• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 02:42
CEST 08:42
KST 15:42
  • 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
Weekly Cups (July 27-Aug 2): SHIN's big week0SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-69SC4ALL II announced - $10,000 prize pool, Dec 5-64PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August)14Neeb returns to progaming; rejoins ONSYDE18
StarCraft 2
General
StarCraft 2 at SC4ALL II Invite #4/8 - Percival Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Protoss AoE skill expression 5.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start) StarCraft 2 at SC4ALL II Invite #3/8 - Clem
Tourneys
RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) Tasteless Time Warp: SC Evo Showmatch (May 25) SC4ALL II announced - $10,000 prize pool, Dec 5-6
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 537 Hostile Territory Mutation # 536 Railroad Switch Mutation # 535 Assembly of Vengeance
Brood War
General
ASL 22 Proposed Map Pool Recent recommended BW games Making an Online Broodwar Manager Game ASL22 General Discussion [Personal Project Share] Terran Defense v0.60
Tourneys
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Escore Tournament - Season 3 SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-6
Strategy
Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Any training maps people recommend? Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live! Beyond All Reason
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 Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
Iain M Banks Says He Has Cancer And Months To Live US Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI Russo-Ukrainian War Thread
Fan Clubs
The Clem Fan Club INnoVation Fan Club The Scarlett Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
NBA General Discussion Football (Soccer) Thread 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
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
What is a Gamer?
TrAiDoS
Hello guys!
LIN1s
ASL S22 English Commentary…
namkraft
Poker (part 2)
Nebuchad
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 6591 users

[G] MaxPax's PvT Easy MMR Macro DT Opener

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
ESChamp
Profile Joined September 2014
Canada124 Posts
September 10 2021 21:54 GMT
#1


Replay Download - MaxPax vs HeRoMaRinE

+ Show Spoiler [ Build timings] +

12 0:08 Pylon
13 0:27 Gateway
15 0:42 Assimilator
18 1:14 Cybernetics Core
19 1:31 Nexus
19 1:38 Pylon
20 1:47 Adept (Chrono Boost)
20 1:53 Assimilator
22 1:59 Warp Gate
23 2:07 Adept (Chrono Boost)
27 2:29 Twilight Council
27 2:32 Adept
30 2:42 Shield Battery
32 2:57 Robotics Facility
37 3:22 Dark Shrine
37 3:29 Gateway
39 3:45 Warp Prism (Chrono Boost)
43 3:57 Gateway
45 4:06 Pylon x2
45 4:13 Assimilator x2
46 4:29 Pylon
48 4:37 Dark Templar x2
54 4:38 Blink (Chrono Boost)
56 5:00 Dark Templar
56 5:01 Archon
60 5:11 Nexus
60 5:14 Dark Templar, Stalker
60 5:20 Archon
66 5:24 Forge
68 5:40 Stalker x2
68 5:42 Observer
74 5:44 Robotics Bay
77 6:06 Stalker x3
77 6:10 Charge
84 6:13 Protoss Ground Weapons Level 1
83 6:28 Shield Battery
83 6:29 Colossus (Chrono Boost), Gateway
92 6:51 Stalker x3
98 6:54 Photon Cannon
98 6:55 Gateway
98 6:58 Extended Thermal Lance
97 7:14 Gateway x2
97 7:15 Colossus (Chrono Boost)
97 7:18 Photon Cannon
99 7:32 Nexus, Zealot
99 7:35 Sentry x2
103 7:37 Zealot
107 7:53 Stalker
111 8:00 Zealot x3
117 8:08 Shield Battery
118 8:15 Zealot x4
118 8:18 Colossus (Chrono Boost)
130 8:28 Zealot
74 9:20 Colossus (Chrono Boost)
90 9:39 Dark Templar x4
90 9:44 Archon x2



The Transition:
Now, in a lot of games, you just got some free MMR. Luckily Maxpax is playing vs Biggest of Gabes, who has indeed scouted the DT Shrine earlier. At 5:15, he is grabbing the third base to further transition into the Macro Game, while also warping in 2 more DTs in the front to potentially go for an Archon Drop. At 5:25 a forge is added.

Now from here on out, the game opens up massively for the Protoss, depending on what the gamestate is, and what your preference in playstyle is. The three meta Macro transitions are into a Mass Gate Style with a second Forge, a Storm focused style with a High Templar Archives, or what Maxpax will be showing here: Robotics Bay and Colossi.

With Blink finishing, charge is started, and Maxpax is opting for pressure with the Archon Drop and a handfull of stalkers. Once again trying to punish potential mistakes, without actually committing them. It is ESSENTIAL that we don't lose Starkers unnecessarily. Having a hand full of stalkers in your army is great for Anti-Air and some added damage, however adding more stalkers after this first battle, will not only delay your tech, but production for actually good Core units in your army, aka Zealots.

Micro-wise, Maxpax is trying to get some damage done with the Archons. As Archons are very tanky, the main thing to worry about is to not lose the Prism. Macro wise, we're setting up the minimum amount of Static D (Cannons in Mineral lines, shield battery the base), while getting the gateway count up to 8-10 without building units in the meantime, if possible. That way, the big gateway explosion will enable the perfect abusing of the economic advantage we have gained.

Defending the Counter
Now, if you've macroed well, and did some damage, depending on your transition, you could go for a final push to end the game while taking a fourth base or gases..or both. Gases allow for easier Tech switching, another base allows for more Gateways. However, Maxpax only traded decently here, which means the Terran can go for their counter attack. This phase is now all about vision, knowing where the Terran army is coming from, if it might be dropping. In between the drop and the Colossi, Maxpax has been pumping out observers to gain some vision. If a raven is out, Map vision and vision of main army both is preferable to..well, losing your Observer. You may also add pylons, or even move single zealots / surviving adepts in spots to see the army and drop movements.

If the army is moving out, you want to safely kite the Terran army with your larger range, keeping them from stimming on top of you with forcefields, while baiting out stims, sieges and raven disables far away from where the actual fight will happen. If you did it correctly, the fight will then be happening at one of your bases, fortified with batteries, and an incredible army advantage from your economy kicking in earlier.
jimminy_kriket
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Canada5539 Posts
September 12 2021 01:06 GMT
#2
Thank you for the guide, I will be using it on ladder. I am curious as to why maxpax didn't place his initial pylon gateway and core in position to block the reaper ledge. Against any decent player who opens reaper I would think this gets scouted pretty easily and it did.

One could argue that it's probably going to get scouted anyways, or that he expected a marine opening which is somewhat meta at the moment. Still seems strange not to try. Or perhaps its actually better to let it get scouted because the terran might over invest in turrets making the archon harass more potent due to lack of units.

What do you think?
life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery
HolyHit
Profile Joined March 2013
Germany4 Posts
September 12 2021 16:38 GMT
#3
It's probably because of the tightness of the 12 pylon 13 gateway, and getting the best out of that opening.

If the main focus is the dt drop itself, a normal opening, 14 pylon 16 gateway, would probably be the better option, as it's easier to proxy the dt shrine / wall-off the main. But since the DT shrine being scouted is never a game ending moment, I'm guessing the focus really was just on getting that 12/13 as clean as possible.
jimminy_kriket
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Canada5539 Posts
September 16 2021 23:51 GMT
#4
That makes sense, I haven't been using 12 pylon very much so I wasn't sure how impactful being behind15 minerals or so would be to the overall timings.
life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery
_fool
Profile Joined February 2011
Netherlands683 Posts
September 18 2021 18:34 GMT
#5
I'm not a Protoss player, but I really appreciate people putting out this type of content! Stuff like this makes TL the go-to SC2 platform. Well done!
"News is to the mind what sugar is to the body"
qcHanHan
Profile Joined September 2011
Denmark76 Posts
October 05 2021 09:02 GMT
#6
Still works like a charm for me in master 1 (y) Lovely build.
HerO - herO - PartinG - sOs - Rain - Zest - Stats
Danijonn
Profile Joined October 2021
2 Posts
October 14 2021 20:04 GMT
#7
--- Nuked ---
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 2h 18m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
WinterStarcraft692
Nina 105
ProTech71
StarCraft: Brood War
Sharp 137
Mind 111
sSak 91
Bale 68
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm190
LuMiX1
League of Legends
JimRising 614
Counter-Strike
summit1g7869
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King97
Other Games
C9.Mang0345
m0e_tv248
amsayoshi52
Livibee39
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick704
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH281
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2349
League of Legends
• Lourlo1364
Upcoming Events
RSL Revival
2h 18m
herO vs SHIN
Clem vs Solar
Serral vs Rogue
Ladder Legends
11h 18m
Ladder Legends
13h 18m
RSL Revival
1d 2h
OSC
1d 6h
OSC
1d 17h
WardiTV Weekly
2 days
The Patches Monday
2 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
PiG Sty Festival
3 days
[ Show More ]
PiGosaur Cup
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Kung Fu Cup
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
The PondCast
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Escore Tournament S3: W6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
Acropolis #5
RSL Revival: Season 6
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: W7
CSLAN 4
ASL Season 22
Escore Tournament S3: W8
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
Thunderpick World Champ.
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.