• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 11:39
CET 17:39
KST 01:39
  • 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
SC2 All-Star Invitational: Tournament Preview5RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups C & D Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups A & B Preview2
Community News
Weekly Cups (Jan 12-18): herO, MaxPax, Solar win0BSL Season 2025 - Full Overview and Conclusion7Weekly Cups (Jan 5-11): Clem wins big offline, Trigger upsets4$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)16Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns7
StarCraft 2
General
PhD study /w SC2 - help with a survey! When will we find out if there are more tournament Stellar Fest "01" Jersey Charity Auction Weekly Cups (Jan 12-18): herO, MaxPax, Solar win I am looking for StarCraft 2 Beta Patch files
Tourneys
$70 Prize Pool Ladder Legends Academy Weekly Open! SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament SC2 AI Tournament 2026 $21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 509 Doomsday Report Mutation # 508 Violent Night Mutation # 507 Well Trained Mutation # 506 Warp Zone
Brood War
General
A cwal.gg Extension - Easily keep track of anyone BSL Season 2025 - Full Overview and Conclusion [ASL21] Potential Map Candidates Gypsy to Korea Video Footage from 2005: The Birth of G2 in Spain
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10 Small VOD Thread 2.0 Azhi's Colosseum - Season 2
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2 Game Theory for Starcraft Current Meta
Other Games
General Games
Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Beyond All Reason Awesome Games Done Quick 2026!
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread NASA and the Private Sector Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club! The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Navigating the Risks and Rew…
TrAiDoS
My 2025 Magic: The Gathering…
DARKING
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2728 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
Germany16024 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
Finland7155 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 8h 21m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
LamboSC2 445
ProTech132
BRAT_OK 117
FoxeR 43
StarCraft: Brood War
Sea 8830
Calm 3048
Larva 1246
BeSt 653
Soma 524
Stork 498
Mini 465
ZerO 424
Snow 329
ggaemo 256
[ Show more ]
hero 187
Rush 178
Sharp 102
Mong 101
Hyun 76
Mind 51
ToSsGirL 29
Hm[arnc] 26
Barracks 25
soO 24
Terrorterran 22
Movie 17
Sexy 13
HiyA 13
scan(afreeca) 9
Dota 2
Gorgc4954
singsing2571
qojqva1621
Dendi344
febbydoto12
Counter-Strike
byalli568
Coldzera 470
markeloff225
oskar89
Other Games
Grubby2124
B2W.Neo1183
hiko634
allub356
Fuzer 229
QueenE151
Liquid`VortiX135
ToD94
KnowMe36
ZerO(Twitch)21
Liquid`Ken10
DeMusliM7
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Laughngamez YouTube
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• blackmanpl 31
• FirePhoenix11
• Michael_bg 2
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• TFBlade997
Other Games
• Shiphtur177
Upcoming Events
PiGosaur Monday
8h 21m
The PondCast
17h 21m
OSC
18h 21m
Big Brain Bouts
3 days
Serral vs TBD
BSL 21
3 days
BSL 21
4 days
Wardi Open
5 days
Monday Night Weeklies
6 days
WardiTV Invitational
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-01-19
SC2 All-Star Inv. 2025
NA Kuram Kup

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
OSC Championship Season 13
Underdog Cup #3
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S1: W5
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
HSC XXVIII
Rongyi Cup S3
Nations Cup 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 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.