* Stroke of Fate clears Phantom Lancer's illusion easily as it deals bonus damage to more targets.
* Ink Swell can be used on an allied hero or Grimstoke himself to stun Phantom Lancer and his illusions.
* Phantom's Embrace and Soulbind have an undispellable debuff that can be used to mark the real Phantom Lancer.
Additional:
* Stroke of Fate's damage increases the more units are hit by it, making it effective against Phantom Lancer's army of illusions.
* Phantom's Embrace and Ink Swell's stun can prevent Phantom Lancer from escaping with Doppelganger if properly timed.
* If he has already used Doppelganger, Soulbind can tie Phantom Lancer to one of his own illusions to keep him in place, or to ensure a kill if Grimstroke's team is unsure which one is the real hero.

* All of Sand King's abilities deal AoE damage.
* Epicenter will usually eliminate all illusions in one cast. Phantom Lancer lacks any disables to stop the channelling.

* Heroes with area of effect abilities that increase in power based on the number of units struck: Legion Commander, Grimstroke.

Additional:
* Stroke of Fate can deal heavy damage to Broodmother and her spiders, and with enough spiders it can kill her instantly.
* Phantom's Embrace provides vision on Broodmother when she's fleeing into the trees.

* Caustic Finale allows Sand King to easily kill Broodmother's Spiderlings throughout the game.
* Sand King can usually catch a split pushing Broodmother with Blink Dagger and Burrowstrike.
Additional:
* Burrowstrike can be used as an escape or initiation against Broodmother.
* Sand Storm quickly kills any spiderlings caught inside if Sand King can manage to stun them.

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

Additional:
* Terrorblade's lack of escape mechanisms makes it hard for him to escape both Ink Swell and Stroke of Fate.
* Phantom's Embrace's silence will also prevent him from casting Sunder to save himself.

* Because of his massive AoE damage, Sand King is very effective against illusion heroes: Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Terrorblade,...

* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons: Chaos Knight, Broodmother, Naga Siren.

* Sand King and Phoenix has many tools to deal with a crowd of Heroes, which will work well against a crowd of illusions.

* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Ursa,...

* Heroes who rely heavily on melee attacks and lack early spell immunity are easily blocked and interrupted by Ink Swell: Lycan, Ursa, Troll Warlord.

* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons: Chaos Knight, Broodmother, Naga Siren.

* Because of his massive AoE damage, Sand King is very effective against illusion heroes: Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Terrorblade,...

Additional:
* Sand King's massive area damage output, particularly Epicenter, allows him to quickly take down Chaos Knight and his illusions.
* Sand King can also apply Caustic Finale to illusions with attacks for extra damage when they die.

* With Caustic Finale, Sand King can easily kill the treants from Nature's Call.
* Burrowstrike allows Sand King to prevent Nature's Prophet from using Teleportation inside of his Sprout.
Additional:
* Sand King's Caustic Finale combined with Sand Storm will kill Treants easily.
* Sand King can interrupt Teleportation with Burrowstrike, even through Sprout.

* Timbersaw relies heavily on his abilities so Phantom's Embrace's silence makes it more difficult for him.
* Timbersaw cannot use Return Chakram or attack the phantom during Phantom's Embrace, forcing him to take full damage and refreshes Phantom's Embrace's cooldown.

* Phantom Assassin relies on her Blur to stay alive, but is very vulnerable to Sand King's heavy magic damage.
* With Burrowstrike, Sand King can often catch Phantom Assassin before she can use her Black King Bar.
* Sand King can dodge Stifling Dagger with Sandstorm.
* Phantom Assassin has a hard time killing Sand King because of his high mobility.

* Soulbind ignores spell immunity, forcing Pangolier to roll in place during his ultimate as well as anchoring the other victim to his vicinity.

* Soulbind pierces spell immunity and prevents Faceless Void from escaping with Time Walk.

* Phantom's Embrace and Soulbind prevent Weaver from using Shukuchi or Time Lapse to escape.
* Ink Swell discourages Weaver from moving through and damaging allies with Shukuchi.

* Grimstroke can catch Io and his ally easily with SoulBind as Io has a tendency to tether himself with an ally frequently.
* Io is highly vulnerable to disables. Hence, Grimstroke's Phantom's Embrace is a great ability to hinder Io's potential.
Additional:
* Soulbind can target both Io and its Tethered ally, allowing Grimstroke and his team to target both with single target spells. Should Io try to Relocate, Phantom's Embrace can stop its channel to prevent escape.

* Ghost Shroud amplifies damage taken from all of Grimstroke's abilities. Necrophos is particularly vulnerable to Ink Swell and Phantom's Embrace while in Ghost Shroud.
* Death Pulse works against Necrophos in lane by keeping his creeps alive and add damage to Stroke of Fate.

* Phantom's Embrace can silence Crystal Maiden and disrupt Freezing Field's channeling. Her slow movement speed and fragile nature will also make her an easy target for Stroke of Fate and Ink Swell.

* Burrowstrike can stun multiple Meepos, making them vulnerable targets.
* Epicenter and Sand Storm's AoE damage ensures all Meepo clones get damaged, making it hard for Meepo to choose which one to flee as all are taking damage at the same rate.
* Just be aware when using Sand Storm to escape, as Meepo has good AoE damage and disables, which, as explained in the "Bad Against" section, works well against an invisible Sand King.

* Stroke of Fate deals more damage when it hits more targets which makes it very effective in dealing with Lycan and his units.
* Soulbind prevents Lycan from running away and makes him very easy to deal with.

* Burrowstrike and Sand Storm will deal a large amount of damage to Chen's creeps.
* Caustic Finale will quickly clear Chen's creeps at low health.

* Grimstroke's Soulbind will always reliably connect onto both of them if they are close together.

* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane, Pudge, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Enigma.

* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane, Pudge, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Enigma.

* Sand King is a strong ganker, allowing him to shut down squishy heroes in the early game: Phantom Assassin, Clinkz, Sniper, Enchantress,...

* Heroes who rely heavily on melee attacks and lack early spell immunity are easily blocked and interrupted by Ink Swell: Lycan, Ursa, Troll Warlord.

* Hard-hitters who relies mostly on raw stats or good passive and therefore make a perfect target for Dark Portrait: Naga Siren, Faceless Void, Terrorblade, Luna, Anti-Mage

* 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.

* Windranger heavily relies on her abilities for any form of tactical advantage and damage. A well timed silence will make her useless: Puck,Silencer, Death Prophet, Skywrath Mage, Drow Ranger, Earth Spirit, Grimstroke.

* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: Dragon Knight, Jakiro, Pugna, Earthshaker,...

* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: Dragon Knight, Jakiro, Pugna, Earthshaker,...

* Sand King is a strong ganker, allowing him to shut down squishy heroes in the early game: Phantom Assassin, Clinkz, Sniper, Enchantress,...

* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: Dragon Knight, Jakiro, Pugna, Earthshaker,...

* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane, Pudge, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Enigma.

* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Ursa,...

* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane, Pudge, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Enigma.

* A combination of Soulbind and Phantom's Embrace can prevent Anti-Mage from casting spells.
* If Grimstroke has Aghanim's Scepter, Dark Portrait can reflect Anti-Mage's Mana Break making useful in team fights.

* He has a hard time killing Sand King because of the survivability he gets from Burrowstrike and Sand Storm.
* Shadow Dance, which usually allows Slark to survive fights, is ineffective against Sand King's AoE damage.

* Sand King can quickly remove her Refraction with his Sand Storm.
* Once Refraction is down, she is very vulnerable to Epicenter's high magic damage.

* Phantom's Embrace silences Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray.
* Ink Swell stuns Bristleback and gets allies in position faster with increased movement speed to attack his front, countering his passive ability.

* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Ursa,...

* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: Dragon Knight, Jakiro, Pugna, Earthshaker,...