Pangolier vs Winter Wyvern

How this matchup plays

Catching Pangolier with Winter's Curse during his Rolling Thunder is often a fight-winning play. He uses his ultimate to cause chaos and get a good position, but this frequently puts him near his own teammates who are following up. This creates a perfect scenario for Winter Wyvern to turn his own team against a key target, completely disabling his initiation. Even when he's not rolling, trying to burst a target with Swashbuckle is easily shut down by a well-timed Cold Embrace, which negates the physical damage and holds the target in place for a counter-attack.

This forces Pangolier to be extremely cautious. He can’t really use his ultimate to start a fight if Winter's Curse is available, so he's forced to wait for it to be used on someone else. This allows Winter Wyvern to dictate the tempo of engagements simply by holding her cooldowns. The burden is on Pangolier to find a perfect opening or build items like a Black King Bar much earlier than he'd like, while Wyvern's defensive plan remains simple and effective at shutting him down.