Terran vs Zerg 1-1 16 marine drop

This build is designed to be a very powerful attack that comes about the ten minute mark, and it comes with 1-1 upgrades with combat shield and stim on the marines. It's also meant to play standard and safe. The idea behind it is if the zerg gets too greedy and goes for 75 drones and 3 bases before 10 minutes like happens a lot now they will just die to the drop - and if they have proper defense you lose nothing and have two bases up good upgrades tech and saturation prepared to play standard from there.

The fundamentals behind the build

As described in the introduction, I started using this build to make sure zergs didn't get too greedy. I played a lot of games where I would play far too passive and I would just lose to 3 base 70 drone zergs while still on 2 bases with 45 scvs. How ever, some times I would try to be aggressive and lose all my units to a zerg who was ready to flank my fake move out, or even worse didn't buy into my fake attack and didn't build any units. I also tried all-ins but I don't really like those too much as if they get crushed[they were not being greedy] I lose. So I had to find a way to not let them get too greedy to give my self a chance in the standard game while not taking huge risk.

So the core behind this build is to have a safe way to punish too greedy zergs, and if they were not too greedy then you will not lose anything at all and be left with good upgrades units and saturation on two bases and you can play safe and standard from there with out being behind much if any at all.

Special decisions in the build and reasoning behind some things.
First of all I like to play safe - so I highly suggest getting two bunkers and a supply depot at the natural when you lift your expansion out there. This way while your drop is in the process you can be safe to counter attacks, it can also suggest to the zerg you are defensive and won't be doing such an aggressive move though you will.

Next, I'd like to point out the reasoning behind combat shields AND stim which delays the push by about 30 seconds. I think combat shield is amazing for holding all-in's and the drop it's self. Marines tanking 1 extra hit can make the difference before killing a hatchery or tech building or not or holding your natural to an all-in or not.

Next is something very important, if they have banelings and zergling waiting for your drop because they some how scouted it do not lose all your marines, it's VERY important to either one, drop marines on individual banelings to be cost effective, or two just fly back and play standard from there.

Another choice if you really want to have a even stronger drop but I think is a little bit worse to play standard afterwords if you do no damage is get one viking first and clear the over-lords on your drop path so they are caught 100% off guard. This can end the game VERY often.

Lastly, once you go into standard play I suggest at some point on 3 bases to jump to 3 factorys to make up on the tank count as you do lose a couple getting this drop up so fast.

Micro tips:
You would be VERY surprised at how much 16 1-1 combat shield stim marines can take out. Do not be afraid to engage a decent amount of lings in a corner, just know your limits.
If they only have a few banelings don't be scared, you can target them down very easily or spread if they don't have overwhelming amounts of lings. I see too many times with this build people get scared and don't take out an easily winnable battle, but at the same time don't get over-confident.

Build order:
12 rax
15 orbital
16 supply
17 Command center
23 add two rax
25 add two refinerys put 2 on each gas when finished[total of 3 in each]
31 add two tech labs[produce marines almost non stop from all 3]
as soon as you hit 200 gas upgrade stim and combat shields same time
next 100 gas add factory + 2 ebays[around 38 - 45 food depending on units you've made]
as soon as factorys done make reactor and build star port, when ebays done upgrade armor and weapons instantly
as soon as starports done switch to reactor and build double medivacs
around 9:30 you should have at least two bunkers full of marines and 16 marines to drop with with 1-1 upgrades[by the time you drop in their base] and stim and combat shields
from this point on i suggest tech lab on fact and start getting tanks and seige and play a standard game from here.

Protoss vs Zerg 6 immortal Push

About the build:

The build is intended to at the very least due a lot of damage, but most of the times out right kill the enemy. The idea is to get 6 immortals and 10-25 gateway units and push out very fast to catch your zerg victim off guard. It's also meant to be able to transition if the push doesn't entirely kill your enemy.

This is for sure a timing attack that plans to hit before they get too big of a mass of units, so crisp build time and execution means a lot. It hits a timing where most zergs just finished getting their tech and droning and don't have a mass of units.

Positive Mindset - Key to winning in Starcraft 2

You've probably all heard sayings repeated over and over like "The Power of Positive Thinking" and "Healthy Body, Healthy Mind", and there's a reason they're repeated: they're true! Think about IdrA, he's among the most phenomenal SC2 players of our time. His mechanics and game-sense are on a whole other level than the average player, but you still see him struggle in tournaments and make bad decisions when he's in pressure-filled situations. Anger, you'll find, is a SC2 player's worst enemy.

So, how can we apply this to our game? It's simple:

Hyper-Aggressive ZvT: Countering the 2Rax

The Concept

Once you drone scout, respond to 2rax pressure by immediately baneling busting on 1base. This is not a long-drawn out analysis of the mid-late game, this is a fast and effective counter-attack designed to win games quickly or at least set you up with an advantage (after killing all terran scvs), at which point you can move into 2base play.

StimmedProbe’s Million Man Marine TvP Style

General Idea

Marines are strong, very strong. Marines are cheap, very cheap. Marines rip apart every Protoss unit and only run into problems against Colossus and High Templars. The main idea is that you always keep the Colossus count low (low as in 1 or none) and you never give them enough time to tech to High Templars. A fast expansion allows you to support 10+ Barracks and the map will soon look like a river of dots traveling across the screen. After a few back and forth fights you will eventually overpower your opponent’s army with your million man marine army and force him to GG.

iEchoic's 2 Factory 2 Startport Build

Overview

This build utilizes two fast factories and then two fast starports. Infernal pre-igniter is researched as soon as possible. Fast 2 factories gives you a powerful early aggression-stopper (vs marines and hellions), and gives you map control.

A fast medivac is created to give a counter-attack and economic damage threat. This is a hard-counter to rushed cloaked banshees + bunker at front.

Spanishiwa's No Gas Fast expand Zerg vs Any Race

The build revolves around a few key ideas:

1: that in the early game larva is extremely important, and having to produce units from that limited larva (instead of drones) is very disadvantageous to you.
2: that by delaying your gas you're able to drone extremely quickly. This is because your income won't be split between gas/mineral income (it will be all mineral), and thus you're able to get drones quicker than you'd normally be able to.
3: that creep spread increases the effectiveness of Zerg by a LOT. To the point where it is extremely worth it to spend in-game resources to expedite the process of spreading creep.
4: that mid and late game Zerg is very strong (compared to early game Zerg).
5: that over saturating is terrible (like, terrible terrible).

Mothership / 6 Gate build

The Backstory

Fast expand and its variants have started to come under some scrutiny with the success of stargate play twindling. Zergs have learned how to fend off the 6gate blink stalker timing as well as the VR-Stargate units type builds while powering economy and ending up way ahead. I personally preferred the 6gate after expanding, but ling heavy play started to dominate me.

Terran vs Protoss - Uncle Dolan's Mech Build

I thought I'd share this build with you that I've been using at the Masters level to get like a 90%+ win rate vs Protoss. I was like the common Terran before, using MMM + vikings + ghosts to deal with the Protoss deathball and constantly loosing. Therefore I went into my lab and concocted this mad scheme to use Mech vs Protoss. Most Terrans scoff at the idea, but hold your judgement! I have a 90%+ win rate vs Protoss or a reason

Shout Outs

Thorzain - Because the build is basically based off of his TvP style in game 5 vs MC in the TSL
MarineKush - For giving me the idea to EMP my own mech units
Zatic - For the opening
Warden - For well... having an awesome stream!

Protoss vs Terran 1 Gate Fast expand Variations

The first version of this guide will outline the timings and give a few example replays.

1 Gate 1 Gas FE (As done by oGs.MC)

The Build Order
9 Pylon
12 Gateway [1]
14 Gas [1]
15 Pylon
17 Cybercore
18 Zealot
22 Warpgate Research and Stalker
24 Pylon
Stalker
30 Nexus (29 if scout died)
-If he did not expand: Cut Probes [Should have 16+3 on minerals, 3 on gas, and 1 scout]
2x Gateway
Robo (Make an Observer when done and rally to enemy base)
Pylon
Gas

For Terrans struggling in or getting into Diamond League

These exercises are designed for fast and effective learning, keeping you focused, and improving your abilities as quickly as possible. Each one is a short overview followed by an exercise.

Exercises

Analyze a build for micro gaps


Anyone can tell you how to analyze a build to find a more efficient order.

HUARGH's Zerg vs Protoss Mothership build

The basic build order and opening:
You should not have an idle nexus. Prioritize building probes and obviously create a gateway + cybernetics core wall at your choke. This will be the build you are going to use against nearly everything the zerg is doing, save 1base cheesy play (roach rush, 7pool, ...,).

• 9pylon, scout with pylon builder, chrono nexus twice after pylon is done
• 14gate
• 15gas, your 3rd chronoboost should be coming up right now - use it on your nexus
• 17pylon, you will not get supply blocked

Terran vs Terran - Bio guide

Overview/Gameplan

What we are going to try and do in the games when we are going for bio is of course to win (just like any other strategy). How do we accomplish this? Our gameplan should be to keep one thing in mind: Aggression. We cannot sit back and relax and expect to win with bio. Multi-pronged attacks are key. Dropping in several places at once while attacking the front. So to sum it up: constantly pressuring and picking off buildings or tanks, and dropping.

Protoss vs Protoss anti 4-gate build

The following are the metrics that I use:
Difficulty of execution: Is this build difficult to learn? Do you have to execute perfectly? Out of 10.
Probes at 5:45: Self explanatory
Required number of sentries: You generally want 0 or 1 sentries if possible.
2nd gas timing: 3 probes mine ~112 gas per minute, so you can calculate how much extra gas you will have with different builds via this metric.
Wall?: Indicates if the build requires a wall or not. Walls are generally not preferable in PvP and you want to avoid them if possible.
Does it look like an offensive 4 gate?: If it looks like an offensive 4 gate, you
may force your oppenent to play less greedy.
How much does a gas steal hurt?: Early gas build cannot get gas stolen. On the other hand, some builds have difficulty dealing with gas steals. Out of 10.
Excess gas: Compared to a defensive 4 gate that gets gas at 6:00, how much extra gas does this build have? Does not include gas spent on sentries.

Guide to playing starcraft 2 with Low APM

If you are a player who has few or no limitations on your APM, many of these suggestions will harm your play more than help. You should always try to increase and utilize all forms of micro and not limit your macro. Aspects of awareness and strategy are applicable to all players, and should be studied when not playing the game. Players who CAN increase their APM SHOULD, but the actions are only as effective as the premise that drives them. Do not use this guide as an excuse to limit yourself. Please only use it to expand your skill to, and perhaps beyond your limitations.