• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 21:41
CEST 03:41
KST 10:41
  • 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
TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection1Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview4[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies21Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview2herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026)7
Community News
StarCraft II 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes may 26th103Weekly Cups (May 18-25): MaxPax wins doubles0Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League4Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double1Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results2
StarCraft 2
General
Changing from 12 to 8 is just asking for StarCraft The death of cheese, from a professional cheeser. StarCraft II 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes may 26th TL Poll: How do you feel about the 5.0.16 PTR balance changes? Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double
Tourneys
GSL Code S Season 2 (2026) Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! RSL Revival: Season 5 - Qualifiers and Main Event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 528 Infection Detected Welcome to the External Content forum Mutation # 527 Hell Train
Brood War
General
Soma's ASL Finals Review FlaShFTW vs A.Alm Grudge Match Event BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ VPN experiences OGN to release AI-upscaled StarLeague from Feb 24
Tourneys
[ASL21] Grand Finals [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2 [BSL22] WB Final & LB Semis - Saturday 21:00 CEST
Strategy
Any training maps people recommend? Muta micro map competition [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread ZeroSpace Megathread Path of Exile Dawn of War IV
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
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Trading/Investing Thread US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Dating: How's your luck?
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
McBoner: A hockey love story 2024 - 2026 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Facing Challenges in Mobile App Development
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Esportsmanship: How to NOT B…
TrAiDoS
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 5388 users

Are infestors or ultralisks useful in ZvZ?

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
Post a Reply
SiarX
Profile Joined December 2021
133 Posts
December 27 2021 07:59 GMT
#1
Plague looks like it could be devastating in theory... does it work in practice?

Do ultralisks have a use?
prosatan
Profile Joined September 2009
Romania8898 Posts
December 27 2021 08:17 GMT
#2
There are no infestors in Broodwar. If you think of defilers instead, yes, they are useful in late ZvZ and I remember the trend was to build two defiler mounds. You can check some games of ex pro player Great to see.
Usually the ZvZ games end before ultralisk, so I don't think they are usefull in pro / top amateur games.
Lee JaeDong Fighting! The only church that illuminates is the one that burns.
Return
Profile Joined June 2005
Ivory Coast859 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-12-27 14:10:27
December 27 2021 12:54 GMT
#3
Ultralisks cost a lot and zvz is most of the time very low eco, even in late late game scenarios. And another issue with ultras is that die to spawn broodling
Diiiscoo-oh, thats where the happy people go!
SiarX
Profile Joined December 2021
133 Posts
December 27 2021 15:49 GMT
#4
Ah, misprinted - defilers of course.
aokces
Profile Joined October 2006
United States309 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-12-27 19:17:42
December 27 2021 19:14 GMT
#5
Plague absolutely wrecks in any matchup and has great casting range too, Absolutely decimates Bio Balls, clumped mech, air, everything protoss that's not archons. it just requires a lot of dedicated to micro to have ur defilers around, protected, and full of mana.
Ultralisks are tanky, especially vs marines. But need zergling support to do dps, they're great in open areas but in chokepoints they will just run around and get slaughtered by splash damage. Great late game option if you have the 4 gases to support them.

https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/Ultralisk

Plagued marines vs Irradiated Ultralisks are also hilarious.
SiarX
Profile Joined December 2021
133 Posts
December 27 2021 21:45 GMT
#6
On December 28 2021 04:14 aokces wrote:
Plague absolutely wrecks in any matchup and has great casting range too, Absolutely decimates Bio Balls, clumped mech, air, everything protoss that's not archons. it just requires a lot of dedicated to micro to have ur defilers around, protected, and full of mana.
Ultralisks are tanky, especially vs marines. But need zergling support to do dps, they're great in open areas but in chokepoints they will just run around and get slaughtered by splash damage. Great late game option if you have the 4 gases to support them.

https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/Ultralisk

Plagued marines vs Irradiated Ultralisks are also hilarious.


I know but I was talking about ZvZ
Jealous
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
10326 Posts
December 27 2021 21:50 GMT
#7
Both are sometimes used in late game ZvZ. Plague on Mutalisks/Devourers is strong. Ultras can help soak damage for Zerglings, as they do in other MUs, and help bust positions that are defended by Lurker/Sunk/Defiler. However, these are very rare situations to be in.

Add yet another "Yes" to your growing list of "Does x unit get used?" threads.
"The right to vote is only the oar of the slaveship, I wanna be free." -- бум бум сучка!
prosatan
Profile Joined September 2009
Romania8898 Posts
December 28 2021 09:30 GMT
#8
Please watch these games:

Jaedong vs Yellow on Match Point - the best ZvZ ever !
+ Show Spoiler +



Zero vs Type-B on Match Point - with an analysis made by Day9:
+ Show Spoiler +




Part 2 of the game Zero vs Great - casted by Moletrap
+ Show Spoiler +


s2.pRo vs Gambler - 45 min long ZvZ (game casted by Falcon Paladin)

+ Show Spoiler +


Cheers
Lee JaeDong Fighting! The only church that illuminates is the one that burns.
Akio
Profile Blog Joined January 2019
Finland1838 Posts
December 28 2021 10:21 GMT
#9
Plague is pretty bonkers in all matchups, even ZvZ if it goes late enough
Mine gas, build tanks.
SerpentFlame
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
417 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-12-28 23:22:22
December 28 2021 23:20 GMT
#10
(Not an expert here)

The cost of going Queens Nest -> Hive -> Defilers Mound -> Plague -> Consume -> Defiler is
100+150+100+200+100+150 = 800 gas. That's 8 mutalisks of gas. One issue is that this move doesn't pay for itself until you get all of the above, meaning you're fighting at a gas/mutalisk deficit for a long time. ZvZ often gets decided by mutalisk fights of 4-20 mutalisks, so being down 8 mutalisks is a LOT.

It does happen in rare occasions, as shown in the above games. But there's a reason it's rare. As far as I can tell, defilers only become viable in games where mutalisk escalation gets really crazy (> 40 mutalisks flying around, this is what happens in the YellOw vs Jaedong game above) and thus 800 gas isn't that much of an investment, or else one player has a good spread of spore colonies and chooses to rush fast hive (which can be countered by the other player aggressively expanding).
I Wannabe[WHITE], the very BeSt[HyO], like Yo Hwan EVER Oz.......
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
OSC
00:00
OSC Elite Rising Star #19
CranKy Ducklings114
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SpeCial 1779
ROOTCatZ 115
Ketroc 52
StarCraft: Brood War
GuemChi 5762
Artosis 718
Nal_rA 67
NaDa 43
Dota 2
monkeys_forever621
League of Legends
Doublelift7997
JimRising 545
Counter-Strike
Fnx 1787
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King48
Other Games
summit1g18629
hungrybox514
Maynarde141
UpATreeSC105
RuFF_SC225
Nina9
minikerr6
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1171
Counter-Strike
PGL126
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• CranKy Ducklings SOOP107
• Hupsaiya 91
• davetesta58
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Upcoming Events
Wardi Open
10h 19m
Monday Night Weeklies
14h 19m
Replay Cast
22h 19m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 8h
WardiTV Spring Champion…
1d 9h
Maestros of the Game
1d 13h
The PondCast
2 days
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
2 days
Maestros of the Game
2 days
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
WardiTV Spring Champion…
3 days
Maestros of the Game
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
4 days
Maestros of the Game
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Solar vs Classic
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
5 days
GSL
6 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
6 days
BSL
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

KK 2v2 League Season 1
RSL Revival: Season 5
Heroes Pulsing #1

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Acropolis #4
CSCL: Masked Kings S4
YSL S3
SCTL 2026 Spring
WardiTV Spring 2026
Maestros of the Game 2
2026 GSL S2
Murky Cup 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026

Upcoming

BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Heroes Pulsing #3
Heroes Pulsing #2
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
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 © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.