Muerta vs Phoenix

How this matchup plays

Slowing down Muerta's attack speed is the core of this matchup. Phoenix can cripple her damage output with Fire Spirits, which makes it much harder for her to get the extra shots from her passive. This problem becomes critical when Phoenix uses Supernova. While Muerta can still damage the sun during her ultimate, the heavy attack speed slow often means she can't land enough hits to destroy it alone. This forces her team to divert focus to kill the egg, or it forces her to abandon her position, wasting her own ultimate's duration.

This dynamic lets Phoenix dictate the terms of engagement. He can dive onto Muerta, apply his debuffs, and dare her to fight back. If she commits, Supernova can reset the fight and turn it in his team's favor. Muerta's main path to victory is getting a Black King Bar to ignore the Fire Spirits, or catching Phoenix out of position before he can get his spells off. The fight often comes down to whether Muerta can activate her immunity before Phoenix lands his slow, which keeps the matchup from being too one-sided.