* Bristleback's abilities are nearly useless for Rubick to Spell Steal, as he does not gain the bonuses from Warpath.
Additional:
* Rubick deals little damage on his own, so Bristleback can simply shrug off all his spells and chase you down with his spells and attacks.
* Quill Spray requires multiple casts and close range to add up stacks. Because Rubick does not stay in the front lines, it's generally not a good spell for him to steal.
* Viscous Nasal Goo will slow Rubick down even further and reduce his armor, making him vulnerable to Quill Spray and the damage bonus from Warpath.

* Spin Web and Broodmother's auto-attacks allow her to gank Rubick easily before Rubick has a chance to retaliate, especially if Broodmother obtains Orchid Malevolence.
* Broodmother loves buying Diffusal Blade, which drains Rubick's low supply of mana, preventing Rubick from spamming his abilities.
* Though Insatiable Hunger is a great spell to steal, Broodmother's untargetable nature and her low cooldown spells makes it a difficult spell to steal.

* Her Spiderlings can harass Luna in lane heavily, as Luna has no AoE abilities to clear Spiderlings.
* Broodmother can knock down towers in the early game quickly, and limit Luna's farming space.

* Quill Spray and Bristleback harass Luna more efficiently than she does with Lucent Beam.
* Bristleback withstands Luna’s nukes, and gives lots of damage in return.
* Viscous Nasal Goo and Warpath are enough to outrun a speedy Luna.
* Bristleback tends to be a frequent carrier of Crimson Guard, which is good protection from bouncing glaives.
Additional:
* Multiple instances of damage from Eclipse will trigger Bristleback's passive repeatedly in a short time, dealing tremendous damage to Luna and her teammates.
* Luna's damage burst may be high, but it will not be enough for her to take down Bristleback.

* None of Arc Warden's skills work against Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
* Arc Warden is forced to go any lane other than mid, which he doesn't want to do, because on the lane against Broodmother he'll die over and over again.
* Broodmother is a hero best known for ending the game very early, and Arc Warden needs a couple of items to be effective.
* Arc Warden has no disables to stop Broodmother from lifestealing with Insatiable Hunger and shredding through Zet's low armor.

* Bristleback need not worry about charging into Magnetic Field, and quickly clearing up Arc Warden's summons and Tempest Double with Quill Spray.
Additional:
* Bristleback activates frequently while he escapes from Arc Warden's Necronomicon army.
* Arc Warden has little armor and mobility, which makes him an easy target to apply Quill Spray and Viscous Nasal Goo stacks.

* Broodmother can destroy Nature's Prophet's treants with Spawn Spiderlings and summon spiderlings in their place.
* Broodmother loves buying Orchid Malevolence, which can prevent Nature's Prophet from escaping with Sprout and Teleportation.
Additional:
* Sprout cannot protect Nature's Prophet if Broodmother puts down a web.
* Nature's Prophet's low mobility means he is defenseless against Incapacitating Bite.
* Spiderlings absorb much of the damage from Wrath of Nature.

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

* Webbed areas can be used to hit and run, covering distance hastily weakening her on the way and initiating ganks.
* Even though Medusa can hunt down Spiderlings easily when given enough range, after an Incapacitating Bite she will get her swarmed in no time.
* Medusa usual do not build a BKB to benefit from Mana Shield fully while Broodmother can fit a Diffusal Blade to burn away mana.
Additional:
* Incapacitating Bite will give Medusa a dire time to clear horde of small spiderlings or retaliate Broodmother herself.
* Spin Web will allow broodmother to pick her own fights and sometimes slip away to ambush Medusa.

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

* 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.

* Oracle cannot easily deal with swarms of units, making him weak against heroes like Phantom Lancer or Broodmother.

* Quill Spray quickly destroys Chaos Knight's Phantasms.

* Illusion-based and multi-unit heroes can take advantage of Chaos Knight's lack of area damage: Naga Siren, Phantom Lancer, Broodmother

* Heroes with summons: Lycan, Broodmother, Visage.

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

* Phantom Assassin's single target abilities make her very helpless against swarms of spiderlings.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Broodmother will usually have enough time to use Spin Web to save herself.
* Aside from Spin Web, Incapacitating Bite can cripple her due to being reliant on physical attacks and critical strikes.
Additional:
* Phantom Assassin's single target abilities make her very helpless against swarms of Spiderlings.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Broodmother will usually have enough time to use Spin Web to save herself.
* Incapacitating Bite cripples her due to reliant on physical attacks.

* Enchantress is well known for taking control of various summons with her Enchant. However, Broodmother's summons are not a good target for that, because she can swarm up a bunch of her summons with Spawn Spiderlings and Enchantress has no good waveclear (Spawn Spiderlings can also kill creeps controlled with Enchant).
Additional:
* Enchantress' lack of AoE abilities allows Broodmother to swarm her with Spiderlings.
* Spawn Spiderlings can kill enchanted creeps.

* 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

* 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.
Additional:
* Pudge is particularly susceptible to Bristleback's Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray due to his naturally low armor & 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.

* Drow Ranger's lack of mobility makes her easy prey for Broodmother and her Spiderlings.

* 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 still gets 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.

* Sniper is completely helpless against Incapacitating Bite, and can be seriously damaged by Spiderlings in lane.

* Spiderlings melt away Living Armor almost instantly.
* The vision from Eyes In The Forest may prove dangerous for Broodmother, however.

* 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.

* Broodmother can kill Invoker easily in the early game with her Spawn Spiderlings and her spiderlings.
* Broodmother is both an Orchid Malevolence and a Nullifier carrier. As she can farm it early, she can kill Invoker easily.

* Broodmother can easily clear Wraith King's skeletons with Spawn Spiderlings and summon spiderlings in their place.
* With Diffusal Blade, Broodmother can prevent Wraith King from reincarnating unless Wraith King has his Aghanim's Shard.

* 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.

* Chen has no area-of-effect spells to deal with Broodmother's spiderlings and must rely on his creeps to take care of them.
* Spawn Spiderlings can kill Chen's creeps and spawn spiderlings in their place.
* Spin Web allows Broodmother to disrupt Chen's jungling.
* Incapacitating Bite and Insatiable Hunger let Broodmother easily win fights against Chen.
Additional:
* Chen's low mobility and lack of AoE abilities makes him an easy target for Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
* Broodmother can easily pick off Chen's creeps with Spawn Spiderlings, and by ambushing them through terrain in her web.

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.
Additional:
* 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.

* Bristleback's tankiness can enable him to chase Enigma out of a teamfight, making it difficult to initiate with a Black Hole.

* Heroes with plenty of summons, such as Broodmother or Nature's Prophet can have their minions soak up most of your Paralyzing Cask.

* Support heroes with low mobility can be slowed further by Incapacitating Bite, and swarmed by Spiderlings for an easy kill: Shadow Shaman, Visage, Dazzle, Rubick, Lich.

* Heroes with summons like Broodmother,Enigma, Invoker, Nature's Prophet, Lycan, Visage;or illusions, like Naga Siren, Phantom Lancer, Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity mines in the early game.

* Heroes with damage-over-time abilities will not only proc Bristleback's passive continuously, they will also do little harm to him when he is facing away from the source: Venomancer, Arc Warden

* Heroes with blind of some sort can be a bad choice for Monkey King to go on: Broodmother, Riki, Keeper of the Light.

* Support heroes with low mobility can be slowed further by Incapacitating Bite, and swarmed by Spiderlings for an easy kill: Shadow Shaman, Visage, Dazzle, Rubick, Lich.

* Heroes with illusions and summons can manfight Night Stalker: Terrorblade, Beastmaster, Broodmother.

* Heroes with illusions and summons can swarm Bane, who has no area abilities: Broodmother, Chaos Knight, Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer, Terrorblade

* 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.

* Support heroes with low mobility can be slowed further by Incapacitating Bite, and swarmed by Spiderlings for an easy kill: Shadow Shaman, Visage, Dazzle, Rubick, Lich.

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

* 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:
* Quill Spray cleans up Phantom Lancer's illusions in no time.
* Phantom Lancer's complete lack of burst damage makes it nearly impossible for him to kill Bristleback during chases.

* Bristleback decreases Tiny's high burst damage against Bristleback.
* Tiny's high damage will also proc Bristleback multiple times.
* Viscous Nasal Goo can help counteract the bonus armor granted by Grow.

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

* Broodmother's Insatiable Hunger and Troll Warlord's Battle Trance can nullify Sunder.

* Viper's lack of escape and durability means he can be ran over in a laning stage by Spiderlings.
* Broodmother can bring Viper down quickly with Insatiable Hunger activated.

* Chain Frost can bounce to the Spiderlings that Broodmother spawns.

* Broodmother relies less on abilities and more on right-clicks.
* Spiderlings can overwhelm Silencer, who has mediocre armor and no escape tool.

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

* 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.

* 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.