EPT2 Hatching in ZvT
Well iccup just went down and now I’m bored so I finally decided to write this guide that I’ve been considering writing for the past few weeks. I actually decided to procrastinate on posting this for a day or two and how lucky I am since now I can submit it into the SC2 beta contest! This guide is for some of the more general trends in 2 hatch build orders ZvT that are meant to lead into a solid mid and late game. That means this guide will not have anything I think is cheesy or that requires you to do a large amount of damage to T in order to win. This guide will be split into 2 different sections, builds vs bio and builds vs mech. I have never learned any food build order in any matchup past 20 supply and so after that I will just write about what I guess day[9] has labeled building triggers.
Also note that I first started using these build orders about a month ago and at this point I still need a lot more practice to get the macro patterns down consistently. It also means I haven’t yet learned all the possible weaknesses of these builds however these builds are based entirely off of builds I have seen several times from progames so I don’t think any huge flaws in them will suddenly be discovered. And while my mutalisk micro isn’t good enough to do any huge damage to the terran most of the time it is still decent enough to be solid B rank so I can’t say just how well these builds will work for lower ranked zergs until people actually try them.
And also note that generally when I say early-midgame I mean after lurkers are out but before swarm is done. Then midgame refers to after defiler tech but before ultralisks.
First of all every single 2 hatch build order unless other wise stated goes like this:
12 hatch
11 pool
10 gas
(12 pool, 11 gas if you drone scouted)
drone up to 14 supply
make 2 lings to chase the scouting scv around at 14
get lair with your first 100 gas and ling speed with the next 100.
All build orders below will be a continuation of this build order.
Builds vs Bio
Generally all of these build orders attempt to get you to a normal mid-late game in different ways but all generally end the same; 4 hatch lurkling with defiler tech and an optional choice of guards. And note that if you don’t do any damage at all to terran with these build orders you will generally be slightly behind in comparison to a 3 hatch muta build, however these builds generally make it easier to survive to hive and the disadvantage they have isn’t game-breaking for the most part. I generally like this because most terrans suck at late game TvZ below B rank. It is also pretty hard to not be able to at least pick off some stray scvs and marines and turrets and whatever else even without amazing muta micro.
Also, when this guide says bio it means a normal 1 rax expo build. If you want to see how to play out 2 hatch vs fast academy builds then watch xaoxi’s game in the valor tourney Ro32 on outsider or his game vs Brat_ok on carthage in Brat’s reppack. Jaedong vs leta on chupung is also a great example.
2 hatch muta, 3 hatch hive
This is what I consider to be the most “standard” 2 hatch build as it is the build that maximizes on the two strengths that 2 hatch builds have over 3 hatch; opportunity to damage your opponent with very fast tech and gas.
“Build order”
1. Make 4 more zerglings, totaling up to 6 as ling speed finishes.
2. Put down your spire as soon as lair finishes
3. Send out your drone to make your 3rd base about this time, depending on how far away it is
4. Make your 2nd gas right after your 3rd hatch is put down, your spire should be at about 200 hp
5. Start making mutas until you have 11
6. Put down your hydra den shortly after your first 6 mutas pop, start lurker tech when it finishes.
7. Once lurker tech starts make 2 hydras to send to your 3rd base’s ramp or choke. 8.Shortly after make 3 hydras to put at your nat.
9. Start your queens nest when your lurker tech is about 2/3 done.
10. Morph your 5 hydras into lurker and your next gas should go into your hive.
11. Start your 3rd gas about the time your hive starts (this gas timing can vary greatly 12.depending on what you feel comfortable doing).
13. Put down an evo chamber and get +1 carapace right after your hive starts.
14. Put down your 4th hatch as your hive is building, you should be able to afford it when it’s half way done
15. Make your defiler den and possibly a greater spire for guardians if you want, and then continue into a normal late game after that.
So what do you actually do with all of this?
Well generally 6 lings will be enough to contain the terran until mutalisks are out. If the terran attempts to move out you backstab him and he will usually rush back to defend. If he doesn’t then you can start a sunken colony as he moves out and your mutalisks and sunken should pop right before he reaches your nat, giving you ample time to defend. Or if he actually left defense against a backstab then he should have only about 8 marines moving out so you can easily just take the lings and mutaling down the first small group. Then after this you make up to 11 mutas just like in a 3 hatch muta build and constantly harass him, but your top priority should be keeping the mutalisk alive until you actually have 11. Meanwhile you have the 5 hydras morphing into lurkers to defend against any sort of aggression the T might try to put on you. However without even any lings, since your lurkers should be up plenty early the T moving his marines out into the map accomplishes nothing except making his base more vulnerable to muta harass. If you know your muta harass has been good enough to keep the T completely contained then feel free to morph your lurkers closer to his base for a contain. Then as your hive builds you have 3 gas going so you should be able to have 12+ lurkers made or morphing by the time your hive finishes to stall for time. The only build the terran can do that might actually force you to engage before swarm is out is 2 rax tech, but in that case his push shouldn’t be anywhere near as terrifying because he is only pumping from 2 rax so you should be able to kill it with your 12 lurkers and 1-2 control groups of mutaling or delay it until swarm is out. If you are finding all of this too hard to macro so strictly then consider getting your evo chamber after consume starts as that will be after you get all your expensive core tech started. The timing isn’t so late that it will make your game significantly weaker but there is really no reason to postpone it for so long except for comfort reasons.
Something to think about: transitioning into hydralurker
So at this point you have guardians and swarm and your 4th hatchery just finished recently. Obviously hydralurker is a good idea for any build order once the T has switched to SK terran. However it is particularly appealing with this build for a few reasons. First of all this build leaves you with the least larvae of any build you can think of. And your army is composed mostly of lurkers at this point so you need to start making a solid support army. As hydralisks take up 75 minerals per egg, and lings take up 50, going hydralisks helps to minimize this weakness of the build. Next, you got guardians, which really discourages the T from making tanks. As hydralisk’s main weakness is tanks and most terrans will transition into SK terran anyways the T should not have a large number of tanks unless he somehow managed to take a very fast 3rd, which considering how this build works should be nearly impossible for them. And finally, this build can get +1 carapace as late as after the defiler mound so your upgrades aren’t the most solid and you probably won’t be able to afford to start melee attack until after you have stabilized your production at hive tech. As hydras main weakness is tanks, which carapace doesn’t help vs at all, and hydras are mostly used to pick off plagued units which means that all in all upgrades are much less significant when going hydralurker. So another weakeness of this build is minimized if you feel this is a good decision in a game. And later on after you have transitioned into ultraling or whatever plage+hydras has got to be the easiest way to take down vessels.
What is the Point of all of this?
This build attempts to take the greatest advantage that 2 hatch builds have; a large amount of gas. If you are to fully take advantage of this you won’t be able to afford a 4th hatchery before your hive without being completely mineral starved, and since you only have 3 hatcheries a good way to put the gas to use is to get very fast tech and I don’t think there is any other build that safely gets you to hive faster than this. Then any surplus gas you have gets invested into your normal hive tech and possibly guardians.
What are the pros and cons of this build (in comparison to a textbook 3 hatch mutalisk build)?
Pros:
-Well as with every 2 hatch mutalisk build these mutalisk are early and as such they give you a lot more potential to damage to the terran’s economy and marine count. As this applies to every other 2 hatch muta build I will not bother to restate this in the below builds.
-Terrans don’t have the timings of this build order nailed down like in a 3 hatch build and doing so is nearly impossible anyways as your timings can all vary a lot depending on how you adapt this build to fit your own play. Once again this is a bonus for all 2 hatch builds vs bio and as such I won’t restate this in every other build.
-The fastest hive of any ZvT build.
-The most available gas for use in any ZvT build.
-Is pretty much the only build order where you can consistently rely on getting guardians.
Cons:
-Least larvae of any build.
-Very tight when it comes to managing minerals
-Late upgrades
-Little zerglings in the early game to gain map control before his vessel is out.
Of course at this point this all might be confusing since I haven’t done the traditional “build order” where it lists everything and everything here is pretty much written as a giant block of text so here is some help:
Replays:
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13845&key=842843
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13846
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13847&key=bcbdaf
Vods:
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/10442_Jaedong_vs_Sunny/vod
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/11417_Calm_vs_Miracle/vod
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/10483_Flash_vs_ZerO
+ Show Spoiler +
2 Hatch Muta, 4 Hatch Hive
“Build Order”
1-8. Repeat steps from 2 hatch muta, 3 hatch hive build
9. Put down your evo immediately after lurker tech starts and start +1 carapace
10. Put down your 4th hatch when money allows, probably about the time lurker tech finishes
11. Take your 3rd gas
12. Put down your queen’s nest after your lurkers start morphing.
13. Start hive, get your hive tech, continue as though it were a normal game.
So what do you actually do with all of this?
This build is very much like the above build but is also very different. You are going to pretty much have your 3rd base’s minerals saturated by the time you take your 3rd gas. You do this so that you can afford an early 4th hatch so you don’t have to rely on rushing to hive like in the previous build. In preparation for this, as you will probably need to engage the first terran ball in this case, you get your carapace upgrade really early as well. Other than these slight variations it plays out almost exactly like a 3 hatch muta build. So if you are trying to get your pre-swarm mechanics down, well then 3 hatch muta is the build for you but if you want to do a 2 hatch build because of the popularity of mech these days, then this is the best build you will find for this. This build should also improve your mutalisk micro better as your mutalisk control is more vital than in 3 hatch builds.
What is the Point of all of this?
As was said in the previous section this build is a more early-midgame focused build than the other 2 hatch muta one. It is just generally attempting to copy 3 hatch mtualisk play except if gives you more opportunity to deal damage with your mutalisks and it has a completely different set of timings for terran to learn. This build can be mixed with the above build in just about every aspect meaning there is no 1 build fits all for terran like vs 3 hatch muta, which can either be a good or a bad thing. And your earlier 3rd base attempts to make up for the weaker economy you will have early on. Also, there are pretty much 2 things that a terran will probably open vs 2 hatch muta, 2 rax tech or 4 rax. This build sets you up to be able to solidly fend off the early 2 rax tech while the other build will screw over the late tech of a 4 rax because of its early hive and safety against rine pushing.
What are the pros and cons of this build (in comparison to a textbook 3 hatch mutalisk build)?
Pros:
-Allows you to play a normal midgame vs bio while having the opportunity of going 2 hatch if you scout mech.
-Earliest carapace upgrade of any build
-Generally safe vs any marine pressure after mutas are out
Cons:
-Midgame army is not as strong vs the first terran push if you didn’t do significant damage with your mutalisks
-Your early game economy will be weaker despite pretty much mirroring the build midgame.
Replays:
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13849&key=79c200
I’ll try and get a better example later…
Vods:
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/11555_fantasy_vs_Luxury/vod
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/12010_fantasy_vs_HoGiL/vod
Boring 2 hatch lurker
1.Pump drones until you have about 9 on minerals at your main and 4-5 at your nat.
2. From this point on you will pump zerglings until you have about 18-20.
3. Put down your den when your lair is halfway done
4. Make 3 hydras after your lurker tech is started and hide them somewhere in the middle of the map.
5. After you have about 20 lings, start pumping drones again.
6. Take your 3rd shotly before lurker tech finishes.
7. Once your lurkers are out set them up as a contain outside the terrans base. If he only made 1 bunker you may try to allin his nat however its risky. This guide will just assume the terran won’t risk throwing the game away over 75 minerals and made 2 bunkers.
8. At this point your contain of 20 lings and 3 lurkers should be enough to keep the T contained until his vessels are out, as such you will be producting only drones until just before that time.
9. Put down your 4th hatch and take your 2nd gas when money allows
10. Put down an evo chamber and start carapace.
11. Put down your queens nest, spire, and your 3rd gas.
12. Start hive.
13. At this point your 3 bases should be saturated from pumping nothing but drones for a while and as a result you should have about 700 gas built up. His push will be coming soon so now all 4 of your hatches need to start making hydras nonstop until you have about 12 lurkers.
14. Once you have 12 lurkers your next round or larvae should go towards scourge and lings to defend against drops.
15. This hive is later than 3 hatch muta, you should always be forced to engage his first push before swarm is out. If you survive this, proceed into a normal midgame.
So what do you actually do with all of this?
Most of this was already explained in the build order, hence why I label this as “boring” 2 hatch lurker. There is pretty much no way a terran should be able to stop a contain with the amount of lings you make early on so this build is dependant on getting that contain. After that nothing can really happen, terran is stuck in his base for a long time while both of you macro up. That is the main point of this build: to completely shut down any sort of midgame aggression by terran so both of you just end up macroing into a normal game except without mutalisks.
What is the Point of all of this?
This build actually breaks the golden rule that everyone associates with learning zerg: Pump nothing but drones until you need units and then start pumping nothing but units with your economy. This build takes a very unique approach and as such is why it is so rare. Look at it this way, in a 3 hatch build you generally make about 11 mutas, 6 lurkers, and 24 lings to keep the terran contained and many times won't be able to actually get a contain at their nat unless you have jaedong mutalisk micro. This build cuts so many drones early on that you are able to get a solid contain on the terran with 3 lurkers and about 20 lings, quite a bit less for a much more solid contain. And as such you are allowed to pump nonstop drones afterwards. It is a little better on maps like chupung where you have the backdoor to the nat or medusa with it temples so you can force the terran to bunker and defend even if you only make like 12 lings. Then you just suddenly use your built up gas to make up to 12 lurkers right as he pushes out. So at that point you have 10-12 lurkers and 2 control groups of lings; exactly what you would normally expect to have to fight off the early-midgame push. Nevertheless you don’t have mutalisks as well and have less larvae than with a 3 hatch build so your early-midgame is generally weaker which is why the build is so rare. However this is just a variation of 2 hatch lurker; the threat of what can happen in the build I will describe next forces the terran to once again cointoss with some of his builds and possibly make turrets and such as the next build is exactly the opposite of “boring” and the terran will need most of his scans to try and figure out what exactly you are doing.
What are the pros and cons of this build (in comparison to a textbook 3 hatch mutalisk build)?
Pros:
-Very safely gets you 3 saturated bases and 4 hatcheries relatively fast hatcheries.
-Given that it is a 2 hatch lurker build it can be followed up by drops, mutas, a natbreak, whatever. This build just tries to do a normal game while instilling the fear of the possibility of all of those into the terran and as such may not be at a disadvantage at all.
Cons:
-"Slightly" weaker in economy and military in the midgame.
Replays:
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13850&key=3d20b1 (shows the opening but my early-midgame micro failed horribly)
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13851&key=87910b
Vods:
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/11776_July_vs_Really/vod
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/11324_Luxury_vs_RuBy/vod
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/10621_Hwasin_vs_maGma/vod
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/9579_Hwasin_vs_Jaedong/vod (pretty different but cool and fits best under this category)
2 Hatch Lurker into mutalisk
This build is pretty much how you keep terran straight when using the above build. Although you can’t switch between them in game this is just a build order that can really lead to anything you want. Nevertheless 2 hatch lurker builds are rare and if the terran does indeed play fair you won’t necessarily be behind but there is no real way to gain an advantage here. And by play straight up I mean he will get screwed over if he attempts to be overly aggressive or go 2 fac tank or wraiths or something. This is just a more solid build that I have found in the wide array of 2 hatch lurker builds.
“Build Order”
1.Make your den when lair is halfway done
2. Make a total of 6 zerglings before your lurkers are out. Pump drones other than that
3. Start your 3rd shortly after lurker tech starts
3. Make 4 hydras, send 2 to your 3rd and 2 to your nat.
4. Start your 2nd gas shortly after your 3rd hatch.
5. Make your 4 lurkers, your 4th will be a little later than the others. Whether or not this late 4th lurker will leave time for T to break you I don’t really know yet.
6. If you can set up a contain with only 6-8 lings, then great. If not a contain is not as essential with this build. 2 lurkers above your 3rd’s ramp and 2 at your nat should be sufficient defense.
7. Make a spire when your 2nd gas finishes.
8. Make a 4th hatch when minerals allow.
9. Your 3rd gas timing is very up for question, I suggest taking it shortly after your spire starts.
10. Your 4th hatch should have finished and have 1-2 larvae at it once your spire finishes. Making about 10 mutas from whichever hatcheries you feel like.
11. Right after you start your mutas put down your queen’s nest and evo chamber. Your next gas should go towards a hive and +1 carapace.
12. Anything after this point is up to you. You can start pumping lurkling and do a normal build afterwards or you can keep pumping mutas but I don’t suggest that. Guards are a very viable choice to further screw with the terran, depending on the map of course.
So what do you actually do with all of this?
You are going 2 hatch lurker but just going to defend with it. It is really great if you can get a contain up as you will have accomplished the same thing as with the previous build but with a far greater economy. It all depends on how lightly or how scared the terran will be of what your follow up is and how safe he feels going around when you might have hold lurkers anywhere. If you didn’t get a contain then all the terran is really doing is making himself more susceptible to muta harass. The terran may not even expect mutalisks and get completely screwed over as he tries to keep map control and doesn’t make turrets. Once your mutas are out you have just successfully done the 2 hatch muta 4 hatch hive build except backwards. Your mutas should only be out shortly before there first vessel pops so it doesn’t give you much time to muta harass but it can very well throw the terran off in so many ways. If you feel like going for guards than you can make your queens nest sooner than here, like when your spire is halfway done or something.
What is the Point of all of this?
To get 3 saturated bases safely, 4 hatches, and mutas to harass. You are pretty much surrendering econ and a solid early-midgame army to try and screw with the terran and throw him off balance as you get swarm and guardians and a large lurkling army. If the terran plays completely textbook and stays in his base until he has enough to do the normal vessel-3 tank push then all that really happened was you transitioned into a normal game with mutas to harass and lurkers to contain and fight etc.
What are the pros and cons of this build (You should know what goes here by now)?
Pros:
-Punishes the terran for most cute things he might try to do or for cutting corners
-Generally a safe way to get 3 bases up and running (I think I have listed this in every pros section…).
Cons:
-Weaker econ, less larvae.
-Things can go badly for you if the terran manages to read everything you are doing
-May have trouble getting map control back against 3-4 rax builds if the T is cautious and doesn’t cut corners on defense.
Replays:
http://www.teamliquid.net/replay/download.php?replay=1189 (patch 1.15)
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13854&key=3bd701
Vods:
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/11134_FrOzean_vs_Thezerg/vod
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/10796_firebathero_vs_July/vod
+ Show Spoiler +
There were a ton of other vods of this on blue storm but I don’t remember any other ones.
Builds vs Mech
So this section will be a lot less comprehensive than the previous one. 2 hatch lurker isn’t good vs mech in any case and there is only really 1 way to open vs mech. The midgame is so open to whether you go hydralisks or mutalisks and how many expos you take that I won’t even attempt to try and cover any of that. This section will pretty much just be the standard way to survive until mutas without dieing. And I will skip the pro and con section as there really isn’t anything to compare it to.
2 hatch muta
“Build order”
1.Don’t get ling speed and only get 4 lings.
2. Make a sunk at your nat when your lair is about 1/3 done. It can be needed later or earlier depending on if your opponent proxied there fac or something but that’s generally a good timing.
3. Make a spire when your lair is done
4. Either have an overlord above his nat or send a ling to a random spot outside your base. Once your lair is done see if he has started his expo or not.
5. If he hasn’t taken his nat yet, then put down your hydra den as well. Not that your spire and den should both be used to help make a wall at your nat.
5. If he has taken his nat, then you can skip the hydra den in most cases and the next step.
6. Make 3 hydras once your den finishes and place them on top of your ramp.
7. Take your second gas when your spire is at about 200 hp
8. If you didn’t make your hydra den then put your 3rd hatch at your nat about the time your spire is halfway done
9. Pump mutas until you have 11
10. Take your 4th and then I suggest transitioning into hydralisks while harassing with 11 mutas.
11. Make an evo and start researching +1 missile and possibly +1 air armor.
12. Once you have your 3rd saturated take your 4th base with your 5th hatch while just pumping hydras or mutas from your 4 hatcheries.
13. If he starts adding on raxes instead of factories, then go lurker tech instead of hydra speed or range.
So what do you actually do with all of this?
Well you get your sunken up and you have a ling chasing his scv around. Then you 1 of your lings patrolling your base to make sure he can’t land a fac there and 2 lings to try and catch a vult of it tries to runby your sunken into your main. If he didn’t take his nat at the same time as his first vult left his nat then he must either have a starport or a second fac.
If he 2 facced then as soon as you see the vultures with the overlord in front of your nat immediately send all drones at your nat to out main. Your mutalisks should be building at this point. The 3 hdyras you have on top of your ramp will prevent his vults from getting into your main so now all of his vults are just sitting there useless at your nat getting hit by a sunken. Once your mutas pop reclaim your nat and take it from there.
If he went fact port then you do the opposite and send your drones from your main to your nat while waiting for your mutas. Although if he went factport then his expo will be noticeably later than if he didn’t but it will still be pretty fast. And remember to always have overlords around your main to see the drops ahead of time. Either way you don’t really need the hydras vs vult drop so whether you were able to tell it was delayed and put down your den doesn’t really matter. And if he expo’d fast and did this hopefully you can deal a large amount of damage with your mutalisks as he should only have 1 fac with his first goliaths making and 1 valk and turrets making when your mutas pop. In other words, REMEMBER TO MAKE SCOURGE.
So you have your mutas out now and he will probably have some vultures around. He shouldn’t have invested in mines if he did a normal 1 fac expo build but he might so be wary of that. Keep your mutas around your base until you take your 3rd then start harassing him. If he expo’d then no matter what he did you should be able to deal some damage to his economy. It doesn’t require awesome muta micro like vs MM, the T just simply shouldn’t be able to make enough turrets and gols to prevent you from picking off building scvs and scvs in his mineral lines. After a minute or two of your first harassment the T will reach a goliath and turret number where it will just hurt you to try and harass him so obviously you should stop. At that point the mutas are just used for stopping vult harass and to backstab him if he tries to move out prematurely. Usually you only want to make 11 mutas before you either kill his first push or he starts to take his 3rd. Since terrans always make there CC near the edges of there base you should see his 3rd coming so you can either start massing mutas to try and screw him over for overextending himself or expo.
Replays:
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13857&key=3ddb5b
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13858&key=548072
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13862&key=507feb
I skipped the sunken to go fast hydra in a few of these, which is viable, but I have found it more of a hassle than it useful.
Vods: Half of the ZvT’s in the past few months but here a few good examples that really highlight its strength
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/11144_RorO_vs_UpMaGiC/vod
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/11132_July_vs_Sea/vod
2.5 hatch
So this build is about as common as the boring 2 hatch lurker build. This is not a build order you want to do vs bio, meaning this is a completely reactionary build. That means you either 9 drone scouted him going 1 rax gas, or you overlord scouted his refinery. This is the only build order here that doesn’t continue off from the 11 pool 10 gas thing at the top.
Build Order
-12 hatch
-13 pool
-13 gas
After this there are 3 ways you can use this:
2 base muta build
1. Make lair with your first 100 gas.
2. Make your 3rd hatch at your nat to help wall as soon as money allows (shortly after your lair starts)
3. Make a sunken shortly after your lair starts
4. Make a hydre den when your lair is about halfway done
5. Make your spire when your lair is done
6. Make 3-5 hydras to defend vs drop or vults.
7. Make your 3rd hatch as your spire builds
8. Make mutas and continue on as if it were a 2 hatch build except you have a more solid econ and a much earlier 3rd hatch.
Vods:
+ Show Spoiler +
Hydralisk opening:
1. Make a den with your first 50 gas.
2. Start hydra speed when the den finishes and make 5-6 hydras.
3. Once speed finishes push out and either use your hydras defensively and take your 3rd base with your 3rd hatch or push to his nat and make your 3rd hatch at your nat. Either way he should make a bunker at his nat to defend.
4. Do anything that makes sense. You can transition into mutas or just keep pumping hydralisks. Add on hatcheries as necessary and react to whatever he does. In a vod below Jaedong decided to go lurkers after hydra speed and break into his opponents nat.
Replays:
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13859&key=65a33e
Vods:
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/games/12104_GanZi_vs_Jaedong
Pure mutalisk
This build I have never seen in a progame. Rather I got this build from a Korea vs China nationwar or something in which some Korean zerg managed to end it 4-0. I think somewhere in the thread it was claimed that the zerg was the best amateur in korea at the time and I have found this build pretty cool so I feel it should be listed.
1. Make a lair with your first 100 gas.
2. At this point send out a drone to an expo that the terran will definitely not scout anytime right away.
3. Make a sunk shortly after your lair starts
4. When your lair is about 1/3 done you should be able to afford your 3rd hatch, so use the drone you snuck out to make an expo.
5. Pump drones, take your 2nd gas right after your spire.
6. Make a sunken at your 3rd hatch with the very first drone that pops from there.
7. Take your 3rd gas after you have 2-3 drones mining minerals at your 3rd
8. Make nothing but mutalisks, sunkens, and drones from this point on and start +1 air armor as soon as your spire finishes.
9. Take your 4th whenever minerals allow.
So this build has 2 pretty big flaws to it that makes it somewhat situational. The first is the later mutalisks + the lack of hydra den to defend against drops. So in the event that you don’t see the T make his expo right as his first vulture leaves his nat, you probably shouldn’t do this build. Instead do the normal 2 base muta build. The next is that if he scouts your 3rd hatch before you can make a sunken there then it is useless until your mutas pop. So you should probably only do this on a large map where you can take a really unobvious choice for your 3rd. Your bases should be spread out anyways if you are going pure muta so it doesn’t really hurt you. And of course pure muta is suited for larger maps anyways to abuse mech immobility.
Replays:
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13860&key=82b83b (can't believe I lost this)
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=13861&key=f66014
And that pretty much covers it completely. I just spent 4 hours typing this, which is actually less time that I thought it would take, and its 13 pages long. If only school papers were this easy to write…
And yea, feel free to critic or comment on any of these builds or whatever, I myself have mostly practiced the 2 hatch muta, 3 hatch hive build in the past few weeks so this guide might change and should probably get more reps later on. I hope you liked it.
