An Aggressive proxy to help mix up your Ladder games against Terran, broken down by @HolyHit
What’s up Champs, it’s HolyHit with another Protoss Build Guide! This time, we’ll be talking about a special little build that you can use to mix up your Laddering, either because you’re too bored with Macro games, or because you’ve been Proxy Rax’d too many times and want to pay it back.
This Proxy Gateway Build that Astrea played vs Uthermal at this Years IEM Katowice will make sure you are the one that sets the pace in the game! It’s not the Maxpax style proxy Zealot however. Instead we’re skipping that Zealot to get a Stalker that hits just before the Bunker finishes, while making it look to the untrained Terran eye like we’re just pulling off a normal Build at home.
But don’t think this is just some simple Allin. Think of this instead as the 12 Pool equivalent for PvT – A rather aggressive Macro Opening.
The Game
The game that we will be looking at for this Build Order can be summarised as relentless aggression from Astrea, without ever really comitting. While the proxy Gateway is certainly an investment, and should do some damage otherwise we will end up behind with it, it still opens up to a relatively standard-ish game. Astrea canceling the Command center did just enough damage for the follow up 4 Gate Blink Push to do even more damage, without ever overcommitting with his build order decisions or his units. This culminates in a brilliant defense, which is built up on all the small little mistakes that Astrea has forced upon the Terran player.
The Build
We’re starting our Build with the normal 14 Pylon and with it we instantly send out a probe across the map to eventually build the proxy. At 16 Supply we build the standard Gateway at home, and we’ll Chronoboost our Nexus, just like in a Standard Opening.
At 17 Supply it’s time for the Shenanigans: The proxy Pylon will be built close to the natural, followed up by an 18 Gas, and THEN the Proxy Gateway at 1:10 ingame time.
The Cybercore comes at 1:24, and on 21 Supply we’re getting our Nexus up. With the cybercore finishing, it’s time to start the Stalker at the proxy, which we’ll Chronoboost, the stalker in the main base, which we won’t chronoboost, THEN resume probe production, and then take the second gas.
Against the standard reaper expand that a Terran usually does, we can then snipe the SCV building the bunker. Here however, uThermal is going for the Factory First opening, with a delayed Command Center on the ground. This makes for an even easier picking of the Expansion.
After the first proxied stalker comes a second proxied, chronoboosted stalker, followed by the second not chronobooster stalker at home.
Now, depending on how the build is performing, we can invest into more Stalkers at the proxy, or transition out earlier for quicker Tech, so let’s talk about that!
Transition
Oftentimes, offense is the best defense, and the transition Astrea has decided on shows this off perfectly. After canceling the CC, Astrea transitions into a 4 Gate Blink Build order – Going for the Twilight, in this game at 3:40, a Robotics Facility 10 seconds later at 3:50, 3 additional gates since the forward gateway was unpowered and a Gas.
While the Third Base at around 5:30 makes sure we don’t accidentally turn this into too much of an Allin, with the Blink Upgrade being chronoboosted well, we’re hitting a brilliant attack at 6:00 Minutes with 12 Stalkers, easily Oneshotting tanks and trading out with the Terran with superb Micro.
From here, you can then transition into whatever Midgame tech you feel most comfortable with, be it Colossi, Storm or staying on the Mass Gateways. Astrea is showing us a Storm focused transition without Upgrades.
Since he got the Engineering Bay earlier, he doesn’t have to worry as much about keeping up with Upgrades, and with how much damage he has done with no Third base on the way for the Terran, Astrea just has to make sure that he can defend the attack.
Remember children – If you do a lot of damage, that doesn’t mean they can’t still allin you!
