• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 01:40
CEST 07:40
KST 14:40
  • 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
Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection7Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview7[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies21
Community News
Weekly Cups (June 8-14): Clem and Solar double, PTR tested0RSL: S6 Finals played at BlizzCon 202611Douyu Cup 2026: $20,000 Legends Event (June 26-28)10[BSL22] Non-Korean Championship from 13 to 28 June4Weekly Cups (May 25-31): Clem doubles, 2v2 circuit heads toward finale0
StarCraft 2
General
TL Poll: How do you feel about the 5.0.16 PTR balance changes? Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview Updates to The Core/Core Lite for v5.0.16? RSL: S6 Finals played at BlizzCon 2026 Weekly Cups (June 8-14): Clem and Solar double, PTR tested
Tourneys
GSL CK #4 20-21th June Douyu Cup 2026: $20,000 Legends Event (June 26-28) Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond)
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Work In Progress Melee Maps [D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3
External Content
Mutation # 530 One For All The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 529 Opportunities Unleashed Mutation # 528 Infection Detected
Brood War
General
vespene.gg — BW replays in browser BW General Discussion Where is EffOrt? BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Quality of life changes in BW that you will like ?
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Grand Finals [BSL22] Grand Finals - Sunday 21:00 CEST Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2
Strategy
Relatively freeroll strategies Creating a full chart of Zerg builds Why doesn't anyone use restoration? Any training maps people recommend?
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Beyond All Reason ZeroSpace Megathread Total War: Warhammer 40K Path of Exile
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor 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
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread UK Politics Mega-thread [H]Internet/Gaming Cafe Tips and Tricks Trading/Investing Thread
Fan Clubs
The HerO Fan Club! The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Game of Thrones Discussion [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion Cricket [SPORT] NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Facing Challenges in Mobile App Development
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Does Workplace Frustration D…
TrAiDoS
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
I'm an arrogant trash talke…
FlaShFTW
Gauntlet SC2: A Retrospectiv…
Ctone23
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 7705 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
PiGosaur Cup
00:00
#86 (PTR Edition)
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
ProTech127
Nina 100
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 5739
Sea 4077
Rain 3987
GuemChi 3030
Mind 139
ZergMaN 25
Noble 22
Icarus 9
NaDa 6
Dota 2
LuMiX1
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King291
Other Games
summit1g7703
WinterStarcraft531
C9.Mang0463
ViBE159
RuFF_SC261
Happy27
Trikslyr23
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Secondary Stream1941
Other Games
gamesdonequick905
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH285
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• Diggity6
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Rush1471
• Lourlo1317
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
3h 20m
The PondCast
1d 4h
OSC
1d 7h
OSC
1d 18h
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
GSL
3 days
Maru vs ShoWTimE
Classic vs Reynor
herO vs Lambo
Solar vs Clem
BSL22 NKC (BSL vs China)
3 days
XuanXuan vs Jaystar
Mihu vs Messiah
eOnzErG vs Dewalt
Bonyth vs Jaystar
TerrOr vs Messiah
XuanXuan vs Mihu
eOnzErG vs Jaystar
Replay Cast
3 days
GSL
4 days
Patches Events
4 days
[ Show More ]
BSL22 NKC (BSL vs China)
4 days
Dewalt vs Messiah
Bonyth vs Mihu
TerrOr vs XuanXuan
eOnzErG vs Messiah
Jaystar vs Mihu
Dewalt vs XuanXuan
Bonyth vs TerrOr
Replay Cast
4 days
WardiTV Weekly
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-06-16
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Heroes Pulsing #1

Ongoing

IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Acropolis #4
CSCL: Masked Kings S4
YSL S3
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
SCTL 2026 Spring
Maestros of the Game 2
WardiTV Spring 2026
Murky Cup 2026
Heroes Pulsing #2
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1

Upcoming

CSL 2026 Summer (S21)
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Revival: Season 6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
Douyu Cup 2026
BCC 2026
Heroes Pulsing #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 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.