Counter Pudge?

Play Weaver and let all your pudge problems fade away...

Any reasonably tanky hero is good against Pudge, if he can't take you down with his combo then he'll struggle to kill you without allies. Magic resistance is very useful against him, as well as transport spells and slows/stuns which let you escape from Rot.

I'd agree with the hero suggestions above aside from Bloodseeker - you get hooked, you're in trouble 1v1. Personally I like Huskar against him, Flaming Spears are very unpleasant, just don't get too cocky before you get levels. Most mid melee heroes do fine against him - Tiny can Toss him away, Dragon Knight has Dragon's Tail etc.

But yeah, being able to see hooks coming, and then dodge them - they're the vital things. Good vision from Observer Wards, few dodges and he's almost useless. The only dangerous Pudge is one who gets fed early.

This ^

So long as you know where he is, he's not very effective. If you can see him before it's too late, he's near useless.

In the (sadly) case you don't have wards (you should, but evryone has meet a carrymaiden sooner or later) just tell the whoole team to play more safe when he's missing from mid, if you're playng against an average pudge player and you know the most common hook spot, you can make him waste a lot of time even without ward, (es. if you're safelane radiant be suree to keep some creep on your left side), (if pudge is skilled you do need wards!!!!).

Another tip is don't try to gank him if you think you're going to trade kills, as he will benefit more from killing one of your teammates than you from killing him, if he start falling behind he won't be able to kill you're core heroes even if he hook them!!!

Pudge is actually a pretty bad farmer. He takes self-damage to last-hit properly, and needs to keep trying to get into a hook position because he is so easy to kill mid (he has no escape) so he needs to farm up kills as quickly as possible. A mobile mid hero is usually very effective against him as long as you have wait for it...wards. Pester your supports for a ward to give you vision of him when he's trying to move into a hook position.

My favorite counter to Pudge is Outworld Devourer. Early game, Astral Imprisonment twice or thrice, and he won't have mana for a hook. Mid game, Astral Imprisonment as soon as he hooks, and he can't do his combo. Since Force Staff is core on OD, you should be safe already. To top it off, drop your ult on that ignorant fool once you have stolen his intelligence a few times.

A lot of people have said clock is the best counter to Pudge. My concern with this is Pudge's insane magic resist. Is there really any way to get around that? (I know, OD).

This thread is about early game and laning, so fat man's magic resist doesn't come into play.
Clock is good against most melee heroes, thanks to mana drain from cogs.

The only heroes that Pudge can beat in a 1v1 lane are a few squishy meleeheroes.
Aside from that he is a pretty sucky laner, who can only hope to get to level 6/7 considerably fast and start netting some kills with his combo. (or get lucky haste/invis rune!)

Yeah Clockwerk counters him reasonably well - Power Cogs harassment is nasty for melee heroes to deal with. If Pudge goes for Dismember or Rot then Battery Assault easily breaks his channelling and outdamages him ( Rot + Battery Assault does more damage than just Rot!).

I think Pudge can also work against ranged heroes who don't have a slow/stun/escape. I don't particularly like playing Tinker or Shadow Fiend against a good Pudge - one mistake or bad rune and you're in a lot of trouble.

Ya SF and Pudge is the most frustrating thing to do when equally matched skill wise, 1 good hook and you die, 1 good close dodge and you can raze him to death. If I can I avoid laning SF against Pudge especially because many times support dont ward( if supports do get picked that is ), you have to spend precious money on highround wards to counter fog hooks.

I like invoker against pudge, QW to burn his mana, QE for eternal coldsnap and -armor hits.
Basically coldsnap is hella strong against pudge.

BS is also fun as you can lead pudge into your troops and just keep lasthitting to regen while pudge keeps on going down, then when hook cd is up just silence him for an easy kill.

Also Dazzle mid is pretty fun or ALch mid against pudge.