Grimstroke vs Phantom Assassin

How this matchup plays

Picking Grimstroke into a Phantom Assassin is always a calculated risk, which is interesting because they work so well together. Grimstroke’s ultimate, Soulbind, is one of the best tools in the game for locking down a single slippery target. It prevents Phantom Assassin from using Phantom Strike to escape after jumping in, completely disrupting her normal pattern. The problem is that PA's entire game plan involves eventually buying a Black King Bar to ignore spells like this. Her passive, Blur, can also make her difficult to target in the chaos of a fight, so landing that crucial spell is never guaranteed.

This tension defines the matchup from start to finish. In the mid-game, a well-timed Soulbind on a Phantom Assassin without spell immunity is often a death sentence. Grimstroke’s team can collapse on her before she gets her damage off. Later on, however, the script flips. A farmed PA with BKB active can simply ignore Grimstroke and delete him in seconds. The game then becomes a matter of timing and execution: can Grimstroke’s team punish PA before she gets her core items, or can she survive long enough to make his control irrelevant?