Anti-Mage vs Grimstroke

How this matchup plays

Grimstroke's Soulbind creates a dilemma for an escaping Anti-Mage. While he can still Blink, his tethered ally will be pulled with him, which can break positioning or pull a support into a bad spot. More importantly, it lets Grimstroke's team land a single-target disable on both heroes at once. This makes it much easier to coordinate a lockdown on Anti-Mage, who normally relies on his mobility to dodge individual stuns. Stroke of Fate also provides some long-range magic damage to chip away at him or cancel a Blink Dagger from fog, which can be annoying during the laning stage and mid-game.

This dynamic forces Anti-Mage to play with more caution. He can't split push as aggressively if Grimstroke is off the map with a potential ganking partner. However, the advantage is only slight because Grimstroke himself poses little solo threat and is quite fragile. A farmed Anti-Mage can often turn and kill Grimstroke before his team can follow up on a Soulbind. Furthermore, once Anti-Mage has a Black King Bar, he can ignore the magical portion of Grimstroke's kit, largely negating the threat and letting him play his own game again.