Tusk + Venomancer

Why this works

Setting up a kill with Tag Team feels wasted when most of the follow-up damage is magical poison. Venomancer's kit is all about damage over time, which gets no benefit from the bonus physical damage Tusk offers. Their slows also overlap heavily, making one of them redundant when they try to gank together. When Tusk commits with a Walrus Punch, he needs immediate, high-impact damage to secure the kill before the enemy can react. Venomancer provides the opposite: slow, sustained damage that doesn't help in that critical burst window.

This timing mismatch extends to teamfights. Tusk is looking for a clean initiation on a single hero, hoping to delete them from the fight with Snowball and his ultimate. Meanwhile, Venomancer wants the fight to be a messy, drawn-out affair where his Poison Nova can weaken the entire enemy team. These two game plans actively work against each other. Tusk's dive doesn't create the time for Veno's poisons to work, and Veno's area denial doesn't provide the focused burst Tusk needs to confirm his kill. The enemy team can often isolate and burst down Tusk after he commits, knowing the remaining damage is slow and manageable.