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This strategy was strongly inspired by the double proxy evo chamber strategy, and from the comments in that thread I can see other people have had the idea to use evolution chambers to block minerals.
Anyways I was wondering whether it would be possible to use evolution chambers to block minerals in zvz but I quickly ran into a problem. Evolution chambers fit perfectly into the space between the hatchery and the minerals, but can never be placed because there are drones there. So I realized that in order for the evo chambers to be placed down the drones couldn't be there.
So I decided to work in the evolution chambers with a 10 pool. The goal of this is to use the early lings to force the drones away from the opponents hatchery so 2 of my drones can drop down evolution chambers. What is so nice about this is that because evolution chambers fit so perfectly between minerals it is hard for the opponent to attack them and take them down before they finish. You want them to finish so they will spawn broodlings upon dying, discouraging the opponent from killing them.
You could of course place spine crawlers instead of evolution chambers but they die faster and cost more.
This is an image of the evolution chambers after they have been placed.
![[image loading]](http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/4194/proxyevozvz.png)
This is the replay of a game I tested this with.
Manor evolution chambers zvz
As a new TL member I hope I'm not making to many threads, hmm.
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I'd be pissed if I was your opponent
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This is pretty freakin sweet. My concern would be that, not only do their drones have to leave the mineral line for a bit to let you do this, you're spending 150 minerals and 2 drones on 2 evo chambers with your 10pool economy and because its on creep, they aren't even the ticking time bombs like in ZvT. He could just build the 6 extra lings that you forfeited on the evos, ignore your evo chambers, and overrun you at your base.
E: although maybe you could find some good bases where you can effectively wall in a spine crawler against the minerals, protected by the 2 evos, making it nearly unassailable once it completes.
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LOL I didn't realize how hilarious it would look until I saw the picture. I'd probably laugh out loud if that happened to me.
I'm not sure how long it'd take for you to break even on that, but it's still totally awesome either way
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Haha, this strat is hilarious. I'm not sure how valid it is a few minutes into the game - but I know banelings are GREAT at scaring drones away from the mineral line. Imagine manner-evoing your opponent twice - after the 10-pool and after the baneling bust. Splendiferous.
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imagine if you could trap 2-3 of those drones right in the space between the evo chambers and the crystals on the left side. That would definitely give you some advantage back there, especially if you do it at 10 pool.
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Thats actually really funny.
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I think the fact that you have to chase the drones away before building the chambers makes this tactic quite ineffective.
But maybe you could use it as a new kind of gas steal: wait for him to build his extractor and put an evo chamber between the hatch and the gas right before the extractor finishs  The problem is that he could cancel his extractor and build it on the other gas. But of course you could also cancel the evo chamber, or just build two of them. hmm... it's complicated. Oh and also, cancelling it right before it finishs would put him behind in time. I think I'll actually try this on ladder.
edit: I just tried blocking my own gas with an evo chamber, I still got quite a lot of gas, so maybe this is not as good as I thought :-/
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This is creative, like seriously. and its funny too.
It mite be something I mite just do with friends lol.
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lol thats gg right there. He's probably getting 1/4 to 1/3 amount of minerals.
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Anyone tried to wall off by placing creep tummor near ramp on canceled hachery? Or hiding banleing nest form terran like that ?
I'm protoss player and zerg is my offrace but im only experimenting right now.
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Quick someone go do this to IdrA in a tournament!
:D
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Or just 2x manner Evo at the extractors, and your opponent can't really kill them.
Do that while fast teching to banes.
Forces your opponent out of their crucial gas timing, bane defense is godly vs lings. Your opponent will never be able to tech to mutas nearly as fast as he needs to.
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I thought this was a pretty nifty trick, I especially liked when the broodlings got out and killed a few units.
But how often does someone follow your lings with all his workers?
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As oesis's friend online I can attest that he comes up with some cool ideas  That is definatley a funny example picture lol.
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Oh, is that what Cadenza tried to do vs me in the [uk&ire]minis ?? hahaha, good effort i guess.
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Haha quite funny but the drones go to the back wasting mining time.
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i usually 10 pool on 2v2 and if its against a zerg i usually get there either before or a little after their spawning pool gets up, and upon seeing my lings they usually start spamming lings so i go for the mineral line asap, they usually try to fend off the attack with drones but with proper micro you can take out almost half of the drone count before his lings morph even though zerglings are weak. I haven't tried this strategy but it will definitely work since the player has to either attack my lings or pull them off the minerals. in the meantime i can drop 2 evo chambers and make another 6 lings to clean off his reinforcements.
now i believe this will be very advantageous on 2v2s but if it was 1v1 i feel there will be trouble if the player goes 10 pool as well (which happens alot when i zvz for some odd reason).
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On August 27 2010 06:46 MrKozi wrote:
Anyone tried to wall off by placing creep tummor near ramp on canceled hachery? Or hiding banleing nest form terran like that ?
I'm protoss player and zerg is my offrace but im only experimenting right now.
it works, I just tried it and ended up building a wall at my Kulas Ravine choke with the initial creep tumor 2 evo chambers and some spines behind it, put two queens behind that for transfusion and bust your destructible rocks for a transition into a walled-off 2 base muta build.
edit: it can be tricky to get your queen to actually spit out the tumor... took a couple of clicks, think the trick is to place the tumor on the far side of the creep puddle after cancelling the hatch, so she's standing in it when she places the creep tumor.
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I will add my own stuff to this, and OP you can put this in the original post if you want, you have full permission.
If the photobucket picture doesn't work the picture link underneath it will send you to my skydrive which also works, if someone else has imageshack and whats to upload those pictures for me or the OP that'd be great PM me or him the link.
Drone larvae Block
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/greuju/Starcraft/DroneLarvaeBlock991x761.jpg)
this shows you can wall off someones base with 4 evolution chambers and their spawning pool or 5 drones.
an idea of using this would be to send 5-6 drones around 10 supply and wall them off with the 4-5 and build 1-2 spine crawlers when it permits
this block off would allow you to kill their hatchery without them being able to stop you at all, you could also just severely injure their hatchery and start taking down your evolution chambers so that you could unleash hell on them or even transition this into some form of a hatchery rush
Larvae Block
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/greuju/Starcraft/LarvaeBlock579x645.jpg)
\
This ones the evilest one I came up with, it will most likely not work against someone that has minerals under their hatchery unless you can get their drones to run or you have a lucky timing, but if the conditions permit you can completely wall off their larvae which means they HAVE to kill them with the units they produce that isn't air.
one awesome thing about this one though is the fact that you could do this at any point of the game, like if someone gets a fast expansion, all you need is 2-3 evolution chambers to screw with them. I think this could almost be a standard counter to a FE
Evo Spine Rush
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/greuju/Starcraft/EvoSpineRush593x456.jpg)
This one is just epic, its near impossible to wall behind the minerals because the creep spread is so short back there but if you position your evolution chambers right next to the hatchery similar to how I have you can wall off your spine crawler completely, it seems like you need 2 blocks of coverage on the hatchery and evolution chambers and only one block on the far side for some reason.
The other configurations I tried let drones in.
you could also do a "semi block" with just 4 evo chambers and send drones to wall off against the opponents drones.
building a spine crawler behind their base then building the evo chambers followed by the next spine crawler would be the best way to set this up, it'd require 6 drones however
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On August 27 2010 05:54 Silent12ill wrote:
I'd be pissed if I was your opponent
This
im not sure if it is worth it this early in the game, you would need to do this super early and im not sure its worth what it costs in minerals and the detriment to your economy
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I love some of the ideas that are being thrown around in this thread, but I'm a bit worried about their cost relative to the time they have to come out to be effective. I'll definitely have to try some of this out, though.
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On August 27 2010 11:00 Mindspider wrote:
I love some of the ideas that are being thrown around in this thread, but I'm a bit worried about their cost relative to the time they have to come out to be effective. I'll definitely have to try some of this out, though.
I used it in a non competitive setting but where he did still react like normally and it does actually work, evolution chambers are only 75 and they're guaranteed to kill a worker or 2-3 lings which almost pays for them right there, the travel time is a big deterrent but I'm almost positive the larvae block one could be used in a competitive environment. it'd stop someone from being able to saturate a base until they killed them off and it'd throw them off their game, all for 150-325
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personally, i dont think a 10 pool would be early enuff to get lings there early enuff to force him to pull all his drones on basically any map that wasnt steppes.
if ur gonna be forcing him to pull all his drones to defend, i dont see why u dont just put a spine crawler behind his minerals and defend it with ur lings. then its gg right then and there.
basically what im saying is if he's in a position where he has to pull all his drones, why not just make a crawler?
this is creative, but gimmicky and probably not actually a good strategy
sorry to sound like such a cynic tho 
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Gregg one problem with your strat is that it would take a great deal of minerals, and pulling workers off the line means you will have less minerals to spend but It might be possible to work your strat into a slower a build like a 12 pool, since drones can build instantly after the pool goes down and don't have to cross the map like lings do. Though I must admit the larva block seems pretty cool.
Subversion, I actually think dropping down 2 spines could work to draw drones away, and it would mean I could skip making ling allowing me to drone harder. Though I think a 10 pool is enough to get people to pull drones, since the fewer drones you pull the more you will lose when they engage the lings. I have lost games to 10 pools because I underestimated to threat and didn't pull enough drones.
Lastly I don't believe blocking gas is effective since it only takes 1 more drone to have fully saturated gas even while blocked, and you spent a drone blocking meaning you break even while costing 75 min.
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might not be a 100% effective strat but if it pisses off your opponent it might already be worth it, these mind games can really throw your enemies off their game and can screw up their plan, still giving you an advantage
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This is taking the double evo build to the next level. I don't think it would be too easy/practical to pull off, but if this were to be done at a major tournament....mayhem.
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lmao too bad it only works in ZvZ
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EPT![[image loading]](http://cid-040db5b5c19e0406.photos.live.com/self.aspx/Starcraft/Drone%20Larvae%20Block%20%5E5991x761%5E6.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://cid-040db5b5c19e0406.photos.live.com/self.aspx/Starcraft/Larvae%20Block%20%5E5579x645%5E6.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://cid-040db5b5c19e0406.photos.live.com/self.aspx/Starcraft/Evo%20Spine%20Rush%20%5E5593x456%5E6.jpg)
