! [G] ZvP - Adaptation Tactics

What?! This build counters the +1 Speedzeal build? Of course. There is an opportunity where you have about 2 control groups of hydras and some lings with all your upgrades and you can wreak havoc before his +1 attack and speed finishes, possibly totally nullifying his chances at commencing a +1 Speedzeal attack (if you kill enough cannons / zealots / probes and possibly other buildings). If you find his defense to be good enough, try to target anything you can, like the forge, to prevent his +1 attack from finishing.

This is crucial to prevent his +1 because if you can’t deal enough damage, he will be ahead in upgrades and tech and economy, so try anything you can to even up the field. Once a large amount of zealots appear though, it will be harder for you to kill, and he will be sure to add Dark templars and/or high templars soon after, so there is a limited window of opportunity to pull this off!

These are basically a counter to any Protoss who has insufficient scouting and bad cannon placement. Cannon Breaks in general counter all those types of Protosses – therefore these probably are not the best choice if you want to counter +1 Speedzeal specifically.

This is not a very good counter imo… the mutas come just about when his zealots reach your base. The big problem with mutas is that they deal so little damage to zealots he can deal massive damage regardless – and by the time you clean up the attack he will have cannons everywhere and his third base up and running with defense.

This is one of the nicest counters. It is the Mondragon-esque counter where you get 2-3 sunkens at each base that is out in the open as well as matching their +1 attack with +1 carapace and 2.5 control groups of zerglings. This is a very nice build because it will put you ahead if you can prevent him from getting an expansion and grant you map control as you can follow-up with a lurker contain or any other tech you want (or mass expanding and macroing like crazy).

A very good counter as you'll be able to be offensive or defensive depending on the situation - if he has corsairs you'll be able to outmacro him with hydras later, putting him behind - if he doesn't have corsairs you're still safe since your mutas will be out way before he arrives and you'll have lings to block their path and after that you'll be able to damage his economy (your mutas can even attack him and then pull back to defend, that's how early mutas come out in this build). One of the nicer counters to +1, as you'll be able to gauge what you want to do based on the situation and in many cases force the Protoss to adapt to you in order to counter your tech.

These builds are very risky altogether, but they will be able to deal damage regardless of whether or not the Protoss chose +1 speedzeal or not.

Why is this build effective? Several reasons. First of all, it will give you something to shoot the corsairs and allow you retake map dominance lost to Dark templars with speed overlords and hydras. The mobility is a huge plus. Also, consider how much gas the Protoss is using. DTs require lots of gas and so do corsairs, so will he have much gas left over for high templars to counter hydras?

This counter allows you to prevent him from expanding with the map control he planned to get from the DTs, as well as giving you several options (cannon break is fairly easy when not against HT, just don’t blindly charge in, check cannon count first! If he has an abundance of cannons, best not attack). The regular 3/4/5 Hatch Hydra build detailed in the Follow-ups section is ideal to cannon break, but you’ve only got about a 20 second window to attack before the first dark templar arrives.

That is why a macro variation is a bit more favored in this situation. Get more drones first, spore colony and sunken colony at every base (natural and 3rd) and play a bit defensively for a while. Also get a spore + sunk in your main during midgame in case of a DT Drop or sneak-in, much rather lose 2 drones – it will save you so much later. The macro also allows you to get upgrades and a Lair for speed overlords. Hydras are a great counter to the Bisu build.

These builds are very risky altogether, but they will be able to deal damage regardless of whether or not the Protoss chose sair/dt or not.

These are basically a counter to any Protoss who has insufficient scouting and bad cannon placement. Cannon Breaks in general counter all those types of Protosses – therefore these probably are not the best choice if you want to counter sair/dt specifically.

Another great counter to the Bisu build. Wait, what? How do lurkers counter DTs? Well, look at it this way. First of all, as mentioned earlier, gas will be short for the Protoss. Second of all, since they chose to go fast templar archives with the stargate, will there be a fast robotics as well? Generally not, and even if there was, observers are quite gas heavy as well – therefore you can reestablish map control with your lurkers.

Lurkers are nice because you’ll be able to do some damage to their FE buildings and prevent them from expanding. It is crucial to not let them expand to somewhere else though, the main point of going Lurkers is to contain the Protoss in their base for a bit and if they can still get another expo, it’s pointless. Once you set up a contain, you’ll be able to nicely get some more expansions and macro up – but you’ve got to be careful when he finally pushes out that you have enough units to defend yourself.

Typically when doing this, you wanna macro up before massing hydras (as well as doing the expansion thing I mentioned earlier. Btw, if that is completely wrong, please tell me!) Hydras are great counters to reavers, because, although they die in huge clumps to reaver shots, you’ll have so many hydras it won’t matter, as well as being extremely mobile and able to shoot corsairs, these are a nice counter. You want to upgrade ranged attack of course, to increase the damage output.

Something people like to do is burrow hydras in clumps at shuttle paths, and when they see the corsairs (shuttle usually travels behind the corsairs), they unburrow the hydras and shoot down the shuttle. A pimp move, indeed, but it takes careful planning and detracts your main army size. Burrowing lings at key expansions and key shuttle paths is more than enough, if you need burrow at all.

Making a few scourge is nice because if they leave their shuttle undefended for just a second, you can snipe it down.

The major mistake that I, personally, made at the D+ level was engaging Protoss defense. Protoss with cannons and reavers is unbreakable with hydras – do not engage because you’ll waste your entire army 99% of the time. You just want to macro up and keep them contained and prevent them from doing damage to you.

These builds are very risky altogether, but they will be able to deal damage regardless of whether or not the Protoss chose sair/reaver or not.

These are basically a counter to any Protoss who has insufficient scouting and bad cannon placement. Cannon Breaks in general counter all those types of Protosses – therefore these probably are not the best choice if you want to counter sair/reaver specifically.

I don’t really know if this is a good choice – you can’t do any damage other than killing a few FE buildings, and won’t be able to get the map control you would get had you gone hydras.

You really shouldn’t have a problem dealing with this, in fact, you should actually be able to pressure them and possibly kill them (assuming 9 pool, 9 overpool will just be pressure) If you want to just begin macroing, make about 10-12 lings with overpool and being macroing, you don’t need an over excessive amount of lings, just check his zeal count. When he sees your 9 pool or 9 overpool, generally he won’t pump over 4 zealots because he’s going to try desperately to get his economy back

This is a 50/50 against the build. For one, you’ll have lings faster, but you’ll have sunkens later, so you’ll probably have to mass lings for a while until he stops zeal production. One tip is to not engage his zealots when you don’t have enough lings, you want a 1:4 zealot:ling ratio in small numbers like this, at least! Just allow your natural hatch to take some hits and don’t worry, it’s got a lot of health and later in the game you can morph it into a Lair to increase its HP. Instead of engaging the zealots at your natural head on, try to pick off reinforcements that try to arrive, so you’ll be able to slowly build up your ling numbers.

Make sure he doesn’t block your ramp with 2 zeals and probe though, that is annoying.

As soon as you spot the zealots coming your way, immediately send 2-3 drones and try to lay 2 sunkens even though he’ll be trying to prevent you. Make sure you can get those lings out, and just like the 12 pool, you don’t really want to engage the enemy units straight on unless a zealot or two strays out of the main group. You’ll have sunkens up, so try to defend them, but you can also just go for the reinforcements as well.

This build definitely works! Especially when you don’t realize their going for tech and in return you’re not ready to deal with it, just mass 2.5 control groups of speedling and you’ll be able to break up a ramp with 3-4 zealots. From there, keep making lings and just destroy the rest of his base, I’ve found that even when they get a DT out, you can still do so much damage, running around, splitting up lings to kill probes, nexus, templar archives and pylons powering gateways, this is one of the easiest ways to kill a Protoss doing 1 gate tech.

In preparation for the first corsair, if you have extra money make a spore, and if you don’t, just hide the overlords you have and make more because you know you’ll lose some. Corsairs kill overlords horrendously slowly so you should be fine, of course if you don’t break up the ramp you are SCREWED.

This is in particular quite strong against 1 gate tech. Lurkers will come out, preventing them from expanding and you can break their ramp, and it will take them quite a while to get the robotics facility in order to see your lurkers. Of course, they can add a cannon at their ramp, but being able to delay their expansion is enough. If they push out earlier than you expected, try to delay cannons with lings and then go in with the lurkers to make him cancel. Mutas are also very nice because he will be forced to delay his expo by making cannons and more sairs, as well, and you can do tons of damage.

Basically you get a few hydras and macro up and you can have a third base (you should have an overlord there and some defenses, or a spore and sunken) Later you will be able to do anything and still be ahead because unless he did damage, he’s behind economically for getting the later expansion.

A nice transition to this is Sauron, because he will have a very very low amount of units for a period of time, where you can just make units nonstop and slowly eat away at his defenses. Of course, all the other transitions are awesome too, and you’ll be able to play standard ZvP from there just with you a bit ahead.