UPDATE: You can skip the 2nd queen, hit with 6 roaches and hit even harder - this version is still in common usage from players such as Dark and Elazer

This thread is a short guide + VoD showcasing a dirty cheese for zergs to do when they’re struggling vs Protoss and really need to get some easy wins to soothe their bruised egos. I present to you - “The Therapy Build”.

Build order and Show notes:

This is one from wayyy back when Dark vs Stats played in the semifinals of SSL season 1:

The Build

17 gas
17 pool
18 hatch
Queen + 2 lings to hunt down the probe and deny vision
Cut drones at 19.
16 on minerals, 3 on gas.
(no workers on natural)
@100gas ling speed
2nd queen asap (first queen moves to inject natural)
22 Roach warren
21 replace drone that made warren
22 2xoverlord
(OPTION)2-3 more pairs of lings to control the map and stop adepts spotting the roaches (or skip these for a sharper timing and rely on them retreating at the correct time to survive ling speed finishing)
You can skip these lings and hit way harder - most protoss will know your
ling speed is fast so won’t risk being on the map anyway.
However if you prefer 100% information denial get these lings
7 roaches
Mass lings
YOLO!

Notes

Morph damaged roaches into ravagers (5-armour when morphing + full heal when finished)
Target down pylons
Try to de-power gateways

Link to replays added as requested:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0suoovMS9qxS0d1bjFmcjJZZzA

Ok now I feel dirty - so I guess I’ll show you Protoss players how to defend this sort of rush too:

Build units out of gateway
Chrono warpgate a tad
Ensure 2 more gateways down by 3:20 at the latest
Mocore starts right after tech structure so 2 overcharges during the hold
Always wall off at natural first to make it easier
Memorise your wall-offs

Probe1

United States17920 Posts

October 25 2016 09:18 GMT

Is it useful to transfer some drones to your natural to feign saturation in case of a sneaky scout?

IcemanAsi

Israel681 Posts

October 25 2016 10:50 GMT

Hey! the 7RR is back :D

SKN1995

Japan204 Posts

October 25 2016 14:47 GMT

"Mocore" :D I always wrote msc

anyway this is a great contribution - playing builds like this one seems like a good way for new players to get to focus on microing their units instead of wondering too much about reacting and such

Railgan

Switzerland1507 Posts

October 25 2016 16:01 GMT

Was a strong build for a long time. Now adays at the higher level the build only works if the opponent miss reads it but counters have already been developed.

If the rush distance on the map is shorter you can also add 2 Queens and walk across the map with them.

If you are interested in a shorter analysis of the whole build I made a video on it some months ago:

It might also be important to add that building a lot of pylons does surprising well against this rush.

PiGStarcraft

Australia988 Posts

October 26 2016 04:15 GMT

On October 25 2016 18:18 Probe1 wrote:
Is it useful to transfer some drones to your natural to feign saturation in case of a sneaky scout?

preferably stop the scout getting in, in the first place, but if not and you do this fast enough then sure!

PiGStarcraft

Australia988 Posts

October 26 2016 04:21 GMT

On October 26 2016 01:01 Railgan wrote:
Was a strong build for a long time. Now adays at the higher level the build only works if the opponent miss reads it but counters have already been developed.

If the rush distance on the map is shorter you can also add 2 Queens and walk across the map with them.

If you are interested in a shorter analysis of the whole build I made a video on it some months ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29fA0Uy7Ojg

It might also be important to add that building a lot of pylons does surprising well against this rush.

!!**HIJACKER ALERT**!!

Haha yeah that's similar though the queens walking across doesn't really add anything. Being able to flood lings off your injects is a lot more important. Maybe on Dasan and Ulrena it's kinda worthwhile I guess, but definitely not on any of the other maps.

I was going to add the variation where elevator lings super early off this too so you surprise them even more - but figured I'd keep it a little shorter

But yeah a big part of this ep was just - here's a nifty cheese! It's good. (lots of ppl been requesting cheesy builds in ZvP lately).

The other part of the VoD was - lets go over wall-offs and defence of this sort of stuff since many players have been complaining about it and there's just a few key points to staying safe.

This can still take games at high level if the Protoss doesn't play safe vs it. The very threat of this is why we still see 17 gas 17 pool builds quite commonly from zerg - if protoss doesn't respect this option they can just die.

PiGStarcraft

Australia988 Posts

October 26 2016 04:27 GMT

Link to replays added as requested:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0suoovMS9qxS0d1bjFmcjJZZzA

Railgan

Switzerland1507 Posts

October 26 2016 15:18 GMT

On October 26 2016 13:21 PiGStarcraft wrote:

Show nested quote +

!!**HIJACKER ALERT**!!

Haha yeah that's similar though the queens walking across doesn't really add anything. Being able to flood lings off your injects is a lot more important. Maybe on Dasan and Ulrena it's kinda worthwhile I guess, but definitely not on any of the other maps.

I was going to add the variation where elevator lings super early off this too so you surprise them even more.

But yeah a big part of this ep was just - here's a nifty cheese! It's good. (lots of ppl been requesting cheesy builds in ZvP lately).

The other part of the VoD was - lets go over wall-offs and defence of this sort of stuff since many players have been complaining about it and there's just a few key points to staying safe.

This can still take games at high level if the Protoss doesn't play safe vs it. The very threat of this is why we still see 17 gas 17 pool builds quite commonly from zerg - if protoss doesn't respect this option they can just die.

I think the biggest strength of the opener is that it is easy to mix it up. If you get scouted just go for Speedling / Baneling Drops or go for a fast lair into muta or any other strategy.