We’ve all been there, haven’t we? We hit that ladder button, see the Protoss symbol on the other side of the loading screen and just can’t wait to have some wonky coinflippy game. Yeah, PvP has the reputation of being very cheesy. The thing is though, that – if you have a solid build that you can follow, it can actually turn into a really nice matchup to play! Of course, the best macro build orders are the ones that could potentially just win your games, right? Even better if it’s also super safe, and can go toe to toe with the best players! Let me introduce today’s macro Stargate Opening with 2 Oracles, that DnS played vs DIE MAUER Showtime in one of the EPT Group Stages.

As you might know, Showtime is a macro legend, known to defend anything and everything his opponent could throw at him. With DNS being a rather aggressive player, it was going to be interesting to see how his more aggressive opening, the one we’ll talk about today, will workout vs the impenetrable defense of Showtime.

Now DnS starts the build with the standard opening of PvP – the 2 Gate. The 2 Gate is rather simple: A pylon at 14 supply  , and when it finishes the gateway at 16, a chronoboost on your probes and a cheeky probe scout. Then two gasses at 17 and 18, followed by the second gateway at 19. Cybercore at 21, pylon at 22 and we’re good to go!

With every two gate opening, there will always be the question of what units to get out of them. In the case of this build, we’re getting 2 stalkers first, followed by 2 adepts. Going for sentries would simply cost too much gas to still go for the stargate with a decent timing, and the hallucination scout is not needed with the oracle. The adepts allow us to put some pressure on our opponent as well.

Let’s talk about what we want to look for with the scouting probe that we sent out.

The most important thing is checking for the second pylon in their base. If you notice the second pylon missing, while you are already building yours, that pylon WILL be somewhere on the map. Luckily for us, with 2 stalkers and a Stargate, you are safe against most proxies. You just have to make sure that you actually find out, what it is, and react accordingly!

Scout around with your 2 stalkers, your already scouting probe and the probe that built the third pylon. With 4 scouting units, you should find it in time!

With the scouting out of the way, we can continue with the build order itself. Where a lot of 2 Gate build orders go into the nexus fairly early, with the Stargate, we want to get our tech up before the nexus instead. The Stargate should go down at 2:30, or 29 Supply, and the nexus should go down at 3:05. In between that, we get our 2 Adepts right after the 2 Stalkers.

Important to note as well, is that probe production is cut at 25 probes, or full saturation +1 in our base. The probe production will resume, when we start our Nexus!

As soon as the Stargate is done, we start the Oracle, chronoboost it, and as soon as the 2 Adepts are done, we move across the map for our first little aggression. This push is mostly there to keep our opponent honest, and only potentially get some damage done. 

With that said, DnS gets super lucky in this game and manages to get his two adepts in. Unless their entire army is already on your adept shades, this is an opportunity you should almost always grab. ShoWtime here is forced to use precious sentry energy, while still losing some probes.

Back at home, we start a second oracle, keep probe production going and get a Twilight Council at 4:15 to start transitioning.  DnS also warps in 4 more adepts in the meantime, to jump on the high sentry count of ShowTime together with the two oracles: 4 Adepts one-shot sentries, and together with the 2 oracles, there is a high chance that the opponent will not have enough anti-air to deal with your harassment.

Transition

With the constant aggression and the mobility of the oracle, you should be very aware of what the opponent is going for. The safety battery of DnS at 5:25 is a No-Brainer, and the Forge, gateway and third gas at 5:30 prepare you for a good macro game! The French player follows this up with a 6:00 Third, and a 6:30 robo.

Afterwards, DnS is showing us a safe Disruptor transition to prepare for the rest of the game: Charge is following Blink and 3 additional gates are added at 7:10 for 6 gateways in total, followed by adding the gasses for the incoming tech – A robotics bay and a second robo.

Especially on defensive maps, the disruptor transition is really great, as it’s a lot easier to get those magical 4-6 disruptors to be safe. On the way to those disruptors, batteries and your two oracles will help you stay alive against potential allins. As long as the 2 oracles are alive, your opponent is forced to keep Stalkers at home, or really go allin.

Of course, we all make mistakes, so let’s talk about what you should do, if things don’t go that great – You lost your oracles, lost all of your early game units for minimal damage or plainly didn’t pull the build off as nicely as you wanted to. In general, you can follow the build up to right before third base very safely. In the case of an All-in, you just have to make sure that you get enough Static D, aka Batteries, up. Now if you really don’t feel safe, you can delay your third base until after the disruptor transition started. Yes – You might be behind against your opponents third if you missscout, but think about this way – Being behind is much better than being dead. And since you are transitioning to Disruptors, a comeback is always possible.

However, it’s important that you also don’t underestimate your defensive capabilities with batteries and stasis wards, so make sure you don’t play too defensively either. Scouting will be the key!