PartinG's 3gate prism into blink disruptor (PvT Timing Attack)

Description

It's been a long time since I've had the pleasure of writing a guide on this particular player, and with a good showing in HSCXVII and a recent qualification to GSL Code S Season 3, it's time to put the Big Boy back in the limelight. For anyone not aware (as we have many wonderful newer additions to our lovely SC2 scene) PartinG used to be one of the strongest, entertaining, and charismatic Protoss players in the world. He invented storm first openings vs Terran and showed the world how to use storm flanks in WoL. He bred the powerful immortal/sentry all-in and dubbed it the Soul Train in HotS. He used blink stalkers to insane efficiency in the early stages of LotV. He disappeared for a while though and has recently come back and has been improving at a strong pace. This build is in perfect PartinG style as he utilizes an early attack that can easily kill an unprepared Terran but also set himself up for the mid game and some even more fancy blink stalker disruptor play.

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Replay - Acid Plant LE (129)

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Analysis

Build Explanation

It's not often I feature super aggressive PvT builds, so for anyone looking for something to spice up their ladder sessions and collect some extra juicy Terran tears, this one's for you.

Since it is a PartinG build I'll have to preface this by saying that this is a pretty M I C R O I N T E N S I V E build that may not work in certain situations if you don't have the control to pull it off. (If you need a refresher on how to use warp prism micro, check out this guide) However, nailing the timing should leave you with a strong set of units early on to do some good damage provided they didn't open 3rax or something. The build itself does shine the best vs early tech builds like 1-1-1 or 2-1-1 since the Terran is investing so much into a smaller set of specialized units which means a brute force attack can easily overwhelm them. This is especially dangerous in this case as PartinG gets his build to hit before normal widow mine drop timings and the like. If they're going for pure bio early on then it might end up being hard to break them. However, once I start going more into the transitions in the other section I'll also address that. First off let's see what PartinG does to make this build hit as early as it does.

Some of you may be looking at the initial steps to this build thinking to yourself, "Wait, Gemini. That's not a normal 20 Nexus expand like literally every other PvT and PvZ build has been for the last 8 months!" Wonderful eyes dear reader. One of the small adaptations PartinG uses to perform such a cunning strike against the Terran opponent is to go Cyber before Nexus. This gets everything out just a little bit faster, and usually can go unnoticed by a Terran if they don't SCV scout. Even if they do SCV scout, it's unlikely at lower leagues that they'll be able to easily discern the difference and realize they need to prepare accordingly. PartinG basically gets everything at 20. He gets the Cyber at 20, then the Nexus at 20, then a Pylon at the natural at 20, and the gas at 20. Again, this is all done to get everything out as fast as possible to hit as early as possible.

With the faster Cyber, PartinG chronos out the first adept to get across the map extremely quickly. He uses this adept to pressure the Terran's Command Center and delay it for as long as possible. There will at most be only a marine out (two if he skipped reaper and went reactor) so you can easily kill the SCV building the CC and then trade for some marine kills as well. The chronod Stalker coming right after the adept comes out in time to deal with the first reaper at your base so you don't have to worry too much about that. If you kill the first reaper you can send the stalker across the map to accompany the adept as well, but if you want you can just leave it home. This phase can be quite taxing on your multitasking if you want to do so much early pressure, so I'd suggest just staying back with the stalkers.

Probe production should be paused again at 24 (30 supply) in order to get all of your production early enough. The Robo goes down at 30 supply after you've made two stalkers and the two extra gates follow immediately after. Remember to chrono your Warp Gate research at this time as well to get it out quick enough so that you can get two warp ins before the attack hits. Once the Robo is done you should chrono out your Warp Prism and then immediately get a few Pylons so that you can get your 2nd set of warp ins done when the prism crosses the map. If you do everything correctly, you will end up making three stalkers out of the initial gateway, three right when warp gate finishes, and then three more across the map to hit with a total of nine talkers at about 4:30.

So how does it do vs the plethora of builds Terran has?

• vs. Widow Mine Drop: This is an extremely strong timing since this hits as a widow mine drop would be moving across the map leading there to be basically no units at home for the Terran. In his game vs INnoVation, INno tried to pull the Medivac back and drop the mines to intercept the army but a simple well timed pick up into the prism negated the mines and let PartinG roll on forward.

• vs. Cyclone or Tank: If he opened Cyclones, then nine stalkers easily can two-volley them even with SCVs repairing. A Tank can also be two-volleyed if you can get up close enough. If not you can always drop on top of it since if they go Tank that early then they're likely to have basically nothing else. Or you can just elevator into the main.

• vs. Banshee: Banshee openers can also get shut down hard because of how little units they will have at home. When FanTaSy went for a Banshee opener vs this build, PartinG was able to deny the natural and kill a lot of SCVs. He saw the tech lab on the Starport as well when he poked into the main and was able to make a shield battery in each mineral line and warp in defensively and use the observers he was making to deny the banshees from doing too much damage.

• vs. 3rax: If he opened 3rax like I said before, it could be a bit more difficult without good micro. They will have invested into a lot of early units just like you did so it will be difficult to break them. They should have around 18 marines when this attack hits which can be harder to micro against. Terran doesn't have the highest SCV count with this build though so as long as you can trade favorably it can still be OK. Since you have the Robo done you can also go right into disruptors since their medivacs will be really late and you can punish any follow up pushes they do with them. It's also important to remember that stim and combat shields finishes just after 5:00 with this opening so if you're in a scrappy fight until then, be aware of those key upgrades finishing to give a good power spike to the Terran.

• vs. 2-1-1: Since this is basically the same as 3rax but with one less barracks, you should be able to still micro against the marine count they've made. 2-1-1 isn't really that popular in TvP but you'll still get some people that try to do it.

If you do end up in a situation where you can't immediately kill the Terran, fear not. PartinG also has a sexy follow up that he showcased vs FanTaSy.

Blink/Disruptor Transition

Continuing in PartinG fashion, he follows up his early attack with a fast blink transition to set up a 3rd base and then goes into disruptors! PartinG is one of the only Korean players to actively use blink/disruptor as an army composition early in PvT instead of transitioning into disruptors in the late game. It's extremely fun to watch and just as fun to play as well.

With how many SCVs you likely killed, it will be difficult for the Terran to immediately do a counter attack, especially if you keep the threat of the warp prism alive. A lot of Terrans will be so afraid to move across the map if they know you still have a warp prism. With this room that he's made, PartinG goes into blink and saturates his two bases before expanding to the 3rd. With blink done early, you can do some nice blink micro vs any counter push that eventually walks across the map, or accompany your stalkers with some immortals, to clean everything up and continue on.

Something that PartinG delayed quite a bit this game were his extra gateways, but that was because he was so busy microing his stalkers nonstop across the entire map. You can easily fit them in after you start Blink and your Forge just like normal in PvT. If you don't feel as safe, then you can get the extra gateways earlier and delay the forge just a little bit. You can also chrono out some immortals like I mentioned if you would prefer a more solid core to your army back at home instead of blinking around with only stalkers.

Once everything is nice and set up going to three bases, PartinG gets the Robo Bay and goes into disruptors to be really active on the map and snowball his lead. He even goes for warp prism speed and goes crazy with a double disruptor drop. If you want to go that all out then please be my guest, but know that it is not at all necessary and it's VERY micro intensive. It is extremely fun and rewarding though and I have collected many a salty tear utilizing it.

You can also go into some colossus after a few disruptors if you want as well. Or right into storm. You don't need to go full out blink/disruptor if you want. I also have plans in the future to feature this style a bit more heavily (wweOw teasers!) so I'm going to wait until then to give a full breakdown of everything that is blink/disruptor. In the meantime, it's important that if you choose to go this style, then you either need to be sitting back and punishing the Terran's aggression when it's coming to you, or you need to be active on the map looking for fights. You can't let the Terran sit back and get in a well seiged position with too many units because then it can be hard to break it with blink/disruptor. If you have a good lead and macro well then you should be able to break most things a Terran can do early on though. If they do get a good siege up with ranged liberators and tanks, then you'll have to transition into tempests to break them.

As for your composition, it's not actually pure blink/disruptor. You can have a few immortals from before, some sentries are absolutely vital for guardian shield and can also trap units in with forcefields. You can also go either gladepts or chargelots as the follow up to round out your composition.

No matter how you decide to play the transition, this build is a very fun and aggressive one meant to set the tempo and keep it the entire time. PartinG is a great player to watch and learn for playstyles like these and even if you aren't the greatest at micro or multitasking, then this can be a great resources to try to improve those aspects.

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• Created by: Gemini_19    
• Published on: Jul 03, 2018
• Patch: 4.0.0

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