• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 04:38
CET 10:38
KST 18:38
  • 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
RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups C & D Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups A & B Preview2TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners12
Community News
[BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 102SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-1821Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises3Weekly Cups (Dec 15-21): Classic wins big, MaxPax & Clem take weeklies3ComeBackTV's documentary on Byun's Career !11
StarCraft 2
General
SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises Chinese SC2 server to reopen; live all-star event in Hangzhou Starcraft 2 Zerg Coach ComeBackTV's documentary on Byun's Career !
Tourneys
uThermal 2v2 Circuit OSC Season 13 World Championship WardiTV Mondays $5,000+ WardiTV 2025 Championship $100 Prize Pool - Winter Warp Gate Masters Showdow
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 506 Warp Zone Mutation # 505 Rise From Ashes Mutation # 504 Retribution Mutation # 503 Fowl Play
Brood War
General
I would like to say something about StarCraft Empty tournaments section on Liquipedia A cwal.gg Extension - Easily keep track of anyone StarCraft & BroodWar Campaign Speedrun Quest BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10 SLON Grand Finals – Season 2 [BSL21] Grand Finals - Sunday 21:00 CET
Strategy
Game Theory for Starcraft Current Meta Simple Questions, Simple Answers [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Beyond All Reason Elden Ring Thread Nintendo Switch Thread 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 Survivor II: The Amazon Sengoku Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Big Programming Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
White-Ra Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TL+ Announced
Blogs
National Diversity: A Challe…
TrAiDoS
I decided to write a webnov…
DjKniteX
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1202 users

[D] The PvZ strat that NesTea fears.

Forum Index > Closed
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
mappiechampion
Profile Joined August 2010
Sweden155 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-01-12 21:17:05
January 12 2011 21:15 GMT
#1
In an interview made after winning his Ro16 group NesTea said the following:

Q. How do you feel about the 1.2.0 patch as a Zerg?
A. It's depressing. There is a strategy I'm worried about, and if the Protoss uses that strategy, it will be a worse pressure than facing a Terran player.


What kind of strategy could he be thinking of? It probably involves either Hallucination or Pheonixes. What do you think? In what way can you use the lowered production time to the fullest?
ChickenLips
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
2912 Posts
January 12 2011 21:29 GMT
#2
nexus first into 2stargate phoenix + chronoes gets a shitton of phoenix out very fast i imagine.

cant really think of anything else that would be so hard to deal with and become 'a new build' with the patch.

Or maybe he wants his opponents to go nexus first 2 stargate so he can out macro them.. who knows
❤Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ✿
KingRajesh
Profile Joined July 2010
United States927 Posts
January 12 2011 21:33 GMT
#3
What about 1stargate Phoenix + Hallucination straight into Colossus?

That way, you see the fleet of phoenix, assume he went 2 gate phoenix and make Hydras, and the Colossus punish your assumptions?

I saw it in a custom game today, it really sucked.
"Zerg are the absolute worst thing that can happen to your day" - Dustin Browder
Skyro
Profile Joined May 2010
United States1823 Posts
January 12 2011 21:35 GMT
#4
It obviously has something to do with phoenixes. You can't have a whole build/strategy based off hallucination. Phoenixes are also a transition unit, not something you mass, so I would imagine it would be some sort of stargate opener.
Galleon.frigate
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Canada721 Posts
January 12 2011 21:43 GMT
#5
On January 13 2011 06:33 KingRajesh wrote:
What about 1stargate Phoenix + Hallucination straight into Colossus?

That way, you see the fleet of phoenix, assume he went 2 gate phoenix and make Hydras, and the Colossus punish your assumptions?

I saw it in a custom game today, it really sucked.


I'm not sure that is sustainable, if there a liar there is a good chance of an overseer. And there is the far more obvious tell of not taking dmg and no harras dispite having shown mass phonix.

I can see getting tricked once, but it's not what someone like nestea is going to be worried about
tuestresfat
Profile Joined December 2010
2555 Posts
January 12 2011 21:46 GMT
#6
possibly pump out 3 phoenixes really fast to snipe off the queens and then make a warpgate timing attack with 2 void rays? complete guess, sounds deadly tho.
Jermstuddog
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States2231 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-01-12 21:47:59
January 12 2011 21:47 GMT
#7
On January 13 2011 06:35 Skyro wrote:
It obviously has something to do with phoenixes. You can't have a whole build/strategy based off hallucination. Phoenixes are also a transition unit, not something you mass, so I would imagine it would be some sort of stargate opener.


Phoenixes can totally be massed. I bumped into a game with 8-10 phoenixs harassing my expos while he blocked off his entrance with 4-6 cannons, transitioning into stalker/colossus/phoenix. Even though I hit him straight up with roach/hydra/corruptor, which I thought I should win, the excessive amount of phoenixes specifically targeting my hydras proved devastating.

This game was a bit of an eye-opener for me. Large amounts of Phoenixes are really good against pretty much everything except maybe lings, when they can be produced as quickly as they can now, they're really hard to deal with.
As it turns out, marines don't actually cost any money -Jinro
Arco
Profile Joined September 2009
United States2090 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-01-12 21:55:35
January 12 2011 21:48 GMT
#8
It's gotta be Phoenix into Colossus/Void Ray. It's what I've been doing, and it's pretty damn awesome.

The sheer amount of Phoenixs you can build is pretty deadly. They're forced to get Hydralisks and then they easily die to the ball of Void Ray/Colossus because Roaches get eaten alive by Void Rays and are probably more effective at killing them than a standard ground army, while Hydras get eaten alive by Colossus too.

Voidray/Colossus is a very strong unit composition with little answers for Zerg. The Phoenix buff has made it much, much more viable too.

Once they get to the point of having huge clumps of Corruptors you will definitely want to integrate Stalkers back into your mix, usually after taking your 3rd so you have the gas to do so. The Corruptors eat alive Voidray/Colossus in a critical mass, so you need to quickly mass up Stalkers to support it.
SpoR
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States1542 Posts
January 12 2011 21:54 GMT
#9
fast expand with hallucination scouts. Pretty much that in itself is just good as fuck. Make proper counters and win.
A man is what he thinks about all day long.
plagiarisedwords
Profile Joined November 2010
United Kingdom138 Posts
January 12 2011 21:56 GMT
#10
I think its the combination of phoenix buff and infestor nerf. If you were a smart zerg player you didnt go hydras against phoenix player as you know he will transition to collossus. Therefore, you got infestors which are great anti air because of funghal growth and marines. It was also good vs the collosus death ball as you could FG it in the open when it is out of position. Now with FG not working for air, infestor is far less effective as anti-air.
Skyro
Profile Joined May 2010
United States1823 Posts
January 12 2011 21:59 GMT
#11
On January 13 2011 06:47 Jermstuddog wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 13 2011 06:35 Skyro wrote:
It obviously has something to do with phoenixes. You can't have a whole build/strategy based off hallucination. Phoenixes are also a transition unit, not something you mass, so I would imagine it would be some sort of stargate opener.


Phoenixes can totally be massed. I bumped into a game with 8-10 phoenixs harassing my expos while he blocked off his entrance with 4-6 cannons, transitioning into stalker/colossus/phoenix. Even though I hit him straight up with roach/hydra/corruptor, which I thought I should win, the excessive amount of phoenixes specifically targeting my hydras proved devastating.

This game was a bit of an eye-opener for me. Large amounts of Phoenixes are really good against pretty much everything except maybe lings, when they can be produced as quickly as they can now, they're really hard to deal with.


You basically just agreed with me. I said phoenixes is not really a unit that you mass, e.g. eventually you have to transition into something else.

I've been doing a FE into double stargate opener into void/colossi for months in PvZ on Scrap/Jungle/Shakuras and it was already incredibly potent. The phoenix and void ray buff will only make it moreso.
Truffy
Profile Joined May 2010
United States95 Posts
January 12 2011 21:59 GMT
#12
Fungal growth still works on air bro.
1a2a3a-->gg
pppppppppp
Profile Joined October 2010
Singapore236 Posts
January 12 2011 22:02 GMT
#13
what fg not working for air, they reverted that change some time back..
mookku
Profile Joined October 2010
Finland39 Posts
January 12 2011 22:04 GMT
#14
On January 13 2011 06:56 plagiarisedwords wrote:
I think its the combination of phoenix buff and infestor nerf. If you were a smart zerg player you didnt go hydras against phoenix player as you know he will transition to collossus. Therefore, you got infestors which are great anti air because of funghal growth and marines. It was also good vs the collosus death ball as you could FG it in the open when it is out of position. Now with FG not working for air, infestor is far less effective as anti-air.


Fungal growth still works for air, the planned change was reverted early in the test realm already... But NesTea is clearly worried of early game anyway, so this is kind of irrelevant as rushing to infestors is not really a solution to anything. I guess it could be some kind of 2 stargate build utilizing chronoboost for first phoenixes. When you get a few overlords early on in the game, the zerg is basically dead as it's hard to produce anything while constantly supply capped. Maybe followed with some zealot aggression to make it even harder to defend?
ChickenLips
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
2912 Posts
January 12 2011 22:13 GMT
#15
On January 13 2011 06:46 tuestresfat wrote:
possibly pump out 3 phoenixes really fast to snipe off the queens and then make a warpgate timing attack with 2 void rays? complete guess, sounds deadly tho.


thats pretty fucking smart, youd do it off 2 base though and with like 5-6 gates. Zerg dies in an almost comic way to 2 base wg all ins without queens.
❤Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ✿
sKo
Profile Joined November 2010
United States45 Posts
January 12 2011 22:32 GMT
#16
On January 13 2011 07:04 mookku wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 13 2011 06:56 plagiarisedwords wrote:
I think its the combination of phoenix buff and infestor nerf. If you were a smart zerg player you didnt go hydras against phoenix player as you know he will transition to collossus. Therefore, you got infestors which are great anti air because of funghal growth and marines. It was also good vs the collosus death ball as you could FG it in the open when it is out of position. Now with FG not working for air, infestor is far less effective as anti-air.


Fungal growth still works for air, the planned change was reverted early in the test realm already... But NesTea is clearly worried of early game anyway, so this is kind of irrelevant as rushing to infestors is not really a solution to anything. I guess it could be some kind of 2 stargate build utilizing chronoboost for first phoenixes. When you get a few overlords early on in the game, the zerg is basically dead as it's hard to produce anything while constantly supply capped. Maybe followed with some zealot aggression to make it even harder to defend?

I've been doing something similar to this, something like gate core stargate gate gate, getting 3-4 phoenix to kill off ovies and harass queens and ending the game witha handful of zealots and sentries. Pretty effective although I've only attempted it a handful of times.
"My wife for hire!"
aka_star
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United Kingdom1546 Posts
January 12 2011 22:47 GMT
#17
The pheonix play will really set Z back, limit his options by forcing corrupter's or hydras and attempt to suppress him enough that toss can build up a sick 200/200 army and roll him. Even if Z can get brood lords or Ultras they are now shut down by a small handful of voids... Really doesn't seem like happy days for Z
FlashDave.999 aka Star
KeksX
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Germany3634 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-01-12 22:55:48
January 12 2011 22:54 GMT
#18
I also think it's mass Phoenix.

If 1 or 2 phoenixes could kill some overlords, what about a whole bunch of phoenixes? And even IF zerg can defend the phoenix harrass(you can even call it a push if Protoss kills every singleoverlord that isn't near your base or your sporecrawlers), toss can easily tech up to colossi and rape the *** out of your hydras.
I don't see any reason why you shouldn't go for fast Phoenix in PvZ. It owns. I can't think of a way to defend that properly without getting behind in eco and tech too much...

Like... Phoenix harrass was already pretty effective, now it's like saying "I won this game anyway, please leave."

And since this is the only change that is really changing "how to kill" zerg, it has to be phoenix. (Or do you want to kill the zerg with observers?)
Zokkar
Profile Joined December 2010
Israel128 Posts
January 12 2011 22:55 GMT
#19
There is a really awesome protoss strategy thats going to get amplified after this patch. It was actually quite popular in BW too:

The toss goes: some sort of expand, could be 3gate expand or cannon expand ->Phoenix -> DT (if you don't win after that then -> Colossus)

Basically the phoenix massacres all the stray overlords. You force the zerg to make hydralisks and play ultra defensive, once you get about 8 phoenix or so you can actually run in and snipe queens greatly reducing the zerg's production. Once you transition into Dark Shrine you attack with your gateway units which have DT sprinkled into it, you snipe the overseer if he has any. The DT is there to surprise, even if he does scout it and makes an overseer you easily snipe it with phoenix. Basically he'll need like 3-4 overseer over his army at all times.

This really catches zerg off guards and is extremely potent.
takingbackoj
Profile Joined December 2010
United States684 Posts
January 12 2011 23:05 GMT
#20
The only problem I would see with DT's is that by going with a stargate you might force zerg to build a few spores which are detectors. I would say collosus instead to counter the hydras would be pretty ridiculous.
Get the hell outta here Der Beek, your'e ruining my moment.
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 2h 22m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
DivinesiaTV 17
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 3040
GuemChi 2053
Stork 573
Zeus 246
EffOrt 221
BeSt 200
Nal_rA 134
910 113
Hyun 107
zelot 105
[ Show more ]
Shuttle 104
Killer 85
Rush 72
ToSsGirL 64
NaDa 46
sorry 41
NotJumperer 31
Sacsri 24
Terrorterran 16
yabsab 16
Dota 2
XaKoH 877
NeuroSwarm163
Fuzer 119
League of Legends
JimRising 716
C9.Mang0650
Other Games
summit1g10532
Happy475
Pyrionflax198
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 1
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos1950
Upcoming Events
OSC
2h 22m
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
4h 22m
BSL 21
10h 22m
Dewalt vs Cross
Replay Cast
23h 22m
Wardi Open
1d 2h
RotterdaM Event
1d 7h
Patches Events
1d 10h
PiGosaur Cup
1d 15h
OSC
2 days
SOOP
2 days
[ Show More ]
OSC
3 days
OSC
4 days
SOOP
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Slon Tour Season 2
WardiTV 2025
META Madness #9

Ongoing

IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL Season 21
CSL Season 19: Qualifier 2
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025

Upcoming

CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
Escore Tournament S1: W3
BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
HSC XXVIII
Thunderfire SC2 All-star 2025
Big Gabe Cup #3
OSC Championship Season 13
Nations Cup 2026
Underdog Cup #3
NA Kuram Kup
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
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
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.