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Het TL!
Introduction:
Since about three months I am using only mass blink stalker in PvZ, with great succes. I have played a ton of games, tried alot of variations and feel confident against everything zergs throw at me. A month or two ago I discovered a totally destructive 'tactic'. I used it twice on ladder and it had instant succes. I kept the strat for myself, not using it anymore. But now I have used it again on ladder and I will write a small guide about this revolutionary tactic.
The key elements:
Now the tactic consists of two key elements. The warp prism +sentry. And the mass blink stalker.
Both have been known for a while. We saw recently a cute sentry drop by TSL_JYP vs MVP_Donraegu in the GSL. I first saw mass blink stalker in Ace vs Sen (Starwars cup). Since then it has been my main strategy for pvz.
However, its the combination of both which is deadly.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GyN24.png)
The tacic itself:
You should open up with FFE. Make alot of stalkers and attack upgrades. Also make a sentry and a warp prism.
Blink all your stalkers in the zerg main base. Drop your sentry, set your prism to phase mode. When his units come to defend his main, forcefield his army in half and collect win. Some examples:
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Replays:
Aiforsen vs Spoon:
http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=download&id=227389
+ Show Spoiler +Aiforsen goes for roach/infestor. I spoon him :p. His army is stuck at his natural while I kill his lair. I win the game very briefly afterwards.
top master zerg from team Alien invasion
Daspletor vs spoon:
http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=download&id=227390
+ Show Spoiler +Daspletor goes for ling bling. I spoon him, only letting a couple of lings through his main. It was easy.
gm zerg
Elvis vs Spoon:
http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=download&id=227391
+ Show Spoiler +He goes for roach and instaquits when I spoon him.
gm zerg from team gameline
Lalush vs spoon
http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=download&id=227393
+ Show Spoiler +This is actually the most interesting game imo, because I lost  . I had a bad minerals gas ratio, and therefore was floating high on minerals and couldn't warpin as many stalkers as I'd like.(Don't be too harsh guys, I am still finding an optimal build and experiment quite a bit). I also executed poorly, loosing like 5 stalkers on the initial blink in his main. Lalush has drop for overlords, and loads his roaches back into his main, which wins him the game. ( well that and my poor army management) When I retreat out of his main, I am up 15 workers: this also shows the strength of the harassing capabilities of this build. You don't need to kill the zerg with it. I think I could have won if I didn't mess up the timings of my geysers, and controled my army a bit better. gm zerg from team Millenium
Meyera vs spoon
http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=download&id=227486
+ Show Spoiler +I ROLL easily through meyera, a gm zerg. He had hydraling. After killing his main I engage him in the open and win without micro lol.
Me commentating a replay on my stream. Go forward to the 22 min mark:
http://www.justin.tv/imspoon/b/292993717
In conclusion:
I am not really sure what zerg can do vs this, thus the somewhat provocative title :p.
One also need to take in consideration the raw strength of blink stalkers. 20 blink stalkers vs 20 speedroaches? Who wins, casualities? answer: + Show Spoiler +20 stalkers kill all the roaches with 0 loss.
Zerg could get burrow and move his roaches undergound to his main, bypassing the forcefield. But I will be getting a lot of freeshots+ superior arc. Follow that up by decent blink micro and its gg.
Using roaches in ovies to ferry between main and natural (like lalush did), is imo clumpsy. They take a while to load and drop, and there are vulnerable during that time. I could also blink to his natural, when he drops his own main. He then needs to restart the procedure.
If you have decent multitask, you can also send a couple of units to the zerg third, as I did vs Aiforsen.
Further info:
I recently started streaming. I answer questions in chat and give insights/analysis when watching my own replays.
My stream thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=253534
My stream: http://www.justin.tv/imspoon
Edit: Added replay vs meyera
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If only it were this simple...
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How are your experiences with defending against early pressure from Z usin this strat?
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If zerg sees this is coming and gets his army in his base before it happens he would have no problem defending it, no? Although I suppose at that point you'd just force field to trap him in his base and own his natural.
Still, I think if the Zerg sees this coming he should be able to defend.
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Are you moving out with +1 or waiting for +2?
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This seems extremely powerful, and may force an earlier lair for tunelling claws and burrow (or a lot of spines) because I just don't see how this can be stopped easily. The +2 Blink stalker with robo all in off ffe is very powerful already, but being able to destroy zergs tech while ffing the ramp indefinitely (warp in more sentries or have 6 already), is just so powerful. You will destroy a base, including the lair, and probably the roach warren and spawning pool and maybe evo chambers as well.
Zerg's only option is to counterattack at this point but just adding mass cannons should deal with that, considering you don't actually have to reinforce your stalkers.
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It is a really risky/gimmick move... I mean yeah sure it can have a high pay off.. but it is really risky..
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There are a lot of strats similar to this that have been focusing on warp prism play either hurassing mineral line or doing the same thing with more sentries to block off the ramp indefinitely.
I really enjoy the blink play included, seems like a really nice option and gives you the freedom to run away.
Thank you sir!
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On August 21 2011 06:06 Yamulo wrote:
It is a really risky/gimmick move... I mean yeah sure it can have a high pay off.. but it is really risky..
I don't find it gimmicky because I feel at any time you see the zerg army out of position you have the option to try something similar throughout the game.
and what is wrong with playing risky, If you played safe all the time, people are gonna figure that out and take advantage of your play.
Having new and more strats in your repertoire is something to celebrate.
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More reasons people should stop telling zerg to stop whining. The warp in mechanic is extremely hard to balance without making protoss too weak or situational, IMO its just not a good game mechanics.
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On August 21 2011 05:54 Weasel- wrote:
If zerg sees this is coming and gets his army in his base before it happens he would have no problem defending it, no? Although I suppose at that point you'd just force field to trap him in his base and own his natural.
Still, I think if the Zerg sees this coming he should be able to defend.
If he has some kind of anti-air prepared and splits up his army to protect whatever is supposed to snipe the warp-prism (which should be Queens in most cases) he should be in decent shape.
But one of the main strenghts of this strategy is that it is very hard to distinguish from other variations of blinkstalker/robo play - and depending on the map you really dont want to have your army split up between main/natural, since that allows for easy snipes of the third hatchery for the Toss (think XNC or Shakuras).
Its just a very smart variation of the common Blinkstalker pressure and as Toss you should definetly incorporate it into your repertoir.
Edit: I don't see what is supposed to be so risky about this strat? You have Blinkstalker tech, you have a Robo and even if you don't kill him you should be able to do lots of damage - the only risk I can imagine exists if your enemy knows exactly what you're up to and awaits you in his base with drop/tunneling claws/nydus(LOL!) at the ready. Could be hard to secure a third in this case - but that's a risk any strategy that utilizes timed pushes bears - if your push is deflected without damage your behind and have to play catch-up.
Edit2: One question though : why only 1 Sentry in your Warp-Prism? The same type of play has been done to me before, but I'm quite sure the guy dropped 4 Sentries with nearly full energy into my base.
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Why are you guys being skeptical? If he put his units in his main, don't blink into his main. You can bounce around and potentially trap his units in by FFing the ramp.
That said, you can use this build to punish Zerg who don't prepare for agressive 2 base play off Forge FE with spines, because then the blink stalkers won't have a problem walking into your natural either. If you look at Ret he only makes like 2 spines and stops 6gate with plainly units, so against someone like that this can be devastating
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What do you do if he goes for the usual response to mass blink stalker, ling/infestor? Seems like this becomes weak once the warp prism goes down, and it seems likely that it will go down if there are infestors. What do you do if you lose it?
Would you consider adding a second warp prism to attack a mineral line w/ zealots? Or is the timing thrown off?
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I've been thinking about this type of play a lot, but never actually tried it. More so in PvT, in a 6gate all in (getting a robo instead of +1). 4 sentries in the base with 4 zealots/2 stalkers warping in will shred the production coming from a typical 3/4rax + reactorport build. Keeping the rest of your army outside stops a counter, since if they try it they wont have the cover of their bunkers. Despite not getting reinforcements your main army should be able to kill the counter.
I'll definitely have to try this in PvZ, with blink it sounds awesome I'll watch the replays in a sec
EDIT: Now that I think of it this happened to me in a PvP on Antigua Shipyard, was very effective. I was eventually killed off due to him sniping my 2 obs and walking in with DTs (was producing colossi)
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To simplify for the haters... the point of this strategy is to be able to split the opponent's army significantly without a heavy investment into sentries, which are fundamentally weak head on attack units.
Nobody can argue that splitting the entire opposing force in half (or better) with a single sentry is EVER a bad idea.
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This strategy seems very dependent upon the zerg being completely unaware of what you're doing. If the zerg spreads creep he would see this coming. Basically, the way you "counter" your build is by simply having map awareness and scouting.
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On August 21 2011 07:42 Senros wrote:
This strategy seems very dependent upon the zerg being completely unaware of what you're doing. If the zerg spreads creep he would see this coming. Basically, the way you "counter" your build is by simply having map awareness and scouting.
Let's say the zerg "scouts" and "has map awareness" like you suggest (thanks for that by the way), how does he prepare for this as it marches across the map? Move his roaches into his main and get cut off from his natural? Split his army in half and get killed? Stay in the natural and sac the main? Write blizzard an angry letter and QQ on teamliquid?
I'm not sure what a good scout can even do to stop this unless you manage to decipher "+2 attack mass blink stalker with warp prism-ed sentry to block ramp" by OL scouting his base and build like 6 spines in your main while leaving your army at your natural.
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It would be hilarious if that terran goes for 11/11 rax for the remaining of the games^^
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On August 21 2011 08:02 McGuire72 wrote:Show nested quote +On August 21 2011 07:42 Senros wrote:
This strategy seems very dependent upon the zerg being completely unaware of what you're doing. If the zerg spreads creep he would see this coming. Basically, the way you "counter" your build is by simply having map awareness and scouting. Let's say the zerg "scouts" and "has map awareness" like you suggest (thanks for that by the way), how does he prepare for this as it marches across the map? Move his roaches into his main and get cut off from his natural? Split his army in half and get killed? Stay in the natural and sac the main? Write blizzard an angry letter and QQ on teamliquid? I'm not sure what a good scout can even do to stop this unless you manage to decipher "+2 attack mass blink stalker with warp prism-ed sentry to block ramp" by OL scouting his base and build like 6 spines in your main while leaving your army at your natural.
You just need to engage the attack sooner, like mass ling surround. But this is actually a benefit of the strategy, since it doesn't give zerg their usual amount of time to pump out units right before the attack arrives.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/I93fU.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/uypbU.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3cIzj.png)
