Hello ,
I´m Serashin Seshorei (SeraSeshorei b-net wont allow full name TT) playing mostly arround mmr of top 25 GM EU but my mmr is changing drasticly all time due me having slow hands wich is why im not in GM currently also i refuse to play PvP how its played currently most of times the problem with that is the whole PvP is like a Glas House one 1 second mistake and u lose.
I present you one of my special developed PvZ openers wich is my most solid one and can be used on every map ( maybe i write a guide about more gimmicky PvZ openers sometime that need certain maps ) .
First of the buildorder vs Pool first + offensive variant / including in spoiler some extra refined stuff: (note:i scout mostly after gateway with that build)
9 Pylon
11 chronoboost Nexus
12 chronoboost Nexus
13 Gateway
14 Assimilator
15 chronoboost Nexus
16 Pylon
18 Cybercore
18 chronoboost Nexus
21 Zealot
22 Gateway
23 Warpgate research
25 Stalker
25 Pylon
26 Gateway
27 chronoboost Nexus
29 sentry
29 chronoboost Warpgate research
31 Zealot
33 Pylon
[spoiler]if there isnt a drone gas stealing you can put this pylon already as start of wall on lowground[/spoiler]
33 Assimilator
[spoiler]this late assimilator in addition to a stalker zealot poke with probe attached to arround the range of xel naga tower will often make the Zerg think you are 4 gating and thus he creates often Roaches or Zerglings wich wont pose any danger to you[/spoiler]
36 Sentry
38 Zealot
41 Zealot
42 Pylon
42 Nexus
44 Sentry
46 Sentry
48 Stalker
48 Pylon
49 Pylon
[spoiler]if zealots get traded with much zerglings you add a Gateway or Forge to the wall that depends on you if you want to go offensive or tech a bit[/spoiler]
52 Zealot
54 Zealot
56 Sentry
56 chronoboost Gateway
56 chronoboost Gateway
56 chronoboost Gateway
58 Stalker
60 Stalker
62 Stalker
from here on you can follow up with ur push depending on wich scenario might occur i mostly follow up with Robo+Forge or if i want finish off 3 more Gateways
Second the build order vs Pool first when you see / feel you wont be able to break him to that later in notes:
6-56 same as in offensive buildorder
56 Hallucination research
56 chronoboost Hallucination research
56 Forge
58 chronoboost Nexus
follow up here depending on what your hallucination shows you i mostly use initial 2 hallucinations to ever catch hidden expansion trys it wont hurt me in safeness aswell.
I also love especialy to respond with 3 Stargates to a early Spire , because i feel like such early mutalisks are if responded with that timing of 3 Stargates a "failed allin" mostly i have commanding lead after that.
Third the build order vs Hatchery first:
6-25 same as offensive buildorder
29 chronoboost Gateway
29 chronoboost Gateway
29 Stalker
31 Stalker
31 Pylon
32 Assimilator
[spoiler]Sometimes the Assimilator is little delayed due gassteal this exact timing of the Assimilator wont affect the purposes and tight macro follow ups of this BO[/spoiler]
35 Sentry
37 Zealot
38 chronoboost Nexus
38 Pylon
[spoiler]This and the Pylon before can be used already as lowground wall start[/spoiler]
42 sentry
44 Zealot
46 Nexus
48 sentry
50 sentry
50 Gateway
50 Forge
50 Hallucination research
resume Probes and follow up as you want your safe and your poke did your job and currently causing often overreaction wich might obv change but i played some games with okish reaction where i am still able to control Zergs eco with this opener
How to decide between offensive opener and staying passive:
+ Show Spoiler +
Agression mostly no go is vs 3-4 Spines scouted with the A-Team ( to that later in additional details).
Other then that ur safe against any allin while pushing with that army size the only reactionaly thing u have to do is to use FF to retreat to your base vs a well executed Roach-Ling allin if you get good ffs of you might even be able to cut midway some roaches or zerglings into pieces but mostly ur unable to stay offensive against it wich i think is fine of course.
The solid reaction to this is to have 2 Spines done and arround 6-7 roaches out when the push hits and keep producing units.
Then u just say OK he wont have already 50 drones has some units out but 1. cant kill ur army and u go back at home 2. you send a Zealot scouting arround the the map and keep an eye on sneaky thirds wich arent defendable at that point.
( warning: a good Zerg wich name is ReYoN has a strong blindcounter refined to that but it wont 1. put you behind if you react properly but 2. is an instant lose if you arent careful.
Basicly he cuts drones at 30 and skips ling speed to have at offensive push timing 12-14 roaches done aswell as no dronescout early on roach speed finishs few seconds arround that push timing.
He has some creep spreaded and if you push to far in he flanks you with Roaches wich means if you see 1. no ling speed done with your A-Team scout , 2. Roaches poping as defense to A-Team , 3. some creep spread arround his base for making this flank work , then you have to react to it while sending before you move in into the flank area arround his base with your A-Team and scout out that area before you push in this will allow you a retreat without loses and you are at 32 Probes at this point)
Other then that it depends on how confident you are sometimes you see much lings produced wich are waiting to counterattack ( on some maps where mazing arround your nexus is very hard and i see much lings with +1 with the A-Team i chose against a good Zerg the passive reaction.)
It also depends on your micro and multitasking because sometimes you can kill the Zerg but just if your responses back at home are correct to ling counter etc after he did some more units then usual.
As last touch you can still attack after seeing 3-4 spines if you know ur oppenent has a very high chance of using this as Drone ticket and wont add Roach Warren.
Other then that ur safe against any allin while pushing with that army size the only reactionaly thing u have to do is to use FF to retreat to your base vs a well executed Roach-Ling allin if you get good ffs of you might even be able to cut midway some roaches or zerglings into pieces but mostly ur unable to stay offensive against it wich i think is fine of course.
The solid reaction to this is to have 2 Spines done and arround 6-7 roaches out when the push hits and keep producing units.
Then u just say OK he wont have already 50 drones has some units out but 1. cant kill ur army and u go back at home 2. you send a Zealot scouting arround the the map and keep an eye on sneaky thirds wich arent defendable at that point.
( warning: a good Zerg wich name is ReYoN has a strong blindcounter refined to that but it wont 1. put you behind if you react properly but 2. is an instant lose if you arent careful.
Basicly he cuts drones at 30 and skips ling speed to have at offensive push timing 12-14 roaches done aswell as no dronescout early on roach speed finishs few seconds arround that push timing.
He has some creep spreaded and if you push to far in he flanks you with Roaches wich means if you see 1. no ling speed done with your A-Team scout , 2. Roaches poping as defense to A-Team , 3. some creep spread arround his base for making this flank work , then you have to react to it while sending before you move in into the flank area arround his base with your A-Team and scout out that area before you push in this will allow you a retreat without loses and you are at 32 Probes at this point)
Other then that it depends on how confident you are sometimes you see much lings produced wich are waiting to counterattack ( on some maps where mazing arround your nexus is very hard and i see much lings with +1 with the A-Team i chose against a good Zerg the passive reaction.)
It also depends on your micro and multitasking because sometimes you can kill the Zerg but just if your responses back at home are correct to ling counter etc after he did some more units then usual.
As last touch you can still attack after seeing 3-4 spines if you know ur oppenent has a very high chance of using this as Drone ticket and wont add Roach Warren.
Details:
+ Show Spoiler +
The core of the build and its timings is the A-Team wich is in Starcraft language the 4 Zealot scout .
All u need to do is when ur 4 Zealots are done make 2 control groups and position ur sentry stalker so that u are safe with initial Zergling counters and move out with ur Zealots to gather intel to allow you to decide how you can follow up.
Walk with your Zealots after you cleared the watchtower and saw no initial mass lings wich can contest them near a high/ lowground / whatever gives them a little reduce of attack area while moving towards his base no matter if he responds with okish amount of lings to take them out you still will be able to kill some.
The "A-Team" scout also gets often misunderstood for lazy ovi scouters or Zergs wich dont Drone scout as a possible DT follow UP cause all other protosses mostly dont make more then 1 Zealot and Zergs currently misunderstand with their scouting greed sometimes this mineral excess use as gas starve for DTs , this extra investment makes it nearly impossible for a Zerg to hold this initial push.
I came up with this idea because i wanted 1. a tight buildorder wich allows me some agression and 2. i realised afterwards that this mineral vs mineral trade exactly does remove for me the " Dark early Game area" wich mostly puts Zerg ahead and toss is to afraid with current builds often to move out because they dont want to lose gas units aka sentrys wich is understandable.
If you face Hatch first and use the BO wich i use against it you should retreat before speed is done to prevent unessesary loses i know in some reps i hit not the correct retreat timing but that is just a matter of practise.
My personal favorite of punishing greed with that is to make if there are some spines and speedlings to FF me a way so that lings cant block my way up and i am in his main same with roaches hugging with spines and i simply run by.
I tested all kinds of allin variables and there is nothing wich can break you with this opener and i realy hope that is in this MU the first step near BroodWar equal solidness early on.
All u need to do is when ur 4 Zealots are done make 2 control groups and position ur sentry stalker so that u are safe with initial Zergling counters and move out with ur Zealots to gather intel to allow you to decide how you can follow up.
Walk with your Zealots after you cleared the watchtower and saw no initial mass lings wich can contest them near a high/ lowground / whatever gives them a little reduce of attack area while moving towards his base no matter if he responds with okish amount of lings to take them out you still will be able to kill some.
The "A-Team" scout also gets often misunderstood for lazy ovi scouters or Zergs wich dont Drone scout as a possible DT follow UP cause all other protosses mostly dont make more then 1 Zealot and Zergs currently misunderstand with their scouting greed sometimes this mineral excess use as gas starve for DTs , this extra investment makes it nearly impossible for a Zerg to hold this initial push.
I came up with this idea because i wanted 1. a tight buildorder wich allows me some agression and 2. i realised afterwards that this mineral vs mineral trade exactly does remove for me the " Dark early Game area" wich mostly puts Zerg ahead and toss is to afraid with current builds often to move out because they dont want to lose gas units aka sentrys wich is understandable.
If you face Hatch first and use the BO wich i use against it you should retreat before speed is done to prevent unessesary loses i know in some reps i hit not the correct retreat timing but that is just a matter of practise.
My personal favorite of punishing greed with that is to make if there are some spines and speedlings to FF me a way so that lings cant block my way up and i am in his main same with roaches hugging with spines and i simply run by.
I tested all kinds of allin variables and there is nothing wich can break you with this opener and i realy hope that is in this MU the first step near BroodWar equal solidness early on.
Replays of this opener: (Im sorry that i have currently not a bunch of replays saved vs Zergs like Morrow, Lalush or Xlord but this is just as cause of me not usualy saving replays the few replays im adding were played not long ago and some where used for my replay pack wich i posted not to long ago.)
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://www.gamereplays.org/community/uploads/repimgs/repimg-33-227032.jpg)
This replay shows how extremly bad a Roach - Ling all in does vs this build. (Even tho it might be obvious)
![[image loading]](http://www.gamereplays.org/community/uploads/repimgs/repimg-33-226232.jpg)
This replay is a example of how i use this opener vs Hatch first
![[image loading]](http://www.gamereplays.org/community/uploads/repimgs/repimg-33-226459.jpg)
This replay is a example of little greed after going masslings. aswell as a little scout error on his side but the outcome would have been the same.
![[image loading]](http://www.gamereplays.org/community/uploads/repimgs/repimg-33-226461.jpg)
This replay is an example on why to position ur units while moving out as written in the guide.
![[image loading]](http://www.gamereplays.org/community/uploads/repimgs/repimg-33-226231.jpg)
This replay is a example of how to punish a early third altough this player knows my timing with that style and i was a bit lucky of recognizing his third sometimes im just to overconvident with that push and dont check for a third wich loses me sometimes the game
![[image loading]](http://www.gamereplays.org/community/uploads/repimgs/repimg-33-226233.jpg)
This replay is another example of the build vs Hatch first
![[image loading]](http://www.gamereplays.org/community/uploads/repimgs/repimg-33-226234.jpg)
This replay is just a example of a overreaction to the zealot stalker sighting early on even tho i somewhat were a little overconfident pushing into the spines
![[image loading]](http://www.gamereplays.org/community/uploads/repimgs/repimg-33-226235.jpg)
This replay is another example of my build vs Hatch first this was in the early testing stages of my builds so it looks very unsafe but after further refining with timings this kind of mass ling all-in is easy to deal with
Extra note : Thats about it what i got safed from last 25 replays + some older stuff im currently in the deciding phase to if i get some examples of just greed punishing and killing and examples vs allins to post it in here , but somewhat it might not realy interesting to watch just hearing drones dying and stuff . I guess against all-in types i will hopefuly fight the following days so i can post some reps here.
Extra request for people with Photoshop skills:
+ Show Spoiler +
Id love to add to this OP 1 picture with 4 Zealots with the faces of the A-Team i guess ingame just scrolled down screenshot + edit works best i just got no clue of photoshop :D.
Thanks for reading !
- Serashin Seshorei