• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 11:51
CEST 17:51
KST 00:51
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2914Serral wins Maestros of the Game 243ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12
Community News
PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August)8Neeb returns to progaming; rejoins ONSYDE14Weekly Cups (July 20-26): Early returns on 5.0.16b8IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly5Clem: "I don't have that much hope in Blizzard"9
StarCraft 2
General
SC4ALL II: StarCraft 2 Player Announcement 1/8 Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Neeb returns to progaming; rejoins ONSYDE Clem: "I don't have that much hope in Blizzard" Weekly Cups (July 20-26): Early returns on 5.0.16b
Tourneys
SC4ALL II: StarCraft 2 Official Announcement PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 536 Railroad Switch The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 535 Assembly of Vengeance Mutation # 534 Burning Evacuation
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Making an Online Broodwar Manager Game BW Drama: Terror's Debt Incident + C9 disbanding BW General Discussion ASL22 General Discussion
Tourneys
Escore Tournament - Season 3 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues 2v2v2v2 Tournament Small VOD Thread 2.0
Strategy
Fighting Spirit mining rates Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Simple Questions, Simple Answers PvT advise for noobs
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live! Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread TL Mafia Power Rank NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
Artificial Intelligence Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club The HerO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread 2026-27 Football Thread placeholder TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Simple Questions Simple Answers FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop
TL Community
Northern Ireland Global Starcraft The Automated Ban List
Blogs
What is a Gamer?
TrAiDoS
Hello guys!
LIN1s
ASL S22 English Commentary…
namkraft
Poker (part 2)
Nebuchad
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 4533 users

Zerg Strategies as Annoying as the Photon Rush?

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Anonymouqs
Profile Joined July 2019
7 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-07-18 20:06:45
July 18 2019 20:06 GMT
#1
I am mainly a protoss player who plays cheese strategies such as the Photon Cannon Rush, Nexus Rush, and 4 Gate. Call me evil. There is a protoss player named "Florencio" who uses the most unexpected strategies(he actually created the Nexus Rush). As you can tell, he is my lord and savior

On a serious note, I am studying cheeses and rushes so I am able to counter them more. But you gotta admit that they are fun ^_^

I am learning Zerg at the moment and would like to be as unconventional as possible.

I am not asking for a Zergling Rush/Roach Rush. No. I am asking for something "unexpected and medically insane but effective".

Like a planetary fortress rush, a battle cruiser rush, a nexus rush. I'm just plain bored with doing zergling/roach rush and am not in the mood to do a conventional mid-late game.

I have attempted to develop a build involving 4 spine crawlers in the edge of someone's base after attaining sacs with the ovies and what not. Along with 4 spine crawlers there are 3 queens and a mixture of zerglings and roaches. But perhaps I am thinking too much like a protoss.

My fellow swarm, please aid me in out-cheesing the protoss.
brickrd
Profile Blog Joined March 2014
United States4894 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-07-19 18:23:34
July 19 2019 16:21 GMT
#2
the two craziest zerg cheeses against toss i know of are proxy hatch hidden in the main with roach burrow and hidden spawning pool first

for proxy burrow roach you have to hide the drone in the main and build a hatch out of sight, then mine gas, skip ling speed, research burrow, and make roaches from the proxy hatch. then you just abuse burrow micro to kill probes and cancel their mining. it's hard to hide the hatch, but some people will miss it. even if they find it sometimes you can finish it and they won't expect the roaches. you can do this with a proxy in the natural too but it's stronger in the main because you have a very narrow window of time before you start getting outmicroed by stalkers and tech/static D go up

for hidden spawning pool what you do is build drones to 14 supply, send the drone to a hidden corner of your main, start building a hatch, then immediately cancel and make a spawning pool on the creep from the canceled hatch. you have to do it immediately or the creep will disappear. then you mine to 300 again and take your natural. because you cut drones and overlord you can still make a fake expand soon enough to trick toss into thinking it's hatch first, and if they scout the main hopefully they don't see the hidden pool. then at 12/14 supply you do extractor trick and make 3 sets of lings. if the game normalizes you have to spend a creep tumor to make sure your pool doesn't bleed to death

2 base lurker drop is pretty crazy and fun too but not very good
TL+ Member
Ej_
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
47656 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-07-20 11:08:47
July 19 2019 17:14 GMT
#3
Proxy mutalisks and proxy swarm host

both start with going hatchery first at a hidden base:
-proxy SH takes a base close-by-air to your opponent's main, but far by ground (perfect maps for that: (Wiki)Neon Violet Square and (Wiki)Eastwatch with their golds)
-proxy mutalisks takes a base in a place where your opponent is least likely to scout ever (preferably also close by air for extra shenanigans with instant mutalisk harass; the best base ever for that is the 12 or 6 oclock on (Wiki)Eastwatch)

Proxy SH rushes lair, you start your lair before your "natural" is finished, so in your main, you ideally want to have 2 gases taken in main, with exact drone saturation required to pump non-stop SH and queens from your proxy hatchery
Proxy mutalisk is like normal 2hatch muta build, except all of your tech (lair and spire, and 7 mutalisks from injected larva) is made at your "natural" base.

Both builds are best suited in ZvP, but can be somehow pulled off vs Terran (but then they rely on inexperience of your opponent, not as much as information advantage).
The goal of proxy SH is to kill your opponent's main and natural nexus while defending SH with queen/spore vs stargate units.
The goal of proxy mutalisks is killing a ton of workers, while catching your opponent blindsided. It's not a very strong build, but can do wonders if your opponent is expecting any kind of other proxy build (esp. vs people who don't go stargate).
It's the best to mix them up with each other, and with different proxy hatchery all-ins (proxy roach/ravager, proxy spinecrawler ling flood, the aforementioned proxy hatch in main) to keep your opponent paranoid and forcing suboptimal responses.

"Technically the dictionary has zero authority on the meaning or words" - Rodya
washikie
Profile Joined February 2011
United States752 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-07-19 22:21:19
July 19 2019 22:14 GMT
#4
I played against one guy who hangs around D1 mmr on the ladder and they go for a 1 base nydus swarhost strat in evrey matchup, I have never lost to them but I play them a lot when I’m offraceing or playing random and thier build is so weird, they never ever expand, build a wall of evo chambers+ static d on their ramp and just constantly spam nydus everywhere and dump wave after wave of locusts on you. The amount of hosts a 1 base Zerg can make is kind of insane. It’s a very annoying cheese to deal with. It often leads to games where I have to wait for them to mine out thier main before I can win. Because engaging up a ramp into static d+ swarhosts is very difficult especially when leaving your base usualy means the loss of your nexus or hatch to a locust wave spewed from the global teleporting monstrosities.
"when life gives Hero lemons he makes carriers" -Artosis
Charoisaur
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany16085 Posts
July 20 2019 09:59 GMT
#5
1 base proxy broodlord.
Spawning pool - double gas - lair before queen - infestation pit and send a drone to the corner of the map - start a spire there and hive - greater spire
Many of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment
Chronopolis
Profile Joined April 2009
Canada1484 Posts
July 22 2019 10:17 GMT
#6
1 base nydus swarmhosts is probably the cheesiest strat. It feels comically unfair if you don't react correctly.
insitelol
Profile Joined August 2012
845 Posts
July 22 2019 11:39 GMT
#7
On July 20 2019 18:59 Charoisaur wrote:
1 base proxy broodlord.
Spawning pool - double gas - lair before queen - infestation pit and send a drone to the corner of the map - start a spire there and hive - greater spire

This. But remember you should practice this build very hard. Like 50 games a day or so. Only then it will work properly. Don't matter if you lose your first 200 games. Just keep doing it.
Less is more.
Aveng3r
Profile Joined February 2012
United States2411 Posts
July 26 2019 20:00 GMT
#8
clearly need to start raining baneling bombs on enemy positions from carrier overlords
I carve marble busts of assassinated world leaders - PM for a quote
WaesumNinja
Profile Joined February 2012
210 Posts
July 26 2019 20:37 GMT
#9
On July 22 2019 19:17 Chronopolis wrote:
1 base nydus swarmhosts is probably the cheesiest strat. It feels comically unfair if you don't react correctly.


doesn't even need to be 1 base, can just keep a squad of a couple of SH and just keep doing this all game. 8-10ish SH can comfortably focus down a nexus with a shield battery, just be ready for their counter push...
Luolis
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
Finland7190 Posts
July 27 2019 05:55 GMT
#10
1-base SH nydus for sure
pro cheese woman / Its never Sunny in Finland. Perkele / FinnishStarcraftTrivia
Spirit_HUN
Profile Joined March 2018
24 Posts
July 27 2019 10:21 GMT
#11
Try the "One Thousand Years of Death" named spine rush build vs protoss.
Its works on Kairos and New Repugnancy as well.
The highest level protoss i was able to beat this build was 5.8k MMR high.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 9m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
XaKoH 127
ProTech84
RotterdaM 37
RushiSC 36
BRAT_OK 16
MindelVK 4
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 36638
Calm 8141
firebathero 1272
Shuttle 1056
Mini 568
Tasteless 307
Larva 302
Mong 143
Soma 134
Rush 57
[ Show more ]
Sea.KH 54
NaDa 31
Barracks 29
scan(afreeca) 25
sSak 22
Rock 12
Dota 2
Gorgc9371
qojqva2010
420jenkins191
Counter-Strike
fl0m3727
Other Games
FrodaN1393
hiko910
B2W.Neo899
TKL 123
ToD122
crisheroes122
Liquid`VortiX105
QueenE65
Trikslyr44
Mew2King36
uThermal4
Organizations
StarCraft 2
TaKeTV 53
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• IndyKCrew
• StrangeGG 0
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• sooper7s
• Migwel
• intothetv
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Kozan
StarCraft: Brood War
• FirePhoenix4
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 2918
• masondota2714
League of Legends
• Jankos1719
• TFBlade901
Other Games
• Shiphtur135
Upcoming Events
Big Brain Bouts
9m
Spirit vs sOs
GgMaChine vs Percival
Serral vs MaxPax
RotterdaM37
OSC
6h 39m
Replay Cast
8h 9m
Afreeca Starleague
12h 9m
RSL Revival
17h 9m
ByuN vs SHIN
Solar vs Lambo
WardiTV Summer Champion…
19h 9m
Afreeca Starleague
1d 12h
RSL Revival
1d 17h
Clem vs Serral
herO vs Rogue
WardiTV Summer Champion…
1d 20h
WardiTV Weekly
2 days
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
PiGosaur Cup
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Kung Fu Cup
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
The PondCast
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
IntoTheTV X SOOP
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-07-30
SCTL 2026 Spring
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale

Ongoing

CSL 2026 Summer (S21)
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
Escore Tournament S3: W5
RSL Revival: Season 6
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026

Upcoming

ASL Season 22: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 22: Qualifier #2
K-JUNGMAN
Acropolis #5
Escore Tournament S3: W6
Escore Tournament S3: W7
Escore Tournament S3: W8
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Light Tournament 2026
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
Logitech G Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.