Zerg Build Order: 12 Pool Double Extractor Trick

[dejai]

Found at http://bwright.uberwolf.com/2010/06/...tractor-trick/

This is a build order that has been getting a lot of use in the professional scene by Sen and TLO(The Little One now known as liquidTLO) and it has a lot of really neat advantages that brings you safely into the mid game whilst not being as detrimental to your economy as you would expect a 12 pool to be. The reason is you are not wasting any larvae in this build. You can see this opener in action in Day9s interview with The Little One here: http://blip.tv/file/3732380 and I highly suggest that video as it also looks into some really interesting issues that zerg players should take into account when fighting mech terran with Ultralisks. Anyway into the build order:

1. Pump Drones till 10/10

2. Get 2 Extractors and pump two more drones. Note timing on this so the extractors go up and the drones are created as soon as the go up. Then cancel both extractors and set the drones back to work on the minerals.

3.Now you build an overlord as soon as possible.

4. At 12/18 Get your Spawning Pool

5. Pump drones till 16/18 then produce a queen an overload.

6. This will allow you to expand at around 18-19/26

And that is how you start off. From here you can change your build up. I would suggest getting an extractor at 20/26 then get another queen asap and transfer one with drones when the other one finishes. Using it to create a creep tumor and SPREAD THE CREEP! From here you really can do what you wish. This build is a really nice way to get into mid game and you will be able to have a solid economy. I really suggest watching the interview I linked above.

[Hammy]

That's interesting. I never thought you could get an advantage by going for a double extractor trick so I never looked into it.

He doesn't really say how it might be advantageous though. It's just a "feeling" he gets.

Would you care to elaborate on when this build might be useful?

Nothing makes me want to play SC2 more than talking about builds and strats

[silencbank]

Well since the argument has not stopped at the 10 ovie/9ovie and has spread to the double extractor trick I decided to follow Hammy's steps and test it out. As far as if there is an "advantage" to doing the double extractor trick i compared it to the 10 ovie(which Hammy has already show is the exact same as 9 ovie and 10 ovie single extractor trick)and found out the double extractor trick is...the exact same as well. I tried it more than once and tried both of them just to make sure that I was not screwing up anything at all. I will say that the double extractor trick makes you a bit more active than the others at the start, if you screw up and forget to make the 12/10 drone you have just made an extractor for nothing. Also something to note, when you make your ovie after you cancel the extractors, you will have very near 200 minerals as soon as the ovie finishes.

I am not sure if there is any real difference between this and a normal 12 pool, except that I had to focus alot more than with the other ways. In that regard it is a very cool way to calm yourself down and just focus on the game immediately. Also note that amongst all the races I suck more at zerg than the others so my timings could be off. But, they aren't so you do not need to worry. The Starcraft Buddha has spoken, now go eat some chicken.

[dejai]

In response to the comments about the viability or at least the advantage this build will give you as a zerg player all I can really say is that from my experience with it I have found it to be a really safe way to enter the mid game while still maintaining a strong economy. I find that 14 pool on steps of war into 15 hatch may not be the best idea especially in TvZ with proxy reaper rushes or in PvZ with a 4 gate proxy. The theory behind the build is that unlike the typical 12 pool you don't waste as much time as you have 2 drones mining earlier and so you get the minerals for the pool very slightly earlier. It also makes better use of the larvae as the 3 you have 2 get turned into drones 1 into an overlord and then by the time it pops you can produce 3 more drones. Then the spawning pool pops and you have a quick queen over most other builds then you end up with the benefits of a larvae inject quite early on in the game. I still need to try it a couple more times. I am sure other builds are better for economy like 14 pool 15 hatch or something along those lines but this is a solid safe option for zerg imo. Especially if terran is hiding tech you can get quick speedlings on creep to stop you getting steam rolled.

[Hammy]

Thanks for the tests silencbank. When comparing the builds, what do you mean by "more active"? More minerals at the x minute mark? Spawning pool a bit earlier? Does this in fact help you gain some larve time? (you'll need to look at population over time for that) etc...

@Dejai: Yeah I get the theory, but in application it takes a bit of testing since there are other factors like the 14 minerals wasted. Are you saying that this only grants an advantage against early aggression? In that case, if you can handle them just fine with a 14 pool (by scouting for proxies, etc...), why go for a less economic build?
Does a 12 pool help you apply pressure early on? I don't really see an timing window there but maybe I haven't been looking... : )

[dejai]

It is really just a safe way to macro if you feel threatened by an early attack it is not as great as the 14 pool 15 hatch for economy. If you expect early harassment / aggression it is a nice way to transition and come out ahead in the macro game if they go for early aggression. Though 14 pool 15 hatch is a great econ build. The double extractor trick is meant to get you a small mineral advantage with perfect micro. That is why you see it more in the pro scene. Again I have not fully tested it but I must be alright if TLO and Sen are using it.

[GRUNT]

I haven't tested this out myself, but I'm personally quite fond of just doing a single extractor trick. Even if I reach 14 supply at roughly the same time as if I had not done an extractor trick, what I find is that since you remove the 3-larvae-limit from your hatchery while the Overlord is being built, you get your next larvae a bit faster than you would have if you waited for the Overlord to pop, then built 3 Drones at once .

[silencbank]

What I mean by "more active" is just that besides the normal starting apm spam to keep limber you just are doing MORE with your mouse clicks and paying more attention to things. The timing is such that if you do not cancel the extractors very quickly after you have started building your 12 drone you could be stuck with that extractor since it finished. It was probably just because of the timing of it, but trying to do the 13 pool after the double extractor means that as soon as the overlord finished I had to build my 13th drone and quickly after that pull a drone to make the pool. In other words if you were not paying full attention it could screw up and not make the drone, or make the pool later than you wanted. But, this all could just be that I flat suck at macro and micro as zerg and only recently have begun trying to suck less. Basically it is more "active" because there are more ways to screw it up since you are doing more things.

Since I do not have replays to actually check I have no way of knowing but, doing the double extractor trick felt as though the larva were spawning faster than just doing a 10 ovie. Now I know that in all actuality larva spawn the same time no matter what, but this is my theory. I can not find anywhere where it says just how fast a new larva will spawn, but if I remember it is between 12 and 14 seconds of game time. What I think happens is that the normal 10 ovie creates a cycle which starts at the beginning of the 12-14 second time period. Meaning that everytime a larva is used there could be anywhere from 10-14 seconds left. But what happened to seem with the double extractor trick was that it seemed to create a cycle on the back half of the 12-14 second window. Meaning as soon as you used a larva there might just be 5 seconds left until a new larva pops which means the next time you could have the minerals to use it, it will be another 5 seconds until the next larva pops again. I am not sure if this can increasingly give you an advantage or if it is just the 7 second advantage each time you use the larva. Again I do not have the numbers since I can not look at the replays and actually SEE if this is correct, but this is just what it felt like in each circumstance. When beta is back up ill try to give this another go and see if the numbers match my theory, or if it does not matter at all. The Starcraft Buddha has spoken, and will now go to sleep.

[dejai]

QXC wrote a custom map to try build orders. If you drag it on top of the SC2 launcher (the official one) it will open it up. The same works for replays.

[silencbank]

thats the thing i have been using, but the replays that are created everytime I use it crash SC2. So all I can do is watch the larva while doing the build orders while trying to not screw it up. So I will wait for phase 2 so I can screw things up less and just watch it after.