Medusa vs Ursa

How this matchup plays

Thinking Ursa can run at Medusa and burst her down often backfires. His entire kit revolves around quickly killing a target with Overpower and Fury Swipes, but Medusa's Mana Shield is uniquely suited to absorbing that kind of focused physical damage. The longer Ursa has to stay on a target, the more vulnerable he is. If he does fully commit to a kill attempt, Medusa can use Stone Gaze to force him to either turn and run or get petrified, interrupting his damage sequence. It doesn't guarantee her survival, but it makes his job much riskier than he'd like.

This forces Ursa to change his game plan. He either needs to get a big advantage early before Medusa has items and mana, or he must build specifically to counter her, like with a Nullifier. Otherwise, he’s often forced to ignore Medusa entirely in fights and try to pick off her supports. This gives Medusa a lot of control over teamfight positioning. She can play aggressively, knowing their main physical damage dealer has a hard time bringing her down, which creates space and a slight but consistent advantage for her team as the game goes on.