[Meatex]

V

This is the style of ZvZ that has garnered me a 95% win rate in ZvZ (bar one day recently where i just failed everything)
I'm 100% positive the certain elements will troll me but I have beaten masters players with this style despite being high plat myself.
Also this is derived from Machine's ZvZ just slightly evolved
Anyway lets begin
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** Before I describe the build and strategy involved here is a few points for various levels

1. Why you don't need to play the coin toss game
Many players think they need to play a rock-scissors-paper style of zvz where 2 base beats 1 base but early pool beats 2 base. Watch Idra vs Zenio (NASL) to see his epic 8 pool defense from a 15 hatch 16 pool ^^!!
The pro's tell you not to drone scout on the off chance that they do the same build as you minus the drone scout. But this mentality is for players that typically will know the style of their opponent or confident in having far superior control
This build/style is by far not a be all and end all but its fairly strong and safe - it has its risks which I will cover later

2. Get used to clicking
ZvZ will always be a MU centered around your finesse with your units, be they banelings or infestors. Don't be afraid to select individual banelings or use ctrl + click to select groups of units on the screen.

3. Scouting is paramount
ZvZ the you aren't scouting their tech buildings for the most part, you want to see their unit composition and most importantly drone saturation. If they make drones means you can make drones - or you know, go kill him if he made too many

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The opening

14 gas
14 pool
15 overlord
15 queen
Speed ASAP
17 3 sets of lings
20 banelings nest as soon as you have 50 gas (important)

*You can afford to drone scout if you must but best to avoid it

You might be think yeah i know that build its just standard banelings
What you might not know is that against common 1 base roach openings (normally seen as the counter to this) there is a timing where you can morph 5-6 banelings and have the opportunity to do some damage

Lets get into the strategy part and see where the strengths of this style lies

Your first 6 lings should have very aggressive rally (his ramp)
Separate 2 to go scout and check how well he sim citied and see what he's got or what he's got coming.

[will be adding pictures once i can make em an pretty em up]
1. He's going ling bling same as you. -> get your micro on. Might also want to morph 2 defensive banelings at your base.

2. Roaches -> you gotta make a judgement call, can you get banelings in or not.
-2.1. If he isn't going Day9 style over the top paranoid sim city you may have a chance to get in. Morph 5-6 banelings set up your hotkeys and use shift click to splits your banelings and make them come from both sides. Keep rallying lings and go for the kill or go to 2.2
-2.2. Cancel banelings nest unless you're worried about surprise lings. Take guys off gas, make a decent number of lings, expo, drone, roach warren. Keep the lings at his natural to deny expo for as long as possible, if he tries to move out with his roaches you can try to runby into the main or just fall back and transition into roach ling or roach infestor

3. Mass ling -> again defensive banelings then go kill him

4. infinity spine crawlers (haven't seen this since silver but here it is for you guys) -> MOAR queens, expo, spore at each base, roaches and banelings will bust through

5. He went hatch first -> get your game face on, Harrass the expo with lings. He will have ling number advantage but your speed will be done sooner. Morph banelings a little further back. Your target is the drones - don't waste all your first round of banes on the lings. Select individual banes to clear the lings if you can. Use your lings to keep individual enemy lings off your banelings. If you can't do enough damage or force cancel you are in quite a lot of trouble.

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Strengths and weaknesses

This style requires good control - all the while keeping very smooth macro - you can't do it you die.

You'll be morphing almost all your lings at his ramp so there is a timing when he can send lings down and clear most of your banelings. Though this delays his roaches slightly making the window for attack bigger. Your first 2 lings sent to scout should be able to see if he's spending larvae on lings or waiting for roaches.

It is fairly tough to transition out of, especially if you didn't do enough damage. The lings at his natural will keep him from moving out but he may attack in a window of vulnerability when you are trying to get your natural up. You can try making spines in the main and moving them down. Otherwise make sure you are peeking where you can with an ovie to see what units he has and if he's making lost of roaches you had better hurry with your own roaches. If you did enough damage it helps to transition especially into roach ling on 2 base - go in for the kill.

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Mid game

Yup that whole stream of text was for the early game - I will be trying to add pretty pictures to make it easier to read in the future though.

Mid game, and later, ZvZ comes down to knowing when to drone and when to make units. AND infestors. Scout as often as you need, every 2 inject cycles or a nicely positioned overlord to see his mineral line. He makes drones, so do you. Make drones when you harass. Losing even 8 lings for as little as 1 or 2 drones is worth it because you force units while you have made drones. You have enough time to make units should he try a counter.

If you make it past the roach ling all in timing roach infestor is most common. And if you got the gas roach hydra infestor is very nice. Don't forget upgrades and positioning is super important.

Mutas are a good harass unit later in the game but don't try rushing them as your primary unit as you will die. Mutas just don't do enough and you can kill my drones all you want with them my roaches will kill all your buildings first. And just stick to a few.

Don't ever not get infestors if the game progresses far enough.

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Late game

The order of the late game is broodlords. If you can get ultras out before the broods are done then G.G. but if the come too late you are boned. Ultras can get out faster than broodlords especially if he hasn't prepared spire. Scout for a spire and if you see none you're safe to go ultras.

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Like I said I will be endevouring to make this prettier in the near future
If I have missed anything or something is unclear post below. Direct all attempts to troll at FXOmOOnGlaDe as I noticed he uses the same style (but he does it much better of course)

Quick Comments

PapaBigBelly:

nice little guide