EPT
ZvT: Current Status
Historically my weakest matchup, I now feel like I have a reasonable grip on gold-level ZvT. My standard plan is to defend with zergling/baneling/infestor, get a fast hive with good upgrades, crush his main army with ultralisk/baneling, and then contain and deny expansions until he runs out of steam.
I no longer hatch first. Why? Because I noticed that every time I did, my macro went completely to hell while I tried to fend off the inevitable bunker rush. What's the point, I reasoned, in opting for a economic opening that doesn't end up being economic? As I get better at multitasking I'll reintroduce the greedier openings.
Instead I open 14g14p with an expansion going down around 18-21, and try to get a drone or an overlord to where I can see his gas geysers. I interpret early double gas as banshee play, especially if I see nothing but marines or hellions when I scout the ramp (in fact, even if I can't see his gases I always assume banshees if I see mineral-only units at the front), and respond by putting down a spore crawler in each mineral line and making an additional queen at each hatchery, ensuring I spread connecting creep. I also add a couple of spine crawlers at the front and drone heavily. If his banshees are denied I'm in good shape: I feel like I have the breathing room to take a more aggressive ling/bling/muta stance, grab a third and pressure his mineral lines.
The only time I get caught out is if I assume he's given up on the banshees and he doesn't. A couple of games I've perfectly deflected the first two or three banshees, and then lost when seven or eight turn up a couple of minutes later because I wasn't timely in building my lair or spire.
If banshees don't make an appearance, ling/bling infestor (going easy on the blings for as long as possible to favour upgrades) and creep/overlord spread deal well enough with marine/tank/drops to get me to hive and the unstoppable lawnmower of death that is Ultra/Baneling. If I get to that point, literally the only way I ever lose is if I'm not dilligent at denying further expansions.
ZvT: Future Development
I'm less confident if he forces roaches with blueflame hellions. I either lose all my drones to one of his pokes/drops, or I spend so much time chasing them around that my macro falls apart and my long term goals evaporate. I'd like to have a plan for dealing with hellion harrassment that has a solid follow-up. Right now I don't know whether to skew back toward hive/ultra/bling or make more of my roaches.
I'd also like to be able to end the game earlier when possible. Right now I feel like I'm giving effectively beaten opponents a second or third bite at the cherry, just because I don't know how to exploit early advantages. If I get an eco and army advantage in the midgame, I never seem to be able to do anything with it before he builds cost effective counters. I suspect I need to be thinking in terms of multi-pronged ling/baneling/roach drops, possibly with mutas waiting to pounce on unguarded tanks.
ZvZ: Current Status
Very much in flux until recently. I've settled on 14g14p, being aggressive with my speedlings while expanding, working hard to deny his expansion,teching to roaches, then infestors, and trying to remember to go hive/greater spire if the game goes really long.
What sticks out a mile in ZvZ is how incredibly vulnerable Zerg is in the early game. I've given up trying to gain the economic edge defensively for now, because it's easier to get in his face and slow HIM down.
ZvZ: Future development
I still lose a lot when I'm ahead because I'm not aggressive enough. Often my opponents will just drone up with their fingers crossed, make a buttload of mutalisks and edge their way back into the game by taking map control.
ZvP: Current Status
After an all but unbroken run over the last couple of months, I've become incapable of even thinking the word 'Protoss' without mentally or audibly prepending the word 'fuck'. In conversation I often use the word 'fuck' purely so I can fantasize about saying 'Protoss' afterwards. Sometimes, that's the only reason I start talking at all.
To put this into context, I have never stopped a 4gate. For a while I pre-empted them with a 3roach+speedling rush, but I stopped when I could no longer look Raynor in the eye while the game was booting. "Playing like that, you might as well be a Protoss", the sardonic twist to his lips seemed to say.
Since I stopped doing that rush, I have won on the following occasions:
1. Versus a 1-base stalker-colossus push so late my scouting ling had arthritis. Which would still have killed me if he hadn't obligingly walked all his stalkers into spine-crawler range, let me flank his colossi with lings, and failed to focus-fire my queens allowing me to transfuse them.
2. Versus 1-base phoenix/void ray into 1-base warp-prism zealot/sentry drop into 1-base colussus/expand - essentially suicide; he didn't really need me there at all.
And that's it.
If he 4-gates, I am invariably too slow getting units or spine crawlers. If I get my spine crawlers or units in what I think is time, it's because he's actually made DTs. And if they don't turn up, I get to yet again watch the mad spark of hope ten minutes of furious macro and expansion-denial has ignited casually pissed upon by his 200/200 2-base army.
I am not terribly good at ZvP.
ZvP: Future Development
The only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that it can't be as hard as I'm making it look. There must be something I'm missing. Maybe it's the angle of his zealot in the otherwise featureless gate/core/pylon face of his base. Maybe it's the number of minerals remaining on the third patch from the left, or the number of steps his stalker takes while killing my scouting overlord. Maybe it's a unit composition that doesn't become obsolete ten seconds after I've assembled it. Maybe it's just banelings. Whatever it is, my failure to apprehend it is wearing my asshole out something fierce.
Thanks for reading.
