I think that Terran players have, in general, been playing better recently. The buffs to the widow mine and the Thor have also really helped in the Terran vs Zerg matchup resulting in better Terran performance and representation.

The maps have probably made the biggest difference though. I remember a time when I would be very happy to play on overgrowth against Zerg, now however, I veto overgrowth every chance I get. This should show you just how good the new map pool is for Terran.

Not as much as it did the TvZ matchup. I find it’s mostly the same Terran vs Protoss still.

The buffs to Terran have really helped the TvZ matchup. Mines and Thors in the matchup are much more effective.

Not too much. It is mostly the same thing Terran has been doing in the past with small adjustments. Before the patch, you would make mines before getting your first Thor. With the new thor however, once the tech lab finishes on your second factory, now you make the thor immediately, and that really helps.

Not too much. I do know that some players have been using the mine more since the buff. Since it does so much damage, even against colossus you can drop it and force the Protoss army to split up for defense and get some damage done.

Since Protoss open mainly colossus now, it has become very predictable. It is good for me, it makes it easier, but it does make the matchup stale.

Snute’s style is very good, and I think with time, in maybe two or three months, it will be the standard. It’s just so difficult to deal with as Terran right now.

It’s a very difficult composition to deal with. The mutas are very good at harassing and keeping the Terran back as well as forcing marines. At the same time, the locusts are free and will always push and trade well with the Terran army if you go for marines without tanks. It makes it very cost efficient for the Zerg and difficult for Terran.

I haven’t been able to practice and train against it too much because I have been travelling so much lately, but I have played it a few times and spoken to Snute. I think the best option is to get a lot of bases and focus a lot on clearing creep. If you take a lot of bases it can be hard to defend against the mutalisk though, Zerg will want to stay low on the lings so still have supply for 20/30 mutas. So it is very hard. There are some timings for the Terran to do a lot of damage when the Zerg transitions from mutalisks into swarmhosts, but that is still a very difficult thing to do.

I don’t think these games were a good representation of the style because Snute was already so behind when he did try to go swarmhost in most of the games. The first game is a much better example for the build than the other because in that game at the beginning, it was mostly even when the game started.

It is very common. Too common perhaps. The gas first opening is just very very good. The builds that follow gas first are all very powerful, and it is difficult to know which one is coming. There are builds like hellion drops from one gas, two medivac drops, banshees, raven builds which are designed to break your opponent’s ramp. I like to get a reaper so that it takes away some of the guessing you have to do. If you see the second gas it changes the builds your opponent can do and makes defending a little easier. Against gas first builds even when you defend the attack, you end up even with your opponent, and not often too far ahead.

I think it is too standard already, and there are ways to deal with it, other than going gas first as well. Today we saw Flash open fast command center against TaeJa and he was able to hold against a tank push with fast hellbats. So I do think that something like a fast command center is good because you have so much economy that you can hold the attacks of your opponent and possibly come out ahead.