how many ghosts would you need to lockdown that many BCs, or even enough to give your reduced goliath/wraith/whatever count a fighting chance? Not saying they aren’t viable or useful, just that they will probably pop out like 3-4 BCs at once (more once they get their starport count up to like 6-8), and your loss in tech/unit count to get a ghost + lockdown tech probably won’t even out.
That said, Flash just used 5 valks to rape Memory’s wraiths in game 1 so who knows, let’s wait for Boxer to come back for our ghost fix ;(
He did EMP a good clump of BCs before the final clash, but before that I think he couldn’t get a clear shot (too many turrets + BC fire would have gotten him), might not have been able to multi-task enough to pull off the EMP while keeping track of everything else, etc. etc.
Plus his vessel(s) got caught in an EMP at one point as well, IIRC?
shrug it’s pretty tough to EMP a cloud of BCs hiding behind a line of turrets, Flash’s BCs were in a more vulnerable position than Memory’s when those EMPs happened. Memory definitely had some clutch EMPs though, Flash got owned pretty hard.
Also worth noting that Memory had about an equal BC count before the first clash AND was ahead on upgrades.
Good point about the trade-off, Crimson. That’s what I was figuring.
It’s just weird to me that there’s units I’m not seeing in these games such as valkyries, ghosts, queens for the zerg (I thought Spawn broodling was the righteous vs tanks), and hydras (who i thought used to be bread and butter for zerg). Not too sad about never seeing scouts or dark archons for toss since those units have always been terrible…
JustB:
Queens get some use for Ensnare, which can totally screw over a group of MnM or wraiths or zeals or whatever. Spawn Broodling is too pricey to just kill one tank/ultra, in any case. Ensnare is definitely the queen spell of choice. You have to build queen’s nest to get hive anyhow, as well. Main thing is that you have to research ensnare, so that’s a pretty big gas investment and you should probably be saving gas for defilers (and eventually ultras).
Hydras get a lot of use, actually. 9pool speedling into 2 hatch hydra is one of the more common counters to Protoss FE -> sair + DT/reaver builds (ie. Bisu style builds), for example. Outside of that you’ll see Z players building hydras for various other anti-air and timing attack purposes; main thing is that ling and muta control has gotten to the point where those two units are way more cost effective, and lurkers kill way more than hydras do, generally.
I kinda wish guardians got used more often, actually. They get raped by sairs, wraiths, vessels, storms, etc. but sometimes the other guy just isn’t ready. Too bad Jaedong mis-micro’d against Flash’s metal build, because his muta/guardian/hydra attack could actually have worked really well… but we’ll probably never know unless they meet in the MSL final, and if Flash goes metal (dunno if they’ll play on a good map for metal TvZ).
Valks get really bad but they’re kinda decent if you have 3-4 against wraith/muta heavy air forces… though really Terran has better anti-air options (MnM w/stim and +1 weapons, goliath w/range, wraith, vessel w/irradiate). Still… 3-5 valks can wipe out a massed air group pretty quickly… though then what? MnM + vessels with some control can handle mutas, plus MnM rapes expos and ling groups, vessels own like everything Z has.
Ghosts see VERY specialized use, mostly for nukes these days lol. Poor Jy getting nuked into retirement by Casy ;o
Kal did a fast scout build against forGG in their first game in the MSL, it worked pretty well since he defended vulture harass really well and held off forGG’s push with DTs long enough for the first few scouts to pop out. They aren’t useless, they just require conditions to be right… and Kal followed up with strong macro and a big dragoon push.
Dark Archons see some use against Z since maelstrom can wipe out a clump of mutas easy. Hard to storm them or kill them otherwise since a good Z should keep them dancing around probing for weaknesses, so they’re already on the move to dodge storms. Much ALMOST used this to good effect against Jaedong, except a) he let Jaedong get like a billion expos for free and b) he didn’t actually kill all the mutas he stunned.
I love watching small battles where micro and quick decision making turn the entire game around. Doesn’t mean I don’t like watching 200/200 armies clash in a mess of blood, explosions, and dragoon goo, but I got into SC because of how cool those little fights look. So I’m pretty glad Flash won that game the way he did, especially that sequence where he was dancing his tanks around picking off SCVs and tanks… though he had pretty much won already after that awesome defense.
WOW! Flash holding off that attack against Memory on match 3…WOW. Flash is just god right now.
At 15, I’m sure that kid gets laid like mad at school by fan girls.
Game 2 was nuts, also. That shit was just crazy. I thought Flash would’ve had it, but those EMPs were just crucial and really shined once all the Yamatos came out.
I’m still wondering how the hell Flash held off that attack so nicely…his timing was so perfect on when to pull out the SCVs because I think Memory was unsieging when Flash’s SCVs came up…that was just perfect timing and genius on Flash’s part.
The KTF Wonderkid does it again.
I’m thinking it’ll be a Flash vs Jaedong finals…with Flash winning…I’d give it a 60/40 chance.
And Tasteless commentating is entertaining as always…the whole Waterbats thing made me lol.
I had a different mentality that is probably very limiting on my play. I always just thought of it all as if the time/resources spent on my units is more efficient than what they spend on theirs, it’s a win. I never actually considered “then what?” ^_^;
Memory did get kinda greedy in that fight, though… he had more tanks, had siege, had a pretty big timing window where he had a few tanks and Flash didn’t even have his factories up… dunno what else he could have done, Flash pulled SCVs and micro’d better than him so shrug. Maybe attacked earlier, before Flash had his first tanks?