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So I'm continuing practicing and refining my builds when I play on ICCup, and I'm noticing definite improvement in my play and results. Just the fact that at any given time, I know what I'm supposed to do next, so I rarely have periods of time in games where I'm not really doing anything.
As for my record, it has improved, though not by much, as I've usually been getting the urge to play during Korean time. Still I've escaped with a win or two during those times, after a horrible 15 game losing streak. Later, I had the chance to play against D-level players during US time, and the difference is ridiculous; players can't even build their first pylon/depot at the correct time, messing up their build before the game is even underway (though in all honesty they probably don't even have a build either). The biggest difference I noticed was scouting. Korean's and people who play at Korean time are scouting constantly, whereas people who play at US time just play blind after their initial scout is killed. On to the stats, etc:
1v1 analysis:
Zerg(31 games)
( 9)ZvZ: 2-7 22.2%
(12)ZvP: 5-7 41.6%
(10)ZvT: 5-5 50.0%
12-19 38.7%
overall:
Zerg(66 games)
(15)ZvZ: 6- 9 40.0%
(26)ZvP: 9-17 34.6%
(25)ZvT: 9-16 36.0%
24-42 36.3%
ZvZ: I still prefer fast pool builds ZvZ, and almost exclusively go 9pool currently, often opting for an extremely fast lair. A problem I had in a couple games though, was that my opponent would achieve a greater economy while defending, protect himself with spore colonies, and outproduce me, since after about 4 or 5 mutas, my economy putters out and I'm left with 1hatch and no minerals to get another, or more drones. This came as a bit of a surprise to me, as I was of the opinion that spores are generally bad in ZvZ, as they're so very expensive, and will result in you having no map control. Of course, in those games, I did have map control for a while, but I couldn't do anything with it as my economy was non-existent.
ZvP: So I've got a game plan for ZvP. What I'm currently doing is a 3hatch spire into 5hatch hydra, thanks to Chill's instructional FPVods and many recent ZvP progames featuring the build.
Though what I'm doing currently is making 9 mutas as soon as the spire finishes, similar in style to 3hatch muta ZvT. Even if they make cannons in their min line, I like the map control, mobility, and harassment potential of mutas in ZvP. They also help buy me time to mass up a large hydra army and get relevant upgrades.
ZvT: So I've improved my 3hatch muta BO to include speedlings as per a good suggestion by Tropics in ICCup report 5, and partially due to my practice partner causing my old 3hatch muta build some serious problems with a fast siege build, designed to show up at my nat and start the pressure just as I'm about to morph my mutas (though that's partially my own fault as I scouted with 9drone, saw fast gas, and I guess I forgot about it, because I didn't adapt at all, even failing to notice the lack of expo@nat).
Of course, there are many TvZ builds specialized against 3hatch muta, which is why I wanted to learn another build for ZvT to diversify my gameplay. Happily, my practice partner had a very interesting idea for an early-game ZvT strategy, which we refined through some playtesting, and so far has gone 4-0 on ICCup, though against admittedly poor opposition. Still, the idea is solid, and involves an amount of pressure and harassment, yet with a strong enough economy to smoothly transition into midgame. I'll not go into more detail on it yet though, but suffice it to say it fills the slot of an alternative ZvT to 3hatch muta, at least for now.
Questions:
ZvZ:
1. If you play ZvZ, is there a "standard" build order you use? What is it? If you like to alternate between 2 or 3, I'd like to hear those as well.
ZvP:
1. Is there a point where mass hydra becomes ineffective and switching to ultra/ling or perhaps some other combination is better? If so, when and what combination? I know it's dependent on Protoss' army composition, but assume something like mass zeal + a few archons and high templar. Mass zeal and high templar seem like an indication that it's time to move away from mass hydra, but archons and templar tear apart ultra/ling too unless I have far superior numbers and a good flank. Is hydra/ultra an option? Ultras would be the meatshield while the mass hydra do their thing. What are your thoughts?
ZvT:
1. Why aren't dropships used more often? I really have trouble dealing with a large mnm/tank force roaming the map, and 1 or 2 dropships flying elsewhere. My macro goes from bad to terrible, meanwhile I lose several drones or an expo or tech buildings like pool/ultra cavern/defiler mound/evos etc. Then when I'm trying to deal with the drop, my army on the map gets caught out of position and taken out. I've tried putting a sunk at each base once drops become a possibility, and it has helped, but a sunk can't protect the whole expansion, not to mention upgraded mnm can take out a sunk pretty quickly with minimal loss. Any suggestions?
As always, comments and constructive criticism welcome.
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I know the old ZvZ was basically a rock-paper-scissors match of 9 pool vs. 12 pool vs. 12 hatch; however, I think that might have changed now. I do not really see anything wrong with those three different builds for ZvZ, though.
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IMO, for ZvZ you're going to have to alternate between builds. Although there will probably always be a build you use more often than others...for example i like to use 9 gas 12 pool. Works nicely  Speed + lair at the same time. It's really nice.
I'm sure this has been said somewhere with a much better explanation but i don't think hydra/ultra is ever a good idea. You might as well save the gas to get ultras and use the minerals to get cracklings. You can probably go mass hydra for the game...but i generally want to get hive tech ASAP as long as my eco can handle it. It's really about your style of game and how you want to play out ZvP whether on lair tech or hive tech.
and i suck at ZvT so i won't even talk about that 
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this is a great iccup blog! 5/5
95% of the others are absolute crap
i haven't played since october '06, otherwise i'd like to give some feedback T_T
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ZvZ I usually go 9 pool fast lair, but I make sure I know what my opponent is doing. If they FE I try to over run with zerglings, if they play similar style to me I try to get my 2nd hatch up faster, ect
ZvP my favorite strat is mass hydras. The main problem with mass hydra ZvP is hts, so I try to have a control group of mutas for picking those off before I engage. I find hydras more effective for taking out archons than ultraling. And zealots.. well they're good versus anything zerg ground except lurkers, but hydras can beat them if your numbers are great.
ZvT drops are always hard to deal with. I've been seeing less of them since mech became popular though. Make sure you spread your overlords properly to scout dropships flying around, and keep a few scourge around ready to snipe. Also a good alternative to mutas ZvT is fast lurkers. Good for slowing the terran army down until they get vessels, and if they fe, lurkerling is probably the best early game allin.
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I'm not nearly as good of a player as you are (still dead in the D range), but for ZvP, against a zealot-heavy army, hydras are only good with better positioning (concave), flanks (templar sniping), and superior numbers.
What will really turn the tide is mixing in lurkers. If you keep the lurkers mixed with your hydras (not in front of them), a few will REALLY make a difference. However, if he really went for an extremely zealot-heavy army, you have to make sure that you use your hydras (or lings) to buffer the lots from getting to your lurks or they die quickly anyway.
Having a lot of lurkers is always best , but it's a bit expensive to maintain a high count (well...hydra/lurker is expensive anyway). ):
EDIT
BTW, that was a great post...five stars. (:
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On January 26 2009 13:41 hasuprotoss wrote:
I know the old ZvZ was basically a rock-paper-scissors match of 9 pool vs. 12 pool vs. 12 hatch; however, I think that might have changed now. I do not really see anything wrong with those three different builds for ZvZ, though.
i still see it as a rock paper scissors game but its not guaranteed that the favorite player with the stronger bo will win because the underdog can still micro their way to a win (ie better ling positioning, better muta vs scourge micro, etc)
ZVZ
i usually predict what my opponent is going to do, but if i dont know him i usually go overpool and gas at the same time, drones, lings when pool finishes (about 6-10), lair, lings and an expo til spire gets up, mutas.
ZVT
i try going 3 hat mutas but never works out so i got 3 hat lurk/lings. i suck at it tho...
ZVP
3 hat hydras
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ZvZ I pretty much always do 9 pool speed and do everything I can to snipe drones or otherwise damage his eco.
95% of players go 1 hat lair now but I've always had more success with eco damage->2nd hatch in main->outproduce
the drone advantage you get from a 2nd hatch is just unreal
ZvP try to snipe templars and observers basically, he can't really attack you without both so just keep making things difficult for him until you can really run him over (there's a guide in the strat section by smi.lols about midgame fighting in ZvP and ZvT when their army advantage seems big
ZvT leave scourge on patrol in areas where dropships are likely to fly through. 2 scourge are 25/75 and will likely get 475/125 in mnm/dropship so it's a pretty sick deal to leave a lot of scourge around, and even if you don't use them, there's always vessels. but you have to have those ovies watching the low-traffic areas constantly, you can bet that's where the drops are coming through
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For ZvZ I my "default" build is generally overpoolgas, but on some of the larger maps I do 12pool, and I use a specialized build just for Destination.
I lose half of my ZvZs though, regardless.
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ZvZ
9 ovie
9 pool
8 gas
Make drones till 10
6 lings
1. 100 gas for speed
2. 100 gas for lair
check his ling count and adapt and then mutawars
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In zvp you use hydralisks because of two reasons;
1: Because they're your best shot against air based tosses and against reavers.
2: Because they mix well with mutalisks, though not good enough to warrant a long time muta/hydra combination for your main army. Only good enough to be used when you already have the mutas (most of them anyway) left-over since the harass.
The muta/hydralisk combo is mostly only useful for a single battle, afterwards he will be better prepared for it and you will have lost some mutalisks. Start transitioning towards lurkers and zerglings after either the first battle or once his army is about to become so big that you are unlikely to do a good job picking off his templars.
Vs a reaver opening you want to start transition toward lurkers as soon as he starts building his army around the templar rather than the reaver.
If he' using zealot/archon/templar and the game has gone so far that you could possibly be using ultralisks, then only hydralisks is an absolutely pathetic unit combination. A hydralisk/lurker combination can be useful vs the standard zealot/goon/temp/arch combo but I find lurker/ling a lot better once you are rid of those corsairs.
As for zvz, you're best off doing the same build every single game you play on one map (even when playing the same opponent) and working out how to deal with all the different stuff that may happen. Listen to Day[9]'s audio for some more in-depth information. As for the specific build to practice, there are many viable ones. Most is some variation of a one-hatch lair (should add a second hatch later) or a fast expand.
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this season i havent played many games(around 40) and haven't hit C-(but have in the past). take my experiences with a tablespoon of cyanide. I've been overpoolgassing in every matchup because I'm scared of cheese, first 100 gas to speed and then back to mining minerals. also the continuity helps my fundamentals i think.
ive been trying 2 hatch lurk a lot in ZvT, typically what happens is that I kill their scout with my speedlings after letting them see i took my workers off of gas, and then put them back on if I like what I am seeing with my scouting lings/ovie/drone. haven't had too much trouble preventing them scouting with speedlings on maps I'm familiar with, but I'm sure better players would probably find a way. against a lot of D/D+ players they haven't had the control to fight back my first few lurkers or first reinforcements without losing some units, positioning, or map control to midgame.
haven't played a solid FE protoss yet, so I don't know how it would turn out but I do the same thing against FE but get my third hatch a bit sooner but still after some lurks. I don't really have the ability to kill the cannons at the nat(usually, unless my speedlings wreak havoc) so I transition into map control power drone as soon as possible, because of his typically late obs. I don't know the timing yet, but I have had to keep scourge around towards some point in the early midgame, something in a shuttle, usually reaver, is pretty much guaranteed. (or maybe I'm just paranoid?)
Occasionally I have gone 2 hatch muta but I think that's a lot easier to counter. Most tosses I have played gone 2 gate rush at the D/D+ level, which usually works to my advantage with the overpoolgas
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EPT
