Monobattle on Ladder (1v1)

Balance and metagame for the first several months of HotS will be volatile for sure. It will stabilize eventually, but until then, I don’t find it meaningful enough to play seriously. I feel that I can always catch up once things get more figured out. Also, I am a big fan of Bx Monobattle (4v4) arcade map. I have played a fair number of games there. However, sometimes it is really frustrating when a teammate sucks/leaves/trolls. In 1v1, there is no such concern.

12 Mar. 2013 ~ ???
I’m thinking of doing it for at least 2 seasons or so, but there is a chance that I get addicted to this monobattle play.

At 1v1 ladder (ranked) Bronze ~ Gold(?)
Thanks to Blizzard (finally), I can always go play unranked 1v1s if I ever wanted to play normal games. All ranked games will be monobattle for a while.
As for leagues, I think I’m decent enough to get out of bronze even with monobattle. I don’t really know how good/bad people are down there, but my goal for now is climbing up to gold league. I don’t think I can ever reach platinum. If pros try, maybe they can even get to diamond with some practice. I’ve seen Dragon win some troll monobattle games on ladder at relatively high level. Note that you only need to win 50% to stay in a particular league, not 100%.

Obviously me, but nothing is stopping YOU from doing it as well. Rules will be clearly explained below. Monobattle might ease your ladder anxiety because some losses are not your own fault. Playing a late game unit is auto-loss vs early game rush from your opponent who is not playing monobattle.

What unit do I use? I’m going to play monobattle with basically all units. There are 38 units:
+ Show Spoiler [Terran(12)] +
+ Show Spoiler [Zerg(12)] +
+ Show Spoiler [Protoss(14)] +

Special Rules (some are different from Bx Monobattle):
Structures / researches = no restriction whatsoever

Workers = SCV / Drone / Probe = always allowed

Transports = Medivac / Overlord / Warp Prism = always allowed, Ignite Afterburners / Phasing mode warp-in allowed

Detectors = Raven / Overseer / Observer = always allowed, raven spells NOT allowed unless raven is the monobattle unit of the game, overseer spells allowed

Free / energy / affiliated units = MULE / broodling / locust / infested terran / larva / changeling / hallucinated units / interceptor = always allowed as long as there is a way to make them. Ex. Locust is always allowed, but it requires swarm host which is not allowed in 37 of 38 games in the first place etc.

Queen = allowed 1 per hatchery / lair / hive unless queen is the monobattle unit of the game, queen spells allowed. If a hatchery / lair / hive dies, it is OK to have more queens temporarily.

Mothership Core / Mothership = NOT allowed unless it is the monobattle unit of the game.

Morphing = zergling / corruptor / DT / HT = allowed to make, but not allowed to attack with when playing baneling / broodlord / archon / archon, respectively. Only accidental attack is permitted, and it should be stopped immediately.

Neural Parasite = allowed to control any enemy units. As long as no other rule is broken, building another race is allowed as well. Ex. NP a probe to get observers etc.

vs Terran Lift = once Terran opponent has no unit on the map to the best of my knowledge, but lifted buildings are keeping him/her in the game, then viking / mutalisk / phoenix are allowed to make to kill those buildings.

How do I choose what unit to use? I have randomized the order of 38 units with a random number generator. In 38 games = 1 cycle, I get to play every unit once each. First 3 cycles look like this:
+ Show Spoiler [001-038] +
+ Show Spoiler [039-076] +
+ Show Spoiler [077-114] +
Before playing the first unit = marauder, I will lose all my placement matches so that I can start this monobattle challenge in bronze league. As long as the order among 38 units is randomized, I can use any other randomized tables in future.

I don’t play much WoL these days. All I do is either write a SC2 article or theorycraft how to win in these monobattle games. Drone rush or spine rush will be the only way to win with viper / corruptor. Late game will be impossible with no anti-air unit monobattle. Maybe I need to mindgame and type in chat “watch out for baneling landmines / widow mine” when there is absolutely none in order to delay potential deadly attacks. Anyhow, every strategy will be an all-in of some sort. Ask if you have any questions about the rules. I have never tried this 1v1 monobattle in WoL. I haven’t played HotS beta either. So, I’m not sure how well I will do. My rough difficulty estimate is as follows:
+ Show Spoiler [Difficulty] +
Let’s see how things turn out. Unlike other articles / guides of mine, this is a relaxed write-up. I thought some people might give it a try if I share. Also, there is a big article coming up in a few days before HotS launch. I’d say it is 100x more interesting than this one, so look forward to that. Thank you for reading.