• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 01:29
CET 07:29
KST 15:29
  • 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
RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups C & D Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups A & B Preview2TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners12Intel X Team Liquid Seoul event: Showmatches and Meet the Pros10[ASL20] Finals Preview: Arrival13
Community News
[TLMC] Fall/Winter 2025 Ladder Map Rotation12Weekly Cups (Nov 3-9): Clem Conquers in Canada4SC: Evo Complete - Ranked Ladder OPEN ALPHA8StarCraft, SC2, HotS, WC3, Returning to Blizzcon!45$5,000+ WardiTV 2025 Championship7
StarCraft 2
General
Zerg is losing its identity in StarCraft 2 Mech is the composition that needs teleportation t RotterdaM "Serral is the GOAT, and it's not close" RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups C & D Preview [TLMC] Fall/Winter 2025 Ladder Map Rotation
Tourneys
RSL Revival: Season 3 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Constellation Cup - Main Event - Stellar Fest Tenacious Turtle Tussle Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2)
Strategy
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 499 Chilling Adaptation Mutation # 498 Wheel of Misfortune|Cradle of Death Mutation # 497 Battle Haredened Mutation # 496 Endless Infection
Brood War
General
FlaSh on: Biggest Problem With SnOw's Playstyle BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ What happened to TvZ on Retro? SnOw's ASL S20 Finals Review BW General Discussion
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 [BSL21] RO32 Group D - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL21] RO32 Group C - Saturday 21:00 CET
Strategy
PvZ map balance Current Meta Simple Questions, Simple Answers How to stay on top of macro?
Other Games
General Games
Should offensive tower rushing be viable in RTS games? Path of Exile Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Clair Obscur - Expedition 33
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
TL Mafia Community Thread SPIRED by.ASL Mafia {211640}
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
White-Ra Fan Club The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread Korean Music Discussion Series you have seen recently...
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion NBA General Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023 TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
SC2 Client Relocalization [Change SC2 Language] Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Dyadica Gospel – a Pulp No…
Hildegard
Coffee x Performance in Espo…
TrAiDoS
Saturation point
Uldridge
DnB/metal remix FFO Mick Go…
ImbaTosS
Reality "theory" prov…
perfectspheres
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2108 users

TvP marine/banshee/raven defensive-style build

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Azzur
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia6260 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-07 18:47:53
December 07 2010 18:46 GMT
#1
The marine/banshee/raven is a well-known build with several variations where most of them aim for a strong attack off 2-bases. The motivation for this TvP build is a multi-purpose, flexible build that allows for a strong endgame army (viking/banshee/BC/marine/raven) without relying on the timing push. This build is mainly reactive and defensive, which may appeal to your playstyle. Banshees are used as harass options in the middlegame and endgame. I believe this build can handle any protoss response which thus makes it useful for laddering. So far, this build has served me well at the 2200 diamond level.

Opening
+ Show Spoiler +
- 10 supply (at choke), 12 rax (near CC), 13 gas, 15 OC, 16 supply
- marines + scvs constantly
- 2nd gas
- factory
- reactor on rax when you have 2-3 marines
- bunker
- starport after factory
- techlab on factory to swap with starport
- bunker
- raven
- cloak
- banshee

Notes:
- The rax-reactor which allows for production of sufficent marines to handle early attacks using 2 bunkers at the choke. 1 bunker is definitely needed but the 2nd can be avoided if your scouting is good.
- The 2nd gas before factory leads to 200 gas right as the starport finishes (sufficient for the raven).
- If the protoss expands, the terran should interrupt the build and immediately throw down a CC in response and then resume as normal.
- The "half-wall" helps negate early pressure while not being vulnerable to a wallin harass (e.g. by stalkers or VRs). This is done by placing the first supply at the choke but the rax near the CC. The supply allows for a quick emergency wallin while having the rax back means that it is not vulnerable to harass.


Midgame
+ Show Spoiler +
- I usually harass at 2 banshees.
- If you feel reasonably safe, expand then build the 2nd starport. If not, build the starport first.
- Add a couple of bunkers at your natural and place your army there.
- Add more starports (4-5).
- Build armory for upgrades.
- Army composition is marine/banshee/raven.
- Harass as much as possible with banshees. If they get phoenixes, build vikings in response and be conservative with your harass. If your airforce is caught by the phoenixes, run your banshees and let your vikings engage (and thus die) to buy time for the banshees to get away.
- If they are phoenix-heavy, don't be afraid to keep your banshees with your main army (i.e don't harass) and instead just try and get expansions.


Endgame
+ Show Spoiler +
- Build a fusion core.
- Army composition is viking/banshee/BC/marine/raven.
- Keep expanding using PFs and add more starports as money allows.
- Position your army in a good location with the ability to defend expansions. Ideally, you want them to engage you while you are in a strong defensive position. Bring some SCVs for auto-repair.
- The protoss has no hard-counter to BCs and they perform reasonably against HTs/stalkers.
- Don't forget to keep upgrading air.


Some protoss responses
+ Show Spoiler +
2-gate robo
- Scout their expansion timing and pop down a CC if they do it early.
- If they play defensively, try and get your expand down first and out-econ them.

4-gate
- Be extremely defensive and don't be afraid to keep your banshees at home for defence.
- When you've held their attack, you can expand instead of trying to press home the win.

1-gate FE
- Interrupt your opening and build a CC straight away. They will probably be on the defensive, so bring your banshees to harass as soon as possible.
- I generally don't try to go for a timing attack.

3-gate 1-star
- Once you see the VRs, make vikings in response and stick on the defensive. I try and expand first before going on the attack.
- I would stick to marines/vikings and not get turrets.

2-star
- The defence for this is simlar to the 3-gate 1-star build (I would also not get turrets).

3-gate (or 4-gate) blink stalkers
- The double bunker should be able to protect you. However, it is likely that you'll need to pull SCVs to defend against this.

Zealot/phoenix
- This build can be difficult to handle and probably soft-counters this build.
- You need to stay on the defensive and pump vikings in response.


Replays
+ Show Spoiler +

http://sc2.replayers.com/replays/view/5212
http://sc2.replayers.com/replays/view/5201
http://sc2.replayers.com/replays/view/5200
http://sc2.replayers.com/replays/view/5199

Black Gun
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Germany4482 Posts
December 07 2010 18:53 GMT
#2
wont templar with storm and feedback completely roflstomp a banshee/bc/marine/raven army?

but nice OP and nice idea. gonna have a look at the reps now.
"What am I supposed to do against this?" - "Lose!" :-]
darksub
Profile Joined July 2010
Argentina302 Posts
December 07 2010 19:04 GMT
#3
i been loking for transition to end game bc, ill give a try and comment again later
divide et vinces
gnashed_potatoes
Profile Joined December 2010
14 Posts
December 07 2010 19:08 GMT
#4
On December 08 2010 03:53 Black Gun wrote:
wont templar with storm and feedback completely roflstomp a banshee/bc/marine/raven army?


You'd think, but no. I use a build similar to this all the time and HT's really aren't much of a threat because they are such a huge investment and will mean their ground army is lacking as a result. The HT's will waste all their energy on your bio ball but its quite easy to dodge the storms with your banshees. He may feedback your banshees but neither the banshees nor the HT's will have much energy because of cloaking and storm, respectively.
gnashed_potatoes
Profile Joined December 2010
14 Posts
December 07 2010 19:13 GMT
#5
Also, I would add medevacs/marauders rather than battlecruisers. That way you can do multi pronged frontal attacks/drops and not worry about the immobiltiy of the cruisers, especially on a large map.
antz0r
Profile Joined September 2010
Australia168 Posts
December 08 2010 00:04 GMT
#6
I never realised how fun having an airforce was lol. By luck I watched the arman replay last.
I note that you don't upgrade the marines or go rax/techlab for combat shields or stim. Is this so you have more in the bank for BC later on?

Azzur
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia6260 Posts
December 08 2010 03:49 GMT
#7
On December 08 2010 09:04 antz0r wrote:
I never realised how fun having an airforce was lol. By luck I watched the arman replay last.
I note that you don't upgrade the marines or go rax/techlab for combat shields or stim. Is this so you have more in the bank for BC later on?


The lack of combat shields and stim is a playstyle choice. I almost never get stim because I dislike using infantry. Combat shields are a good idea but I never get them since it would require a techlab swap with the reactor (which is troublesome). But it'll be great if you can adapt these into the build!
NadaSound
Profile Joined March 2010
United States227 Posts
December 11 2010 02:27 GMT
#8
Thanks I've been looking for a new approach against the toss. I'll let you konow who it goes.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
The PiG Daily
20:30
Best Games of SC
Serral vs Clem
Solar vs Cure
Serral vs Clem
Reynor vs GuMiho
herO vs Cure
LiquipediaDiscussion
OSC
19:00
Masters Cup #150: Group B
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RuFF_SC2 206
StarCraft: Brood War
actioN 467
Leta 275
yabsab 107
Larva 48
EffOrt 43
Bale 11
Dota 2
monkeys_forever552
NeuroSwarm101
League of Legends
JimRising 665
Other Games
summit1g14823
fl0m571
WinterStarcraft383
Fuzer 195
ViBE166
Mew2King64
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick474
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• practicex 34
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Stunt508
• HappyZerGling120
Other Games
• Scarra858
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3h 31m
RSL Revival
3h 31m
Reynor vs sOs
Maru vs Ryung
Kung Fu Cup
5h 31m
Cure vs herO
Reynor vs TBD
WardiTV Korean Royale
5h 31m
BSL 21
13h 31m
JDConan vs Semih
Dragon vs Dienmax
Tech vs NewOcean
TerrOr vs Artosis
IPSL
13h 31m
Dewalt vs WolFix
eOnzErG vs Bonyth
Replay Cast
16h 31m
Wardi Open
1d 5h
Monday Night Weeklies
1d 10h
WardiTV Korean Royale
2 days
[ Show More ]
BSL: GosuLeague
2 days
The PondCast
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
RSL Revival
4 days
BSL: GosuLeague
4 days
RSL Revival
5 days
WardiTV Korean Royale
5 days
RSL Revival
6 days
WardiTV Korean Royale
6 days
IPSL
6 days
Julia vs Artosis
JDConan vs DragOn
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-11-14
Stellar Fest: Constellation Cup
Eternal Conflict S1

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
IPSL Winter 2025-26
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 4
SOOP Univ League 2025
YSL S2
BSL Season 21
CSCL: Masked Kings S3
SLON Tour Season 2
RSL Revival: Season 3
META Madness #9
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025

Upcoming

BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
HSC XXVIII
RSL Offline Finals
WardiTV 2025
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026: Closed Qualifier
eXTREMESLAND 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
SL Budapest Major 2025
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.