EPT“Marines are OP” shouted the millions of viewers on TwitchTV whenever they see a Zerg lose to a Terran.
That or Helions.
After MarineKing.Prime debut in GSL Open Season 2 against Nestea with his Mass Marine style, over a year ago, Bio only strategies have remained prominent in todays metagame of ZvT. Though not used by many since you do have to have wicked control.
Terran for the most part should be your easiest matchup of the 3.
It has been the most developed which means the most predictable.
New patch changes have only made early ZvT easier.
Currently I have about a 70% win rate in High Master/Brink of GM ZvT, so take what I say however you want it. I’m not a pro, but I am an aspiring pro who takes SC2 very seriously.
My style is the safe methodical style. I am currently writing this at work, so this is all going off of memory, but I feel like I am practiced in it enough to give you my point of view with good timings.
ZvT can start off in 3 ways(as of June 2012 Metagame).
1) CC first(2% of the time)
2) Reaper Opening(8% of the time)
2) 2 Rax pressure/All in(10% of the time)
3) Helion opening (80% of the time)
The percantages are made up, but they seem about right. This is for NA EU Server, by the way.
Obviously having Helions as the most popular of the metagame allows us to give ourselves a little edge in the early game.
There was a point and time where 2 rax was the real deal, and us zerg players had to master it.
Now since we are talking about ladder here(and not targeting specific players) we want to go with a semi greedy build that will help us get map control so we start off with the standard. This doesn’t die to 2 rax. Just pull drones like you always have and scout decently and you’ll be fine.
12-13 scout depending on map size
15 Hatch
15gas
15 pool
17 ov
15 gas? Why EggY why?
Well its quite simple. Early ling speed, with the option of doing whatever in the world you want to with that gas. Early ling speed will allow us to get that map control off of the hellions early game
OR
If they do happen to slip by your base you will have a more cost effective time dealing with them(assuming your control is half decent) But with my build you really shouldn’t have them slip in. Ever.
But lets go over the situations of which 15 gas can help us vs the certain opening
OR
Create some roaches to help you push out the hellion so you can expand
AND
the gas option allows you to be more reactive to how the terran is playing in my opinion. If I see he’s going for some herpderp marine all in, no worries I got the gas lets make some banes.
a) Command Center 1st
-This one is pretty self explanatory. They’ve invested so much into economy that you can either
a) take a quick 3rd since youll have map control before they can(since youll have speed)
b)or just bust them with 28 drones and mass lingbling, not taking guys off gas after you get speed for banelings. I have yet a terran to defend the attack. I’m not cheesing, I am punishing them for their greedy build simple as that.
b)Repear opening
-Reaper opening used to bank off the fact that you wouldn’t get speed for a while and they could forever kite your lings queens etc. It also banks off the fact you’re not really prepared. I doubt we will see this build anymore due to the queen buff. Maybe some sort of medivac reaper timing attack that I have seen some pros test out, but for the most part this build is a dead one. If they invest into 3 reapers it would delay their factory to much which would mean their tanks are delayed which means, Eco-Banebust/Mutas option is very viable attack against them since they put their tech behind so much to try to do medium-heavy eco damage at the beginning. If you see the tech lab on their rax, be sure to scout your natural if you don’t keep an OV their because there is going to be a bunker coming up.
c) Helion opening
Helion opening are good because they can deny your 3rd for quite a bit of time with just having 4 helions chill infront of your natural. The best 400 mineral investment a terran can make. The build just sets the terran up for any transition, quite a lot like my 15 gas because it allows me to transition however I like that what I like so much about it. If you see the terran going hellion the options are really endless. Banshee, mech, 1-1 marine drops, quick tank pushes anything really.
In this article we will be focusing on the Helion to Bio opening since this is the most widely used strategy and toughest to play against.
Lets us begin at the, Early Game
We get our scout off, if he happens to wall you in, its okay just take his gas. No banshees for him, better than losing your drone for nothing. Or if you are worried about early pressure from the 1st marine and you can’t run away just attack the marine. Every single damage counts early game.
So we take our hatch just when you get into his middle of his base, make drone, take gas when you hit a 100 minerals, that just seems to work out for me, I think ill try 16g 15p soon, I just keep forgetting.
Our 1st 3 overlord are key placements. With the new overlord speed this helps us get our OV’s in position. Before I would put my OV at my natural because it was too slow to make it anywhere else. Players like Mill.Stephano do still put OV’s at natural it all depends what your going to do with that OV. When you get into a game I want you to know where your 1st 3 overlords go(I go much farther than that I think I have up to atleast 100 supply where I put my ov’s) but have atleast 3 key overlord positions ready for each map) Places are map dependant but you want them around his 3rd/Natural, behind his main base, areas in the middle of the map that might have high ground which he cant see. Be smart about your OV placement. They really do matter from early to late game. They are the biggest key to winning ZvT actually. Everyzerg should take some time and have strategic spots to place them.
So when your pool finishes you should have 350 minerals and almost 100 gas. Personally, when I hit 80 gas I take one off and keep 2 on, then when I hit 100 I take 1 more off. This is enough for 2 queens and drone or save for your ling speed.
Now here you a few choices
a) go for some ling/bling all in off 28 drones
b)take 2 guys off gas keep 1 on for +1 melee upgrade
c)take all off and just focus on the macro, you can get +1 queen If you don’t have the 1 guy on gas.
Usually you would put down a Spine after your queen finishes, but with new queen upgrade, and how awesome queens have always been, get your 3rd queen. Players like ROOTDestiny and most of the ROOT players have opted not getting the Spine because you can safely defend vs hellion with those 2 queens with the new range.
I would like to say 3 queen is pretty standard these days. You can never have too many queens. At about 5:45-6mins take your macro hatch but use it to wall off your entrance. So for example lets say we are on Shaq Plat. The front can be walled off with a macro hatch, evo chamber and queens. You can set yourself for an early +1 melee if you keep 1 guy on gas. You can use this gas timing to take all your other gases(usually around 7 mins I believe) and from their on after you take your 3rd lair, 2nd evo chamber , etc. You want to be ahead of on par with terrans and their upgrades. The point of this build is to get 2-1/2-2 lings to defend from early-midgame pushes with a few infestors then transition into either BL or Ultras depending on your style of play and how the game is going.
At 7-8 mins you can drop in your OV scout. Things to watch for is SCV count, how much gas he’s used, is he going for mech or bio, how many rax he has up etc.
Its really simple if he has a lot of rax, hes coming soon, if he doesn’t he’s not and you’ll prob see a finished or finishing 3rd command center at that point, if you don’t there is something fishy coming up for sure.
If you don’t use the new-er roach approach to the matchup where you make 3-4 roaches to push out so you can expand, that’s okay because you can still shuttle your drone to your 3rd by just pushing out with some queens and lings. Just to scare him off from the front of the base.
With that 3rd queen you made early game use it for creed spread. Anytime any of your queen have more than 50 energy, use 25 of it for a creep tumour, especially in your main base. You ALWAYS want full vision of your main base whether it’s with OV’s or creep.
Creep spread is the 2nd main key to winning ZvT right behind OV spread.
Vision is what wins you games.
Now assuming you survived early game shenanigans and you had pretty decent control, congratulations you have made it to the Mid game. I wont go through every single strategy that you might face I’m giving an in-depth run down of what will happen and how you can go about stopping it. The good thing about this build you can get an influx of lings really fast with good injects make a few banes and defend almost all pushes. It is more of a reactive build in a sense.
So lets see what we should have
a)some lings
b)2-2-,2-1 upgrades going
c) infestation pit starting if you feel you can
d)get burrow upgrade when you can its to useful any point and time during the game. Sometimes you might let a drop in and you can really be cost effective by burrowing your drones. It will either waste a scan or force them to stay a little longer than they should have giving you a higher chance to completely shut down the drop
e) if I notice hes playing macro defensive style like me I will try to take my 4-5th around the 10-12 minute mark(5th coming down at 12ish) Always be a base ahead of Terran no matter what.
When do I take my hive, usually when I have a good amount of infestors and I feel safe enough to continue onto the hive tech which is usually 5 infestors, usually ill try to take 3 and do some 3 festor hit squads into his 3rd if possible. Anytime you can find a hole in the terrans defense take advantage of it.
Counter attacks are your best friend Mid to late game. You don’t need many just about 20-24 lings waiting somewhere out on the map ready to make a move into an expansion when he leaves. You don’t want to send so many lings that he counter pushes you and you lose, but just enough to be like “ugh that’s annoying” its not different when a terran makes a drop on you.
Remember small enough to matter, but not big enough to counter. That’s my motto. Hmm that doesn’t rhyme, well lets imagine it does.
While macroing and making sure if everythings perfect, I like to throw up either a spore-spine-spine or just a spore-spine in each of my bases.
THIS IS IMPORTANT.
But not just anywhere, put the spore in areas where you think it’s a possible drop spot(PDS). I have been doing this for a year, but now I am seeing top pro Zerg players finally starting to do this to. Getting 1 or 2 potshots off at a medivac with a spore crawler is Huuuuuuuuge. How many times have you watched pro games and the medivac “just escapes.” Not only does the spore crawler deter drops, but it also limits where he drops allowing you to positions lings in a more correct spot. Example in picture below.
Its not a big investment and it can save you more than anything. Many times you can catch a medivac in spore range and fungal it down. Itll take less fungals also to kill it.
Good Spore placement is key #3 for my winning ZvT games.
People are getting better. People are mimicking the MMA’s, the MarineKings much better than they were 6 months ago. So those drops are coming, drops can bring a terran from a losing position to a winning position in a matter of 10 seconds if you don’t respond correctly. The spore buys you time(the most valued resource in starcraft 2) and the spine buys you a little more time to. The less damage you take the better and if you happen to catch the medivac, that’s a huge victory for you.
So far the 3 keys we have covered
1) OV spread, if you cant see the drops/the army coming how can you set yourself up
2)Creep spread. Creep spread buys you time. You want the terran to “Crab walk across the map”
not zoom in straight infront of your natural. All terrans know that if they engage on creep they are taking a very big risk in losing their army in a 1 sided battle. Farther your creep the better it is.
3) Correct static defence positioning.
But EggY they can kill your creep so easy.
True, here is a mechanic I will reveal you today that almost no one uses, since it is very hard to remember in the juggle of the entire game.
Lets say we have 4 creep tumours at the front-ish of our natural. This is back at early mid game.
Only use 2 of the creep tumours to spread creap. 2 spreads pretty efficiently and keep the other 2 for later game.
We know creep is going to die.
Just like we know those drops are going to come.
What we are doing is keeping creep tumours in reserve so when your creep gets pushed back for whatever reason you don’t have to use your queen’s energy instead you’ll have “banked creep.”
If you have a queen dedicated to creep spread good, but always remember to have some creep tumors in your bank. You’ll be happy you did.
We enter the late game now. This is still the most volatile part of the matchup its all situational dependant and how the game has gone for you.
Were going to assume everyone has traded good and whatever and we are at an even matchup,
You can either go the broodlord route or ultra rout or ultra to broodlord all depending.
Of course finish your 3-3 upgrades, ling upgrade.
A recent up and coming player ROOTFitzy has been adding a decent a number of queens to his compositions whether its broodlord or ultra or both. If you don’t have the APM for it I wouldn’t suggest that you do this. Though usually spam clicking T(heal) can work even if you aren’t the highest level player. You just have to be patient, maybe catch him unsieged or if you get a good fungal off is a key indicator when you should engage. Its easier to engage with broods since you got the better siege ability and can force an unsiege.
But you have to be keep your corrupter count high enough to counteract the Vikings, getting 1-2 fungals off on Vikings with some queens firing at them can with you the engagement with ease.
Under investing into corrupters is how a lot of zerg lose games. Broods and a bunch of lings with a fungal and 2 will always rape a terran ground army, so don’t be to afraid to overmake corrupters. At worst they cant turn into broods right?
At late game your farthest expansions you want to invest into a few spine crawlers and spores because you don’t want them to drop 8 marines and then kill your entire mineral line.
When I put of my spine I like to do the ZigZag Method I find it’s the best
(picture added)
The yellow are spores.
Always put spore in a way that when you click on them they will make an 8. I find the 8 always protects you from all sides. You can do a vertical, diagonal, or horizontal 8. All of them seem to work, depending on what position the expansion is.
I can’t comment on the late game to much other than make sure you attend to drops at your expansion. Losing expansions carelessly can cause you to the game quite easily even if you have a lot in the bank, why not have more in the bank right?
Don’t lose a lot of lings carelessly. Because they are always the back bone of your army. If you lose them they have about a 30 second timing where they can push you even if you have brood infestor(unless it’s a really really high amount, but then would wouldn’t have a lot of lings)
The plus to having a composition with ultras that once you push you push.
with broods by the time they cross over the map the terran has scavenged another army that you have to break.
But all of this depends on your play style.
But if you’ve noticed what wins games vs ZvT isn’t your build order, but it’s the small things.
Correct spore positioning(and actually making them)
Overlord spread
and creep spread.
These small mechanics in ZvT can take you really far. Terran has many options to choose from and many side stratagies that if you don’t buy time by either run-bys, burrowing lings in expansions to block, overlord spread, creep spread you’re really putting yourself at an disadvantage.
Always keep 8-10 lings at expansions if you’re playing infestor ling style, mid game drops can add up a lot of damage to your late game even if they don’t kill a lot.
One last higher level mechanic that I forgot to mention is Ling Spread.
Ling spread is taking about 6-8 zergling and spreading them across the map to give you more map visions. It is the most simple maneuver but Zergs still fail to do this. This is mainly a sub-category to OV spread because it is mainly used to catch where drops are going. Place the ling on patrol so you always have vision of the darker corners of the map.
Just like Protoss has Forcefields to buy time, we have our options as well, use them wisely.
I think that’s all I wanted to say for now. I will cover ZvT mech in an upcoming article. I wanted to do this since it is the more prominent strategy.
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