* The movement speed granted from Shapeshift means that Spectre has no way to punish Lycan if he wants to splitpush or pick off supports. Furthermore, he will kite Haunt and cannot be slowed by Spectral Dagger.
* Lycan is often part of an early game push strategy which is often the best counter to Spectre because she needs a lot of time and space to come online as a late game carry.

* Arctic Burn makes it nearly impossible for Spectre to juke into the trees.
* Cold Embrace negates all of Spectre's physical damage. Furthermore, Cold Embrace will generally outheal Desolate.
* Winter's Curse can taunt illusions, not only wasting the entire duration of Haunt but also turning its illusions against Spectre's own team.

* Lycan's ultimate makes him immune to slows from Ursa's Earthshock as well as allowing him to outmaneuver Ursa during Enrage. Lycan can also easily chase down Ursa while shapeshifted, should Ursa try to flee.

* Ursa's extremely high attack damage output with Fury Swipes usually means certain death for anyone cursed in his vicinity.

* Cold Embrace can render the extra attack speed from Overcharge meaningless.
* Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse are very affective against Io, as it has to stay close to its tethered hero.

* Heroes with low armor and little mobility, like Huskar, Io, etc. will also have an unfortunate fate.

* Heroes with summons: Lycan, Broodmother, Visage.

* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer, Sven, Wraith King, Phantom Assassin, Templar Assassin etc.

* Heroes with single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons: Wraith King, Bane, Phantom Assassin.

* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer, Sven, Wraith King, Phantom Assassin, Templar Assassin etc.

* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo, Witch Doctor, Lycan, Enigma, Shadow Shaman
* Heroes that can quickly deal damage to her, regardless of how weak they are, can easily break through her Refraction:
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo, Witch Doctor, Lycan, Enigma, Shadow Shaman
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren (bonus for her Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark, Gyrocopter, Queen of Pain, Shadow Shaman (Shackles), Jakiro, Pugna

* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer, Sven, Wraith King, Phantom Assassin, Templar Assassin etc.

* Cold Embrace can heal herself or an ally, as well as protecting them from Clinkz's physical attacks and wasting his mana if Searing Arrows is on autocast.
* Winter's Curse allows Winter Wyvern to turn Clinkz's high damage and high attack speed against his allies, or take advantage of Clinkz's fragility if he can't use Skeleton Walk.

* Winter's Curse in late game is pretty much the end for Meepo or any of his nearby allies. Natural counter for Winter's Curse like Linken's Sphere or Lotus Orb is meaningless to her if she can land it on one of your clones.
Additional:
* Meepo's clones usually gets grouped in teamfight making any of them ideal target for Winter's Curse, forcing Meepo to literally kill himself. Also unlike another hero he cannot protect himself with Linken's Sphere.
* While Meepo's clones are grouped up, Splinter Blast will hit almost every clone, slowing Meepo and making him easier to fight.

* Howl reduces a good chunk of Marci's attack damage that she relies heavily on, and the armor reduction works better on her because of her low armor.
* Shapeshift renders Lycan immune to slow from Rebound and Unleash.

* Shapeshift allows Lycan to escape from Upheaval with 650 movement speed.
* Warlock doesn't have a lot of AoE abilities to deal with Lycan's wolves from Summon Wolves.

* Cold Embrace protects targets of Reality Rift.
* Winter's Curse turns Phantasm illusions against Chaos Knight or a teammate.
* Splinter Blast deals decent area damage to Phantasm illusions.
* Arctic Burn's percentage-based damage quickly wears down Chaos Knight's health.
Additional:
* Winter Wyvern can make Chaos Knight's illusions attack the real one, provided the player knows who it is.
* Alternatively, Winter's Curse can make Chaos Knight and all his illusions attack one of his allies.
* Cold Embrace protects ally who is focused by Chaos Knight.
* Splinter Blast deals decent area damage to Chaos Knight's illusions.

* Winter's Curse and Splinter Blast can devastate Underlord's team when they're grouped up for Dark Rift.

* Cold Embrace can protect Troll Warlord's target, especially during Battle Trance.
* Winter's Curse can turn Troll Warlord's high physical damage and attack speed against his allies.
Additional:
* Cold Embrace will protect your ally from being damaged if he gets focused by Troll, although be careful as Fervor will keep gaining stacks even while Cold Embrace is active.
* His high attack speed and bash will help to kill his cursed ally faster.

* Shapeshift allows Lycan to get close and disable Marksmanship.
* Shapeshift also makes him immune to slows like Drow Ranger's Frost Arrows.
Additional:
* The Wolves' speed causes the knockback from Gust to be ineffective.
* She lacks escapes and loses her Marksmanship when someone is near her. Lycan takes advantage of these weaknesses.

* He can send wolves to defuse Proximity Mines, and he can catch up Techies and kill him before they can deny themselves. Even if the suicide is successful, Lycan can still survive because of his tankiness.

* Magnetic Field is useless against melee heroes, so Lycan can attack Arc Warden without missing.
* Flux doesn't affect Lycan that much, because Shapeshift grants immunity to slows and because he is never alone.
* If their Tempest Double has been called, Lycan can still kill Arc Warden before the double expires.

* Shapeshift allows Lycan to chase down Earth Spirit.

* Shapeshift is useful for killing or escaping Silencer.
* Summon Wolves, can be used to hunt a badly wounded Silencer down - even when Lycan himself can't fight.

* Lycan doesn't care much about Lich's slows thanks to Shapeshift.
* Chain Frost can bounce to the wolves that Lycan summons.
Additional:
* Lich possesses a lot of slows, which Lycan doesn't care about when he Shapeshifts.
* Lich has no in-built escape, which makes him a good target for Lycan.

* Lycan's high HP easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off.

* Void's slow is useless against Lycan by activating Shapeshift.
* Night Stalker's single target abilities (with the exception of Void upgraded by Aghanim's Scepter) is not very effective against Lycan's Summon Wolves during the early and mid game.

* Mirana's Leap is ineffective if Lycan uses Shapeshift. It also allows him to dodge Sacred Arrow.

* Cold Embrace can protect allies from Lone Druid and the Spirit bear, who mainly deal physical damage
* Winter's Curse can turn Lone Druid and the Spirit Bear against his teammates.

* You can easily kill a squishy Sniper, due to your high movement speed and his lack of escape.

* Broodmother, Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.

* Heroes with low armor and little mobility, like Huskar, Io, etc. will also have an unfortunate fate.

* Lycan and Weaver has abilities that allow them to move at maximum movement speed, and those abilities can't be dispelled, potentially wasting the slow from Demonic Purge.
* You can potentially kill a fragile Weaver by using disruption during Shukuchi with a well-placed Sentry Ward, wasting the Shukuchi. But odds are he'll wait to get low health, Time Lapse the damage away and Shukuchi away once more.

* Winter Wyvern's Winter's Curse turns Morphling's high attack damage and attack speed against his targeted teammate.

* Heroes who do not have nor rely on passive abilities make Nethertoxin much less effective: Clinkz, Pugna, Nature's Prophet, Dark Seer, Lycan, Tusk

* Heroes with abilities that can save teammates are also effective such as Shadow Demon, Dazzle, Oracle, Bane, Pugna, Tusk, Winter Wyvern, Io, Underlord, Treant Protector and Keeper of the Light.

* Broodmother, Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.

* Winter Wyvern's Arctic Burn can also be a useful tool against Centaur, who generally has very high health. Winter's Curse on Centaur can cause Retaliate to damage allies who are forced to attack him.

* Terrorblade and his illusions deal huge damage, which might used against him and his team with Winter's Curse.

* Heroes with the ability to heal allies, or those with good defensive abilities: Chen, Dazzle, Io, Oracle, Omniknight, Witch Doctor, Winter Wyvern, Abaddon, etc.

* Broodmother, Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.

* Illusion and heroes with summons are difficult to kill with Chen's single-target offensive spells: Terrorblade, Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Broodmother, Naga Siren, Lycan, Visage. However, Chen can convert enemy summons with Holy Persuasion, as long as they don't bunch up.

* Winter Wyvern's Winter's Curse works very well against the increased attack speed from Bloodlust.

* Cold Embrace saves allies from dying in Duels.
* Winter's Curse turns Legion Commander's high damage against her allies, giving the enemy team little time to react.
* However, Winter Wyvern lanes very poorly against Legion Commander due to Press the Attack removing all the debuffs she can give. Winter Wyvern also has little chances of surviving if she gets Dueled herself.
Additional:
* Cold Embrace is very effective against Duel.
* Also, casting Winter's Curse at Legion Commander while an ally is in a Duel will stun her for most of the duration, possibly preventing lethal damage dealt to your ally. It can also turn her high-damage against her teammate.

* A Lycan with Shapeshift can always run down Puck for a very quick kill due to its low armor. It is important to abuse as many cliffs and trees as possible to escape from a Lycan.

* Heroes with single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons: Wraith King, Bane, Phantom Assassin.

* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer, Sven, Wraith King, Phantom Assassin, Templar Assassin etc.

* Cold Embrace saves any ally Sven initiates on and wastes the duration of God's Strength in team fights.
* Winter's Curse can be devastating to Sven's team, as his massive damage can take out a teammate before there is much time to react.

* Heroes with other kind of disables that pierce spell immunity can hold Pangolier in place during Rolling Thunder: Axe, Beastmaster, Enigma, Magnus, Pudge, Batrider, Bane, Winter Wyvern

* Any hero that can nullify effects of Chronosphere: (Keeper of the Light with Aghanim's Scepter during daytime, Winter Wyvern), banishing him or Faceless Void (Outworld Destroyer, Shadow Demon, Earth Spirit with Aghanim's Scepter) or protecting him in other ways (Dazzle, Oracle, Abaddon) can greatly limit Chronosphere's potential.

* Winter's Curse, when directly targeted on Enigma, can go through Avatar, stopping Enigma's Black Hole channeling. It can also can turn his team against him, potentially killing him.
* Splinter Blast can be targeted on an eidolon, killing off other eidolons and damaging nearby heroes as well.

* Cold Embrace mitigates Primal Roar's single-target initiation on allies.
* Winter's Curse can turn Beastmaster's summons and Inner Beast against his teammate.
Additional:
* Beastmaster's summons and Inner Beast are very useful to attack his cursed teammate.
* Cold Embrace effectively mitigates Primal Roar's single-target initiation on allies.

* Heroes with single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons: Wraith King, Bane, Phantom Assassin.

* Heroes who can slow and kite Axe will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback, Crystal Maiden, Batrider, Arc Warden, Winter Wyvern, Clockwerk

* Shapeshift increases Lycan's movement speed and renders him unslowable, allowing him to easily avoid and escape Ancient Apparition's abilities.
* Lycan has fast summons, both his wolves from Summon Wolves can do heavy damage to Ancient Apparition due to his immobility and low armor.