TvZ Baneling Bust Counter Build

At long last after laddering yesterday, I’ve finally found the answer to the build I’ve been bragging about on this blog for months.

My standard go to zerg build for TvZ and ZvZ. In other words a counter to the baneling bust.

Yesterday my MMR was pretty high. I even had a TvZ against a master leaguer, where I schooled him with my baneling bust.

But in another TvZ, I faced a fellow diamond league player. He had but a single supply depot separating my ling/bling from his SCVs. I busted him. Normally at that point in a game, I’m feeling pretty confident. I’m thinking I’ve pretty much already won.

During the bust, I even noticed that he had made a critical blunder. He didn’t do a full wall off. Despite busting him, my lings could run directly into his base. Surely I would win this game. Except once inside his base, what few units he had managed to hold off my lings. The answer to my baneling bust was so simple and obvious, I’m kicking myself for not having discovered it sooner. He had Hellbats.

He didn’t even have that many. But he did remind me of something I’ve known for some time now. That hellbats counter lings. They counter lings hard. They basically make any amount of lings disappear. What was blizzard thinking? It’s like giving Terran colossus in the first few minutes of the game -- and for almost no gas.

I don’t think I’ll ever play a TvZ on the terran side the same way again.

The build is about as simple as you might imagine it.

10 Depot

13 Refinery/Barracks

Orbital, reaper and depot after barracks finishes

CC

Reaper #2 (What really separates the men from the boys in this build is how well you can use those first two reapers to harass the zerg)

Factory

Reactor on Barracks

Armory

Once you get out your first few Hellbats, you’ve won! Congratulations, you’re now immune to lings. From here, make two more barracks, each with Tech labs. Start Stim research and make a reactor on the third barracks. Continue to produce marine/hellbat/marauder. When you have enough gas, make a starport and medivacs (vikings if you suspect mutes incoming).

When stim finishes, you push. If your zerg opponent was going for mutes, and he probably was, he’ll be forced to use them defensively. Any lings he has will melt away, and with your marauder heavy army composition, you’ll be able to steamroll him.