* Finger of Death's burst damage can kill him due to his low health pool, and Ethereal Blade only makes it worse. If Lion purchased an Aghanim's Scepter, the situation only grows worse.
* If Meepo ganks Lion with Poof and Earthbind, he will be an easy target for Earth Spike & AoE Hex from his level 25 talent.

* Poof won't damage Medusa and he can Gaze an entire flock of Meepos.
* Mystic Snake will easily become the bane of Meepo early game.

* Mana Drain depletes Nercophos' mana pool, preventing him from using his abilities.
* Finger of Death deals high magical damage, which becomes amplified by Ghost Shroud.

* Mana Shield tanks most of the damage from Reaper's Scythe; with sufficient mana, the kill threshold drops to 15%/17%/19% health (before reductions).
* Heartstopper Aura does not chip away at Medusa's mana, this makes it not a threat as it deals damage based on current health.
* Necrophos has a movement speed equal to Medusa, and is easy to chase down with a slowing item in Medusa's inventory.

* Heroes with nukes: Bane, Lich, Lion, Skywrath Mage

Additional:
* Enchantress is very fragile without any form of magic resistance, allowing Lion to easily burst her down.
* Nature's Attendants is a slow heal, making it ineffective against Lion's burst.
* Enchantress lacks any escape mechanism apart from her raw movement speed, allowing Lion to disable her.
* Since Lion's damage comes mostly from his skills, Untouchable does nothing to mitigate it.

* Enchantress often has a small army of neutral creeps, allowing Medusa to hit her with a later bounce of her Mystic Snake.
* Untouchable is ignored by secondary attacks from Split Shot.

* Ranged heroes that can easily harass Axe: Drow Ranger, Sniper, Lion.

* Mystic Snake can harass Axe in lane and drain his small mana pool.
* Mana Shield reduces the effectiveness of Counter Helix.
* Stone Gaze makes it very difficult for Axe to pursue.

* Mana Drain has an extremely long range and low cooldown. It can easily deplete most heroes of their entire mana pools, especially those with smaller mana pools such as Tiny or Spirit Breaker.

* If Medusa activates Stone Gaze, the charge will inevitably fail.
* Mana Shield and overall tankiness allows Medusa to easily survive Spirit Breaker's initiation.

* Medusa's Split Shot can make quick work of Enigma's Eidolons and take advantage of their considerable bounty.
* If Medusa activates Stone Gaze at the start of a fight, it can make initiating — and landing an effective Black Hole exceedingly difficult.
* Mystic Snake can be potentially detrimental to Enigma's initiation. Getting hit by the latter high-damage bounces (from standing behind his Eidolons or his teammates) can hinder his mana pool, preventing him from executing a strong initiation.
Additional:
* Mana Shield makes Medusa harder to kill with Enigma's Black Hole and Pulse combo.
* Medusa's Split Shot can kill Demonic Conversion creeps easier and Mystic Snake bounces off from them.
* Stone Gaze makes it hard for Enigma to approach Medusa for a Black Hole.

* Lion's disables are also really effective against channeling Heroes, like Enigma or Crystal Maiden.

* Stone Gaze negates Dispersion's damage reduction and allows Medusa to kite Spectre.
* Spectre's small mana pool is depleted quickly by Mystic Snake.
* Split Shot can clear Haunt illusions quickly.

* Hex and Mana Drain can be used to immediately destroy Spectre's illusion when she Haunts. A fast fingered Lion can protect himself and a teammate.
* Hex and Earth Spike are good lockdown spells to control and kill Spectre, especially if she doesn't buy defensive items like Linken's Sphere and Black King Bar.
* Finger of Death can be used to burst down Spectre when she is low on life as she has very poor magic resistance.

* Stone Gaze allows Medusa to easily kite and kill Sven.
* Mystic Snake eats away at Sven's small mana pool.
* Mana Shield negates much of Sven's burst damage.

* Doom does not disable Mana Shield. As such, Doom's damage is largely mitigated by her mana shield. Additionally, Medusa is not reliant on her abilities to be effective during a teamfight, making Medusa an unproductive hero to target.
* Medusa is an ideal Linken's Sphere carrier. Should one be purchased, and without any additional disables, Doom may find that few opportunities exist to effectively lockdown, disable, and kill Medusa.

* Lion will continuously Mana Drain Tiny, depleting his small mana pool for his abilities.
* Hex will keep Tiny from using his high damage spells and attack damage.

* Despite her high mobility, Hex or Earth Spike can lock Phantom Assassin down and make her vulnerable.
* Although she has high evasion through Blur, Phantom Assassin has a rather low health pool, making her weak to Lion's magical burst.
Additional:
* Hex and Earth Spike's fast cast animations easily catches Phantom Assassin when she jumps in to attack.
* Finger of Death often ends Phantom Assassin before she can do anything in the early to mid game.

* Mana Drain rapidly saps Morphling's already low mana pool, making him unable to use Waveform or Adaptive Strike. Additionally, Hex prevents these abilities as well.
* An Earth Spike and Finger of Death combo can burst an unwary Morphling down if he has his strength fully shifted to agility.

* Lion possesses two strong disables in Earth Spike and Hex and heavy magic burst with Finger of Death which help lock him down and prevent him from escaping with Activate Fire Remnant. When getting his Blink Dagger Lion can punish Ember Spirit's overextension immediately, or initiate a fight on him with disables.
Additional:
* Ember lacks any protection against Lion's disables early in the game and often does not acquire any later, allowing Lion to Hex or Earth Spike him before he escapes through his Fire Remnant.
* Although Flame Guard can prevent magic damage, it does not stop Lion's disables, and Lion can usually break through it with Finger of Death.

* Heroes with long or multiple disables will prevent Legion Commander from winning Duels: Shadow Shaman, Lion

* Mana Shield makes Medusa very hard to take down in Duels.
* Stone Gaze stops Legion Commander from Dueling altogether, regardless of who she targets.

* All of Lion's abilities are active making Demonic Purge break from Aghanim's Scepter useless.
* Hex and Mana Drain can make quick work of whatever illusions you're creating, especially when he acquires his Talents at level 20 and 25.
* An attempt to save an ally using Disruption can easily become a perfect setup for a Earth Spike or Finger of Death with Aghanim's Scepter for the enemy.

* Hex greatly reduces Timbersaw's mobility.
* In addition, Lion can follow up with his Earth Spike and Mana Drain combo, preventing Timbersaw to escape with Timber Chain. And he can finish Timbersaw off with Finger of Death if the latter's HP is low enough.

* Split Shot will keep attacking Pangolier even when he is rolling around.
* Stone Gaze stuns Pangolier during Rolling Thunder, or forces him to roll away.

* With a lot of disables with good range, he might cancel your Echo Stomp.
* Mana Drain can be used to drain Elder Titan's already low mana pool.

* Hex's instant cast time will force Brewmaster into the awkward situation of needing some form of spell immunity or block to prevent being immediately hex upon blinking in, or wait until Lion has used all his crowd control before entering a fight. His direct magic burst also makes Brewmaster's Drunken Brawler worthless versus Lion.

* Split Shot can destroy Tombstone Zombies and Tombstone itself while still damaging heroes.
* Mana Shield reduces the impact of Decay and Flesh Golem's Plague Aura.

* Mana Shield makes it very difficult for Bloodseeker to gain his Thirst bonuses.
* Rupture rarely kills Medusa through Mana Shield.

* Wraith King has a very low mana pool and depends on it to cast Reincarnation. Mana Drain will render him useless.
* Wraith King has very low mobility, making it easy for Lion to disable and harass him.
Additional:
* While not being able to confront Wraith King by himself, Lion's Mana Drain helps in draining Wraith King's mana, preventing him from reincarnating unless he has his Aghanim's Shard.
* Lion's Earth Spike and Hex provide decent lockdown against Wraith King as well, preventing the latter from benefiting from Vampiric Spirit bonuses.

* Hex and Earth Spike can hold Clinkz down, giving him no chance to use Black King Bar or Skeleton Walk.
* Finger of Death quickly kills Clinkz due to his low health.

* Her Mana Shield is too tough for Lycan to break in.
* Mystic Snake can hit for a massive damage once it spread between his summons.
Additional:
* Can be easily petrified despite his speed.
* Summoned wolves will be targeted by Split Shot or Mystic Snake

* Heroes with high burst damage: Lina, Lion, Luna, Nyx Assassin, Queen of Pain.

* High priority targets like Queen of Pain, Drow Ranger and even Anti-Mage can't get caught out from Lion's long range disables.

* Heroes that can drain mana negatively affect Viper's ability to use Poison Attack, Nethertoxin and Viper Strike: Lion, Anti-Mage

* Heroes who can drain mana can make Omniknight useless after he uses one or two abilities: Lion, Anti-Mage, Nyx Assassin

* Medusa's Stone Gaze forces Mars to choose between getting petrified, or turning his vulnerable back on Medusa.

* Heroes with high burst damage through their physical attacks or spells can kill Dazzle or his allies before he has a chance to use Shallow Grave. (Lina, Lion, etc.)

* In general, heroes such as Lion, Silencer, Skywrath Mage, Sven, Ogre Magi and others with reliable disables are crucial to killing Techies before they can suicide.

* Any heroes with stuns or silences: Death Prophet, Lion, Shadow Shaman, Skywrath Mage

* Lion's disables are also really effective against channeling Heroes, like Enigma or Crystal Maiden.

* Heroes with high magical burst damage will kill Gyrocopter before he gets to do much: Lina, Lion, Zeus

* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus, Tinker, Leshrac, Viper, Skywrath Mage, Lion, Lina, Venomancer.

* Heroes that can kill Death Prophet with nukes can prevent her from using Exorcism to its full duration or using it at all: Lina, Lion, Puck, Morphling.

* One of Lion's level 20 talents lets Mana Drain affect 2 secondary targets. This can make things difficult for heroes like Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, and Terrorblade who rely on illusion armies.
* Mana Drain and Hex instantly kill any illusions. Finger of Death upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter also shreds most illusions.
* One of Lion's level 20 talents lets Mana Drain affect 2 secondary targets. This can make things difficult for heroes like Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, and Terrorblade who rely on illusion armies.

Additional:
* Mana Drain is a real problem to Chaos Knight in the early game, considering his already low mana pool.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Finger of Death is an AoE ability, which can deal a tremendous amount of damage to his illusions.
* Lion has two abilities that can instantly kill illusions. Provided that he does not get stunned by Chaos Bolt first, Lion can render Phantasm near-useless.

* Finger of Death can instantly shred many targets especially fragile Heroes like Keeper of the Light, Ancient Apparition, or Bounty Hunter.

* Heroes with cleave abilities and area of effect damage can make quick work of Chen's converted creeps and at same time gain farm: Magnus, Jakiro, Shadow Fiend, Kunkka, Luna, Dragon Knight, Medusa, Alchemist.

* Heroes with high magical burst can easily kill Huskar when he is at low health: Lion, Lina, Skywrath Mage

* Heroes with Linken's Sphere as core item: Weaver, Morphling, Medusa.

* Finger of Death can instantly shred many targets especially fragile Heroes like Keeper of the Light, Ancient Apparition, or Bounty Hunter.

* Mana Drain is a headache for Bristleback to deal with during the laning stage, as it denies him the ability to get last hits with Quill Spray.
* Finger of Death deals high damage to Bristleback, and only triggers his passive once.

* Drow has a very low health pool, allowing Lion to burst her down.
* Drow has no innate escape mechanism, making her an easy target for Lion's disables.
* Lion should be wary of Drow's Gust however, as he has no natural means to deal with it.

* Although Weaver can potentially Time Lapse out of any burst, Weaver has a fragile health pool, and Lion's disables can kill him before.
* Weaver is very mana dependent and has a rather small mana pool in the beginning of the game. Mana Drain can deplete him of mana and lessen his early game presence.
* Earth Spike can be point targeted and hits through Shukuchi to make him vulnerable.
* Linken's Sphere is easily broken by targeted spells with low cooldown.

* Both Hex and Mana Drain destroy Naga Siren's illusions in an instant, making it hard to teamfight or push against a team with Lion. If Lion chooses the AoE effect talent for Hex or the multi-target Mana Drain, it can negate her pushing potential entirely.
* Earth Spike is an AoE disable with good damage. If used well, it can help distinguish the true Naga Siren by the damage they take (illusions take more damage).

* Summoned gargoyles will give Medusa free target practice.
* Mana Shield will resist Soul Assumption instances without effort.

* One of Lion's level 20 talents lets Mana Drain affect 2 secondary targets. This can make things difficult for heroes like Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, and Terrorblade who rely on illusion armies.
* Mana Drain and Hex instantly kill any illusions. Finger of Death upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter also shreds most illusions.
* One of Lion's level 20 talents lets Mana Drain affect 2 secondary targets. This can make things difficult for heroes like Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, and Terrorblade who rely on illusion armies.

* Lifestealer's low mobility makes him easy to kite.
* Stone Gaze pierces Rage, wasting its cooldown and making Lifestealer unable to fight.

* Medusa cares less than other heroes about armor reduction, since Mana Shield blocks 70% of all damage without taking armor/magic resistance into consideration. This makes 60% of your Corrosive Haze ineffective until Medusa's mana is drained.

* Heroes with long disables, like Lion, Night Stalker, or Legion Commander, can prevent Oracle from using spells or items.

* Lion has two low cast point disables (Hex and Earth Spike) to control Ursa before he buys a Black King Bar.
* Hex is one of the few abilities that cannot be dispelled even with an Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Enrage.
* Lion can control Ursa's low mana pool via Mana Drain.