After playing many games on ladder, it seems that nowadays there is a decent mix of people opening Stalker first as opposed to an Adept first vs Zerg. If you are like me, you generally have 0 scouting going on when this happens, and can be surprised by double Stargate, Immortal All in, Adept pressure, etc…

Adept First (~2:40)

Adept first definitely has some advantages for the Protoss player. Especially on ladder, it is really useful to get the scouting information that the Adept provides as you can usually see if the player is going for a Bane all in or a Ling flood before it arrives.

As far as scouting goes on from the Zerg player’s point of view, at least in my opinion, it has always been a relief to see the opponent open Adept first because that means I can b-line my Overlord into their base in search of that second Pylon to see if there is a Stargate or some other tech, which allows me to react quickly and correctly. This tactic of sending the Overlord in is pretty standard and I am sure most players are aware of the free Overlord scout an Adept first allows.

Stalker First (~2:43)

Stalker first has always been tricky for me. First of all, I do not usually all in, so they are not really at risk to a Bane all in going Stalker first vs me. On top of this, it prevents my Overlord scout from making its’ way into their base for free. Because of this I always feel like I am playing blind vs players that go Stalker first, and I end up just guessing as to when to build my Roach Warren and other units.

However, after watching some games of Serral (specifically his matches vs Mana in the Valencia qualifiers) I see a new tactic I don’t usually see in how to combat this lack of scouting.

When you see that the opponent goes Stalker first, you do not sac your Overlord, but instead you can cancel Zergling Speed and immediately start Overlord Speed.

If you can time it correctly, this upgrade will finish up just after 3:30 in which case you will still need to build your 3:30 spores for that Oracle first (if they opened Stargate before Warpgate) but then you have a chance to get a full scout of the followup which has always been my weakness against Stalker first.

Obviously this does have weaknesses too. I have seen Scarlett talk on stream about how this could be weak to double adept pressure after Stalker, but nevertheless I thought this was an interesting way to combat the Stalker denying scouting.