Magnus counter and synergy picks
Pick Magnus with Wraith King to increase win-rate from 49.1% to 54.2% or against Monkey King to increase win-rate to 55.8% in Patch 7.39c.
Good with...
...based on stats [7.39c]
| Hero | Change in Win Rate ▼ |
|---|---|
5.1% | |
5.0% | |
5.0% | |
4.8% | |
4.7% | |
4.2% | |
3.8% | |
3.7% | |
3.4% | |
3.3% | |
3.1% | |
3.1% | |
2.9% | |
2.9% | |
2.9% |
...based on gameplay [7.39c]
Magnus provides Alch with Empower, which greatly amplifies his farming speed. This allows him to ramp up at a far greater pace and max out quicker in order to close the game. RP is an amazing set up for Unstable Concoction as UC stuns in a small AOE.
Magnus provides AM with Empower, which greatly amplifies his farming speed and fighting capacity. This allows him to reach his item timings much more consistently and safely ,as he can leave the lane and start farming the junlge efficiently or cutting creep waves earlier than normal.
Magnus' Empower works with Sleight of Fist, amplifying Ember's damage output and farming abilities exponentially. With Empower Ember can clear entire waves with a single Sleight of Fist. Both RP and Searing Chains compliment each other perfectly as they can be used as both set-up and follo-up interchangeably for team wiping amounts of damage.
Song of the Siren provides a long duration lockdown in a massive AOE to set up the perfect RP. Empower enhances Naga's farming speed allowing her to scale even faster and use less Illusions to farm jungle, indirectly amplifying her splitpushing potency.
Magnus provides Spectre with Empower, which greatly amplifies her farming speed. This allows her to reach her item timings much more consistently and safely ,as she can leave the lane and farm the junlge much more efficiently, while starting to do so earlier than normal.
Magnus provides WK with Empower, which greatly amplifies his farming speed and gives him much needed AOE damage, which WK generally lacks. This allows him to reach his item timings much more consistently and turns some matchups on their head as the lack of AOE damage makes him generally weak versus Illusion heroes.
Magnus provides Bloodseeker with Empower, which greatly amplifies his farming speed and overall damage output when combined with Bloodrage. This allows Bloodseeker to ramp up at a far greater pace and reach his power spikes more consistently. Rupture can deal damage during Skewer and RP is an amazing set up for Blood Rite.
RP can both pull and stun multiple targets together setting them up for a devastating Midnight Pulse into Black Hole combo. Skewer's long cast range can drag multiple additionall targets into Black Hole.
RP is amazing at both setting up a perfect, team wiping Echo Slam and multiple Fissure and Aftershock stuns or as follow up to them. Skewer can reposition targets trough Fissure's wall separating them from their team. Empower provides Shaker with damage but more importantly cleave for a BIG NUMBER 1SHOT 3 HEROES Enchant Totem.
Magnus provides Slark with Empower, which greatly amplifies his farming speed, allowing him to get to his first couple of items consistently so he can start rolling the game. RP covers Slark's lack of hard Crowd Control and makes up for his teamfight pressence greatly. Magnus can Shockwave and Skewer away any targets that are trying to stick to Slark so he can retreat safely and heal up with Barracuda.
...core items [7.39c]
A core 
Boots of Speed upgrade to improve your mobility and damage output with attack speed and stats. Helps in both farming and killing enemy heroes in the Reverse Polarity stun duration.
A core item that allows you to initiate fights by Blinking in for the Reverse Polarity lockdown in teamfights, or Skewer enemy heroes towards your team.
An upgrade for 
Echo Sabre to have another form of gap close on enemy heroes to follow up with Reverse Polarity and right click freely. You can also use 
Harpoon and Skewer back immediately to drag an enemy hero with you.
A core item that lets you avoid most disables and silences on the enemy team to land your Reverse Polarity and hit freely. Also improves your right click damage and tankiness through HP pool and magic resistance.
A core item in the mid to late game that gives you another repositioning tool with Horn Toss. Has great synergy with Skewer.
A core item that increases the range of Skewer to drag enemy heroes a longer distance, as well as do more damage when colliding enemy heroes with trees and cliffs.
A core item that can win you the teamfight and the game with double Reverse Polarity. Be careful about your mana pool when you are looking to cast your ultimate twice with 
Refresher Orb.
A core item for mid laners to gain some HP and mana sustain. Also allows the potential to make plays with power runes past the 6 minute mark.
A late game damage item to do massive AoE crit damage to multiple enemy heroes with your Empower right clicks during the Reverse Polarity lockdown and burst them all down.
An alternative to 
Power Treads for mana sustain to spam Empower and Shockwave for fighting and farming. Works well with the Diminishing Return facet to spam Shockwave. Builds into 
Guardian Greaves later in the game.
A core item to increase your mobility in combination with 
Blink Dagger and Skewer. Works well to close the gap on enemy heroes and lock them down with Reverse Polarity. Also lets you push yourself or one of your allies away from trouble.
A core item in the mid game when going for the utility build with the Diminishing Return facet. Extends the cast range of all of your spells and items except for Reverse Polarity. Particularly useful to increase the cast range of
Blink Dagger and Skewer to catch enemy heroes from further away.
Good against...
...based on stats [7.39c]
| Hero | Change in Win Rate ▼ |
|---|---|
6.7% | |
6.5% | |
6.3% | |
5.9% | |
5.4% | |
5.1% | |
4.6% | |
4.4% | |
4.3% | |
4.2% | |
4.1% | |
4.1% | |
4.1% | |
3.5% | |
3.5% |
...based on gameplay [7.39c]
Magnus can use Reverse Polarity to stop Marci mid combo and turn her aggressive playstyle against her. Skewer disrupts her chain abilities and forces her out of position. Empower helps Magnus’s cores deal with Marci’s natural tankiness. She struggles in tight areas where Magnus thrives.
Magnus clears Broodmother’s spiderlings instantly with Shockwave and Empowered cleaves. Reverse Polarity punishes her for clustering with summons under towers. Skewer drags Brood out of her web network and safety zones. He neutralizes her lane control and snowball potential.
Magnus's cleave from Empower allows his cores to quickly deal with PL’s illusions. His AoE spells like RP and Shockwave punish clustered illusions. Phantom Lancer can't avoid Reverse Polarity when caught among his copies. Magnus turns PL’s strength in numbers into a liability.
Magnus disables Slark during Depth Shroud and prevents his escape with RP. Empowered carries burst down Slark before he stacks Essence Shift. Skewer removes Slark from fights or teammates, ruining his positioning. Magnus’s control outmatches Slark’s slippery nature.
Magnus punishes Io’s tethered positioning with Reverse Polarity hitting both heroes. Skewer interrupts channeling and splits him from his core. Empower lets Magnus’s team take advantage of Io’s low HP and armor. Io’s saving tools can be invalidated by sudden AoE control.
Pudge is vulnerable to Reverse Polarity and cleave damage from Empowered carries. Magnus’s mobility allows him to avoid Hooks and reposition fights. Skewer can also push Pudge into unsafe areas after initiation. Pudge struggles in fights where Magnus controls spacing.
Meepo gets heavily punished by Reverse Polarity due to all clones being grouped. Empower cleave obliterates the entire group with one or two hits. Magnus prevents Meepo’s snowball with high-impact lockdown. He controls fights before Meepo can overwhelm the map.
Magnus empowers right-click cores that deal high physical damage Timbersaw doesn’t like. RP holds Timbersaw in place during his reactive armor stacks downtime. He also helps teammates scale faster to burst Timber down. Skewer breaks Timber’s flow and disrupts his spacing.
Magnus drags Razor away from Static Link targets with Skewer. RP disables Razor during Eye of the Storm, negating his damage. Empower boosts his team to out-DPS Razor in fights. Magnus’s spells allow his cores to maintain distance from Razor’s chase.
Magnus outscales Ogre’s early game pressure with farming acceleration via Empower. Reverse Polarity stuns Ogre before he can chain-cast disables. Ogre’s lack of mobility makes him an easy RP target. Magnus offers better control and teamfight than Ogre’s raw durability.
Bad against...
...based on stats [7.39c]
| Hero | Change in Win Rate ▲ |
|---|---|
-6.1% | |
-4.3% | |
-3.6% | |
-3.5% | |
-3.4% | |
-3.2% | |
-3.1% | |
-2.9% | |
-2.8% | |
-2.8% | |
-2.8% | |
-2.6% | |
-2.5% | |
-2.3% | |
-2.2% |
...based on gameplay [7.39c]
Ember Spirit avoids Reverse Polarity with Sleight of Fist and Remnant mobility. Magnus struggles to lock him down consistently without help. Ember also clears waves and keeps pressure across the map, outpacing Magnus. Empower becomes less effective if Ember controls tempo.
Puck dodges Reverse polarity with Phase Shift and cancels Blink Dagger with constant poke. Magnus’s combo is unreliable against Puck’s elusive nature. Dream Coil counters Magnus’s mobility by punishing Skewer plays. Puck dominates long fights where Magnus can’t connect clean spells.
Faceless Void’s Chronosphere counters Magnus’s teamfight initiation. Magnus cannot use Reverse polarity or Skewer while frozen in Chrono. Void also avoids Skewer with Time Walk. Empowered carries can’t deal damage if stuck in Chronosphere.
Huskar jumps into Magnus before he can initiate and punishes him with Burning Spears. Magnus doesn’t have enough burst to bring down Huskar through magic resistance. Reverse polarity is less impactful against tanky frontline heroes like him. Huskar plays faster than Magnus prefers.
Bane disables Magnus through reverse polarity with Fiend’s Grip from long range. His brain sap trades well in lane and ruins Magnus’s early farm. Nightmare interrupts Blink Dagger setups. Bane excels at picking off Empowered cores before they can use their buffs.
Kez keeps Magnus from finding clean reverse polarity by breaking his positioning with disruptive spells. His tempo makes it hard for Magnus to reach late-game timing. Skewer is punished and turned into over-commitments. Magnus’s spells lose value when forced to fight early
Earthshaker counters reverse polarity with his own initiation and long-range stuns. Fissure and Echo Slam interrupt Magnus's combos and punish grouped teamplay. Both heroes want to initiate but Earthshaker can do it more reliably from distance. Magnus is forced into poor initiations.
Tidehunter shrugs off Shockwave and Reverse polarity with Kraken Shell. Ravage counters Magnus’s initiation by stunning his whole team. Magnus struggles to displace Tide from the frontlines with Skewer. Tide dominates big 5v5 fights Magnus relies on.
Visage’s familiars interrupt Magnus’s Blink Dagger, preventing clean initiation. Gravekeeper’s Cloak reduces cleave burst from Empowered allies. Reverse Polarity has low value against spread-out familiars and tanky cores. Visage outpressures Magnus in laning and early objectives.
Enigma turns Magnus’s grouped playstyle against him with Black Hole. Reverse polarity has similar cooldown and purpose, so Enigma can counter-initiate directly. Magnus has no way to stop BKB Black Hole without allies. Enigma scales harder in pure teamfight presence.
...counter items [7.39c]
Helps you sustain HP and mana as Magnus frequently uses his spells to secure last hits and build a damage advantage with Empower.
Gives you tankiness to take less damage from Magnus' right clicks buffed with Empower.
Lets you block jungle camps from spawning to slow down Magnus' farm speed.
Reduces the duration of Reverse Polarity with status resistance.
Lets you block jungle camps from spawning with 
Sentry Ward to slow down Magnus' farm speed. 
Observer Ward helps you scout and gank him with 
Smoke of Deceit plays.
Lets you kite Magnus by protecting yourself or an ally against his right clicks through invisibility. Also helps absorb some of the damage from his spells.
Lets you kite Magnus by pushing yourself or an ally away from him. Also lets you disrupt his Reverse Polarity into Skewer combo.
Lets you kite Magnus by protecting yourself against his right clicks in Ethereal form.
Gives you an instant disable against Magnus to burst him down in its duration before he can have an impact in fights with Reverse Polarity.
Lets you survive and not get bursted in the Reverse Polarity stun duration if the enemies have no dispel for the 
Aeon Disk.
Lets you save an ally caught by Reverse Polarity. Can also be used to protect yourself against Magnus' right clicks in Ethereal form.
Lets you save an ally caught by Reverse Polarity. Can also be used on Magnus to disrupt his Reverse Polarity into Skewer combo.
Gives you an instant lockdown against Magnus and pontential to burst him down with chain stun before he can have an impact in fights with Reverse Polarity.
Gives armor to your team to take less damage from Magnus' cleave right clicks through Empower to nullify his kill potential.
Gives you armor and evasion to defend yourself against Magnus' right clicks with the tankiness and miss chance.
Bad with...
...based on stats [7.39c]
| Hero | Change in Win Rate ▲ |
|---|---|
-6.8% | |
-6.1% | |
-5.6% | |
-5.3% | |
-5.2% | |
-5.0% | |
-4.9% | |
-4.6% | |
-4.2% | |
-4.2% | |
-3.5% | |
-3.5% | |
-3.3% | |
-3.3% | |
-3.3% |
