StarCraft II – Protoss Strategy: Countering Muta-Ling in PvZ

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• Overview
• Strategy

With Heart of the Swarm, one of the things that Zerg has gained is more powerful Mutalisks that are now better to micro around, making them more worth the time and resources to spawn compared to how they were in Wings of Liberty.

Overview

Perhaps one of the most annoying things that a Zerg opponent can do to a Protoss player in Heart of the Swarm is to sic mass Mutalisks on them as early as possible. The Protoss wouldn’t have enough anti-air to deal with them. Even if he does though, it’s not that simple as the Mutalisks can fly from one base to another and outmaneuver your Stalkers.

If you have Phoenixes at this point, they’re most likely too few to address the issue properly and will get blown out of the sky. Even if you have Blink to go back and forth between bases, the Protoss stand to lose a few Probes during the aerial onslaught. Then, there are also Zerglings to contend with up front, so the Protoss is basically stuck between a rock and a hard place in this matchup.

Strategy

It’s usually starts on 3 to 4 bases with Zerglings defending until the 8-10 minute mark. Zerg will then spawn 10-20 Mutalisks to harass Protoss mineral lines and snipe certain structures. This will get very annoying fast, and it’s basically punishment for not scouting out the Spire when it goes down. In fact, when the opening is Zergling-heavy, yet Zerg did get gas early, then expect Mutalisks.

Protoss should then put down at least 2 Photon Cannons and keep Stalkers around to deter the Mutalisks. If it’s obvious that Zerg is going all out with the Mutalisks, then you can put down a Templar Archives and get at least 2 Archons and 1 High Templar with Psi Storm. When they’re near the Nexus, Zerg will be discouraged from focus-firing on the Photon Cannons and you can deliver more damage overall. In the pro scene, this is how Liquid`HerO addresses that issue.

You can also go with Phoenixes with range upgrade to counter the Mutalisk harass. It also carries over to Phoenix play from the start, if Protoss goes with a Stargate opening. For those who do a lot of Phoenix play in PvZ, consisting of killing Overlords to supply-block the Zerg, as well as lifting and killing lots of Drones and Queens to hamper enemy economy and macro, this should do well against Mutalisk play early on when they start coming out, so long as Protoss can stay aggressive. Phoenix play also forces Zerg to make more Queens and Spore Crawlers, or even force Hydralisks instead of going for Mutalisks.

In the pro scene, White-Ra is known for this. For more information on how he plays PvZ, here’s an episode of the Day[9] Daily on this.

Perhaps the best way to counter Mutalisks is a good offense. When pressured constantly during the early to mid game, Zerg has to react with a stronger ground army, so Zerglings, Roaches, and perhaps Banelings will take away from the Zerg plan to get Lair tech and put down a Spire. If you can deny the Zerg third base right off the bat, then you have an opening to hit the natural if you have enough units to work with. Of course, if the Zerg went with 2-base Mutalisk, then you should hit the natural as soon as you can.

Scouting with Observers and Hallucinated Phoenixes will help you catch the Spire as it is being built, so long as you remain diligent with them. Once you see a Spire going down, do know that it means the Zerg will be mostly invested in Zerglings at that point, pooling gas for Mutalisks and perhaps upgrades. An early Lair is a dead giveaway to either Mutalisks or Hydralisks, so you better have something to address that issue with. The Observers are also helpful with seeing the Mutalisk army as it comes, as well as to see how many there are. Five of them is easy to deal with, ten of them is a bit challenging, and twenty of them is uber scary.

If you are going against Mutalisks up front, then remember that Archons alone will not kill off the Mutalisks since they can magic-box (stop over the target so they don’t clump up) over the Archons to prevent splash damage, so you definitely need Stalkers to finish them off. Having Phoenixes to support and dancing around the Mutalisks will also help quite a bit. Colossi are optional for the Protoss unit composition, but they’re good if Zerg has a lot of Zerglings around.

There is no quick fix solution to counter Mutalisks since they can be that annoying, so it’s all about getting the feel for it. The good thing with Protoss is that the tools to counter Mutalisks are there, so all that’s needed is to learn how to use them in every scenario.