• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 08:37
CEST 14:37
KST 21:37
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall8HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, Rogue, Classic, GuMiho0TL Team Map Contest #5: Presented by Monster Energy6
Community News
Flash Announces Hiatus From ASL42Weekly Cups (June 23-29): Reynor in world title form?12FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event16Esports World Cup 2025 - Final Player Roster16Weekly Cups (June 16-22): Clem strikes back1
StarCraft 2
General
RELIABLE USDT RECOVERY SERVICE//TECHY FORCE CYBER The SCII GOAT: A statistical Evaluation Statistics for vetoed/disliked maps Esports World Cup 2025 - Final Player Roster How does the number of casters affect your enjoyment of esports?
Tourneys
RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series [GSL 2025] Code S: Season 2 - Semi Finals & Finals $5,100+ SEL Season 2 Championship (SC: Evo) FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event HomeStory Cup 27 (June 27-29)
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 480 Moths to the Flame Mutation # 479 Worn Out Welcome Mutation # 478 Instant Karma Mutation # 477 Slow and Steady
Brood War
General
Flash Announces Hiatus From ASL BW General Discussion [ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Help: rep cant save
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL20] GosuLeague RO16 - Tue & Wed 20:00+CET The Casual Games of the Week Thread [BSL20] ProLeague LB Final - Saturday 20:00 CET
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do.
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile What do you want from future RTS games? Beyond All Reason
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Trading/Investing Thread The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread NBA General Discussion Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NHL Playoffs 2024
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Blogs
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
Blog #2
tankgirl
Game Sound vs. Music: The Im…
TrAiDoS
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 623 users

The Importance of Mutas in ZvT P1

Blogs > SC2John
Post a Reply
EsportsJohn
Profile Blog Joined June 2012
United States4883 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-07-27 10:01:54
July 27 2013 10:01 GMT
#1
The Importance of Mutas in ZvT

Table of Contents:

Part I:
1) Introduction
2) New Muta Survivability
3) The Perks of Having Harassing Flyers
4) The Zerg Midgame in Context

Part II:
5) Transitions
6) Closing Thoughts
7) About Me

Introduction: In recent posts on TL, I've noticed a lot of people talking about zerg and all of the new problems in ZvT, including reaper openings, hellbat drops, mine drop, big 4M aggression, etc. In my HotS experience, I've been studying the play of ST_Life a lot and noticing how he uses a ton of ling aggression into muta/ling play to survive against a variety of things. In my opinion, mutas should be used to open the midgame 100% of the time in ZvT because of their versatility, their new durability, and the plethora of options it opens up for the zerg player. The focus of this article is to explain the new (essential) role of mutas in ZvT and the HotS mindset in the zerg midgame.

New Muta Survivability:
Mutas got a huge buff coming into HotS. With increased acceleration and immensely improved regeneration rates, HotS mutas are much faster and more resilient than their WoL counterparts, and now better suited to harassment. This being said, having a few mutas in HotS are just as good as big ball of mutas were in WoL in terms of both harassment and cutting off reinforcements. In other words, to achieve the same results in HotS, you can dump less supply and less gas into mutas for the same intended role.

In ZvT, 8-12 mutas are a perfect number for harassment, denying drops, and cleaning up mines. With the new survivability of mutas, players can take a shot from a widow mine or take on a drop and still have a healthy ball of mutas in the next 1-2 minutes. In WoL, if the muta health dropped into the red, it was basically a useless muta in any kind of direct engagement; in HotS, a muta in the red is practically a full health muta in 1-2 minutes and useful again. Less is more in HotS.

The Perks of Having Harassing Flyers:
Harassment is becoming a big part of HotS. With the addition of several fast, agile units with fairly good survivability (reapers, speedvacs, oracles, mutas), HotS is quickly becoming a game that stresses multi-tasking to its limits, especially in the ZvT matchup. Zerg's primary harassment tools are lings, burrowed roaches, and mutas. The most notable thing about the mutalisk is that is a flying harasser; while lings and roaches can be stopped with walloffs, bunkers, cliffs, etc., mutas are free from static defenses and can easily and nimbly dart around turrets, mines, bunkers, and terrain. This is important because it can force terran units all the way back into the main and also makes mutalisks great at cutting off reinforcements.

In addition to being able to bypass terrain, the second most important thing about having a flying harassment tool is that it forces turrets in ZvT. Terran can't always have marines in position to deal with mutas at all angles, so turrets in mineral lines, turrets at outlying expansions, etc., MUST be made in order to zone off mutas or buy time for ground forces to get there. Much like terran drops force some kind of static defense, mutas force static defense and minerals to go into things other than barracks and 4M.

Mutalisks are also the primary defense against drop play. In my opinion, mutas are now ESSENTIAL to deal with drop play now, because static defense and ling repositioning aren't strong enough to deal with the new speedvac boost. The nerfed infestor also has lost a lot of its effectiveness in dealing with drops.

Mutalisks are also great at killing off unprotected mines. With a critical number of mutas, it's possible to one-shot a mine before it has time to go off. This makes them invaluable as sweep-up crews.

In short, mutalisks are great harassment tools because they allow you to get to several places other units can't and because of their versatility in being used both offensively and defensively.

The Zerg Midgame in Context:

In modern ZvT, we see a lot of the terran sitting back playing economically for the first 12-14 minutes of the game and then suddenly jump into constant 4M aggression. Meanwhile, zerg players threaten to do busts while trying to get as strong of an economic lead as possible, transitioning into the mobile muta/ling/bling in order to deal with the absurdly powerful terran aggression. Mutas are required to deal with drops and the only units that really synergize well and deal with 4M well are ling/bling.

The goal of ZvT midgame is to get to 4 bases (8-10 geysers), get hive tech, and get out ultras to deal with the overwhelming power of 4M. The most difficult part of this is that almost all of the zerg's money MUST go into defending with banelings and static defense; in addition, the more bases zerg has, the more spread out they become, making the hyper-mobile 4M force even harder to contend with. In addition, there is a terrifying period of time in which terran has 3/3 upgrades and zerg is still morphing hive, and this is generally where we see most zerg's crumble and collapse. So the question here is: What edge can we get in order to survive until ultralisks? Is there a middle ground stepping stone between muta/ling/bling and hive tech?

This is where I believe mutalisks fit. I believe that by spending gas ONLY on 8-12 mutas and dumping all the rest into muta upgrades/burrow/overlord speed, etc., we can fairly easily afford a way to survive until hive tech. Looking back, it's apparent that we only need enough mutas to deal with drops and to snipe turrets. Any more than this is overkill. Instead of using an additional 800 gas on 8 more mutas, we can spend that gas on overlord speed and start dropping creep on all of terran's expansions, we can spend it on burrow and use burrowed banelings, we can use it on muta upgrades to increase the survivability on our existing mutas, we can use it on getting infestors faster or get hive faster. There are a number of ways we can spend that gas in more clever ways.

Of course, this is quite APM intensive on top of an already quite APM intensive strategy. But at the highest levels of play, shouldn't players be able to make use of this idea?


_

*
StrategyAllyssa Grey <3<3
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
RSL Revival
10:00
Season 1: Playoffs Day 1
Clem vs ChamLIVE!
Crank 1625
Tasteless889
IndyStarCraft 182
Rex152
3DClanTV 62
IntoTheiNu 56
LiquipediaDiscussion
The PondCast
10:00
Episode 53
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Crank 1625
Tasteless 889
Harstem 289
Lowko267
IndyStarCraft 182
Rex 152
ProTech58
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 44526
Rain 4121
Sea 3620
Horang2 2967
Jaedong 1208
EffOrt 756
BeSt 585
Larva 491
actioN 332
Stork 307
[ Show more ]
Mini 271
Last 221
ToSsGirL 219
Light 213
Snow 160
ZerO 151
Killer 145
hero 67
Sharp 59
Pusan 58
Mong 53
Mind 48
Rush 47
Sea.KH 39
Shinee 32
Nal_rA 30
JulyZerg 29
ajuk12(nOOB) 26
Noble 26
sSak 24
yabsab 20
soO 18
sorry 13
Sacsri 13
Movie 12
NaDa 12
Icarus 11
IntoTheRainbow 7
SilentControl 6
Bale 2
Dota 2
qojqva1278
420jenkins466
XcaliburYe461
BananaSlamJamma408
Counter-Strike
x6flipin749
allub207
oskar123
byalli55
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King151
Other Games
B2W.Neo876
DeMusliM525
hiko333
crisheroes288
Pyrionflax125
ArmadaUGS36
ZerO(Twitch)16
Organizations
StarCraft 2
ComeBackTV 940
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 35
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 3
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV507
League of Legends
• Nemesis3509
Upcoming Events
WardiTV European League
3h 24m
ByuN vs NightPhoenix
HeRoMaRinE vs HiGhDrA
Krystianer vs sebesdes
MaxPax vs Babymarine
SKillous vs Mixu
ShoWTimE vs MaNa
Replay Cast
11h 24m
RSL Revival
21h 24m
herO vs SHIN
Reynor vs Cure
OSC
1d
WardiTV European League
1d 3h
Scarlett vs Percival
Jumy vs ArT
YoungYakov vs Shameless
uThermal vs Fjant
Nicoract vs goblin
Harstem vs Gerald
FEL
1d 3h
Korean StarCraft League
1d 14h
CranKy Ducklings
1d 21h
RSL Revival
1d 21h
FEL
2 days
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
FEL
2 days
BSL: ProLeague
3 days
Dewalt vs Bonyth
Replay Cast
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
The PondCast
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
RSL Revival
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-06-28
HSC XXVII
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
Acropolis #3
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
Copa Latinoamericana 4
Championship of Russia 2025
RSL Revival: Season 1
Murky Cup #2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025

Upcoming

CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
SEL Season 2 Championship
FEL Cracov 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.