Dromar's Blog

Alright, so shortly after my last report, I got into D+ with little trouble, and pushed upward to 2600 where I am now pretty quickly due to my recent ZvP windfall. Then I took a break for a week or so, which brings me to now.

My computer broke. When I try to startup, instead of the blue screen where you log in, I get a little window that says "system error: lsass.exe file name not found" or something like that. ...sigh. The real loss is my music, and to a lesser extent my porn. I have a backup of the music, but it's a few months old.

Public Service Announcement:
BACK UP YOUR SHIT NOW.

I'm writing this on my laptop, which has Starcraft, but it's unplayable on a laptop once you've played it on a real computer. So I was gonna play some more games before writing this, as I like to have ~30 games per report, so there's some stuff to reflect on, but not so much stuff that I don't learn from the games I played. However, since I don't know when my computer's gonna be fixed, I figured I'd get this out of the way before I forget about the most recent games, seeing as how I can't watch the replays.


1v1 analysis:

Zerg(24 games)
( 7)ZvZ: 3- 4 42.8%
( 7)ZvP: 5- 2 71.4%
(10)ZvT: 3- 7 30.0%

11-13 45.8%

This Season:
Zerg(114 games)
(29)ZvZ: 9-27 25.0%
(37)ZvP: 13-31 29.5%
(24)ZvT: 18-16 52.9%

40-74 35.0%

ZvZ: Did much better ZvZ this time around, due to me getting "back to basics" as I mentioned was my problem before. The only games I lost were against players who seemed WAY better than me. Like kimguhyun, 340 APM Zerg made me feel like I was playing against a progamer. I'm kinda sad to lose those replays actually.


ZvP: Ok, so I took some advice from earlier and tried out some 9pool speed openings, and it seems like ridiculous. I won 2 games just running my lings to his base and taking out his cannons before they finished. I wonder how many times I could have won the game like that in the past. See, it was only recently with this 9pool speed opening where I would make sure to send my lings immediately to my opponent's base, ignoring his probe scout. Now I see how big of a fundamental mistake that was. Guess that's a good example of how it's easy to miss something big. I also had a chance to play against a 2gate and a 1gate tech build when I opened 9pool speed, which were a couple concerns I had, and those went pretty well. Every time I play against 1gate tech I'm amazed at how bad it is, or rather how poorly D/D+ protosses play it.
Anyway, the 9pool speed is all nice and cool, but since I have no plans of doing any 2hatch muta or hydra breaks or ling all-ins, I'm probably gonna go back to 9pool. But at least I've got that additional experience. And it also helps confidence-wise to win a few games against protoss for once instead of the usual 9 minutes of macro into getting steamrolled by zeals and psi storms.


ZvT: Shitty record compared to usual for ZvT this time. I blame my inability to play well on Colosseum, combined with the fact that everybody loves that map for some reason. It doesn't suit my style very well, and I don't like how easily non-zergs can get a 3rd going.


Questions:

1. Do you know how to fix my computer?
2. Is Jaedong gonna take a break or is he gonna burn out?
3. Why can't Flash make it in individual leagues?

As always, comments and constructive criticism welcome.

Right now I'm at 1984, hovering just below D+. I wanna get to D+ asap so I can work my way to C-, which is my goal for the season. But I really need to work on my ZvP before I'm gonna make it to C-.
The real story this set is that I played quite a few ZvZs and got absolutely raped. On the other hand, ZvT is going pretty well for me lately. More on those in their resprective sections.

1v1 analysis:

Zerg(28 games)
(12)ZvZ: 1-11 08.3%
( 6)ZvP: 3- 3 50.0%
(10)ZvT: 7- 3 70.0%

11-17 39.2%

This Season:
Zerg(90 games)
(29)ZvZ: 6-23 20.6%
(37)ZvP: 8-29 21.6%
(24)ZvT: 15- 9 62.5%

29-61 32.2%

ZvZ: Basically, I've been getting too greedy with my builds, trying to squeeze in drones here and there, and as a result, I'm getting run over by lings quite often. I need to get back to the basic executions of my build, which involves pretty much nonstop lings until I save up larva for mutas.


ZvP: The existence and power of 2gate in this matchup is really messing me up. I really don't know what build to open anymore. I don't like going 12hatch against FE, and I hate anything but 12hatch against 2gate. I really just need to mass game against protoss, which is kinda difficult since I can't host. If you see me in op irc, and you wanna play some PvZ, yell at me and I'll play as many games as you want.


ZvT: I actually played about 1/2 mnm and 1/2 mech, which is a nice change up from the all mech trend as of late. FYI I count 2port wraith in with mech. I guess I've been doing reasonably well lately with ZvT, though I have encountered the new "Flash Build" a couple times already. My understanding is that it's a mech opening for vulture harass, goliaths/turrets to defend mutas while transitioning into mnm/tank/vessel. I lost both of those games, once due to a terrible flank causing me to lose my army for almost nothing. The other time, I think I could have won, but I stupidly kept upgrading range attack instead of carapace.


Questions:

ZvZ:
1. Do you ever scout with a drone in ZvZ? Especially on maps such as Colosseum, if we're cross positions I'm playing in the dark basically.
2. How do you respond if your opponent steals your gas? I played some games against a player on Destination, and he would drone scout every game to either steal my gas or deny my 12hatch while scouting my pool timing. This owned the shit out of me. Any ideas?

ZvP:
1. Is 5hatch before gas straight into 5hatch hydra a viable strategy, or does it get owned by DTs too badly to be useful?
2. How do I follow up the 3hatch scourge-5hatch hydra late game? More hydra? Hive tech ultra/ling? Currently I've just been making hydra nonstop, and that's not working. But I don't like the idea of getting all these hydra ups, and then switching tech to unupgraded lings or whatever.
3. If I scout an FE open, should I go 3hatch before pool? In the past I've had difficulty dealing with cannon rushes at my 3rd, or zealot/probe harass if they go nexus-gateway (seems pretty fast, but I dunno it was a while ago). If so, should I place my 3rd hatch at a 3rd base, or somewhere between my main and nat to be safer? Seems impossible to stop cannons when my drones are 12+ seconds away.


ZvT:
1. If I scout a mech opening transitioning into bionic, should I go hydra/lurk or lurker/ling? Seeing as how I've already got the hydra ups, a group or so of hydras, and +1 range attack upgrading, I've been going hydra lurk, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not.

As always, comments and constructive criticism welcome.

So, if you look below at the stats, you'll notice that ICCup appears to be populated by ~50% protoss, at least from games I've played. Unfortunately for me, ZvP is by far my worst matchup. I really need to work on this.

My winrate has improved of course as the better players moved out of D ranks. I'm bouncing around the 1200s right now, although I'd probably be going up if I didn't ask for re against anyone who beats me. But I'm trying to improve, and especially against protoss, I'm trying to find the build that works for me.

I listen to "trance" music or whatever it's called, ever since I saw ret's stream a while ago with some of that music playing. It can really pump you up while you're playing. Here's a couple songs on my list:

+ Show Spoiler +

I've decided to use a new numbering system. "ICCup report 4.1" indicates it's my 4th season, first report of the season. Anyway..

I'm exhausted. My hands hurt and my eyes hurt. I just played 20 consecutive games on ICCup, getting destroyed every which way (except by Terran, oddly) and it was exhausting. On the plus side, I did manage to take games from 2 C+ players, and a B- player (must have been offracing or something). I also got to play many more games against much better players. Amazingly, after the violent buttraping, I'm not frustrated. I didn't play especially well, but not especially bad either. The only frustrating losses were a ZvP where I successfully fended off a 2gate, but lost anyway, and a ZvZ where somehow my 1/1 muta army lost to his 0/0 muta army, when we were both on 2 gas. Anyway, as I said I'm exhausted, so I'm gonna keep this short. The stats:

One thing I wanted to mention though, is that, since Python was motw, it obviously got played a fair bit, but NOT ONCE did any of the players I played do the "send a worker to the corner of the base to check for overlord" trick. Not one player. I couldn't believe it.

1v1 analysis:

Zerg(29 games)
(13)ZvZ: 3-10 23.1%
(12)ZvP: 1-11 08.3%
( 4)ZvT: 3- 1 75.0%

7-22 24.1%

This Season:
Zerg(29 games)
(13)ZvZ: 3-10 23.1%
(12)ZvP: 1-11 08.3%
( 4)ZvT: 3- 1 75.0%

7-22 24.1%

ZvZ: In many of the games I lost, I lost because my opponent had better ling micro/timing. I need to scout opponent's ling count better, since I would seem to get attacked by twice as many lings just as spire finished. Sunk ain't shit when I'm outnumbered that much.


ZvP: I really don't know. The players I played against were so much better than me. I noticed they all tended to scout really early so as to guarantee the ability to harass my nat drone. Other than that, the "oldschool" fast +1 speedzeal push (no stargate) raped me pretty bad. Other than that I played some generic games, and was even winning one or two, but it always seems like an inevitability that eventually, if I don't lose to the initial push, I won't be looking and suddenly 2 or 3 psi storms will rip through 2 hotkeys worth of idle hydra/ling or something. That's kinda frustrating I guess. Even if I know it's coming it's tough to dodge.


ZvT: I only played 4 games against Terran out of these ~30, and 3 of them were on Destination. The predictability of mech on that map works in my favor, since I've gotten much better against it. Really, if you can drone-whore and also prevent vultures from doing any real damage, you come out pretty far ahead it seems. Of course, you must be also teching spire. If I scout mech, I've had much success just building a sunk at my nat, blocking it off with my 3rd hatch, and if I'm paranoid, building a sunk in my main too. Also a couple hydras help to deal with the vultures/wraiths right away. Seems like the key to beating modern mech is just defending well from the economic damage they try to deal. Then just out-expo/mass upgrades/mass units.


Questions:

ZvZ:
1. How do you keep an eye on your opponent's ling count? Is it common to "hide" lings somewhere out of sight of your opponent's overlord and then overwhelm him just as spire finishes?

ZvP:
1. When facing a really fast +1 speedzeal push, what should I do? It comes too fast for lurkers, and in my experience, mutas take a LOONG time to kill those speedzeals, which get spread through my main and nat, killing all my drones and winning the game. Lings aren't gonna do it either. What should I do?

ZvT:
Not enough games to have any questions here.

As always, comments and constructive criticism welcome.

Lemme just get right into it. I've been focusing largely on my ZvP, which has for once been a bit easy. See, I can't host games, as I'm still working on getting a wired connection to my computer, and as a result, rather than hosting and being able to practice the matchup of my choice on the map of my choice, I'm forced to just play whatever game I can get in before it fills up. I've recently realized how detrimental this is to my practice quality.
Anyway, that's not too big of a problem when I'm trying to focus on ZvP, since, ya know, it's not hard to find a protoss on ICCup.

Somewhat related, playing against D+ players has really solidified my game compared to when I was playing primarily D level players. Though I'm probably done for this season, as I have some things to deal with over the next week (chores, find a summer job, look into some apartments, as well as an intense craving for Final Fantasy Tactics, Resident Evil 4, and Metroid Prime 3, and also some entrepreneurial projects I'm working on). So I'm ending this season with 2379 and a 48-83 record. I'm really excited to mass game for the first week of the new season though, and get a chance to play against way better players. The best I got this season was some Korean who get to B before transferring his stats. Hoping to top that this season. It's like fishing, really.

That said, I'll just get into the analysis before I get too long-winded.


1v1 analysis:

Zerg(30 games)
( 7)ZvZ: 3- 4 42.8%
(13)ZvP: 6- 7 46.1%
(10)ZvT: 4- 6 40.0%

13-17 43.3%

This Season:
Zerg(131 games)
(32)ZvZ: 13-19 40.6%
(60)ZvP: 21-39 35.0%
(39)ZvT: 14-25 35.9%

48-83 36.6%

ZvZ: I think I just gotta get a bit faster/better/more accurate in ZvZ, I think I've got several builds down well and just need practice.


ZvP: So I've re-revamped my ZvP. My old game plan was a version of 4hatch hydra that I described in my last report. Comments (which I thank you for) suggested that 4hatch hydra is basically just inferior to it's 5hatch brother. I've switched over to it, but as I'm just getting the hang of it, it's pretty sloppy as of yet. I need to practice it more, though it has worked pretty well once. It seems like, if the build is properly executed, it forces the protoss to do everything at once, and if the protoss player slips up, you just run him over. That's what happened the one game I won; I peeked my forces into his nat, saw he had gotten DTs instead of HTs (so no psi storm) and it was over (I had ovie speed already).
Other than that, I haven't really gotten too much chance to practice my 5hatch hydra skills, because the protosses I've been playing against lately have been doing 1 base builds quite a bit lately. Weird, but I'm happy with it. I've never lost against a 1 base build ZvP, unless it was a 9/10 gate. IMO, FE is the strongest PvZ build, period, unless there's some special, non-standard map quality that would make it otherwise.
I was having a lot of trouble dealing with the 9/10 gate, but I studied how to deal with it quite a bit, and I feel much more confident when I meet it in the future, many thanks to this. So I guess, just need to practice and solidify my play here too.

Oh, another thing I wanted to mention about ZvP is an idea I got watching a proleague game. Blocking the ramp seems like a great idea for Zerg. When 12hatching, just send a drone a bit earlier and block the ramp. If the probe never shows (almost never gonna happen), just make the hatch and you lost like 16 to 24 minerals I guess. But if the probe does show up, the fact that you're blocking your ramp is gonna make that protoss think/do a couple things: first, he's probably gonna play safe and start cannons asap, second, when you have enough minerals for your 12hatch, you "accidentally" let the probe in, and he's got to scout your pool timing, and thus allow you to place your 12hatch freely. See, the only reason probes can get all faggy and block your 12hatch normally is because they've already scouted your pool timing, or they arrive just in time to see your drone go for a 12hatch, and can infer that you're 12hatching and don't have an early pool. If you just block your ramp for a bit, you don't give any of this information to your protoss opponent. He has to either play safe or risk losing to a 5 or 9 pool stupidly. Of course, as the Zerg player, you may want to mix in an occasional pool first build and block your ramp. All bark and no bite only works once.

ZvT: So, ZvT mech, what can I say. Destination is worse than Python now. For a while, I started just going 2hatch muta standard since it's safer against mech, but I honestly don't like that idea.
My latest build that I've been having success against bio terran is something I mentioned in a past report, and got the idea from F91. I recently wrote it up:

+ Show Spoiler +

So, I'm done tutoring, I'm done with my finals, and I've got no job, so it's pretty much party time + Starcraft time. I made D+ a week or so ago, and I've been struggling to stay afloat ever since. I'm getting knocked down to D, then shot up to D+ after one game, etc. Part of my problem is that ZvP was my weakest matchup, and of the 26 games I've played against D+ ranked opponents, 15 of them have been against protoss. That's 55% protoss. So my peak was 2196, and my current is 2114.

I say ZvP was my weakest matchup because I've been thinking a lot about what I should be doing against protoss players, as opposed to what I am doing, and how what I was doing before was wrong. More on that in the ZvP section. Unfortunately, while I have shown improvement in ZvP, I still get raped by 2gates, and apparently my ZvT and ZvZ have gone to the shitter since the last report. The ZvT hasn't really gotten worse, I'm just a bit rusty, and I've been running into mech every damn time.

This week there are 4 great maps for map of the week: Zodiac, Tau Cross, Destination, and Heartbreak Ridge. The 5th is Faoi, and honestly that's a pretty good map too from what I've seen. I think it's kind of too bad that all those great maps were put in the same week, because all anyone ever plays is Destination, and ZvT on Destination is approx. 100% mech. I honestly can't remember the last time I played against mnm on Destination. I should note that I consider 2port wraith to be a version of mech.

So basically, yeah, improved my ZvP, getting raped by mech ZvT, and my ZvZ finally took a turn for the worse, so I've actually got ZvZ questions for once.

1v1 analysis:

Zerg(35 games)
( 7)ZvZ: 2- 5 28.5%
(19)ZvP: 10- 9 52.6%
( 9)ZvT: 2- 7 22.2%

14-21 40.0%

This Season:
Zerg(101 games)
(25)ZvZ: 10-15 40.0%
(47)ZvP: 15-32 31.9%
(29)ZvT: 10-19 34.4%

35-66 34.6%

ZvZ: So, playing against D+ Zergs actually makes a difference in ZvZ. I go from being pretty strong ZvZ to having horrible ZvZ with one symbol. Seems like my problem is that I'm not very good at massing mutas, and not very good at deflecting muta harass. Like I'll be defending and massing mutas at my nat, and he'll come in and kill half the drones at my main and fly away. Other times, it just seems like I always have less mutas when the big muta battle occurs.


ZvP: So I've revamped my ZvP. My current game plan is as follows:
+ Show Spoiler +

I didn't really get much time to play on ICCup lately, except for 2 binge-gaming sessions. On the bright side, there's only 2 more weeks of classes this semester, one of which is finals, and I don't have any finals. So I'll be on top of that pretty soon.

Between gaming sessions, I did find time to practice a few games with my training partner, and I've improved my ZvT immensely. I have kind of a shitty internet connection (wireless), and I'm gonna have to do something about it, because the lag is bad enough that either my opponent leaves, or we have to play on extra high latency, which makes muta builds much more difficult to pull off.

Will simply running an ethernet cord to my computer for a "wired" connection solve my lag issues?

Also, after watching Chill's and Ret's FPstreams in the past few days, I decided that some appropriate background music would be helpful. I'll reserve my conclusion as to whether it helped for now.

1v1 analysis:

Zerg(27 games)
( 4)ZvZ: 2- 2 50.0%
(12)ZvP: 2-10 16.6%
(11)ZvT: 5- 6 45.4%

9-18 33.3%

This Season:
Zerg(66 games)
(18)ZvZ: 8-10 44.4%
(28)ZvP: 5-23 17.9%
(20)ZvT: 8-12 40.0%

21-45 31.8%

ZvZ: So this round I went 2-2 ZvZ, and I'm gonna blame those losses on rustiness and forgetting how to play ZvZ. For now. Well, actually I just got outmicro'd ling vs ling. I was pretty surprised when that happened, as it's usually the other way around.


ZvP: I've been getting absolutely raped in ZvP lately. No change here since last time. I'm trying to go 5hatch hydra, but they get rolled by psi storms and zeals. Fact of the matter is that I really don't know what I'm doing in ZvP still.
I got 2-gate rushed 5 times (in a row), and I honestly have no idea what to do. Even when I know it's coming, I can barely 12hatch and fend it off. If I do, there's a period where I feel I have an advantage, except that I'm starving economically afterward from making lings/sunks to fend it off. Of course, he's on one base too, but eventually he moves out to take his nat, and I can't expand because he's containing me with 8-12 zeals. Alternatives are using 12pool/9pool/overpool more often, but I feel as if I would be behind even more if I did any of those. If I 12pool, I'd have to hatch in my main, as there's no way 1hatch ling production is going to overpower 2gates worth of rallied zeals, and 12pool means there's not going to be sunk support. I dunno, maybe 12pool isn't as bad as I'm thinking. I'll have to try it I guess, because I just can't handle 12hatching against 2gate. That's really depressing, because 12pool is such a terrible build against standard FE toss.
One of my friends is 4-1 against protoss doing nothing but 5pooling. I've never had that work personally.

ZvT: I'd say I'm currently playing the best ZvT I've ever played. As I mentioned above, muta builds are difficult to pull off with my shitty connection, so I go about half and half lurker/muta opens. My lurker build has been working surprisingly well:
+ Show Spoiler +

New season, starting off not too well, but not too bad. I'm having trouble finding time to play lately, since, as a graduate student, I get lots of homework. More importantly, I can't just do a shitty job and get a C anymore like I could as an undergrad.

Anyway, I've found the time to play the occasional Broodwar binge session. So the competition is a bit harder at the beginning of the season, but I really enjoy playing against better players. One of my first games was against a Korean who is currently 47-7 B-. I think it's pretty cool that a noob like me has a chance to play against vastly superior players occasionally. But then again, it's nice not to get absolutely raped every game too. On to the analysis...

1v1 analysis:

Zerg(39 games)
(14)ZvZ: 6- 8 42.8%
(16)ZvP: 3-13 18.7%
( 9)ZvT: 3- 6 33.3%

12-27 30.7%

overall:
Zerg(39 games)
(14)ZvZ: 6- 8 42.8%
(16)ZvP: 3-13 18.7%
( 9)ZvT: 3- 6 33.3%

12-27 30.7%

ZvZ: That's right, an amazing 14 ZvZ's out of 39 games on ICCup. They were really fun, and my stats have shown for a quite a while that ZvZ is my best matchup (don't know if that's good or bad...). Well, I've gotten much better after this gauntlet of ZvZs. Two of my losses I don't really take seriously though, as I got screwed by the map. The first one, I played on Vampire, which I had never played on before, and I built my hatch blocking the choke (if you know the map you'll know what I mean). Little did I know that a hatch in the choke would be ling tight. So when my opponent's lings got to my base, I had to watch as he destroyed my hatch, as my lings couldn't defend, being trapped inside by the hatch! T'was gay. The other game was on Destination. I went for an early ling/lair build (which goes against my better judgment on that map), and when I told my lings to move to the bottom position, they just ran into a corner of my base. Wtf?

Anyway, strategy-wise, I've learned a couple things about ZvZ in these past games. First, if both players get lings at the same time, they tend to form a single-file line. There's a lot to be gained from just grabbing the front ones and running them back a bit, so that your lings will form a better arc when you meet his. That first ling battle can easily decide the game based on who gets a better arc when the lings engage.
Second thing I learned is that fast lair builds get owned by economy builds. Players who rely on getting mutas asap are basically beaten by 2 spore colonies. Placement is important though. One must go right next to the gas, while the other goes on the opposite side of your base. Also, make sure to place your buildings throughout the game with the idea in mind that you may need to defend them with spores. It's important that he can't snipe your gas or spire or drones. The counter, as the fast muta player, is to only make 1 or 2 mutas once you see the evo chamber going up, and instead expand. The two mutas can hunt ovies for a while. Also, you can start air armor really early. But expanding requires some lings to defend too, which is pretty costly with such a shitty economy. Overall though, I haven't had much success with the 9pool-lair type builds, and have been pretty much 12hatching most games. I haven't run into any 9pools yet though, so I'm interested to see if it's autolose for me, or if I can somehow pull out a win.


ZvP: I've been getting absolutely raped in ZvP lately. 2 or 3 games, I lost simply because he made a couple DTs, and walked them right into my base, and I had no overlords nearby! Noob mistake, but it's been quite a while since DTs have been a problem for me, so I got used to having my overlords watching his shit rather than my own.
Second problem is that my 3hatch muta into 5hatch hydra has been getting raped hardcore. This is in part due to the fact that I've been playing against better players than I played when I first started using the build, and these players scout and shit, and play safe against mutas. And in part it's due to my poor decision-making on what to do with my mutas. I need to keep in mind that if they get killed needlessly, that's 900/900 gone, and that's pretty much gg right there. Upon more thought, the only way mutas are gonna pay for themselves is if either
(a)he's not prepared and I kill a ton of probes, kill/chase away his corsairs, and possibly destroy his nexus or something, or
(b) I get at least a couple templar kills, maybe micro and kill a few probes, and shit on his zealots a bit, and force him to make archons to move out, by which time I need to have a hydra army.
Unfortunately, I don't think either of those are all that realistic.
Another problem with my ZvP is that I absolutely hate using lurkers in ZvP, because in the past they've NEVER been worth it. Of course, I was using them wrong. So I'm going to learn a couple more standard builds, 5hatch hydra-mutaswitch for one. I think if I learn to use lurkers the right way, I can do a lot better in ZvP.

ZvT: I'm so bad at ZvT. It's horrible. What really frustrates me is that I used to be better than I am now. I don't know what happened. Now, after the 9 mutas, I just fall apart. I used to be able to make it to defilers before I fell apart, at which point lucky defiler skirmishes could win me some games. But now, it's like ...ugh. I'm just disgusted at my lack of ability in ZvT. I've probably just been focusing too much on ZvP, ZvZ, and stopping mech gayness (which I'm a lot better at, but I still get out-macroed pretty easily).


So I guess I've just gotten a bit rusty as of late, and I need to practice more.


Questions:

ZvZ:
1. None here.

ZvP:
1. A couple ZvPs I played, my opponent used a strategy on Andromeda that totally owned me. He started with 2gate pressure against my 12hatch. I (for the first time ever, I might add) fended it off, but after which, he just blocked his ramp with the zealots he had made, expanded to the 1/2 base atop his ramp, and teched to sairs. I thought I had an advantage after defending his 2gate, but watching the replay, I was way behind, partially because I "overreacted" to his 2gate, and partially because he was able to expand safely to get a strong econ going. The thing is, had I made less lings or whatever, he could have just kept rallying his zeals to my base and run me over. So it seemed like I was forced to make a bunch of lings, then he just blocked his ramp and expoed to his 1/2 base, kind of doing a hybrid 2gate-expo-tech build. It was gay. How can I deal with this?

+ Show Spoiler +

So I'm still just practicing builds, and also spending some time in single player practicing and theory-crafting and testing timings for new builds. I'd say I'm finally learning how to play the game.

I finally made D+, which was my goal for the season. For a while I didn't think I was going to make it, since my computer broke a few weeks ago. Fortunately, I got it fixed just in time to get the last points. My goal for next season is C-, which I think I can definitely make if I have enough time to play.

1v1 analysis:

Zerg(22 games)
( 2)ZvZ: 1-1 50.0%
(11)ZvP: 5-6 45.4%
( 9)ZvT: 2-7 22.2%

8-14 36.3%

overall:
Zerg(87 games)
(17)ZvZ: 7-10 41.1%
(37)ZvP: 14-23 37.8%
(34)ZvT: 11-23 32.3%

32-56 36.3%

ZvZ: Having only played 2 ZvZ games, there hasn't really been much progress in this area. One game I played like shit and lost, because the map was suited for more economic builds and I don't know any. The second game, the player was random, and I forgot or something, and thought I was playing ZvT until my overlord scouted his creep. So I opened 12hatch, and almost had placed a 3rd hatchery when I found out I was playing ZvZ. Fortunately he sucked. One thing I've learned about ZvZ is that if both players get lings at approximately the same time, you can get a huge advantage from microing your initial lings better. Simply putting your 6 lings into an arc formation before you engage, slowly snowballs into ling dominance and opponent's dead drones.
So I've been trying to figure out some different build orders for ZvZ, and also writing down the ones I know currently, and getting timings, etc. I'm not finished, but here's what I've got so far:

+ Show Spoiler +

So I'm continuing practicing and refining my builds when I play on ICCup, and I'm noticing definite improvement in my play and results. Just the fact that at any given time, I know what I'm supposed to do next, so I rarely have periods of time in games where I'm not really doing anything.

As for my record, it has improved, though not by much, as I've usually been getting the urge to play during Korean time. Still I've escaped with a win or two during those times, after a horrible 15 game losing streak. Later, I had the chance to play against D-level players during US time, and the difference is ridiculous; players can't even build their first pylon/depot at the correct time, messing up their build before the game is even underway (though in all honesty they probably don't even have a build either). The biggest difference I noticed was scouting. Korean's and people who play at Korean time are scouting constantly, whereas people who play at US time just play blind after their initial scout is killed. On to the stats, etc:

1v1 analysis:

Zerg(31 games)
( 9)ZvZ: 2-7 22.2%
(12)ZvP: 5-7 41.6%
(10)ZvT: 5-5 50.0%

12-19 38.7%

overall:
Zerg(66 games)
(15)ZvZ: 6- 9 40.0%
(26)ZvP: 9-17 34.6%
(25)ZvT: 9-16 36.0%

24-42 36.3%

ZvZ: I still prefer fast pool builds ZvZ, and almost exclusively go 9pool currently, often opting for an extremely fast lair. A problem I had in a couple games though, was that my opponent would achieve a greater economy while defending, protect himself with spore colonies, and outproduce me, since after about 4 or 5 mutas, my economy putters out and I'm left with 1hatch and no minerals to get another, or more drones. This came as a bit of a surprise to me, as I was of the opinion that spores are generally bad in ZvZ, as they're so very expensive, and will result in you having no map control. Of course, in those games, I did have map control for a while, but I couldn't do anything with it as my economy was non-existent.

ZvP: So I've got a game plan for ZvP. What I'm currently doing is a 3hatch spire into 5hatch hydra, thanks to Chill's instructional FPVods and many recent ZvP progames featuring the build.
Though what I'm doing currently is making 9 mutas as soon as the spire finishes, similar in style to 3hatch muta ZvT. Even if they make cannons in their min line, I like the map control, mobility, and harassment potential of mutas in ZvP. They also help buy me time to mass up a large hydra army and get relevant upgrades.

ZvT: So I've improved my 3hatch muta BO to include speedlings as per a good suggestion by Tropics in ICCup report 5, and partially due to my practice partner causing my old 3hatch muta build some serious problems with a fast siege build, designed to show up at my nat and start the pressure just as I'm about to morph my mutas (though that's partially my own fault as I scouted with 9drone, saw fast gas, and I guess I forgot about it, because I didn't adapt at all, even failing to notice the lack of expo@nat).
Of course, there are many TvZ builds specialized against 3hatch muta, which is why I wanted to learn another build for ZvT to diversify my gameplay. Happily, my practice partner had a very interesting idea for an early-game ZvT strategy, which we refined through some playtesting, and so far has gone 4-0 on ICCup, though against admittedly poor opposition. Still, the idea is solid, and involves an amount of pressure and harassment, yet with a strong enough economy to smoothly transition into midgame. I'll not go into more detail on it yet though, but suffice it to say it fills the slot of an alternative ZvT to 3hatch muta, at least for now.


Questions:

ZvZ:
1. If you play ZvZ, is there a "standard" build order you use? What is it? If you like to alternate between 2 or 3, I'd like to hear those as well.

ZvP:
1. Is there a point where mass hydra becomes ineffective and switching to ultra/ling or perhaps some other combination is better? If so, when and what combination? I know it's dependent on Protoss' army composition, but assume something like mass zeal + a few archons and high templar. Mass zeal and high templar seem like an indication that it's time to move away from mass hydra, but archons and templar tear apart ultra/ling too unless I have far superior numbers and a good flank. Is hydra/ultra an option? Ultras would be the meatshield while the mass hydra do their thing. What are your thoughts?

ZvT:
1. Why aren't dropships used more often? I really have trouble dealing with a large mnm/tank force roaming the map, and 1 or 2 dropships flying elsewhere. My macro goes from bad to terrible, meanwhile I lose several drones or an expo or tech buildings like pool/ultra cavern/defiler mound/evos etc. Then when I'm trying to deal with the drop, my army on the map gets caught out of position and taken out. I've tried putting a sunk at each base once drops become a possibility, and it has helped, but a sunk can't protect the whole expansion, not to mention upgraded mnm can take out a sunk pretty quickly with minimal loss. Any suggestions?


As always, comments and constructive criticism welcome.