chain stuns from Visage's familiars prevents Legion Commander from winning Duels.

* Bristleback's tankiness and damage reduction from the rear makes him very hard for Phantom Lancer to chase and finish off, due to his lack of burst damage.
* Quill Spray destroys Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Bristleback's passive costs no mana, meaning that it will continue to trigger even if Phantom Lancer drains Bristleback's mana with Diffusal Blade.
Additional:
* Bristleback's tankiness and damage reduction from the rear makes him very hard for Phantom Lancer to chase and finish off, due to his lack of burst damage.
* Quill Spray quickly destroys Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Bristleback's passive costs no mana, meaning that it will continue to trigger even if Phantom Lancer drains Bristleback's mana with Diffusal Blade.