[SayfT]

Hi all,

I am a low masters (~2.8k) Terran player and TvP was my worst and dreadfull matchup for a long time when facing massive collosi/stalker deathball due to my bio/viking play, untill recently I have discovered a neat little 10 minute push which utilizes Raven, Ghost, Blueflame helion, Banshee and Marines.

At first point I did not use the Ghost at all to some moderate success but I kept finding that if my push is defended then I am much more vulnurable to a counter attack, I also noticed that I would have excess gas at the time that I push, which led me to run games against the computer to see if I can squeeze out a ghost and a sizable army before the afformentioned 10 minutes.

The main ideas behind this build is to have a strong push before your opponent can have 2+ collosi out (sometimes your opponent will have 1 collosi out by 10 minutes) which comes at around 10 minutes and to also be able to have a 2nd step if your push has failed (most of the time it does not fail if executed properly).

This build order was used mainly vs Diamond level players and a couple of Masters players, so without further ado here is my build order.


Execution

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Keep in mind that this is a rough time estimate centric build order, you may find that you will be able to squeeze units out a little faster some games than others, the timings given below are to be used as a guide (except the target 10 minute mark!) and not as EXACT time you should have stuff out/producing

10 Supply
12 Rax
13 Refinery
15 OC ( Every single 50 energy should be used on a MULE except for that 1 scan prior to your engagement as noted later in this guide)
16 Supply
19 Factory / Refinery #2

You are now at about ~3min40 s into the game, your SCV should have found the base of your opponent, check to see what he/she has, how much energy on the nexus? How many assimilators? If you see the Nexus with stored energy then most likely your opponent will try and go for a quick 4 gate, adjust the build accordingly by making 1+ bunkers and scout your base/nat for a proxy pylon.

If your opponent has 2 assimilators he/she is most likely going for anything but a 4gate (1gate/robo expand, 3gate/robo, 3gate/stargate etc...) so now you should be continuing with the build as follows:

25 Tech lab on Factory, Starport , Supply depo (and consequtive supply depos as you reach near your supply cap)

From here on the build will focus on game time instead of supply number due to the randomness of each game, you may forget a supply depo, there might be extra pressure on you causing you to deviate from the build (if it was in supply number timing)

Once tech lab on factory is done make sure you start your hellion/blueflame research.
Starport should be done now, make a dropship at about~ 5min40s, produce hellions until you have 3 helions, your dropship should also be finished .

Make another techlab on your barracks (around ~5min49s)

At around 6min20s produce a Ghost Academy.

At this point your 3 helions and a medivac will be out, your blueflame *almost* complete. As soon as blueflame is complete your dropship should be already out flying to your opponents base for harassment, change factory with starport, make 1 extra Barracks and start producing a Raven, on your barracks start training stimpack (stimpack should be done just after your Raven pops out).

Once you have 150gas produce a ghost.

While you are harassing (or your 3 helions have died T_T) the mineral line of your opponent, keep producing hellions/marines, your Barracks #2 should be complete by about 7min56s, start a reactor on that.

As your Raven pops out start a Banshee, 1 marauder from your rax with tech lab and marines with your reactor rax.

You want to move out at around 10 minute mark, salvage any bunkers present and start a CC in your natural (or inside your main if you wish), you should be looking roughly for this unit composition at 10 minutes:

~27 scvs
~6 helions (provided the 3 helions you had did not die)
1 medivac
1-3 marauders (depending on your gas or marine preference)
1 Banshee
~11 marines
1 Raven, 1 Ghost both with enough energy to drop a PDD/EMP respectively.
These are rough numbers, some games I manage to squeeze out a few more marines or scvs other games I end up with less hellions etc...
As you push keep producing Banshees/Helions/Marines off your production facilities.
You should have enough energy to pop a scan at about 10m13s, use that to scan on the natural expo or ramp (if expo is not present), position your ghost appropriately to maximise emp damage (stalkers/sentries).

Transitions

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This build is not an all-in build as you do *start* to expand as you push, the key here is for you to do enough economic/army damage to your opponent that even if your attack is held off he/she will be in no position to mount a strong counter-attack, this can be achieved with proper macro while you are attacking (have your units rally to your expansion while you attack with your main force) so that even if your initial push has been dealt with you will have a similar sized army in your expo to defend (+ you have an expansion AND scvs mining there already)

From here you can try and go for a 2nd similar push and/or add more production facilities (you could also try and do cloak banshee since your opponent hasnt seen you cloak yet it is unlikely he will be suspecting this little extra kick)

Transition from a defended push is found in game TvP RGB game 8

Why this build works?

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Generally Protoss tend to do some sort of quick Nexus play, usually in a form of 1gate/1robo into nexus into 2 extra gates from which point they either tech to collosi or grab immortals.

Helions are excellent at harassing mineral lines wether via dropship play or crazy suicide run-by's into enemy base, they also are amazingly good vs sentries/zealots.

Marines(stimmed) are very very very good against stalkers/immortals, coupled with EMP from the ghost they are able to plow through those 2 units.

Banshees here are used as support instead of harass (you could try sending 1 banshee to their main to pick off probes if you wish), also incase all your marines get dstroyed and your opponent has only zealots/immortals left they will provide extra pressure on those units allowing you to focus on your main or pulling your reinforcements back/forward.

Incase of a present Collosus, your Banshee/Marauder(s) (with some marine spread) will help to nulify it's presence

Dropship, this can be used as a transport for your ghost (if they have phoenix they might try to lift your ghost and kill it), to provide cliff vision and/or drop the ghost in their main and EMP key units (if they have not expanded and are sitting near their ramp).

I have not seen much templar play but if you do see a templar out you should becarefull with having a ghost inside a dropship (losing both of these units to feedback will be VERY bad).

Raven is used for the Point Defence Drone to nulify stalker/canon damage.

Ghost is used to EMP key units, which in this case are immortals,sentries,stalkers.

The 10 minute push with this unit composition allows you to output tremendous amount of pressure on your opponent which ends up in a victory most of the time due to the synergy all the above mentioned units share with each other vs a Protoss army

Tips

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Before dropping helions with your dropship have a marine scout a xel'naga tower by which your dropship may go through, this allows you to have a safe passage ensuring that your opponent does not scout the dropship incoming.

You may chose to NOT scout a tower and show your dropship on purpose forcing the Protoss player to prepare for the drop (you can fake a drop, or come from a different position, drop your helions somewhere and fly an empty ship near a tower, etc.. etc...)

Drop an EMP before your PDD, in a few games I have managed to induce a face palm moment and EMP my own PDD making it completely useless, heh

If your opponent steals your 2nd gas before you can have it out, fret not! I have been experimenting with making an early 2nd ref (as my OC is making) but that puts me back by quiet alot, the best way is to make sure the refinery dies when your factory is at about half way done (3-4 marines should do the trick) at which point your ghost academy will be delayed by a little bit but otherwise cause no significant deviations from the 10 minute push.

Counters

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3gate/Stargate (phoenix)

I have found through numerous games that a very well microed 3gate/phoenix usually counteres this build as seen in TvP RGB game 10 , the phoenixes destroy PDD , Ravens very quickly and are able to disable key units such as helion from destroying zealots.

1(3)gate/Stargate (voidray)

Depends on how good your micro with unstimmed marines is and how well your opponent can micro his/her voidray, as seen in TvP RGB game 11 VR , my marine micro was pretty non existant hence my opponent managed to capitilise on that and then move in to crush me with more VRs/Stalkers

4 Gate

Once again depends on how well you can defend it, most of the time if you defend the 4gate you will not even have to continue with the build as your opponent is behind on econ/army

DT rush?

I have honestly not encountered a Protoss opponent rushing for DTs in 1v1 for a very long time, but because every single time you have 50 energy you use it on a mule to be able to afford all the units I think that a DT rush could severely cripple or outright wtfpwn this build.

Replays

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I have added 3 different file upload links incase 1 of the links does not work

http://www.megafileupload.com/en/fil...2/RGB-rar.html

http://www.mediafire.com/?sx7oi2daa1pzmn7

http://www.easy-share.com/1913932998/RGB.rar

That is all! Hopefully my build order has helped you, please leave some feedback if possible.

[Aean(:]

Looks great, ill try this later and will post feedback ^^

[SayfT]

Cheers mate! looking forward to feedback so I can adjust the build if needed.

[Makra]

Looks nice! Very similar timing to my main TvP build, will have to give this a go. Just note, EMP can drain your own shit so make sure u don't hit your Raven/PDD with it lol.

[Starcraftmazter]

New? I've seen this for months.

Apart from that, it is indeed a nice build.