[Zanderax]

This Build of mine has developed over the past week or two and while I know the probability of a Bronze level player creating a new build is very low indeed, it came from my head and not a website so while it may not be new, it is original.

The build is a cover all for level players that have trouble with match up builds and such. This build is covers Protoss, Terran and Zerg and stream lines all a noob knows about SC2 into a build that is easy to pull off and effective.

The basic build is as such:

9 - Overlord
12 - Scout with drone (esp. on a four player map and esp. if they are random)
14 - Hatchery at natural
15 - Spawning Pool
15 - Gas - put 3 drones on when finished
16 - Overlord
When the pool finishes - Queen at each Hatchery
@100 gas - Metabolic Boost
When Queen finishes - Lair

From here you will do one of three things depending on their race:

1) If they are Toss then once the Lair finishes you build a hydra den, get the range upgrade and mass hydras and lings. This is effective vs all gateway units (except HT), the immortal and voids and phoenixes. At the late game, put a spire up to hard counter Colossi and Carriers.

2) If they are Zerg then put down a Roach Warren when your pool finishes. From there, fast attack with a large amount of roaches and lings. If he repels your initial attack, Spire tech mutas and harras and contain until he either pushes out with a smaller force and loses or you push in with a large for and win.

3) If they are Terran then build a Baneling nest after the pool finishes and upgrade their speed and do a bust when you have enough. Make sure you have some lings to clean up once you get through there wall.

This build as secured me quite a few wins and is esp. effective vs random when you have no idea what race they are until you scout. The scout at 12 is very important to get their position race and progress, all of which are vital to build.

As I said before this is a low level build made for people in bronze and silver. It's a build that wins some matches but forces a person to grow as they move up the ranks and is not cheese.

Hope you enjoy it, I wasn't sure if this should go in the BSG section but maybe some higher level players can get something out of it.

[Benji]

Things to note after a quick skim over

- 9 Overlord is infinitely better than 8 Overlord
- Your protoss build is unable to hold a 4 gate or a 6 gate
- Your Zerg build is very weak to a 14/14 Speed/Bane opening
- Your ZvT build is allin

[cruxis]

Wow, hatch first against Zerg is really risky. Especially since most of the time you haven't scouted him yet, and don't know if he's doing 7 pool or not.

And why an overlord at 8?

[Zanderax]

Originally Posted by Benji

Things to note after a quick skim over

- 9 Overlord is infinitely better than 8 Overlord
- Your protoss build is unable to hold a 4 gate or a 6 gate
- Your Zerg build is very weak to a 14/14 Speed/Bane opening
- Your ZvT build is allin

Thanks Benji I didn't notice all that stuff, Ill change the overlord but I'm not sure how to correct the four gate and Speed/Bane opening, the ZvT is meant to be all in as the vast majority of Terrans keep their armies right next to their wall or up their sleeveies. The banes destroy the wall and their army and leave the lings to clean up.

Still, I am a bronze level player making a build for other bronze level players, I can fix it all I want but it's still won't be as powerful. This build is meant to simplify things so people can start to assert their own ideas.

[Benji]

Originally Posted by Zanderax

Thanks Benji I didn't notice all that stuff, Ill change the overlord but I'm not sure how to correct the four gate and Speed/Bane opening, the ZvT is meant to be all in as the vast majority of Terrans keep their armies right next to their wall or up their sleeveies. The banes destroy the wall and their army and leave the lings to clean up.

Still, I am a bronze level player making a build for other bronze level players, I can fix it all I want but it's still won't be as powerful. This build is meant to simplify things so people can start to assert their own ideas.

To beat 4 gate, you need around 22-25 drones, a Roach Warren, Speed upgraded and a few spines, although you don't drop the spines until you scout the 4 gate. If you were to get this in ZvT, you'd be in a really terrible spot techwise.

Honestly, you really can't do the same opening for all 3 matchups, ZvZ, the best opening is a 14/14 Speedling opening (Into Banes or Roach/Expo depending on what opponant does). Yet in the other 2, getting a Hatch first is ideal (Provided you can hold Cannons/2rax Bunker pressure).

[Zanderax]

Originally Posted by Benji

To beat 4 gate, you need around 22-25 drones, a Roach Warren, Speed upgraded and a few spines, although you don't drop the spines until you scout the 4 gate. If you were to get this in ZvT, you'd be in a really terrible spot techwise.

Honestly, you really can't do the same opening for all 3 matchups, ZvZ, the best opening is a 14/14 Speedling opening (Into Banes or Roach/Expo depending on what opponant does). Yet in the other 2, getting a Hatch first is ideal (Provided you can hold Cannons/2rax Bunker pressure).

This build isn't necessarily about what's "best" but rather what is easiest. Remembering 3, 4 or 5 builds is confusing to me, I can never seem to practice more than a build at a time, so if i practice a ZvT build then I go into a ZvP match I'm screwed. I made this as a fall back so that if you are hardcore working on ZvP and you come across a Zerg or Terran then you have a build to go with. Remember when you first played SC and you didn't even know what a build was, heck you didn't even know all the units. This is for those people.

[Benji]

For those people:

9 overlord
13 Gas
13 Pool
16 Overlord
16 Ling Speed (Take guys off gas if not ZvZ)
16 2x Lings
18 Queen
20 Expand (or Bane nest if ZvZ)

Once first queen is done, Second Queen (unless ZvZ) and put guys back on Gas
ZvP Get Roach Warren around 25
ZvT Get Lair and Bane nest when you can

Then play reactive to what your opponant is doing

[ToRDjvillian]

for ZvZ i recommend getting attack upgrade for roaches. this will allow roaches to 2 shot the lings.

[Harmonik]

Thanks for writing it out like that Benji.

Zander what Benji has written is the standard speedling opening with some extra details for the different races. Its so strong you can practically do it blind I find (no drone scout, but probably dont)
I am doing this every game now so that I can focus on other elements of my play. (im weak in mid-game). The only exception is the odd 15 Hatch, 14 Pool but thats only against terran.

Also I prefer roaches in ZvZ. Any reason you choose banes Benji?

[Benji]

Originally Posted by Harmonik

Thanks for writing it out like that Benji.

Zander what Benji has written is the standard speedling opening with some extra details for the different races. Its so strong you can practically do it blind I find (no drone scout, but probably dont)
I am doing this every game now so that I can focus on other elements of my play. (im weak in mid-game). The only exception is the odd 15 Hatch, 14 Pool but thats only against terran.

Also I prefer roaches in ZvZ. Any reason you choose banes Benji?

I used to like roach openings, but when you play against a player that actually understands ZvZ, not going speedling puts you behind. I do like to transition to roach whenever I feel safe to do so however, as I prefer Roach midgame play than trying to finish the game early with Lings/Banes.

[Harmonik]

Originally Posted by Benji

I used to like roach openings, but when you play against a player that actually understands ZvZ, not going speedling puts you behind. I do like to transition to roach whenever I feel safe to do so however, as I prefer Roach midgame play than trying to finish the game early with Lings/Banes.

Sorry I wasnt being clear. I always open speedlings vZ or I just get crushed so totes agree. What i meant was I get roaches after slings and skip banes entirely. I often hold off a first wave of slings with a complete wall around drones. A spine, queen and roaches safely inside. Then expand.

Do you feel that is weaker? I do tend to get owned by mutas shortly after but i feel that might be due to my slowness in execution after my basic BO finishes.

[Dox]

Forgive me if I'm wrong here, but I don't recall seeing Muta's used in ZvZ for a very long time due to Infestors.

[Benji]

Originally Posted by Harmonik

Sorry I wasnt being clear. I always open speedlings vZ or I just get crushed so totes agree. What i meant was I get roaches after slings and skip banes entirely. I often hold off a first wave of slings with a complete wall around drones. A spine, queen and roaches safely inside. Then expand.

Do you feel that is weaker? I do tend to get owned by mutas shortly after but i feel that might be due to my slowness in execution after my basic BO finishes.

You're being ultra defensive, Spining up, getting Speed AND Roaches, meanwhile any good opponant will contain you in your base and expand and drone whilst getting his Warren up, and he is massively ahead.

If you get enough units to break the contain (and it has to be roaches as Lings are countered by the 2 banes he has sitting behind his lings), you need enough roaches to maintain a walloff (to prevent runby and queen sniping) as well as push out and kill x amount of lings, which is such a massive investment that if he droned and expanded, you're massively behind and your only choice is to allin (and you can't send 3 roaches as you need to maintain your wall). Also the speedlings will pickoff any single unit rienforcements, and his superior econ will destroy your allin unless he makes a macro error.

[Azlex]

i like to know what is the good marco for z i do saw they like to put pool at the back of the mineral but some times i feel if i put infront i can atleast block the rush from head on... while spine at the back of the spawining pool
correct me if i'm wrong and is there any guide about Z macro build i really like to see some. thank you

[cruxis]

Well I guess this Day9 video would be the best example of a macro build.

http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/4210235/

[PiG]

This build seems good as a starting place for newer players. However if you want to improve further you need to practice a variety of openers and understand which openers have advantages in which situations. For instance hatch first against protoss and zerg should be a map-specific move depending on spawn positions, it can get shut down in a lot of situations, and if you don't understand exactly why this is happening it gets pretty depressing. Not to mention starcraft gets really boring when you do the same builds repetitively! But I understand the point of the OP and think it just needs a few map and race specific tweaks as you move up the ranks.

Originally Posted by Dox

Forgive me if I'm wrong here, but I don't recall seeing Muta's used in ZvZ for a very long time due to Infestors.

Mutas are pretty amazing in ZvZ but due to infestors it takes incredible care and unit control to keep them alive and make them useful. The same as any situation with mutas, they give map control and allow you to take the map. Also by forcing hydra-infestor your infestor + bane drops becomes an uber-powerful hard-counter, if you can pull it off.

Leenock vs someone in ro32 or ro16 of last code A demolished a guy cross-map Terminus using muta harass, burrowed banes and mass bane roach. He did it in such a way that he would bait all the fungal energy before charging with his mass of hidden banelings and it worked really well. However without being at his level I'm not too keen to try such a finicky strat.

[Benji]

Mutas give early map control, but they are an expensive unit that gets completely shutdown by infestors. For that reason the only time I make them is in that 160 supply range, where I make like 2 or 3 (Need the spire for broods later) and throw 1 at a time at infestors (Provided they didn't go hydra). They either lose the infestor or waste ALOT of energy killing the muta (I think its like 3-4 fungals, infested terrans you just fly away from).

Any ZvZ build that has a midgame that is Muta based and not Roach/Infestor based is, in my opinion, very weak and fragile.

[PiG]

Yeah Benjis right it is fragile to rely on mutas but don't count them out completely! Adding on Benjis lone muta harass another way to do it is if u scout no hydra den to sweep in with 7 or so mutas manually magic boxed or using 3 separate groups and start sniping those infestors really fast so at best ur opponent will use.all the energy on fungals jst to survive. Normally u can get quite a few infestor kills too and totally mess them up. Add a roach attack while they're distracted and you should get a better concave on your distracted opponent. Just another way this unit can be utilised in zvz. Mutas are horrid for passive play and usually only work in narrow timings so only get them if you have a specific set of uses prepared. But they are a sick unit!

[cruxis]

Or if they're a decent player they'll just burrow their Infestor's to stop them dying at all.

[PapaBigBelly]

Infestors are hard to use :P
but they are sooo powerful
i just wish they had more HP