[G] Hyper-Aggressive ZvT: Countering the 2Rax (GM)

Here is a game of mine vs non-proxy 2rax with tutorial analysis:
http://www.youtube.com/ratanakdefectueux#p/c/8E20E4384342A73E/4/JIPlCDqFgSE

Here is game of mine vs Proxy 2rax, against the very talented and aggressive GM NamcihR:


Here is the replay file of the above game:
http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=231088&st=0

Here is an example against Sterling, a top GM on NA: http://drop.sc/86287

Once you drone scout, respond to 2rax pressure by immediately baneling busting on 1base. This is not a long-drawn out analysis of the mid-late game, this is a fast and effective counter-attack designed to win games quickly or at least set you up with an advantage (after killing all terran scvs), at which point you can move into 2base play.



Since the dawn of SC2 beta, zerg has been deemed the “Macro” or “Reactionary” race. The so-called correct style of zerg has always been heavy, heavy droning in the early stages with big mid-game/late game map control and aggression. As a result of fans observing professional zerg players like IdrA and Ret make so many drones, new and aspiring zerg players everywhere take a passive/defensive stance and “just take it” when terran pressures them early. So often when zerg players are trying to learn effective ways of dealing with certain types of pressure, they think solely along the lines of “How can I stay even or ahead in the macro game” or “How can I expand after I'm pressured.” Unfortunately, due to the negative views towards “cheesy/all-in builds” (See thread comments), people refuse to acknowledge that after being attacked, a correct response is often to all-in – as your opponent is likely behind and will either die or invest heavily in defense, allowing you to macro while you attack. While I do not recommend blindly cheesing every game, it is very different to have an aggressive response to something you scout. In this case, the terran 2 barracks rush.

One of the most common forms of early aggression for terran is the 2rax marine/scv/bunker rush. The basic outline of this opening is simple: Make marines out of 2 early barracks to attack the zerg player's expansion and hopefully force a cancel or delay his expansion from being started by placing bunkers at or near the hatchery/ramp. Quite a few players blindly open 11/11 barracks, proxy 2rax, or maka-rax in TvZ. Some players even do more economic 2rax and will still try to move out and do some damage, while greedily moving towards a fast CC. Some players even do variations of the 3rax marine/scv all-in. You can punish these types of strategies by going for a baneling bust off one-base, and win a good percentage of the time. Even if you don't kill him outright, you're not in terrible shape if you bust and do damage to the mineral line and expand behind it.

When zerg players scout this, a lot of them think “oh damn” and start thinking about ways to get their expansion up a bit later with a slight disadvantage: Baneling busting the bunkers so they can safely rebuild their expansion hatchery, spreading creep to the ramp so spines can reach the bunkers, etc. On the other hand, when I scout the 2rax, I think “hell yeah :D” and throw away all preconceived notions of expanding. It's time to execute a one-base baneling counter attack.

Think about it from a terran perspective. To do a 2rax attack, you're skipping gas at least in the very early stages. This means no tech: Hellions, banshees, tanks are out of the question. So they will have only marines to defend, with no upgrades. If they lost most of their marines doing early pressure with the 2rax, they're ill-equipped to deal with a very aggressive ling/baneling counter attack. Almost all terran players, after their 2rax aggression is thwarted, will place a command center in their base and start moving into the macro game. This is your timing window to bust in with your banelings and wreak havoc on his mineral line!
In short, instead of playing a macro game when someone tries to cheese you, fight fire with fire and all-in them right back!

NOTE: This build is designed to counter players who attack aggressively with 2rax, not against players who play defensive 2rax.



9: Overlord – This overlord goes to your expansion, but you'll need to pull it somewhere safe once you scout he has 2rax. You cannot lose overlords to 2rax.

(Scout between 10 and 12 supply. Use this drone to take the xel between your base and his so you see when he moves out with marines and scvs)

14Gas

14 Pool

15 Overlord

15 Queen

17 2xLings, Speed (You should have scouted 2rax by now. Instead of taking guys out of gas and producing drones, continue producing lings)

22 Baneling Nest (Make sure to spit with your queen, you need as many larva as possible).

21 Overlord

21- Mass Lings, still mining gas. Keep in mind, at this stage in the game, you can still macro if you haven't gotten enough information to know your bust is going to be effective. If you've held of really aggressive commitments from the terran player, it's definitely time to bust. If he only brings 2 marines and an scv, and you scout the terran ramp and see 2 bunkers, it may be time to use your larva inject for drones and take your natural.

The early stages are pretty straightforward. Once your lingspeed finishes, though, you should have your first inject done and ideally be able to get a surround on his marines or bunker and stop his early aggression. If he manages to fully wall you in, though, you'll need to bust your way out. IMMEDIATELY after his bunkers and marines are dealt with, you should continue rallying lings and streaming into his expansion area. Once you reach his expansion, begin morphing in banelings immediately and use one ling to scout up the ramp to get an idea of his building placement. Look for vulnerabilities: barracks add-ons or supply depots are much weaker than larger building. It takes 5 banelings to blow up a depot or add-on, I recommend having 6 in case his marines pick off your banelings (One way to prevent losing a baneling on the way in is to lead with 1-2 zerglings to “Tank” then sending the rest of your banelings). If he has a bunker and a supply depot, you'll want at least about 12 banelings to bust through. It's very important to lead with the banelings and then follow through with the zerglings to stream into the base. If you lead with the zerglings, your banes won't be able to read the buildings and your push may fail.

Once you get into the terran main, the game is essentially over as long as you do enough damage with your lings and continue streaming them in. Your main goals should be to kill attacking units (Marines/scvs) and deny any bunkers from being build. It's almost important to prevent him from re-walling off, as you need your reinforcing lings to help with the push. In general, try to get a good surround so you have a lot of surface area when you engage marines and scvs in the terran main. Unless you have banelings to blow up a big clump, do not try to engage in narrow areas where marines are in the back and scvs are in the front - it's important to snipe those marines first!

My hotkey recommendation: Hotkey your banelings when they're morphing in as 2 and hotkey all your zerglings (And eggs producing zerglings) as 1. Hotkey just 1 or 2 zerglings separately as 3.
Use 3 to scout up the ramp and determine your bust target.
Press 2 to select banes and right click on your target. If he has a depot and a bunker, you'll want to hold shift a right click the depot and then the bunker.
Press 1 stream right into his base with the lings, make sure your rally point is now set inside the terran base.
^Just because you're being aggressive doesn't mean you aren't practicing skills needed for macro: Optimal unit control, precise queen spits, constant larva production, rally points, multitasking

In order to execute this type of build, you need to have good scouting info at various stages in the game.
1) Drone scout and find out that he's going 2rax.
2) It's important to keep your drone alive and on the map so you can take the xel naga tower and know when he's pushing out, because this is not a bust that will work well if he doesn't pressure you. If he's playing defensively, you may just opt to take guys out of gas and go for a speedling expand. If you opt for this style, you need to scout aggressively to know how many lings/spines to build.
3) Once you've held off the initial pressure, you need to get to his ramp with speedlings RIGHT AWAY to scoutand determine what type of wall he has. Most players will keep a very simple wall up at the front, and you'll be able to bust easily through weaker buildings like depots and add-ons. A more cunning player may wall in with barracks and command center, in which case you'll need to either delay your baneling bust until you have much more banes or decide to just pull back and cancel your nest. If he is somehow able to wall-in with big buildings like barracks and afford bunkers, you should not attempt a bust.