Game 1: Dark vs Myungsik @ Dusk Towers

This game, Dark opens with a very standard 3 base opening (not 3 hatch before pool) and this style of play (whether this opening or 3 hatch opening) seems to be his go to standard play when facing against a standard single Stargate opening from Protoss (Oracle or Phoenix):

17 Hatchery

18 Gas

17 Pool

19 Hatchery

19 Overlord

He follows this up with more and more drones as well as 3 queens (1 per base) and 2 lings to scout and deny any close proxies. If you overlord scout that the opponent is going for 2-Gate adept pressure then these lings can be used for much more than that.

If your opponent opens with the 2-Gate adept pressure (Figure 1) then you can hide your lings from the Protoss player’s vision and use them for a full base scout when they move across the map (~3:00). This is very useful for seeing the follow up after the pressure (usually Stargate for Oracle harass).

Fig 1) An example of the 2 gate adept opening

What Dark does next is where this build starts to diverge from what we have known to do in ZvP up to this point. After the initial @100 Gas that Dark uses to start:

Zergling Speed

Instead of taking off 2 or 3 workers like normal, he only removes 1 worker (0 workers if 3 hatch before pool), and continues to mine gas with 2 workers (3 if 3 hatch). With the second @100 Gas mined, he starts:

Overlord Speed (Pneumatized Carapace)

Which will be vital throughout the rest of the game. He then continues to only mine gas with those 2 workers. Also, at this point in the game you should be around 30 workers and still producing only workers (Figure 2).

Figure 2) Overlord Speed 3/4 finished, 2 workers on gas, ~30 drones

When the Overlord Speed upgrade is complete, you as the zerg player have complete control over what you can scout. At this point in the game, Protoss usually has no more than 1 Stalker, if any at all, and cannot deny your Overlord scouting. On this map specifically, you can do a two-pronged scout of the Protoss base from your first two Overlords to ensure you do not miss anything.

At this point in the game, with the Overlord scouting, Dark sees that Myungsik is in fact going for a very standard style (Stargate Phoenix, TwiCo + Robo followup). Another reward about this Overlord Speed is that upon scouting the Pheonix opening, Dark is able to fly his remaining Overlords to safety without any difficulty.

The next turning point in this game is when you hit the 44 drone mark (16 drones + 2 on gas, 16 drones, 10 drones, between the three bases) which happens to be around the 4:10 mark

Roach Warren + 3 additional gas geysers + 3 drones on the original gas + ~4 Overlords

After hitting precisely 50 drones Dark completely cuts his drone production and goes for a timing attack on the third base of the Protoss. Dark starts to build an:

Evolution Chamber

10 Roaches

Mass Speedlings

Dark now utilizes the Overlord speed and commits to a 3-pronged attack on every base of the Protoss. Morph in the 8–10 Roaches into Ravagers outside of the Protoss’s third base, Dark is also loading 2 Overlord drops to attack the main and natural mineral line of Myungsik (Figure 3).

Figure 3) 3-Pronged attack on all bases of Myungsik.

At most levels in Starcraft this attack will outright win you the game, but in the case of Dark he doesn’t quite kill Myungsik with this attack. While attacking Dark is following up immediately with Lair tech and drones to saturate the third base completely. During the attack you will want to focus on the mineral lines with the Zergling drops and then use the Corosive Biles to zone the Protoss army and try to snipe the 3rd base (and probes).

What you should be cautious of when executing this strategy: