[G] PvZ - +1 Zealot w/ Fast Third

The +1 Zealot will be just a huge distraction/aggression for Zerg to deal with that you are able to secure your third while you are still pressuring. This +1 Zealot push also negates that mass droning that Zergs tend to do with the fast third hatch.

This build will work with either Nexus first or Forge FE. You may choose whichever one. From there you get your gateway after the forge and then your pylon. I will be using Nexus first for this build order.

17 Nexus
17 Forge
17 Gateway
18 Pylon
18 Assimilator (Put 3 probes in immediately)
18 Cannon
20 Gateway (Nexus should be done around this time if you Nexus first)



Now you want to rally your main nexus to your natural once you have 2 full rows of probes mining your minerals at the main. That is because it takes 16 probes to mine efficiently. Begin to remove 1 probe at a time from the gas once you hit 92, so once the last one is removed, you should have 100 gas. Once you get 100 gas you get +1 attack and remember to constantly chronoboost your +1. You also do not want to get supplied blocked during this build; it will delay your zealot production. Once your 2nd zealot is almost done building, begin to move your first zealot out only towards your third to clean up any scout (zergling) and watch towers and gain them.

If you manage to do all this, you should have +1 with at least 5 zealots around 7:00 min in the game. Once your first zealot is done and your second zealot is almost out, move out with just your first zealot and remove all lings from your potential third and watch towers, if possible. This first zealot will also scout to see if there is an all-in coming by the amount of army units the Zerg player produced. Next, you want to start moving out with your first three towards the typical third of Zerg. A big bonus is if you are able to scout they are taking a fast third with your initial scouting probe. Anyways, just sit outside their third undetected and wait for the extra zealots to join and once they are with the three zealots, you want to push and cause a lot of damage. Behind this, you want to get your third and your cybernetics core and then your assimilators and begin mining from gas immediately. Remember to have at least 2 cannons built at your third as well. The key to securing your third is by not losing your zealots too too fast but at the same time apply pressure. To achieve this, you should be kiting if possible or position your zealot in a favorable spot where it minimizes the surface area.

Now a lot of people say there are different ways of scouting your opponent. One of them happens to be by pressuring your opponent and that is exactly what you are doing. Your main objective with the fast +1 zealots is not necessarily to kill their third. If you can, that's awesome but you do not have to. You want to force spines/army units and stop them from droning up. Next is to scout what exactly is he up to. If he defends with roaches, he is most likely going to be investing a bit into his roaches at least from early-mid game. With that you can build the ideal army comp against roaches (immortal/blink stalkers/sentries). If he defends it with just mass lings, you should expect either mutas or infestor play. There are few that do hydras though but these style won't take into effect until later on the game where you will be able to scout this with hallucination.

At my third I usually have 2 additional gateways building creating my wall and at least 2 cannons as well. Your first 50 gas should be used on warp gate and you now want to constantly chronoboost that research. Since you delayed your warp gate tech, abuse the Protoss mechanic that the other races do not have, chronoboost. From there use at least the next 400 gas on sentries to make 4 sentries. You also want to add your 5th and 6th gas once you start making sentries. This is help build up your gas to give you the ability to tech and constantly get upgrades and produce "better" units (stalkers/immortals/colossi/etc) a lot smoother. When warpgate is near 50% done, add 4 more gateways to make a grand total of 8 gateways. Your next gas investment should be in upgrades for +1 armor. Anyways, after my +1 armor, I get my twilight council around 50% of my +1 armor finishing up. This will allow me to get blink which is a must-have upgrade in PvZ in my opinion and most importantly it will allow you to continue with your ground upgrades. After throwing down your twilight council, your next 100 gas investment will be your robotics facility. The robotics facility will allow you to get immortals to help fend off some heavy roach aggression and also allow you to get colossi if you see hydras on the field and then there's the must-have unit, observer and last not but not least if you want to put on some harassment, warp prism.

Once warpgate is done, warp in mostly stalkers and invest the next 100 gas into hallucination. Hallucination in my opinion is the answer to holding off double prong attacks and fending multiple attack paths against Zergs that go for that roach/ling or just heavy roach aggression. What you want to do is once you get hallucination researched, you want to make 2 phoenixes. One phoenix will scout how many bases, how many gas, and their tech structures the Zerg has. The 2nd one will be hovering over the Zerg's army. Now if they go for fast burrow, you have to engage with your cannons. This style will allow you to constantly make immortals and never have to cut immortal production for observers to scout. Now do not be afraid to warp in more sentries if you need to since you will be using quite a bit of energy from them with Hallucination, Guardian Shield, and Force Field. Once you have like 3-4 immortals, you can then cut immortal production and make some observers.

Now this all depends on what you scout from either your hallucination/pokes/observer and how you react to it. Most of my games I tend to love going mass blink stalkers and push when I am 2-1 and have blink. Another good time to think about pressuring is the timing of your fourth. Move out while expanding to your fourth. Behind getting your fourth, I like to get a DT shrine up unless I want to commit to Colossus production (if I scout infestors/hydras). If it's mainly just lots of roaches, I like to get a DT shrine and just use DTs to harass and defend.

Now this is about the mid-game of the matchup and you have scouted such and such. I'm sure you can find some threads on TL if you search for any other composition.

Roach-centric: Get double robos and make constant immortals and stalkers with sentries. If they have some lings, you want some zealots as well.

Mutas/ling: Defend and build cannons at least to one of your bases then push with your mass blink stalkers. If they base-trade, they should lose significantly since cannons plus warped-in stalkers should do the job.

Roach/ling into Mutas: Basically combine what I said above together. Once you defend the roach/ling and your scout sees him transitioning, just attack and he should die. Upgrades will be really weak for him.

Hydra/Roach: Delay with forcefields as you try to get some colossi out. Zealots do somewhat decent against Hydras but you ideally do not want to engage into his army yet.

Infestor/Ling: Either go HT or Colossi. HT has more success but can at times be annoying since they are slower than your army and can sometimes be caught out of position. Storm does well against lings and infested terrans. Feedback does well against Infestors.

I've only done this a few times so this build is still in raw stage at the moment. But for now, it's basically map that has a decent way of holding the third so like Antiga Shipyard, Cloud Kingdom LE comes to mind. But I've won games on Korhal Compound with it and Shakuras Plateau as well.

http://blip.tv/day9tv/liquid-ret-vs-quantic-sase-g1-red-bull-lan-tournament-finals-6042518 - QxG.SaSe vs. Liquid'Ret at the Red Bull LAN
http://www.twitch.tv/sc2combat/b/313706983 - Starts from the beginning and later on in that vod, I go over the build via replay.

http://www.twitch.tv/sc2combat/b/313812009 - Starts at 1:42:00



I'll be posting more soon. If someone can find the vod between SaSe and Ret where he does this build, that would be awesome.

Most replays will have flaws in them (mainly timings) but the fact I still hold the aggression and still win should show the potential of this build.

areaFlatLine vs Barhorst [PvZ] - Shakuras Plateau
areaFlatLine vs ePiRNA [PvZ] - Cloud Kingdom LE
areaFlatLine vs ggunz [PvZ] - Shakuras Plateau
FlatLine vs Joip [PvZ] - Shakuras Plateau
Slurpee vs CaLibuR [PvZ] - Entombed Valley
Slurpee vs AGGhost [PvZ] - Cloud Kingdom LE
Slurpee vs CaLibuR [PvZ] - Korhal Compound LE
areaFlatLine vs ReducEntropy [PvZ] - Shakuras Plateau
areaFlatLine vs Upgrayedd [PvZ] - Korhal Compound LE

I'll post more whenever I can

Will update this whenever possible.