Rubick vs Venomancer

How this matchup plays

The fantasy of stealing Poison Nova gives the impression of a hard counter, but Venomancer's kit makes it less straightforward. His other abilities, like Venomous Gale, are low-impact steals for Rubick. They lack the control or burst Rubick wants to add to his arsenal. Furthermore, Venomancer's strength is applying constant pressure with multiple damage-over-time sources. Losing one spell, even his ultimate, is less devastating for him than it is for heroes who rely on a single big cooldown to have an impact. The rest of his poison continues to do its job regardless.

This dynamic puts the pressure on Rubick to execute perfectly in teamfights. Venomancer can make laning and early skirmishes difficult with his constant harass. Later, Rubick's slight edge comes from his potential to survive the initial damage and turn Poison Nova back on Veno's team. A savvy Venomancer player will try to bait Spell Steal or obscure the ultimate with other abilities, but the chance for Rubick to single-handedly reverse Veno's main teamfight contribution is always there, creating a small but consistent advantage.