[syfPhoenix]

OK so im a player who ahs been progressing through leagues and have just used the 14 gas 14 pool opening in zvz and it has gotten me to masters.. and now i see people doing expo first builds that i cant pressure with 14/14.

I was just wondering what are all the openings and alot of their counters and how to deal with early pools and wat is the most standard opening?

[Pox]

The traditional "rock-paper-scissors" of openings is:

15 hatch > 14/14 (econ advantage)
14/14 > 10pool (econ advantage)
10pool > 15 hatch (you can kill them)

Note that none of these are guaranteed wins; 10pool vs hatch first is the closest to it (if you take most of your drones with the attack) while the other two are typically a 2-3 drone lead.

Lately it's becoming popular to do something like 15 pool 16 hatch, which gives you safety against early pools in exchange for a little bit of economy. This may be what you're looking for if you want a safe build with a good economy. 14/14 expand can still be good if you exploit your earlier ling speed to pick off drones, or if they overcommit to defense when you are in fact just expanding and droning.

Right now the "most standard" opening is probably 15 hatch.

With regards to early pools, if they don't bring drones then all you have to do is micro your drones vs their lings until your lings get out (and put 3 drones on each spine they make asap).

If you played pool first against a drone all-in, you just need to throw up 2-3spines in your mineral line and make lings and you should be fine - there's a little bit of micro back and forth with your drones while the spines morph, but once your lings are out you should just win.

With hatch first vs drone all-in, you're at a very bad build order disadvantage. You cannot fight him at all initially - I usually run my drones to the natural and make a spine there. If you can get all your lings from your main down to the natural and finish the spine you win, but this is not easy against a good opponent.

Quick Comments

syfPhoenix:

awesom thanks.. this was exactly wat i was looking for :)