EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/H3V21.jpg)
Here is a link to the Stream Episode I refer to:
http://www.justin.tv/mstephano/b/301951370
Introduction:
If I could choose two adjectives to describe Stephano's ZvT playstyle, it would be SAFE and ACTIVE, and not the usual words used to describe macro zerg like "reactionary" or "economical". The basic outline of Stephano's ZvT style is to hold his fast expansion with drones/lings and finally a spine/queen. Then, he drones up off two bases and builds two evolution chambers zergling upgrades, while periodically adding on more lings to stay safe.
One of the most important things to take away from Stephano is the amount of lings he makes at various stages of the game. So many macro players try to squeeze out economic advantages by cutting units here and there. In both ZvP and ZvT, I've rarely seen Stephano make such cuts - instead, he's extremely active in the mid-game and uses a huge, mobile ground army to safely secure additional expansions. A lot of players play very economically and look for ways to cut unit production to get additional drones and expand/tech earlier, but Stephano doesn't do this. We see a perfect example at 7:30 in the game against Makaprime, where Stephano crushes Makaprime's marines, putting him in a very safe position. But he STILL chose to produce addition lings, spread creep, and build a macro hatch before taking a third at 10:15.
He even goes for a very late lair by ZvT standard (9:15) and relies on heavy creep spread and an ever-increasing ling-count (gasless investments) to defend harassment and timing attacks. Once he gets a lair, he adds on an infestation pit and starts taking additional bases while using an enormous infestor/ling army to defend drops or straight-pushes. Finally by the 15minute mark he gets his hive and maxes out between 18 or 19minutes with heavily upgraded infestor/ling/ultralisks. Even though Stephano's style can be categorized as macro, I think he would agree that zergs should play safe not risky and active not passive.
Timing Notes
It will be important, when trying any style, not to look at timings as strictly set-in-stone. Instead, use them as a reference or an outline in conjunction with your ability to scout and adapt to your opponent. In other words, you don't have to have the exact units at the exact time Stephano does, but if he's doing something like droning hard until the 7 minute mark and then making a lot of lings, you may want to consider the reasoning behind it. This type of information will help you set benchmarks (See bold text below - we'll talk more about benchmarks later).
+ Show Spoiler +
Early Game:
15Hatch
15Pool
17Gas (Using 15th Drone)
3:30 Drone Scout
At 100gas, start Zergling speed and remove drones from gas, start you 2nd queen. With your first queen, already start spreading creep. (Remember, it's absolutely essential to spread creep actively with this style).
7:00 30 Zerglings on the field.
Early-Mid Game:
7:30 3rd queen (AGAIN spread that creep like crazy with this queen, drones back in gas and build 2nd geyser (This gas will be going towards early +1)
8:00 First Evolution Chamber
8:15 3rd Gas
8:30 Macro Hatch
8:35 Second Evolution Chamber (Start +1 at both evolution chambers as soon as they finish)
9:15 Lair, all gas are full, and at least 30+lings on field with xel naga vision.
Late-Mid Game:
10:00 3rd Base with 40+ lings on the field (Keep in mind this is the 4th hatchery)
Infestation pit 10:30, 4th queen to inject at macro hatch.
It's important to keep larva spits up, creep spreading, and overlord production WELL AHEAD of supply block so that if need be, you can produce oodles of zerglings to defend.
11:30/12:00 4th base (5th hatchery)
12:30 80 lings on the field! +2/+2 well on the way.
Late Game:
Use infestors and lings to hold off drops/pushes, and hopefully delay terran 3rd.
Hive done before 15min. Ultra den, adrenal glands, +3+3 are priorities. 5 Bases, great saturation, lots of gas for infestors and ultras. Control the middle of the map, continue adding creep.
Maxed out with upgraded Ling/Infestor/Ultra by 18/19 Minutes
15Hatch
15Pool
17Gas (Using 15th Drone)
3:30 Drone Scout
At 100gas, start Zergling speed and remove drones from gas, start you 2nd queen. With your first queen, already start spreading creep. (Remember, it's absolutely essential to spread creep actively with this style).
7:00 30 Zerglings on the field.
Early-Mid Game:
7:30 3rd queen (AGAIN spread that creep like crazy with this queen, drones back in gas and build 2nd geyser (This gas will be going towards early +1)
8:00 First Evolution Chamber
8:15 3rd Gas
8:30 Macro Hatch
8:35 Second Evolution Chamber (Start +1 at both evolution chambers as soon as they finish)
9:15 Lair, all gas are full, and at least 30+lings on field with xel naga vision.
Late-Mid Game:
10:00 3rd Base with 40+ lings on the field (Keep in mind this is the 4th hatchery)
Infestation pit 10:30, 4th queen to inject at macro hatch.
It's important to keep larva spits up, creep spreading, and overlord production WELL AHEAD of supply block so that if need be, you can produce oodles of zerglings to defend.
11:30/12:00 4th base (5th hatchery)
12:30 80 lings on the field! +2/+2 well on the way.
Late Game:
Use infestors and lings to hold off drops/pushes, and hopefully delay terran 3rd.
Hive done before 15min. Ultra den, adrenal glands, +3+3 are priorities. 5 Bases, great saturation, lots of gas for infestors and ultras. Control the middle of the map, continue adding creep.
Maxed out with upgraded Ling/Infestor/Ultra by 18/19 Minutes
Tips I Learned from Stephano
Early Timings - Stephano showcases that you can hold any marine/bunker pressure with just drones and zerglings. This is the most economical opening, so learn the timings and micro to hold it. If you are a player who struggles with early pressure, though, you CAN go for a speedling expand and play the build out much the same way.
Dealing with scv/marine pressure - A trademark in Stephano’s play (and really a lot of high level zerg) is they use a LOT of drones to defend early terran pressure. It’s important to win the battles without losing drones, so it’s actually better to pull a lot of drones as you can just transfer them to expansion when pressure is held. As a rule of thumb, send 5 Drones when there’s 1 scv and 1 marine, if there’s 2 scvs or 2 marines send 8 drones. Build a spine crawler, 1 queen, and at least 6 lings (Stephano made about 10-12 this game).
Set Benchmarks – If you’re learning this style, set benchmarks at a few key stages of the game. For example, the 9minute, 15minute, and 20minute mark. View the replays and check vision, creep, upgrades, saturation, food count, and army size. This will give you an idea of what you need to work on.
Example: Stephano 9Minute (Pre-Lair) Benchmark
30+ Active Lings
Creep Spread past expansion ramp
3 Queens
60+Supply fully saturating 2 bases gas/minerals
Overlords are spread with Xel Naga control
Macro hatch and +1+1 on the way
If these things aren't consistent in your play, find out why.
Keep spreading that creep! - If you watch the minimap in any Stephano ZvT, you'll see creep everywhere so I repeat the importance of creep over and over because it's so crucial to the style. Think of map vision as a resource, you constantly need more creep and you should consider spreading creep to be a priority on par with producing drones and injecting. If you lose creep, you should try to replace it almost immediately and always try to have a queen dedicated only to dropping tumors. If you watch when Stephano loses a queen or a tumor, it's pretty certain he'll replace it promptly.
Be Active with your zerglings - Zerglings are so cheap that they’re often described as expendable, but this doesn’t mean that once you build them they’re useless. As we see in the game vs Makaprime, they DO serve as a defensive precaution incase you’re attacked by the marine/tank midgame push. Still, if you're not attacked you can find other uses for them as well…
1) Take the Xel-Naga
2) Scout and spot the front of the terran base
3) Break Rocks (Almost all rocks are a good idea to destroy, terran don’t often do multi-pronged ground attacks like Zerg).
4) Hide a handful of lings to do runbys when terran pushes out.
Overlord Production/Spreading - Remember, there are no mutas with this style so map vision is even more important that usual. Try to get in the habit of producing overlords and rallying them immediately to “drop hotspots.” As soon as it was getting close to the time where marine drops were possible, Stephano had overlords placed so that no matter where a drop came from he would have vision of it. Suggestion: Hold the xel naga and place overlords in a line above and below it so you have a straight-line of vision through the center of the map (as well as overlords spread sporadically around the map and spewing creep at possible expansions).
Delaying or Denying Expansions - There's the obvious fact that Stephano uses his ling/infestor to delay makaprime's 3rd. Sometimes you can do other things to delay an expansion as well: get burrow and overlord speed when lair is done to spew creep AND burrow a zergling at the terran’s 3rd and 4th base locations.
Suggestions
Note: These are merely suggestions/personal prefence.
Overlord Drop I think overlord drop and speed are such crucial upgrades in late game ZvT. Stephano skipped both, and he was constantly under drop-pressure from the terran all game. He lost expansions, drones, creep, overlords, etc to Makaprime's drops. I feel like if he were able to do drops with even just some "cracklings" here and there, he could have picked off production structures, scvs, and even expansions in the latter stages of the game. Also, if you look at 26:30 in the game, Maka is using the mid-map highground for tanks. Stephano used infested terran to combat this, but I feel like dropping an ultra up there would be a better response.
More Spines Starting at the 10:30 mark, Stephano is constantly tested with Maka's marine drops. Spines are too big an investment in the early stages of 2-3 bases, but In the late game when he had maxed out with 4+ spread-out bases, spines at each base definitely would have helped him defend (18:50, 20:00, 24:09). Time (especially in the late game) s a resource and if you're spending your time running your ling/infestor/ultra army around the map to defend drops, then you're NOT able to do more important things like pressure your opponent and spread creep. Building 5 spines at a base isn't the most economical defense in terms of resources, but it will save you time to do other things.
Ling Runbys I always see Nerchio do this to GREAT effect, so I think it's something to consider. A handful (8-14) is not a large investment and can kill scvs/reinforcements and occasionally force terran to pull back their main attack. In the latter stages, bigger ling run-bys are possible and you can even use burrow or overlord drop to hide your lings.
Discussion Questions (Answer Below!)
1) Why does Stephano get such a late 3rd? It seemed that at 7:30 he has complete map control...why not take it then?
Answer 1: + Show Spoiler +
When I first watched the game, I was shocked that Stephano didn't take his expansion right after his lings cleaned up Makaprime's marine push. I felt he was definitely safe to do it, but instead he just added more creep, zerglings, gas, and even a macro hatch before finally taking his expansion at 10:15 or so. I think the main explanation is that you don't really use your 3rd base to boost your economy for a long time anyway. A lot of zerg players rush their 3rd base, and end up just using the larva to produce units to defend mid-game terran pressure. Instead of taking the 3rd in a somewhat risky location on Shakuras, Stephano opts to build a macro hatch so that he can increase his production without added risk. I don't think many diamond or lower players realize the full production capabilities of 2base zerg (or 2base zerg with a macro hatch), and rush to take their 3rd where they feel they have to be to compete with 2base terran. From watching Stephano's play, I've realized a lot unnecessary risks I've taken in the mid game.
Answer 2: + Show Spoiler +
When Stephano finally took his 3rd, makaprime actually dropped on it and forced the cancel - and that's when I realized that if he had built the expansion earlier, he probably would have lost it anyway.
Answer 3: + Show Spoiler +
TheOnlyShaft adds that..."In a situation where you are FORCED to remain on two bases in a ZvT, what is the best case scenario?
- Amazing drone saturation
- Strong production, from macro hatcheries
- Very centralized bases, rather than being spread out everywhere
- And, most importantly of all, you can tech a lot harder, a lot faster"
- Amazing drone saturation
- Strong production, from macro hatcheries
- Very centralized bases, rather than being spread out everywhere
- And, most importantly of all, you can tech a lot harder, a lot faster"
2) Is skipping overlord drop and/or mutas for earlier hivetech worth it? Marine drops did an absurd amount of damage, what could Stephano have done to manage the pressure more effectively?
Answer 1: + Show Spoiler +
NrGMonk argues that "a spire plus 5-8 mutas is at least 700 gas, which is almost 5 infestors. And 5-6 mutas don't even kill a marine drop by themselves."
Thank you all for reading! Please contribute feedback on the structure and content of this thread so I can make necessary adjustments in the future.
- Tang
