EPT
Intro
Oh PvZ all-ins, how we love thee. Since, well, forever, Protoss players have had a plethora of strong, annoying and abusive 2 base pushes that caused Z's to ragequit, whine and bm over and over again until it stopped being funny, and let's face it, to this day it's still funny. See my signature.
The famous SoulTrain, or Immortal all-in was the strongest and most popular among these builds, but with HotS and the so very, very sad removal of Ohana from map pools it doesn't see as much use as during the final months of WoL. I personally just LOVE the sound of roaches dieing to Immortal fire and the following ragequits, so i decided to find similar ways to kill Zergs.
Thankfully, Naniwa gave us all the answer during this last Dreamhack, coming up with arguably the manliest build PvZ all-in yet. Cut (almost) every corner imaginable early game, cut out that forcefield micro crap and just do it the MANLY way: kill him with freakin zealots, dudes so manly they can blow tanks up and cut armor open and shit by using blades made with their freaking minds. And Immortals of course, can't forget the Immortals.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/I1bhmEu.jpg)
Oh Reach. I hope i'm making you proud.
Build Order
Here's the build order. Note that this is pretty risky and map dependant: you want to use this build only on maps with a natural that can be partially walled by two large buildings and an (eventual) extra pylon like on Planet S. Finally, don't bother scouting with this build on a 2 player map; core scout on a 4 player map. Scouting is for pussies anyway, plus you are 2base allining off one gas. So fuck safety (i told you this buid is manly!).
- 9 Pylon
- 13 Gate
- 14 Gas
- 16 Pylon
- 18 Core
- 21 Zealot. Make this in case of an early pool and cancel it right before it completes if no zerglings run for your base
- 21 Nexus
- 22 Warpgate
- 22 Mothership Core
- 24 Pylon at natural to start your wall off.
- 27 Robo in the main
- 27 Forge to start your wall
- 28 Gateway
- 28 Zealot
- 37 Cannon for safety
- @100% Forge: +1 Weapons
- @100% Robo: Warp Prism, then 2x Immortals (you don't have the gas to get the immortals faster)
- As the second immortal is started (around 50 food): 5 extra gates
- Cut probes at 36
- Chrono usage: first 5 on the Nexus, rest on the robo.
The cannon at the front is quite useful seeing as you have no (almost) units, and it doesn't really delay or weaken your push so might as well get it; additionally it defends against eventual counters. Note how you are doing all of this off a single gas, which means you can't afford many gas units outside of the msc and immortals for a long time.
As soon as your second immortal finishes pick both up in the warp prism, fully wall your natural and move out with the zealot, warp prism and msc. One nice thing is that it's impossible for the zerg to delay your push, as all your units will be flying at this point.
It's vital to delay scouting, and against both TLO and Leenock Naniwa used a nexus cannon to deny the spotting of the extra gates. If you can, try to build them in a hidden location in your main as usual.
The Push
You should be doing your first round of extra zealots right before 9 minutes and pushing immediately. Your priorities while microing are, in order:
1) Keep your warp prism alive away from queens and spores, it's your only way to reinforce.
2) Land a timewarp or your zealots will just get kited to death.
3) Focus immortals on spines/roaches, don't waste shots on lings.
4) Warp prism micro as necessary.
5) Keep warping in manlots until he dies (you wont because Protoss is bullshit).
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fLvkivq.jpg)
We call this "zealoting your opponent". Terrans know what i'm talking about
The difference between this build and it's older brother, the Soultrain, is obviously trading sentries and forcefields for a much faster push. Note that since you won't have any probes with you, it's mandatory to keep your warp prism alive. Other than that it's a fairly straightforward strategy: hit your timing well, warp things in and amove all over him. Happy ManTraining!
Vods and FAQ
1) What if the Zerg is doing all-in X?
Well tough shit you have almost no units. You should treat this situation like you would with FFE: add cannons, stay walled off, defend with nexus cannon. You won't have enough gas to warp in many sentries, so get your wall and cannons up asap.
2) What if the Zerg is teching to whatever?
If he's teching your push should do critical damage, because he won't have the unit count to hold off your attack. Just warp in stalkers to clean up the (eventual) mutas and add a few cannons back home. He won't get swarm hosts in time. If he has a spine wall, just elevator in his main.
3) But Roaches destroy zealots!
Between time warp, immortals and overwhelming numbers, manlots actually kill roaches, which is nice. And very painful when you are on the receiving end of it.
4) What about banelings?
Channel your inner MKP (actually MC, MKP plays that other bad race) and split your shit. If you can, try to have the immortals tanking, it takes like 15 (i think) banes to kill a single immortal. Besides, who the hell goes ling baneling anyway?
Vods:
http://www.twitch.tv/dreamhacktv/b/396294648?t=2h02m00s vs TLO
http://www.twitch.tv/dreamhacktv/b/396294648?t=12h40m00s vs Leenock
edit: replays!Naniwa vs Hyun http://drop.sc/336162 Naniwa vs Yugioh http://drop.sc/344420
