Hello everybody, today I present to you a new strategy I have tried out for zerg facing a terran opponent, and have chosen to report this game where I tried it out. As those o you who have bothered with my reports in the past know, I am mainly a zerg player. In the month and a half/2 months I have been playing Brood War, all I have heard from the zerg side is LURKERS. It seems that every zerg vs terran game I have seen revolved around that one unit, and every terran knew it was coming. I decided to make a way to take advantage of that, using my favorite technique of MISDIRECTION. Those of you who know anything about magic know that it is based on this concept, you make your audience (or opponent) look one way, then strike in the other. So, with out further ado, I present…

The mask of Deception

Eager to try out this new idea of mine, I asked around In nohunters for a 1v1 until finally someone by the name of AQD3 accepted, though it seemed rather grudgingly. I checked his stats and saw a ladder high of around 1200 so I knew I was going to have a worthy opponent to try this out on. the game was made on lost temple, I selected zerg and he randomed terran.

The.Confessor

vs

AQD3

I found myself spawning 6:00 and immediately set to work cloning my drones and building up my economy. My OL scouted him at 9:00 and quickly retreated as I started with my build order of 8 OL, 11 hatch at top of ramp, 13 gas. Now here is where the first part of the deception occurred. AQD3 scouted me with an scv as my second hatch was still building and I was waiting on my spawning pool. He first attempted to build a bunker right next to it at the top of my ramp, but 2 drones killed the scv making it and my pool and hatch finished before he could come back and complete it. While this was going on, I snuck out a drone to the 3:00 main and had it wait there. I made 2 sunken colonies at the top of my ramp knowing that would discourage any early assault and began pumping drones to further my economy. As expected, he set a force of marines and scvs in my natural, effectively containing me.

Now this is where you rely on the expected tech of both races. AQD3 was probably expecting me to go lurkers, as every other zerg does in z v t games. So my job now was to convince him I was. Thanks to me focusing on drone rather than troop production earlier, I had a fair amount of recourses, and when allowed, I built in the following order: Hatch at 3:00 main, lair, hydra den. He scanned me and saw the den, so though he knew what was coming. And because he thought he had me contained and it appeared I had spent all my min teching to lurks, AQD3 NEVER BOTHERED TO SCOUT THE OTHER POSITIONS. This is crucial, terrans have a tendency to get lazy in scouting against a zerg if they "think" they have them contained. So while he is busy setting up the tank/rine push I know is coming, I start pumping drones at 3:00 and put a spire there, rather then my main. I also researched OL upgrades, though I am not sure why as it was detrimental to what I was trying to acccomplish, but for sake of making him think everythng was going according to his plan, I pumped a few hydras, lings and 2 lurks. His push was coming up my ramp, so I tried to drop his main with my small force but smartly, AQD3had a large marine force waiting and mowed my Ols down before getting off most of its cargo. I was not too concerned at this point, as I took 2 drones from 3:00 and started hatches at the top of its ramp and the 12:00 natural. I brought the few Ols I had remaining and picked all the drones from my main, transferring them to 3:00.

While he has been busy destroying me old main, I have been pumping mutas from my new main at 3:00. A good idea during this time is to give the impression you lost, like that drop was supposed to be your main attack. Commenting on imbalance and power of marines are both good ideas. My 2 new hatches come online and have begun full muta production by the time he finishes off my main. AQD3 sends an scv scouting and find my base at 3:00 before being destroyed by 2 mutas. He comments: "=p", not realizing that I have a full 16 mutas headed to his main. They arrive in his mineral line, destroying the lone turret he put up for anti lurker defense and begin raping his main. He sends reinforcements, but coming one by one, they are easily disposed of by the mutas. I am keeping up with production at my main, and send 2 small groups of 6 mutas each to search out any expansions, finding sole CCs at the 12:00 main and his natural. As the mutas begin to pick on these, AQD3 comments "man I suck" (though he played an essentially flawless terran and almost had me if his push had gone faster). As I finish off his CCs, he comments gg and leaves.

Essentially the whole idea behind this is making your terran opponent thinking you are going lurks, to the point of putting up a hydra den though you dont need it, and sneaking out an early drone. You can afford to waste 300 min on another expansion because you opponent will most likely assume you are spending the money on teching (which in effect you are, just not the one he thinks it is). Now obviously this strat has limitations, and works best on lost temple. Also, not all terrans will fall for it as if they discover your expansion early, then it could set you back a large amount. The main thing to focus on is not letting him discover your true force until you are ready to strike. Just an idea as an alternative as the same old lurkers in zerg vs terran games, comments welcome, and a gg to AQD3, a respectable player.