[G] - Mutas in ZvZ

9 overlord
14 gas
14 pool
15 overlord
16 queen
18 lings
20 evo chamber
21 expand

The only difference is that you pull drones off gas once you mined a total of 200. That way you will get your +1 attack asap.

9 overlord
15 hatchery
15 pool
14 gas
16 queen + 8 lings

Again pull your drones off gas when you gathered a total of 200 gas. Get the evo chamber when you're at ~12gas after you started researching the meta upgrade.

It's very hard to give numbers for that, because every game is so different. Basically start mining gas when you feel you can afford it without hurting your mineral econ too much. Get the second gas when you start your lair. When you feel save; you got a lot of lings, you got a lot of drones and know what you're up to; get your 3rd and 4th gas.

You really need experience to play this style. A lot comes down to your gut feeling.

Probably one of the most important reasons. When you play on ladder and some mutas are all of a sudden hitting your opponent's overlords you're about to do sick amouts of damage. Most people won't anticipate mutas in ZvZ, because they're "oh so bad" and won't be able to react to them accordingly.

The speedlings with their +1 attacks (keep upgrading) and the mutalisks allow you to gain control of the whole map and to keep your opponent on 2 bases. You're free to expand or even double expand while you keep an eye on what he's doing. Snipe overlords, creep tumors, drones that try to expand, everything you can do to stall some time - you will need it.

Since he won't have any vision of what's going on outside of his base he won't be able to tell if you're droning hardcore or setting up an army. He won't know if you're sticking to mutalisks (which in most cases is a bad idea!) or if you're tech switching. People will aim for a 2 base timing attack with infestors, roaches, some hydras and some queens - defend it and you have won (it's harder than you might think).

You will always see yourself in a position with 1 or 2 bases ahead of your opponent. This m eans taht you don't have to be costeffective in order to win and you can easily outproduce him, since you got a few more hatches.

Scouting:
On smaller maps scouting with your 2 inital will be just fine. You will see the banelings nest/roach warren before they finish, giving you enough time to prepare. Banelings and roaches are the two things we got to be concerned about.

Roaches
He's opting for roaches - hey, that's what we're hoping for! +1 Slings own roaches. You will be producing off of 2 base with a slight economic advantage and he will sit on base rallyin his roaches. Split up your army into 2 different control groups and flank. Keep producing lings and show off some perfect injections - done.

Burrow-Roaches
That's a little tricky; not scouting his lair might lose you the game. Get a lair yourself and an overseer.

Blings
You can either go baneling yourself and play a ling bling vs ling bling game. There are other sources on how to do that so I don't want to cover it here. Or you can play pure ling vs ling bling and micro well (even if it sounds dumb, I really win doing that) or you can play the safer style and get 2 or 3 spines with lings.

Blings-Roaches:
This style gives us quite some headaches. Terrible headaches tbh. Seems like you just earned a BO loss. No BO is bullet proof.
Theoretically I would respond with some spine crawlers and targetfire his banelings and split my lings 1 b1 and attack his blings. Once they're down send your lings in. It kinda relies on the opponent being dumb though.

The counters remain the same, there are some differences in scouting and travel times though. Since you like to do the FE build on bigger maps, scouting can become a problem, you might not be able to see what he's doing in time if you use your initial 2 lings, which come later with this build. On big 4 player maps I suggest scouting with the 14th drones like you do in ZvT and then react to whatever you scout accordingly.

+1 carapace for flying units! Mutas with +1 armor own mutas with +1 attack, even in slightly smaller numbers. If he does a Muta build as well, it can be quite hard to transition out of ling muta, unless you get lucky and own his +1 attack mutas with your +1 armor mutas or your lings (you still keep upgrading) roflstomp one of his expansions while he's distracted. It's getting really weird in this case, you just gotta rely on what you think is best. Try to get an edge whenever it's possible and just outplay him.

I suggest not getting any further mutas once you hit a number you like. He will be prepared once he saw your first muta out. Use the map control to expand and work towards your upgraded ultra ling army to swarm his units. You should be up in bases and up in production. Your lings will become a pain in the ass to deal with, once his infestors ran out of energy.

First of all, it's very hard to give supply counts or some hints when to get the hive, I will have to play a hundred more games with this style to figure it out. I get the hive once I feel it's about time to get it - experience.

So, your ultras are out. Basically this is where we want to try to end the game. Double pronged attacks work wonders if he managed to take a 3rd base (or even more).
I suggest getting a second evo chamber when you start your hive (well, a bit later so it lines up) and start double upgrading. Also research the ling attack upgrde - it's insane: Lings with +3 attack and the attack speed do 13.6dps for half a supply.

It's all about pushing hard now, you got away from your harassing units and reached your beefy, upgraded units to tear him apart. This part of the thread shouldn't be under "Reacting to what they're doing", because you aren't reacting anymore. Swarm him to death.