• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 15:59
CEST 21:59
KST 04:59
  • 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
[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10
Community News
Rollback Netcode in Brood War565.0.17 Patch Notes - October 7, 202621Weekly Cups Results (Sep 28-Oct 4)0SC4ALL: II SC2 Complete Invited Player Lineup10StarCraft II 5.0.17 PTR Patch Notes (Sept 30, 2026)78
StarCraft 2
General
5.0.17 Patch Notes - October 7, 2026 [Old] StarCraft 3 Reportedly in Development StarCraft II 5.0.17 PTR Patch Notes (Sept 30, 2026) How do you feel about the mass reverts in the 5.0.17 PTR? Weekly Cups Results (Sep 28-Oct 4)
Tourneys
$3,500 WardiTV Not-Summer Championship ScienceCraft (October 24-25) - Live Event RSL 2026 Offline Finals LCQ Sign-Ups Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Sweltering Sands [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
Mutation # 546 Catch the Train The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 545 And Drops and Rifts Mutation # 544 Double Trouble
Brood War
General
Repalyzer - replay analysis app for StarCraft: Rem Fantasy returning? TL Sidebar missing streams Rollback Netcode in Brood War BW General Discussion
Tourneys
[ASL22] Semifinal B [ASL22] Semifinal A [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL22] Ro8 Day 4
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do?
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread General RTS Discussion Thread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Total Annihilation Zero
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Movie Discussion! Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Football (Soccer) Thread MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Escaping Into Video Games: G…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8704 users

TvP marine/banshee/raven defensive-style build

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Azzur
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia6267 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-07 18:47:53
December 07 2010 18:46 GMT
#1
The marine/banshee/raven is a well-known build with several variations where most of them aim for a strong attack off 2-bases. The motivation for this TvP build is a multi-purpose, flexible build that allows for a strong endgame army (viking/banshee/BC/marine/raven) without relying on the timing push. This build is mainly reactive and defensive, which may appeal to your playstyle. Banshees are used as harass options in the middlegame and endgame. I believe this build can handle any protoss response which thus makes it useful for laddering. So far, this build has served me well at the 2200 diamond level.

Opening
+ Show Spoiler +
- 10 supply (at choke), 12 rax (near CC), 13 gas, 15 OC, 16 supply
- marines + scvs constantly
- 2nd gas
- factory
- reactor on rax when you have 2-3 marines
- bunker
- starport after factory
- techlab on factory to swap with starport
- bunker
- raven
- cloak
- banshee

Notes:
- The rax-reactor which allows for production of sufficent marines to handle early attacks using 2 bunkers at the choke. 1 bunker is definitely needed but the 2nd can be avoided if your scouting is good.
- The 2nd gas before factory leads to 200 gas right as the starport finishes (sufficient for the raven).
- If the protoss expands, the terran should interrupt the build and immediately throw down a CC in response and then resume as normal.
- The "half-wall" helps negate early pressure while not being vulnerable to a wallin harass (e.g. by stalkers or VRs). This is done by placing the first supply at the choke but the rax near the CC. The supply allows for a quick emergency wallin while having the rax back means that it is not vulnerable to harass.


Midgame
+ Show Spoiler +
- I usually harass at 2 banshees.
- If you feel reasonably safe, expand then build the 2nd starport. If not, build the starport first.
- Add a couple of bunkers at your natural and place your army there.
- Add more starports (4-5).
- Build armory for upgrades.
- Army composition is marine/banshee/raven.
- Harass as much as possible with banshees. If they get phoenixes, build vikings in response and be conservative with your harass. If your airforce is caught by the phoenixes, run your banshees and let your vikings engage (and thus die) to buy time for the banshees to get away.
- If they are phoenix-heavy, don't be afraid to keep your banshees with your main army (i.e don't harass) and instead just try and get expansions.


Endgame
+ Show Spoiler +
- Build a fusion core.
- Army composition is viking/banshee/BC/marine/raven.
- Keep expanding using PFs and add more starports as money allows.
- Position your army in a good location with the ability to defend expansions. Ideally, you want them to engage you while you are in a strong defensive position. Bring some SCVs for auto-repair.
- The protoss has no hard-counter to BCs and they perform reasonably against HTs/stalkers.
- Don't forget to keep upgrading air.


Some protoss responses
+ Show Spoiler +
2-gate robo
- Scout their expansion timing and pop down a CC if they do it early.
- If they play defensively, try and get your expand down first and out-econ them.

4-gate
- Be extremely defensive and don't be afraid to keep your banshees at home for defence.
- When you've held their attack, you can expand instead of trying to press home the win.

1-gate FE
- Interrupt your opening and build a CC straight away. They will probably be on the defensive, so bring your banshees to harass as soon as possible.
- I generally don't try to go for a timing attack.

3-gate 1-star
- Once you see the VRs, make vikings in response and stick on the defensive. I try and expand first before going on the attack.
- I would stick to marines/vikings and not get turrets.

2-star
- The defence for this is simlar to the 3-gate 1-star build (I would also not get turrets).

3-gate (or 4-gate) blink stalkers
- The double bunker should be able to protect you. However, it is likely that you'll need to pull SCVs to defend against this.

Zealot/phoenix
- This build can be difficult to handle and probably soft-counters this build.
- You need to stay on the defensive and pump vikings in response.


Replays
+ Show Spoiler +

http://sc2.replayers.com/replays/view/5212
http://sc2.replayers.com/replays/view/5201
http://sc2.replayers.com/replays/view/5200
http://sc2.replayers.com/replays/view/5199

Black Gun
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Germany4482 Posts
December 07 2010 18:53 GMT
#2
wont templar with storm and feedback completely roflstomp a banshee/bc/marine/raven army?

but nice OP and nice idea. gonna have a look at the reps now.
"What am I supposed to do against this?" - "Lose!" :-]
darksub
Profile Joined July 2010
Argentina302 Posts
December 07 2010 19:04 GMT
#3
i been loking for transition to end game bc, ill give a try and comment again later
divide et vinces
gnashed_potatoes
Profile Joined December 2010
14 Posts
December 07 2010 19:08 GMT
#4
On December 08 2010 03:53 Black Gun wrote:
wont templar with storm and feedback completely roflstomp a banshee/bc/marine/raven army?


You'd think, but no. I use a build similar to this all the time and HT's really aren't much of a threat because they are such a huge investment and will mean their ground army is lacking as a result. The HT's will waste all their energy on your bio ball but its quite easy to dodge the storms with your banshees. He may feedback your banshees but neither the banshees nor the HT's will have much energy because of cloaking and storm, respectively.
gnashed_potatoes
Profile Joined December 2010
14 Posts
December 07 2010 19:13 GMT
#5
Also, I would add medevacs/marauders rather than battlecruisers. That way you can do multi pronged frontal attacks/drops and not worry about the immobiltiy of the cruisers, especially on a large map.
antz0r
Profile Joined September 2010
Australia168 Posts
December 08 2010 00:04 GMT
#6
I never realised how fun having an airforce was lol. By luck I watched the arman replay last.
I note that you don't upgrade the marines or go rax/techlab for combat shields or stim. Is this so you have more in the bank for BC later on?

Azzur
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia6267 Posts
December 08 2010 03:49 GMT
#7
On December 08 2010 09:04 antz0r wrote:
I never realised how fun having an airforce was lol. By luck I watched the arman replay last.
I note that you don't upgrade the marines or go rax/techlab for combat shields or stim. Is this so you have more in the bank for BC later on?


The lack of combat shields and stim is a playstyle choice. I almost never get stim because I dislike using infantry. Combat shields are a good idea but I never get them since it would require a techlab swap with the reactor (which is troublesome). But it'll be great if you can adapt these into the build!
NadaSound
Profile Joined March 2010
United States227 Posts
December 11 2010 02:27 GMT
#8
Thanks I've been looking for a new approach against the toss. I'll let you konow who it goes.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
BSL: Ladder Tournament
04:00
#3 - $100
ZZZero.O120
LiquipediaDiscussion
AI Arena Tournament
02:00
Swiss - Round 5
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Liquid`TLO 291
JuggernautJason114
StarCraft: Brood War
Leta 675
Shuttle 513
ZZZero.O 120
Zeus 75
Hyun 42
soO 37
scan(afreeca) 25
Dota 2
qojqva2232
canceldota39
Counter-Strike
fl0m5093
Heroes of the Storm
Grubby3844
Liquid`Hasu619
Other Games
summit1g3654
FrodaN1015
KnowMe307
420jenkins223
Pyrionflax194
Livibee173
ToD161
QueenE62
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick810
StarCraft 2
angryscii 33
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• printf 77
• Hupsaiya 36
• Adnapsc2 23
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• blackmanpl 28
• FirePhoenix5
• niya90s 1
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Counter-Strike
• C_a_k_e 1836
Other Games
• imaqtpie919
• Shiphtur655
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
14h 1m
Patches Events
19h 1m
BSL Open Qualifier
23h 1m
BSL Open Qualifier
23h 1m
OSC
1d 3h
OSC
1d 16h
WardiTV Weekly
2 days
PiGosaur Cup
3 days
The PondCast
4 days
Online Event
5 days
[ Show More ]
Korean StarCraft League
6 days
Afreeca Starleague
6 days
Rush vs Soulkey
CranKy Ducklings
6 days
BSL Open Qualifier
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Acropolis #5 - GSB
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Copium Cup

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
Acropolis #5
HCC Season 3
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
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.