Outworld Destroyer + Rubick

Why this works

Spreading the map's resources can be a challenge with this pairing, as both heroes want to hit their own item and level timings. A core issue comes from Spell Steal. The spells Outworld Destroyer offers are often a poor fit for Rubick; Sanity's Eclipse in particular is very weak without the high intelligence OD builds. This forces Rubick to rely entirely on the enemy team for impactful spells. Their disables can also work against each other. A long Telekinesis into Astral Imprisonment combo takes one enemy out of the fight for an extended period, which can accidentally save them from follow-up damage from the rest of your team.

In practice, this means Rubick often has to play far from Outworld Destroyer to find the spells he needs to be effective, leaving his core more exposed. The success of the mid-game fights hinges less on their coordination and more on whether the enemy draft happens to have powerful abilities for Rubick to steal. They don't build momentum together easily. Instead, each hero is often forced to play their own game, hoping the other is succeeding enough on their own to create an advantage.