EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/AFK8PW7.jpg)
Introduction
This is a guide about a build I saw Macsed do in WCS Amercia season 1 vs Gowser. Your goal with this style is to head up towards a voidray / colossus / HT army. You will have a lot opportunity to put pressure on your opponent and the scouting tools to help you get the tech advantage.
Build overview
You open with a gateway expand but with 2 gasses. This will help you get sentries out in preparation for your first push. After you've put down your nexus, you add 3 more gateways while adding more sentries to your army. Once your warpgate is done, you want to add in a couple of zealots and move out to pressure your opponent.
Even though this build looks a bit like Naniwa's 4gate pressure, you don't want to commit as much as you would with that build. The main things you want to see here is whether the zerg is getting a 3rd and if he's getting roaches to defend the 3rd. If your opponent is relying solely on speedlings to defend the 3rd, you can most likely deny it. This is because he most likely will not have a spine or reinforcements from queens as easily to his 3rd base as oppose to his natural.
Don't use a timewarp with your mothershipcore unless you think it will greatly increase the damage your pressure will do. You absolutely have to save your sentries to take your 3rd later, you can't afford the gas to remake them.
Before this pressure you send out a hallucinated phoenix to scout your opponent. You will mainly be looking for how many units your opponent has and if you can put pressure on him. Next thing you want to take a look at is whether he has evo chambers, if the lair started, how many queens there are on the field and how many gasses your opponent has. This won't change anything in the build order quite yet, but it is a good thing to take a glimpse at what your opponent is doing. For example, if he's staying on 2 bases with 4 gasses and a lair 70-80% done, you know you are dealing with a fast tech build and you know what to scout for later.
During this pressure, you put down 2 stargates and a forge a bit later (this should be around 7:05). You don't start +1 attack quite yet, but it's good to have a forge ready in case your opponent is making a lot of roaches and/or speedlings. I can't stress enough that the 4 sentries you make in the early game is the only gas you spend on gateway units (at least until storm). You cannot afford to make any stalkers or more sentries, you'll have to do it with zealots.
Once your stargates are done, you make a voidray and a oracle. The oracle is to scout and harass and the voidray is to clear overlords around your base and get you ready to take a 3rd base. After that you make the robo after this (should be around 8:25). At this point you should scout around you base with the voidray and msc to see how many units your opponent has. You should use the oracle (which should be around your opponent's base) to scout how many units your opponent is making. Based on this scouting information you decide how fast you should take a 3rd. Usually this should be around 10 minutes. You keep making voidrays during this time and get a robobay when your robo facility is done.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9nJz9SB.jpg)
You can try to do some pressure with your first 4-5 voidrays before you switch to colossus. This can catch zergs off guard who go for fast tech without many lair tech units like hydralisks or mutalisks.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ewse1J1.jpg)
From this point in the game you have to scout and react to what your opponent is doing. You have the tools to scout and the infrastructure to react.
Build order
13 gate
15 2x gas (2 probes on each)
21 msc (cut probes)
23 nexus
23 pylon (on the low ground)(continue probe production)
24 sentry
28 3x gateway (~5:00)(3 probes on each gas)
29 sentry
33 pylon
36 sentry
38 sentry
45 3rd gas (6:30)
Warp in zealots and move out with 4 senrties, 3 zealot (1 zealot stays in the wall) and the msc.
55 2x stargate (~7:05)
59 4th gas (~7:22)
60 forge (~7:50)
Stargates finishes up, make a voidray and a orcale.
70 robo (~8:25)
+1 attack & more voidrays
Recommended maps
I recommend this build on maps that don't favor swarmhost play or that aren't small. I do think you can make a transition into a harassment oriented style to battle swarmhosts, I just think opening double stargate and getting the robo later will result in having warp prisms out a bit late. Also make sure to get the best out of your voidrays before the queen count gets too high.
The reason I don't recommend this build on smaller maps (currently only Neo Planet S) is because most responses from zergs will pressure you very heavily in the mid-game. Having a short rush distance to your 3rd base will make it even more difficult.
Recommended
Bel'Shir Vestige
Derelict Watcher
Red City
Star Station
Whirlwind
Questionable
Korhal Sky Island
Not recommended
Akilon Wastes
Neo Planet S
Newkirk Precinct
Dealing with certain tech / timings
Fast 1-1 lings into ultras with queen support
Replay: http://drop.sc/351241
Constantly clearing creep from the map in the mid-game is about half the work of dealing with this. The queens help keep the ultralisk alive for so long so you want to engage this army without the queens. Denying the zerg from spreading creep makes your army way more mobile compared to his. Other than that you want to make immortals after you have enough colossi to deal with any lings / roaches / hydras that may come with this. So you won't need a whole lot of them.
Ling hydra flood on medium economy
Replay: http://drop.sc/351239
With ling hydra flood I mean a zerg that reacts passively toward your 3rd base until he's up to 60-70 drones, then tries to end the game by flooding you with ling hydra. This style is very good against stargate openers that involve a fast 3rd base and is designed to hit before you get AoE out in high numbers (storm or colossi). You can recognize this style by it's lack of roaches, lack of extra queens and no signs to tech further than lair (no infestation pit). Usually the zerg only spreads his creep tumors in 1 direction (towards your base). Once you see your opponent making a lot of hydras, you can't afford to have your robo bay delayed, so pay attention to your robo facility and get your robo bay right away. Before you get a large enough number of colossi to comfortably deal with any amount of hydras, you need to focus on zealot production. Zealots in combination with timewarp and forcefields is a very good tool to deal with hydras. Again do NOT produce more than the 4 sentries you made in the early game.
2base hydra timing
Replay: http://drop.sc/351244
For this timing I prefer tech to charge zealot and getting the robo later. The reason for this is because you won't be able to get colossi out fast enough. This means you won't be trying to hold on to a 3rd while colossi are on the way. You have to actually kill the hydras with something more accessible in this situation.
vs maxed viper / hydra / roach
Replay: http://drop.sc/351247
To hold this attack, you need to tech to high templar fast. If your opponent is going for more roaches than hydras, you want to focus more on producing voidrays. If your opponent is going for more hydras than roaches, you want to focus more on producing colossi.
vs endless roach / hydra / corruptor flood
Replay: http://drop.sc/351251
From all pushes, this is probably the ones easiest to hold. You just want to produce as many colossi and voidrays as possible. Don't underestimate the power of zealots, they help a great deal with holding the hydras back from attacking your voidrays. You really need that extra support when your colossus count is low. Once you hit about 150+ supply, you want to add high templars for storm as well. Be aware of viper transitions as well.
Other replays
new replay pack
http://drop.sc/packs/1474
vs JEJUS (CatZ)
Watch this game casted by BelleNOiR:
My analysis:
My opponent played way too passive and let me get 3 bases comfortably. In the late-game tried dealing with my maxed voidray / colossus / high templar army, but was unsuccessful. In some engagement he got good fungals off and damaged my army severely but was never able to finish it. When was already too far ahead in the recourses lost count, he tried a transition to broodlord / swarmhost without proper upgrades. I used my army mobility to secure the resources of 7 bases out of 12 and starve him out. I recommend this game if you're having trouble with army movement in the late-game
http://drop.sc/351253 vs Tyrox
This is another game of the zerg going for the roach / hydra / corruptor flood. After getting up to 140-150 supply you start trading extremely cost effecient and your opponent has choice but to tech to vipers. Most zerg stay with roach / hydra / corruptor though. This game shows well why that doesn't work.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yyCYIBa.jpg)
http://drop.sc/351242 vs Moonrise
This game shows very well how far behind you are when you over commit with the gateway pressure and lose your sentries (and have to remake them to hold counter pressure). I was however able to even it out somewhat by being aggressive with my first 4 voidrays by forcing out a lot of hydras and delaying my opponent's broodlord tech. I think this game shows very well how great the double stargate, 1 robo + gateways units (including high templar) are to have as infrastructure.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WaPjdvm.jpg)
Replay: http://drop.sc/351243 vs a barcode
In this game my opponent went for the fast +1/+1 style. Even though I didn't kill anything with the 4gate pressure. I was ahead in worker count cause he over commited to speedlings. I had to take my 3rd later though because he had so many lings out. Even though he did some damage to my economy in the mid/late-game (I never really got to be at 70~ workers for too long like I wanted to) I was able to buy so much time to prepare for the ultralisk attack with just a single warp prism. I also got to scout the double spire and knew a air transition was possible.
For some reason though, I made the wrong army and decided to attack. I lost pretty much everything for free, due to my harass I was able to scout his mutalisk transition (which was pretty weak though for a late-game mutalisk transition (only 15~ mutalisk at first)). After I dealt with the mutalisk harass I was able to get the appropriate army to deal with the ultralisks.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/hn3MuKK.jpg)
http://drop.sc/351241 vs EviL
In this game my opponent went for the fast +1/+1 style too. My gateway pressure, oracle harass and voidray pressure set him behind in economy. I don't think I did a good job denying his creep spread, but it was enough to keep him from attacking me. I think there were moments in the game where I was vulnerable. My opponent stayed on 2 bases for a very long which made it hard for me to harass his economy. I got lucky a couple of times in engagements where my opponent didn't transfuse his ultra's even thought he had 15+ queens in his army. The game ended eventually with the zerg trying to do a switch to mass muta but made the mistake of using the mutas in his army rather than harassing with them.
http://drop.sc/351248 vs [BriT]boubi
In this game I committed with the gateway pressure and killed the 3rd because my opponent's roaches were late. My opponent expand to a new 3rd really fast so I'm not sure if it was worth it to delay my tech for it. Especially with my 3rd being late, I was set up very poorly for the mid-game and had to play defensively. Due to my opponent attacking way too late with his hydra/viper army (I already had ranged colossi and more than enough storms) and having terrible micro, I was still able to win the game.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/S949kgf.jpg)
http://drop.sc/351252 vs Aicy
Even though my opponent went for a early pool and didn't do much damage, I think the game ended up pretty even going into the mid-game. He even was able to pull off a runby killing 20 probes. He made the mistake not capitalizing on his lead by not pressuring with vipers. This game shows really well how good revelation is in the late-game.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0HnhCCm.jpg)
vs speedling all-in: http://drop.sc/351249
vs baneling all-in: http://drop.sc/351250
To hold hold these 2 all-ins, you need to not get caught outside your base doing the pressure. With the fast 4 sentries and 4 gateways, it's vey easy to hold if you pay attention to your ramp. On some maps you may have to reinforce your ramp with extra buildings.
Download all replays in this guide in 1 pack: http://drop.sc/packs/1471
VOD
FAQ
Q: Why do so many zergs play like it's 2010?
A: Even though roach / hydra pushes can be good to punish a protoss going for a 3rd off 2 stargates, they never make the transition to viper fast enough to keep up the pressure.
Q: Why didn't you include a part on how to deal with swarmhosts?
A: Because I don't recommend this army composition vs swarmhosts. Once you realise your opponent is going for swarmhost play, you have to be out on the map harassing and pulling the swarmhosts out of position rather than sitting at home making voidrays and colossi.
Mod-rater
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8/10 - Be aware of angry zergs on ladder
Previous guide
Opening stargate in PvZ
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oP4KlsX.jpg)
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=420782
About me
I’m JayPower. 20 years old and from the Netherlands. I play Protoss at a grandmaster level.
My stream: http://www.twitch.tv/jaypower/. I stream my ladder games with commentary over there. I interact a lot with viewers and try to maintain a positive atmosphere that focuses on improving.
My twitter: https://twitter.com/JayPowerSC2. I don't tweet a whole lot. I mostly use it to update my followers on the content that I make and when I stream.
My website: http://jaypowersc2.com/. You can find my other guides organized on there and lots of other content.
Please give me feedback on the guide. I really do appreciate any feedback, so please give me suggestions on how I can improve. Any questions about the guide are welcome too, I will try to answer them as soon as possible.
