Shadow Demon — Dota 2 7.41 Counters, Synergies & Win Rate
Also known as: SD
Shadow Demon (SD) in Dota 2 7.41: win rate, pick rate, the heroes Shadow Demon counters and struggles against, and its best teammates — from recent ranked matches by Batru's AI win-prediction pipeline.
Shadow Demon counters & matchups
Shadow Demon is a control support whose Disruption banishes and creates illusions, Soul Catcher amplifies damage, and Demonic Purge slows and dispels. He's strong into immobile, single-target heroes: Elder Titan (56.9%), Timbersaw (53.6%) and Brewmaster (53.1%) get controlled and amplified down. Shadow Demon is hard-countered by AoE and divers: Tidehunter (41.0%) Ravages through his setup, Riki (41.3%) ambushes him, and Dawnbreaker (41.5%) / Phoenix (41.6%) out-fight him. Draft tip: Shadow Demon is a strong single-target control + save support into squishy drafts; he's weaker into AoE-teamfight and hard-dive line-ups.
Strong against
| Hero | Win Rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
 Elder Titan | 56.85% | 3,541 |
 Timbersaw | 53.59% | 6,372 |
 Largo | 53.12% | 4,716 |
 Brewmaster | 53.08% | 3,389 |
 Templar Assassin | 52.48% | 11,149 |
 Nature's Prophet | 52.10% | 11,838 |
 Terrorblade | 52.10% | 6,138 |
 Tinker | 51.66% | 7,733 |
Struggles against
| Hero | Win Rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
 Tidehunter | 41.04% | 21,188 |
 Riki | 41.28% | 9,809 |
 Dawnbreaker | 41.52% | 11,439 |
 Phoenix | 41.57% | 12,749 |
 Wraith King | 41.63% | 21,714 |
 Meepo | 41.67% | 5,918 |
 Phantom Lancer | 42.06% | 13,830 |
 Naga Siren | 42.68% | 4,745 |
Shadow Demon synergies
Shadow Demon's Disruption is both a save and a damage-amp setup (the illusions plus Soul Catcher), and he enables push strategies. He pairs best with summon/push and illusion cores: Chen (58.3%) leverages his early tempo for a creep-push snowball, while Lycan (53.2%) and Dark Seer (52.9%) turn his control into a siege. Give Shadow Demon a push-oriented core and his Disruption setup plus Soul Catcher amp snowballs the early game.
Best teammates
| Hero | Win Rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
 Chen | 58.33% | 1,536 |
 Lycan | 53.18% | 2,830 |
 Dark Seer | 52.87% | 3,331 |
| Naga Siren | 52.63% | 4,858 |
 Clockwerk | 51.16% | 4,453 |
 Medusa | 51.06% | 8,498 |
| Dawnbreaker | 50.88% | 11,346 |
 Night Stalker | 50.51% | 13,075 |