* Ion Shell destroys Refraction's protection stacks in short time.
* Surge ignores the massive slow from Psionic Trap.

* 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.

* 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.

* Heroes with haste can negate Enchant's slow: Weaver, Dark Seer, Lycan, Centaur Warrunner.

* Since Life drain takes out illusions instantly, Pugna with a scepter is decent versus plenty of illusion heroes, most notably Naga Siren and Terrorblade and the aforementioned Chaos Knight. Phantom Lancer is an exception.

* Dark Seer's Vacuum and Ion Shell allows him to clear a wave of Terrorblade's illusions.
* Wall of Replica can create stronger illusions of Terrorblade.
* If Dark Seer can use Vacuum to help teammates land their AoE skills, Terrorblade will be quickly killed before he even gets a chance to use Sunder.
Additional:
* Dark Seer's Vacuum and Ion Shell allows him to clear the wave of Terrorblade's illusions.
* Wall of Replica can create stronger illusions of Terrorblade.
* If Dark Seer can use Vacuum to help teammates land their AoE skills, Terrorblade will be quickly killed before he even gets a chance to use Sunder.

* Heroes with damage burst can often kill Chen or his allies before he can use Hand of God: Lina, Techies, Shadow Fiend, Pugna, Nyx Assassin.

* Dark Seer's Vacuum and Ion Shell can clear a wave of Chen's Creeps effectively.

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

* 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.

* Heroes that rely on illusions will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Meepo.
* Heroes that rely on illusions typically spawn very strong illusions inside your Wall of Replica that you should use against them or their team.

* Decrepify turns the target ethereal, protecting them from Chaos Knight's and his illusions' attacks.
* Life Drain instantly destroys illusions. It can effectively negate Phantasm when upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter.
* Nether Blast quickly clears out illusions and can harass Chaos Knight in lane.

* 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 has attack range talent can also outrange Plague Ward.

* Venomancer is a low health hero and low range distance attack hero easily to harass putting Ion Shell in a distance creep enemy in early game .
* Venomancer depends entirely on all his slows poison skills to keep distance or chasing enemy heroes, but Surge ignores slows, so is nearly impossible hunt or run away of Dark Seer or his surged teammates.

* Dark Seer can pull together Spectre's illusions with Vacuum, and Wall of Replica creates an illusion of Spectre that deals massive damage.

* 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.

* Since Life drain takes out illusions instantly, Pugna with a scepter is decent versus plenty of illusion heroes, most notably Naga Siren and Terrorblade and the aforementioned Chaos Knight. Phantom Lancer is an exception.

* Heroes that rely on illusions will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Meepo.
* Heroes that rely on illusions typically spawn very strong illusions inside your Wall of Replica that you should use against them or their team.

* For the better part of the game, he will take more damage from your ward than he deals to you with Arcane Orb.
* It will take a huge difference in farm or itemization between you for him to deal any damage to you with Sanity's Eclipse, provided he doesn't die first from casting it next to your ward.
* Decrepify allows Pugna to be immune to the attacks from Arcane Orb.

* Nether Ward discourages Tinker from using abilities and items due to its high damage against heavy mana usage.

* Nether Ward will cause an unfriendly area for Medusa, draining her mana.

* 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 spamming 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 and his Shadowraze.

* 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.
Additional:
* 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.

* Nether Blast, Decrepify and Life Drain deals 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 his heavy mana cost on Arena Of Blood.
* Pugna is one of few heroes that can contest Mars' ability to push and defend towers early on.

* 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.

* 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

* 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.

* 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
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.
* Decrepify can further increase all the magical damage done to Timbersaw, bypassing the enhanced physical resistance he can get from Reactive Armor.

* 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

* 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 you at all.
Additional:
* 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.

* 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 can save allies with both healing or by making them ethereal.

* Surge allows for Dark Seer and his allies to escape from Upheaval due to it ignoring any slow.

* Living Armor can be destroyed quickly with Ion Shell.

* 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.

* Ion Shell zones out Broodmother in the laning phase, and can kill her spiderlings if used on one Spiderling in a group.
* Vacuum can pull Broodmother out of the treeline.
Additional:
* Ion Shell is a very powerful weapon against Broodmother's Spiderlings and makes her laning much harder.

* Nether Ward will be problematic for heavy nukers and spammers like Skywrath Mage, Lina, Lion and Invoker, but don't use Decrepify defensively against them as you'll be helping them out more than anything.

* Nether Ward will be problematic for heavy nukers and spammers like Skywrath Mage, Lina, Lion and Invoker, but don't use Decrepify defensively against them as you'll be helping them out more than anything.

* Ethereal state disarms the target and makes them more vulnerable to magic damage, both of which Phantom Assassin despises. Especially Pugna and any hero that is wielding Ethereal Blade, such as Mirana, Nyx Assassin or Morphling.

* 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.

* 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.

* Dark Seer can increase the movement speed of allies with Surge, breaking Static Link.

* Pugna: Decrepify prevent the Spirit bear from attacking or protect allies from it.

* The haste provided by Dark Seer's Surge or a {Rune:Haste} renders your slows ineffective.

* 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'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.

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

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.

* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify: Riki, Wraith King, Juggernaut.

* Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as: Leshrac, Shadow Demon, Pugna, Death Prophet.

* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify: Riki, Wraith King, Juggernaut.

* Dark Seer can take great advantage of Divided We Stand by putting an Ion Shell on a clone in order to harass them effectively.
* Vacuum can take a single Meepo and disable them for him and his teammates to take out.

* 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).

* Since Life drain takes out illusions instantly, Pugna with a scepter is decent versus plenty of illusion heroes, most notably Naga Siren and Terrorblade and the aforementioned Chaos Knight. Phantom Lancer is an exception.

* Heroes that rely on illusions will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Meepo.
* Heroes that rely on illusions typically spawn very strong illusions inside your Wall of Replica that you should use against them or their team.

* 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 against Shadow Demon's abilites.
* However it can be cancelled by Disruption, until Pugna buys defensive items.

* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance: Lina, Jakiro, Underlord, Leshrac, Dark Seer, Earthshaker, Timbersaw, Crystal Maiden

* Certain heroes can mess up with Pangolier's positioning and timing (especially if he intends to use Rolling Thunder during combat): Vengeful Spirit, Keeper of the Light, Huskar, Dark Seer

* 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's Nether Ward damages Sand King when he channels Epicenter, preventing him from using Blink Dagger afterward.