Thoughts on Zerg Builds ZvP ZvZ ZvT

I feel like my win percentages with Zerg have gone way up, now that I’ve changed my standard openings. I’d like to write a bit about each Zerg matchup.

ZvZ

This is the matchup where I’ve changed my opening the most. I now go standard 14 Extractor, 14 Pool. I drone until the pool is done, then make non stop zerglings. I’ll buy the speed upgrade with the first 100 gas. A baneling nest with the next 50 (usually I throw a drone in to replace the one building the baneling nest). From there, I que up my lings to somewhere outside of his base, but away from his scout. The first few lings I make into banelings. Then when the first wave of the queen’s inject larvae lings comes, I attack with my first wave.

I use all of the larvae off one base to make zerglings and banelings. But when I have enough excess minerals, I’ll expand and add queens, etc. Most ZvZ games I play are won or lost here. But if the condition stabilizes, you’ll usually graduate to roach/hydra, or muta/ling/bling.

ZvP

I still like to go hatch first. But enough toss players have punished me that tend to go pool first in all but the most favorable conditions. Hatch after pool. If you scout the toss player taking a second base, take a third. Stay gasless until six minutes in.  By that time, with lings and overlords you may be able to saturate the third. Unless you scout some type of a gateway attack. In which case, you should immediately build spines, roaches, and lings. I like to err on the side of caution. Even if the attack doesn’t come, a nydus worm follow up is often viable.

Ideally, I’d be able to drone until lair tech, and build five mutes. Depending on his reaction to the mutes, I’d grow a cloud of them, or tech switch to roach/hydra. Toss players today have shied away from corrupters, making hydras a great unit. When they add in colossi, you already have the spire to make corruptors.

ZvT

I always go 15 hatch 15 pool in this matchup. When I scout the terran throw down his second base, I throw down my third. I make queens constantly, but avoid making any extractors or mining any gas until six minutes in. The extra minerals allows me to get a wall off, roach warren, spore crawler, spine crawler, and evolution chamber, as well as all the queens. With the added creep spread, my queens are adequate to defend against the hellion/reaper pushes that are popular now with terran players in the early game.

Unless I spot an early push, I’ll spend the first 100 gas on lair tech, the next 100 on speed, the next 50 on a baneling nest. There’s nothing wrong with devoting excess gas to small roach force. If I build up too much gas, I’ll start  my upgrades. But really, I’m wanting to get my spire down as quickly as possible. When it’s done, I spent 100 gas on the +attack upgrade for flyers and build no fewer than five mutalisks.

Just like in the ZvP matchup, I pay close attention to how he handles my harass with those five mutalisks. If he handles it poorly, I’ll add to the flock throughout the entire game. But if he makes a bunch of towers and has good stim marine control and widow mines, I’ll keep the mutes in the airspace around his base to counter drop play.

From there, my favorite way to win is to simply deny third bases until he runs out of money. Good creep spread and a roach/hydra army are often enough to do this. Ultra/Hydra is my favorite unit composition, or at least the one I most often strive for.

StarCraft Weekend Ruined

I don't know about you, but I went to StarBucks last night and grabbed a coffee. I wanted to enjoy my Friday but playing games late into the night. But I got a bug, like many people are experiencing. Even this morning, Saturday, the 31st of May, I can’t play StarCraft. I’ve stooped so low as to play HearthStone and Heroes of the Storm. And while I had a little fun playing those games, I can’t help but feel a little off my game, for not having my usual fix of StarCraft. Come on Blizzard.

Zerg and Toss Strategy Changes

Once, while watching StarCraft games on Twitch, I remember hearing the commentator say something about a zerg player not wanting to make his extractors until about six minutes into the game. This little tidbit of wisdom stood out to me because I had been playing zerg very differently.

When I random as zerg, I always go for 15 hatch, 15 pool, 15 extractor. Following that up with baneling or roach attacks, as the matchup goes. Zerg, for the longest time, used to be my prime race.

But this season, I’ve been doing horribly with zerg. They are now my most losing race. So I decided I had to rediscover what openings to use this season.

Turns out, in ZvZ matchups, you now have to early pool. There is no one time to pool that is always best, it varies map to map. But I find that a 14 extractor, 14 pool, into speedlings and banelings tends to work well.

ZvZ nowadays is all about the baneling wars. And rightfully so. Two banelings can destroy your opponent’s economy. And a pool first build vs a hatchery first build can almost always have the zerglings streaming in before a proper wall off is made.

But in the other two matchups, I’ve followed the advice of that commentator whose name I can’t recall. And to good results. I’ve finally had my first ZvP win with a 15 hatch, 15 pool, no gas until six minutes. If a scout a four gate attack, I simply build a lot of spines. If nothing comes right away, I wall off with detection for the inevitable dark templar cheese. Also, when doing this no gas until six minutes build, its important to have constant queen production. They will help in the event of oracles or early gate attacks. You need that creep spread and transfuse.

I’ve enjoyed equal success using the same build against terran opponents. One of the best things about it, is it lets you choose nearly any tech path you want. Because some terrans build legitimate defense against mutes, and when that happens, you want to be able to transition into a composition that will allow you to keep a turtling terron on two base.

The only other development in my StarCraft play comes in PvZ and PvP. I’ve been using a nice little Core into Stargate build. Traditionally, in a PvZ I would nexus first. But that hasn’t been going so well for me. Hence the one base Stargate play, expanding shortly thereafter. The idea is to build phoenix and do a ton of harass.

As a natural mutalisk player, I really like going for early phoenix. I find I’m quite good at sniping queens, overlords, and drones. Even denying thirds.

What’s great is that the same build works in PvP. Part of the reason why is that you can easily snipe the mothership core. That alone usually keeps a protoss in his base. But what really makes the build work is how it counters other builds. Because it snipes the MSC, it can shut down blink play. And with the ability to pick up immortals, it can counter pushes with that unit, too. As a matter of fact, having a small cloud of around 5 or more phoenix shut down oracles, and even straight up gateway pushes, as they will remove as many units from your opponent’s attack.