Replay of the Week: Taberu vs Destiny

PvZ on Typhon Peaks has always been associated with zerg nightmares about tight chokes, uncomfortable expansions and game-breaking force fields (much because of the first two). Taberu, however, takes a little break from abusing the topography of Peaks - although, of course, it will be stupid and almost impossible to forgo it completely - and approaches the late-game with series of multi-pronged zealot harassments that would put most zergs in a state of quiet, introverted insanity.



Destiny spawns as the red zerg in the top left while our hero Taberu gets the blue protoss pawns at the top right. The early game begins standard - zerg opens with a hatch/pool while the protoss goes for a 3-gate expand and starts +1 attack from his forge after the nexus finishes. Zerg is also taking this time to tech up hard and starts baneling nest, roach speed and both overlord upgrades almost all at once.

At the 11th minute, as his +1 finishes, Taberu moves out to pressure zerg's third but Destiny is a tough nut to crack. The protoss is met with overlorded banelings and a healthy chunk of roaches and despite the spot-on forcefields and the sleek stalker micro, Taberu cannot find a way to put zerg's third hatchery to rest. Nevertheless, the constant poking and in-the-face pressure gives the protoss enough time and safety to get a third of his own. The economies are now very equal, putting the zerg in a very unfavourable spot.

A second timing attack from the protoss comes around 16:00 as his blink is close to done. The two parties engage in a direct battle but blink finishes in just the right second and the zerg is forced to retreat way back to his natural. This creates an opening for a golden opportunity and Taberu seizes it, immediately swinging north to destroy Destiny's 12 o'clock. Few minutes later, Taberu starts teching to storm and grabs a hidden fourth at the bottom right.


Destiny loses his most fresh fourth after a battle gone bad

At 19:30 Destiny makes his first aggressive move and attacks through the choke leading to Taberu's natural. The leading wave of baneling bombs give the impression that the zerg will win this easily but as the infestor energy runs out and the immortals are still standing tall, Destiny is forced to once again draw back and regroup his forces.

It is just around that time that Taberu makes the first steps to his shattering late-game harassments to come. A sneaky yet devious probe finds its way to the bottom left half of the map and places hidden warp-in pylons in close proximity to what will inevitably turn into zerg expansions. Furthermore, staying true to the principle that it's hard to find something small amidst a noisy ruckus, Taberu is constantly keeping the zerg occupied, tormenting him with a storm immortal army and denying him every piece of map control.

At 24:00 one starts seeing Taberu's plan in action. During a big direct engagement, which will eventually go into protoss favour as well, Taberu warps in four zealots through his bottom left expansion and stops the mining at the 8 o'clock zerg base. As the battle draws on, things get even better for Taberu as another warp-in of zealots cancels zerg's fifth. A minute later, while Destiny is preoccupied cleaning the protoss infestation from the bottom side of the map, a swift blink attack puts an end to his original third base. Taberu is now one mining base ahead - a position every protoss on the planet dreams to be in.




Big engagements and stinging harassments - always hand in hand

At this point of the game the zerg is too poor to use his hive tech so roaches and infestors are still the only viable army mix. And while Destiny is struggling to just mine those precious minerals, the protoss is smartly avoiding direct confrontation (despite having the better army) and slowly bleeds out his opponent with small but deadly blink run-byes and more of those zealot warp-ins that have brought him much joy in the past.

The final battle (or at least the final that means a damn) ensues at 30:00 but by that time there is in practice no hope left for zerg. The engagement ends with a big army trade but a quick look at the economy tab is giving out the real picture - the protoss is mining three times more resources and has an unreachable advantage. He quickly restores the core of his army by morphing in a few archons and marches forth for the blazing victory.


"What? AGAIN?"



I have my dearest hopes that you will all enjoy this detour away from top tier fight nights and enjoy this game that is not very far down the ladder of entertainment. As per usual, if you have any thoughts, suggestions or critics we will welcome them in the comments. Till later this week!

P.S. Oh, and in before all the questions - no, I don't hate Destiny and am not obsessed with digging up replays where he gets beaten up ;)