EPT
) The finals MC vs Puma was great. Watching Puma in the NASL was a delight, I got the pleasure of seeing great and ridiculous drops and great ghost usage.
[link to VODs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIhMUn5GAeU］
After watching Puma's games vs Squirtle and MC, I thought about the great play of Puma and I had many questions. First, how was he was so good? What about his build order or playstyle made Puma stand out vs other Terran players?
Well Puma practices a lot, apparently according to Liquipedia, during Brood War, he was the most requested practice player, so he has definitely transferred great skill and game sense to SC2.
But moving on, about his build order and playstyle:
Puma prefers to get early medivacs for drops. He has gone for 1-1-1 in many games and producing medivacs quickly.
And his medivac usage is EXCELLENT (as Lindsey Sporer would say
)1. He carefully drops his units behind mineral lines and buildings, increasing effectiveness.
2. He does many multi-pronged drops
3. He will quickly load up again after doing damage, just to keep the medivac and the units inside alive
4. Puma is always dropping. The camera was on the drops for a long time. Even so... Gunrun, thanks for observing, and you’re excellent but still you couldn’t follow all the drops.
What does his drop play result in?
1. Most of all it results in great pressure on the Protoss
2. Protoss may eventually slip-up and a drop will do damage. In the games against Squirtle and MC, Puma slaughters hundreds (literally) of probes or sniping critical buildings. In fact, Puma was able to snipe the Twilight Council, which was just seconds from completing charge!
3. In addition to map presence of the main army, Puma’s drop play forces Protoss to continuely re-position his army and also warp in units, instead of teching or improving economy. In other words, Puma indirectly damages Protoss by forcing units.
Additionally, Puma is fearless with drops. In the finals against MC, he dropped even though there were phoenixes. That takes balls. Very large ones that only a Puma has. Although Puma did smartly drop while he knew the phoenixes would be far away from the drop.
Obviously, Puma’s drop play does a lot of damage. But another distinctive playstyle of Puma is his relatively early ghosts.
Ghosts are great units, emps are deadly. But honestly, when does Terran get them?
(I know myself as a lowly Plat Terran player I get them incredibly late after there’s bajillion templars with storms. Then I lose and QQ on late-game toss
)Well, Puma gets them early. Why does this matter?
1. Ghost energy acculamates quickly, so there’s lots of EMPs
2. The ghost number is greater, again so there’s lots of EMPs
3. EMPs are ridiculously good. It kills Protoss basically, removing shields and energy.
Next, I want to say the whole thing is better the sum of its parts. And it’s very true for Puma’s overall gameplay, which is more than good drop play and early ghosts.
Here’s a giant blob analysis:
Early medivacs can do massive damage or at worst pressure Protoss to defend at home and not move out. This allows earlier teching to ghosts, since you can safely divert resources from maruaders to ghosts, since Protoss is unlikely to attack.
Also mass sentries suck against this playstyle since
1. They are the worst at defending drops
2. There’s nothing to FF since Protoss has to defend drops and Terran doesn’t have to attack straight-up.
3. Ghosts will EMP.
Mass sentries is a scary thing, infinite FFs you know. But with this Puma style, Terran can LOL massively at mass sentries... after all sentries without energy is fail expensive damage tickler.
Incidentally, mass sentries is a playstyle of MC. Although I didn’t see too many sentries, perhaps MC has played Puma and realized that mass sentries suck against Puma.
Lastly, there’s the generalized fact that MMM is best mid-game, and Protoss is best late-game. It’s pretty true for the most part. You can get a nice MMM ball easily by 10 minutes and destroys cost for cost. Protoss is scary late-game. By using drops, it slows Protoss’s teching and economy, and also stops Protoss’s transition into the late game. And with ghosts, Terran can control the energy of Protoss spellcasters.
With a war of attrition in the mid game, Terran will easily win out.
TL;DR: Puma’s playstyle incorporates drop play to quickly pressure, contain and possibly damage Protoss and then adds ghosts for a very strong mid-game for Terran to drag Protoss into somewhat of a war of attrition, which will favor Terran.
I think Puma’s playstyle must definitely should be carefully studied. Perhaps Puma will be a trendsetter for TvP.
Closing comments:
I am a Platinum Terran, so I suck. My game knowledge not as good as wise Day9 or any high level player. Still I think I can do a decent analysis of Puma.
Also if you try Puma’s playstyle, remember you’re not Puma, you are not going to execute as well as Puma. Remember Puma practices a lot, apparently according to Liquipedia, during Brood War, he was the most requested practice player, so he has definitely transferred great skill and game sense to SC2. Yeah, just don’t get frustrated... Have fun.
Any comments or questions would be great. Thanks for reading this. Yeah.
