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
• cybernetics core, your 4th chronoboost should be coming up right now - use it on your nexus
• 2nd gas (if your opponent gas steals you, use your 4th chronoboost on your gateway and chrono out a zealot, then make your c-core and then make a second zealot, take your gas asap)
• zealot followed by pylon, your 5th chronoboost is coming up - use it on your gateway
• sentry + warpgate tech, all chrono goes on your gateway until you have 4 sentries
• make your 34/34 food pylon at your natural before you make your nexus
• nexus
• place 2 additional gateways at your natural, creating a sim city
• place a stargate, preferably in a place where an overlord is unlikely to spot it (i.e. next to the cybernetics core)
• make a void ray, chronoboost it twice
• get your 2 gases at your natural and transfer probes
• make a phoenix, chronoboost it once, rest of chronoboosts goes on both nexus
• fleet beacon, make sure you have at least one chronoboost left when your fleet beacon finishes
• mothership, continuously chronoboost it
• forge and twilight council
• from here the build branches into different reactions from you depending on what kind of information you have gotten so far, but generally you will be looking to add more gateways, zealots and archons to your mix
Scouting: how to use your scouting probe, your void ray and your phoenix, identifying builds and responding correctly
You are going to 9pylon scout, mainly to try and deny a hatch first. This is all basic PvZ stuff you should be able to do by now (look for early pool, patrol on his nat, make a pylon if he tries to take it, etc.). If he opens speed, you will want to check if he takes guys off gas. The best way to do this is to run your probe to an obscure spot, and then moving it into his base by clicking the mineral patch closest to the gas he has taken. Like this, you should see the natural going down (meaning no 1base play) and the amount of gas he has mined and if he is still mining. Try to check his gas at around 3:50 - some Zergs are either tricky or sloppy and mine some extra gas, your probe could die to lings and you will not know if he has taken guys off gas. The reason for checking if he has guys off gas is to create a mental narrative, allowing you to subconsciously better prepare for his options. If he has not taken guys off gas, this means he is either going for a fast lair (most likely mutalisks), an all-in or fast +1 (very rare). Make sure you check his natural to see if it is actually a hatchery building - although I have never encountered this, it is theoretically possible for him to throw down a hatchery, cancel it and use the creep to make a roach warren or baneling nest. If you have missed this, you can press alt+g (the hotkey for pinging) and mouse-over the hatchery. If it is smaller than a hatchery, then it is obviously not a hatchery. Safety first!
Small tip: right outside of your natural, there should be a zergling on hold position, which is there to spot for you moving out. See if you can pick it off with your sentries and zealots. Don't overcommit to killing it though! If it runs, let it run and retreat to your sim city.
Your void ray will (or should) always do the exact same thing, every game: pick off the overlord near your base (if any) and make a b-line towards the zerg's natural, following the path a ground unit would take. The reason for this being that you will want to check for roaches being rallied to your base, this would indicate early roach/ling aggression. If no roaches are being rallied, clean the xel naga towers (on most maps in most positions these will be on your way towards the Zerg natural, so you can do this while looking for roaches rallied) and proceed to where the Zerg's 3rd base should be. If no base is here your void ray can do a multitude of things: deny creep spread, deny xel naga tower vision, get a few drone kills by harassing mineral lines (right click drone, hold shift and move-command away) or look for stray overlords. This is mostly a personal preference, I switch it up depending on what I feel like doing/what I feel what would benefit me the most.
Your phoenix will be your second scout at the 9ish minute mark. You will want to fly this over the Zerg's main and natural. Be warned: from my coaching experience, Zergs in leagues below masters have a severe tendency to overreact when they see your initial void ray, and will throw down spores in their mineral lines. Your phoenix can take quite some queen shots, but flying over spores and queens is just too much, you do not want to lose your phoenix. You should still be able to get all the information you need even if he has 2 spores in every mineral line.
Fast 3rd base into whatever
The 'textbook' reaction. The lair will usually be slightly delayed, probably morphing as you fly your phoenix over it. See if you can force a cancel on the 3rd with your void ray and phoenix. You do not have to force a cancel, it would just be bonus damage. Research charge, +1 weapons and start your templar archives and 3rd base, start warping in moderate amounts of stalkers. The 3rd base is a calculated risk - you have cleaned overlords, the xel naga towers and the zerglings outside of your base and his attention is focused on your void and phoenix at his 3rd. Sometimes you will be able to get away with a premature 3rd base. Your nexus will start at 9:00 - 10:00. If he is a good player and does not mess up, he will be able to deny it. There is nothing you can do, cancel it and take the 100 mineral loss, knowing that it was the right decision on a risk/reward equivalent base. Unless you are 99% sure you can defend it, don't bother because you are very low on military units and cannot afford to lose them. Make 4-5 additional gateways (whether you were forced to cancel or not), your mothership and first archon should pop at the same time, around 11-12 minutes depending on how many chronoboosts you missed. Now you can retake your 3rd base and start making units. So just to clarify: if you cancel the nexus, your 4-5 additional gateways (totaling 7-8 due to you already having 3) will go up before your 3rd base if you were forced to cancel your first attempt, and after your 3rd base if you were not forced to cancel. From here, get +2 weapons and slowly start adding more gateways, zealots and archons. You will want to go pure zealot/archon and whatever remaining units you have from the early game.
Delayed 3rd base (lair first) into whatever
Same as above. This build is slightly safer against early aggression/timing pushes and heavy air play, but we are not doing that. It offers no other advantages over the above build.
Early roach/ling aggression off 2 bases
As described above, your void ray should be able to spot the roaches being rallied. This is also the reason why your void ray is supposed to follow this path up to the enemy natural, to look for roaches being rallied. If you spot roaches being rallied, shift+right click them until they are either all dead or return to safety (queens/spores). If he is really committed, warp in units (stalkers) at your base and use forcefields. This is the easiest strategy to beat with this build. Use your game sense to determine how many stalkers you need to warp in, try to warp in as few as possible, as to not delay your forge/twilight council/mothership. If your twi council/forge/mothership is already building, his aggression is later than expected but still requires the exact same response. In every situation as a rule of thumb, employ your game sense to assess the situation and determine the optimal response, keeping the general guidelines of this guide in the back of your head. After the aggression has died out, use your phoenix to scout for his follow-up (usually a 3rd, if that is the case try to deny it and see above). Queue your mothership, build your twi council/forge, premature nexus attempt, get +1/charge/templar archives, 4-5 additional gateways and slowly start adding zealots/archons/gateways.
2base infestor/ling timing
Your phoenix will scout this, the cues are no third base, two evolution chambers and an infestation pit. This timing will hit between 11 and 13 minutes, usually on the earlier side of the 11-13 minute range. You should have your mothership out as well as 1 archon when his infested terran/ling timing happens. To counter this, instead of your premature nexus, you are going to build 2 cannons at your natural and warp in additional units, mostly zealots. Delay charge for more warp-ins. If the attack does not come, make sure your phoenix is active to see what it exactly is that he is doing (3rd base? second tech? massing up more units off 2 bases?). If he stays on 2 bases and masses units (REALLY make sure he is staying on 2 bases), add 7 gateways, totaling 10 gateways and play 2base vs. 2base, having your army consist of only zealots, archons and the mothership. If you are adding on your 7 gateways and see he just tried to take a 3rd base, cancel 1 or 2 gateways and get your own 3rd. Slowly add more gateways, zealots and archons. Don't forget to get charge! You didn't get it yet because you needed extra units.
2base muta
Make 2 or 3 additional phoenixes (not more) to fend off the first wave. After this you will have your mothership out and archon tech. Do not bother with blink or extra stalkers. Use your mothership to defend your main base and your army to defend your 2nd base. You will not attempt a premature nexus, grab your 3rd after your mothership and archon tech is out (11-12 minutes). Start adding more gateways, zealots and archons. Trick: if you can get a vortex off at his mutalisks with your archons nearby, do it and send your archons in. The 'archon toilet' was nerfed in 1.3, but mostly against ground units. Air units will spread much slower than ground units. You can one- or two-shot his mutas as they are released from the vortex. WARNING: if you are a sensitive person you may not want to use this strategy, people will start calling you names for doing this, as it is generally frowned upon. Use game sense to determine whether you need a cannon at your main's and natural's mineral line.
2base hydra/ling drops
The cues of this build are 2 base, a hydra den, no roach warren and a dancing lair/hatchery. 'Dancing' refers to the animation buildings make when they are upgrading or producing something. Start a game against the computer as zerg and research an upgrade in your lair and hatchery. Make sure you are able to tell the difference between upgrading and not upgrading. When you have identified the build, place your void ray and phoenix in strategical locations, forcing him to either undrop hydras to chase away your void/phoenix from harassing his filled overlords (buys you time) or lose overlords full of units (obviously good for us). Delay charge for units, do not delay your templar archives. Do not attempt a premature nexus. Get your 3rd base after your archon tech and mothership are out or after the drop play has been cleaned up. Start adding more gateways, zealots and archons. Don't forget to get charge.
Tunneling claws timing
Very rare nowadays. Look for a dancing hatchery or lair and a dancing roach warren. Delay charge for stalker warp-ins, delay templar archives for robotics facility and make 2 cannons at your natural. Make sure he can't just snipe the cannons, you will be very sad. After your obs, archon tech and mothership are out, get your 3rd base and start adding more gateways, zealots and archons. Don't forget to get charge.
Ling/baneling oriented play, usually a follow-up from a 3rd base
Keep making zealot archon, but research psionic storm and do not transform all of your high templars into archons. If you suspect baneling drops, play defensive and grab additional bases (4th and 5th, get geysers asap). Vortex his overlords/army and mass storm it as they are released from the vortex, do not send your own units in. Start making carriers and void rays. Move back far enough after you have vortexed his army/overlords so that he has to move quite a bit to engage you again, but make sure you are in range to psi storm him as he comes out. Have your mothership further back on hold position - the mothership cannot cast her spells when she is in motion and you will want to cast a second vortex fast after he has taken a lot of damage from storms. Move back again so he has to move a bit to engage you after being relesed from the vortex and storm him again, he will either retreat or lose all his army/overlords, giving you more time to mass air.
Mid to lategame: how to engage the army and deal with his unit compositions
Mass roach, or mass roach/hydra
Vortex his army, send your zealot/archons in. Kiting on creep can be very powerful against your composition, by vortexing his army you will immediately send all of your units in melee range, and he will be unable to kite you after being released from the vortex due to your ball of units being entangled in his ball of units, causing maximum DPS
Infestor/broodlord
Try to get a good vortex off on his broodlords/infestors, use 2 vortexes if necessary. Make sure there is a slight delay between the vortexes, so you can send your zealots/archons into the second vortex after they have killed everything when they have been released from the first one. A vortex lasts 20 seconds, about 10 seconds should do for a delay. Spreading from the Zerg's point is useless due to you having 2 vortexes that you can chain.
Banelings + whatever
Get carriers and void rays, psionic storm and research blink. Be very careful with your vortex. See 'ling/baneling oriented play, usually a follow-up from a 3rd base' above for additional tips.
Ultras + whatever
a-move
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