Tips

• The "Mana Thirst" facet can detect enemy heroes through fog. You won't see the buff icon appear unless they're under the true sight threshold, but you can keep an eye on your damage and check if the green number suddenly goes up.
• Blink into the trees! If you're getting ganked, always assume that there is someone behind you, waiting for you to Blink back into the lane/jungle to retreat. You have a stupid low cooldown on Blink. Blink into an isolated patch of trees, then watch four heroes suddenly materialize from the fog struggling to find you, then quietly continue Blinking along the treeline until you're sure you're safe. Chances are you'll have a Quelling Blade or Battle Fury to cut down trees and walk your way out anyway.
• All Linken's Sphere and Lotus Orb interactions are consistent with Counterspell's behavior. There are a few unique spells to note:
  • Grimstroke's Phantom's Embrace can only be blocked on cast, not when the Phantom projectile connects on your hero.
  • Counterspell can ignore a Bounty Hunter Shuriken Toss that's bounced towards you.
  • Gleipnir's root can be blocked/reflected by Counterspell (and Linken's Sphere/Lotus Orb respectively).
  • Linken's Sphere will only trigger on your hero if Counterspell's shield isn't active.
  • If you attack a target that's Bane Nightmared with Counterspell on, you'll take it off the target and the enemy Bane will get Nightmared instead of you. Since you're considered the 'owner' of the Nightmare, you're also allowed to attack Bane without the Nightmare getting dispelled. Pretty funny.
• Rather than trying to perfectly time Counterspell when a projectile hits you, just force the issue. If you're escaping from an enemy who you think is trying to cast a spell on you, take them by surprise by walking towards them with Counterspell on and they may fire their spell straight into your shield.
• While it's often tempting to spend Mana Void as a baller finishing move on a pick-off target, know that it's really not meant to be used like an Axe Culling Blade in the late game. The AoE damage can be significant when used on a out-of-mana target with a large mana pool and you never know if you may need the stun to cancel an enemy channel.
  • That being said, it's okay for you to steal kills with Mana Void in the early/mid game. You do more with the gold than anyone else at that stage. The typical Anti-Mage team fight contribution is a two way street.
• Mana Void stuns everything in the AoE. If you're trying to stun an enemy who has a Linken's Sphere, consider Mana Voiding a creep next to them to bypass Linken's and stun them.
• This is useless information, but the bonus damage from the passive Quell of Quelling Blade stacks with Battle Fury. Now that I mention it, the active also stacks and doesn't share a cooldown with Battle Fury allowing you to cut double the trees!
• An excellent hero to practice learning Tread switching on. Get in the rhythm of always tapping your Treads to INT before Blinking and then immediately turning them back to AGI. You'd be surprised at how much mana you save.

Counters

• Shadow Demon is a notable counter against AM since the illusions created by Disruption will Mana Break him. Dark Seer's Wall of Replica and Terrorblade's Reflection are also ways to create illusions of an enemy Anti-Mage.
• Any level of Dagon can instakill illusions. As do spells like Disruptor's Glimpse, Pudge's Meat Hook, Skywrath Mage's Mystic Flare, and any Hex.
  • Brewmaster's Storm Brewling with Dispel Magic deals full damage to all types of illusions.
• Enchantress can take control of enemy illusions with Enchant.
• Try not to stack disables when ganking AM. Stuns and silences are invaluable when you're trying to kill him, but you need to stagger them appropriately, otherwise he'll blink out.
  • The best players will not only stagger disables, but wait for the middle of AM's 0.4s cast animation on Blink to disable him.
• Roots/leashes prevent Anti-Mage from casting Blink.
• Watch his Blink animation to determine the direction that he Blinks in. The particle 'trail' always floats in the direction that he traveled.
• Harpoon's active is undisjointable. If you're trying to catch an escaping Anti-Mage, try timing Harpoon during his Blink animation and the projectile will follow and drag him right back to you. This is less reliable in melee range because you need the Blink to happen before the Harpoon projectile connects.
• Try baiting Counterspell by canceling cast animations of single targeted spells. The Counterspell buff doesn't last that long and skittish Anti-Mages may be too trigger happy with activating the shield. Same concept as baiting an enemy Slark into casting Dark Pact too early.
• AM's Mana Break passive and magic resistance from Counterspell's passive can both be disabled by Breaks.
  • Breaks can be provided with items like Silver Edge or Khanda. Spells that Break include Hoodwink's Sharpshooter, Naga Siren's Agh's Scepter Ensnare, Phantom Assassin's Agh's Scepter Fan of Knives, Shadow Demon's Agh's Scepter Demonic Purge, Viper's Viper Strike, and a few others.
• Counterspell's active can be dispelled. Not really too useful since most dispels are targeted spells that'll get blocked by Counterspell anyway, but handy to know with Nullifier or Shadow Demon's Demonic Purge.
• A Ghost Scepter can save your life in the late game as a support.
• Don't stand near allies who are out of mana in the late game. They're a mana bomb waiting for AM to Mana Void detonate their ass.