• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 21:27
CEST 03:27
KST 10:27
  • 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 2915Serral 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
RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-226Weekly 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)14
StarCraft 2
General
Protoss AoE skill expression Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Serral wins HomeStory Cup 29 StarCraft 2 at SC4ALL II Invite #4/8 - Percival 5.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start)
Tourneys
RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 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)
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 538 Media Blackout The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 537 Hostile Territory Mutation # 536 Railroad Switch
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Are you ready for ASL 22? NEW HYPE VIDEO How FlaSh Nearly Forfeited MSL Finals being late BW General Discussion ASL22 General Discussion
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 Diablo 2 thread ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live!
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
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Iain M Banks Says He Has Cancer And Months To Live European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
The ShoWTimE Fan Club The herO Fan Club! The Clem 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
Cathedral Of CS And NY pizza a…
FuDDx
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: 4992 users

[D] Fast Lair Build + Overseer Scout ZvP

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
JaqMs
Profile Joined August 2007
United States73 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-17 06:31:26
April 26 2011 07:07 GMT
#1
Hey guys. My fast Lair build incorporates an extremely early overseer that solves all early game scouting woes for Zerg. That is the most important benefit of this build since it sacrifices some early production and income. It also involves a decently timed expo so you can keep on par with econ heavy Protoss builds.

Build Order

9 Overlord
12 Extractor
11 Spawning Pool
15 Lair
16 Zergling
18 Hatchery
17 Overlord
18 Overseer upon Lair completion

Continuation against 4 gate 1 gas:

CONTAMINATE WARP GATE RESEARCH
20 Queen
21 Metabolic boost research + pull gas drones
Place 2-3 spines crawlers at your natural ASAP and pump out zerglings

Continuation against 3 gate sentry expand or 4 gate 2 gas

Save contaminate for later tech structures
20 Burrow or Queen
21 Roach Warren
Spines at natural if it's 4 gate

Timings

~4:40: Overseer morph complete
5:16: Contaminate is ready
5:27: Hatchery at natural complete
6:11: Burrow complete

Why it Works

As long as you're careful keeping your overseer alive, Protoss cannot catch you off guard with any build.

-4 gate: Though your survival window is kind of narrow, contaminate will delay the earliest possible warp gate research (besides korean 4 gate), essentially delaying the push by 30 seconds
-3 gate senty expand: If your opponent expos after 6:11, you can block it with a burrowed zergling. I've had no problems keeping up economically and burrowed roaches will hold any later push
-5-6 gate: Easy to prepare for if your overseer does not see any tech structures
-Fast stargate: You can contaminate the first unit being trained, then immediately start making spores and 2 more queens. There's no chance this will hurt you.

I found that it's best to follow up this build with a ~12 minute push that takes advantage of your early tech, such as roach/infestor or muta/ling.

What Can Stop It

The counters listed below can hurt pretty bad, but I'm not sure if they're insta-lose.

-Early stalker harass: Haven't encountered it much. You need to make more zerglings and perhaps a spine crawler, which could set you back.
-2 gate zealots: You would have to cancel your natural hatch and go one base.
-Forge fast expand: Kind of iffy. You may need to rely on a 2 base all-in, but it's still possible to last into the late game.

Conclusion

This build will probably only work at lower levels. But still, it's worked 9/10 times against diamond and masters players. It kind of relies on the build not being popular at the moment, so only those that think on their feet know how to counter the build. So all I have to say is to use it until it's figured out . Let me know what you think.

Replays

https://www.yousendit.com/dl?phi_action=app/orchestrateDownload&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yousendit.com%2Ftransfer.php%3Faction%3Dbatch_download%26batch_id%3DMEtRWGJOWkJFc0pFQlE9PQ
lorkac
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States2297 Posts
April 26 2011 07:21 GMT
#2
The upcoming change will change the protoss early game by A LOT.

For example, with 4gate taking longer to get and gateways being able to produce units as fast as a warp gate--expect a lot more 4gate pushes that skips warp gate and simply chronos 3-4 units off of 1 gateway for a quick timing attack before dropping a robo (skipping warpgate research altogether)

I'm not saying that this build doesn't work--totally does by the looks of it.

I'm simply saying that the protoss metagame will change drastically because of the patch.
By the truth we are undone. Life is a dream. Tis waking that kills us. He who robs us of our dreams robs us of our life --Orlando: A Biography
JaqMs
Profile Joined August 2007
United States73 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-17 06:32:21
April 26 2011 22:01 GMT
#3
Yeah after the patch, this build will probably require a drone scout to check for 2 gate. You may be able to drone a little more and still stop a later 4 gate, but also be able to scout a 2 gate and change into standard play.

EDIT: No longer have to worry about earlier 2 gate since zealot build time has not changed
Jonas :)
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States511 Posts
May 17 2011 06:00 GMT
#4
I'm a ~900 point masters protoss and I have to say this build was pretty cool. It made up for the fact that it teched early by having an obnoxiously early contaminate and an extremely easy time scouting. He even contaminated my warpgate research, which delayed it a full 30 seconds. This means that any 4 gate or 3 gate aggression that I would want to do in order to punish him for his early tech that it would be delayed. Should I try to blink stalker or rush to stargate, he would see that and contaminate it to delay the push from coming and have ample time to prepare for it.
sagefreke
Profile Joined August 2010
United States241 Posts
May 17 2011 06:12 GMT
#5
I can't see the replay.

If you can get an overseer by 4:40 and still defend super early protoss harass it sounds like it could be a very interesting build. Burrow ling before P expand sounds like it could be great as well. Going to try it in a custom now.
yo yo yo
JaqMs
Profile Joined August 2007
United States73 Posts
May 17 2011 06:41 GMT
#6
Post-1.3.3, it is better to get burrow first then overseer (just switch the order). That way, burrow will finish around 5:58 and the overseer should still be able to contaminate warp gate in time. It'll also allow you to get your second queen earlier.
IntoTheWow
Profile Blog Joined May 2004
is awesome32280 Posts
May 18 2011 01:01 GMT
#7
I want to play with this too. Seems like early burrow could have some good uses. The main problem is keeping your build hidden from a scouting Protoss.
Moderator<:3-/-<
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
OSC
00:00
OSC Elite Rising Star #20
CranKy Ducklings84
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RuFF_SC2 154
ProTech84
Ketroc 48
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 3796
GuemChi 2990
Artosis 760
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm150
League of Legends
JimRising 663
Counter-Strike
Fnx 670
taco 140
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor114
Other Games
summit1g7870
Liquid`RaSZi1385
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1647
BasetradeTV58
[ Show 10 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• CranKy Ducklings SOOP5
• OhrlRock 4
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Upcoming Events
WardiTV Weekly
9h 34m
The Patches Monday
14h 34m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 8h
PiG Sty Festival
1d 10h
PiGosaur Cup
1d 22h
Replay Cast
2 days
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
The PondCast
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
[ Show More ]
CranKy Ducklings
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-08-08
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
RSL Offline Finals
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
META DYMY #4
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.