The tradeoffs of nuclear and antimatter armor-piercing shells

Would nuclear or antimatter payloads make practical armor-piercing high-explosive shells?

They offer large explosive effects, but the desired separation from the firing ship gives defenders more interception time; directing the energy through a laser raises a further unresolved problem.

Antimatter would certainly provide the explosive effect expected of an armor-piercing high-explosive shell if it could be delivered intact. Such energy releases are safer as standoff weapons because the firing platform should remain far from the detonation. Long-range delivery then gives defenders more opportunity to intercept the weapon, creating a direct range-versus-survivability tradeoff. A bomb-pumped laser might redirect some of the energy, but containing and focusing a matter-antimatter reaction introduces another demanding engineering problem.