The TvP Mindset

Many people, spectators and players alike, consider TvP as arguably the most unforgiving matchup of all. A small mistake such as moving your army in slightly the wrong direction could spell the end of the game as everything gets obliterated in Psionic Storm and lasers from the mighty Colossi.

Protoss players these days have diverse builds and strategies that you encounter everyday on ladder. For example, some love to do the tried and true 1 Gate, Cybernetics Core, Expand build. It’s safe, and allows you to expand early. Others proxy a Stargate or a Robotics Bay once in a while, hoping to catch you off guard, and decimating your army in your own natural expansion. Those who opted for Forge Expand or similar have chosen other builds, as the buff on our beloved Reapers makes it dangerous to even think to expand before Gateway.

From timing attacks, to the 2 base Colossi timing, to the Immortal Sentry All-in, to Oracle harass, it seems like Protoss have a wide range of strategies they can throw at us and kill us if we are not careful. I would argue that the most important thing we can do is to stick to our basics (that is, your mechanics) all the while innovating and thinking up new strategies that they can't have thought of before. The new Reapers, Widow Mines, and Hellbats should be used to their full potential. In this article, I shall touch upon ideas you should always have in mind while playing vs. a Protoss.

How can we deal with this matchup you say? Well, read on!

 

Deadly: Zealot, Colossi, Archon, High Templar

Protoss Compositions

Before we start from a Terran perspective, let’s see this matchup from a Protoss' eyes. Protoss have 2 major compositions from my experience playing (EU Ladder, Masters) and watching pro games. The 1st is the basic Gateway army (Stalkers, Zealots, and Sentries) supported by Colossi and then High Templars later on in the game. Nothing too complicated. This is the standard composition.

The 2nd, and in my opinion the harder of the 2, is the Zealot Archon. This composition is deadly as it decimates MMM especially if underestimated. Quick High Templars nullify the mass Marine style Terrans usually go after 1 Barracks Expand. Therefore, watch out for this. Getting a fast Ghost Academy is essential for you to not die. You should also aim to produce more Marauders than usual to soak up the Storm DPS.

Heart of the Swarm has changed the Protoss compositions quite a bit. Now we normally see a Mothership Core hovering above their army as it has useful abilities such as Time Warp and Photon Overcharge which has made Protoss better in both aggression and defense. Another ‘new’ composition is the Phoenix, Colossi and Gateway composition, where they open Phoenix and harass while building Colossi back at home. A Sky Toss composition late game is also getting more popular (Carriers, Void Rays, and Tempests etc.).

 

Game plan

What are you going to do in order to defeat your opponent? A proxy? 1 base all-in? A timing attack? A quick 3rd base and kill him with superior upgrades and army supply? These are the things you should think constantly. Having a game plan allows focusing solely on a target and thus helping you to control the pace of the game.

What I like to do is going for the +1 2 Medivac timing. As some of you may know, this build is rather old dating back to early - mid 2012. However, it is a safe build and is in no way an All-in. You can drop a 3rd base while attacking and keeping up your upgrades with the Protoss. Of course, this is just an example. A good Game Plan may be to just aim to do something at a certain time. You may want to harass / attack the front base of the Protoss at the 10:00 minute mark for example. This gives you good scouting information and gives you map control as you apply pressure.

Please note though, that during the course of the game it is possible and sometimes even likely, that your game plan can change. This is because we have to be reactive. For example, if you scout a really fast Colossi transition, you should consider throwing down a 2nd naked Starport to pump out Vikings.

 

Aggressive vs. Defensive

“Medivacs good unit”. I fully agree with this statement. To keep Protoss on their toes we should try to find potential openings for drops. Drops become much more essential if you can identify that the Protoss is going for a timing. Drops can be used to delay this timing all the while macroing behind it. Dropping 2 places at a time is much better than dropping 1 location. However, if you spot an important Protoss building on the edge of their base, do not be afraid to load 2 Medivacs to try and snipe off.

Being aggressive gives you map control, something Day[9] calls a 3rd type of resource (the 1st and 2nd being minerals and gas) because of how important it is that some players seem to disregard.

Having said all that, there is a point where harassing with Medivacs no longer gives you advantages. This is where the Protoss have all parts of their bases covered with cannons and / or High Templars. At this point you should stop your harass, group up, wait for the inevitable engagement and think of transitioning. For increased map awareness, you should place a marine in key locations you think the Protoss will move his army to.

 

Drop it like it's hot

Build Orders and Openings (i.e. early game)

What build should you go for? What strategy should you choose? This all (mostly) depends on the map and, to a lesser extent, spawn locations. The current ladder map pool consists of a lot of ‘macro’ maps such as Neo Planet S LE, Derelict Watcher TE, and Akilon Wastes.

For most of these maps, you should either Reaper Expand or 1 Barracks Expand. The first opening allows you to scout your opponent while giving you the flexibility to drop down a reactor on your barracks after your 1st / 2nd Reaper or just build a Command Center. However, this does set you back a bit compared to the second build, so choose wisely. Note that scouting is very important at this point, which is why I always scout with the SCV building my first supply depot. This way I can see whether he is going proxy by looking for his pylons.

 

Transitions

This is the part, in my opinion, that is really tricky. Identifying a Protoss transitioning is the most difficult part. Most standard TvP matches have the Protoss go Colossi before High Templar. Scouting the Templar Archives can be problematic, especially considering the fact that your opponent will most likely in 3 bases at this time. A good, and somewhat unused, method to scout this is by dropping. You drop not only to take out probes, but also to scout.

Transitioning to Raven / Vikings / BC is also dangerous as it gives the Protoss a window of timing where they can attack where your sky fleet will not be at optimal upgrades. Only transition to Sky Terran if, and only if, you have enough gas to fully support the transition. There have been times where I get stuck in this awkward BC, Raven, Viking and bio composition as I wrongly assumed that I had enough bases to support the transition.

A key idea to remember is that Protoss can rebuild their (Gateway) army much faster than we can rebuild our basic army (Marine / Marauder / Medivac). So be very careful if you want to consider sacrificing a chunk of your army to kill one of their bases.

 

The ideal composition: Raven, BC, Viking, MMM.

Army Control

Last but not least, I would like to discuss an aspect of the matchup that can determine your victory or defeat in the span of a few seconds.
First of all, it is important to have your army in at least 2 hotkeys, MMM in 1, and Vikings in your other hotkey. When you start producing Ghosts, it is a good idea to have it on a separate hotkey from your army. Remember that Ghosts are your most precious units, so always have them fall back and/or cloak after you EMP’d the Protoss army.

Positioning your army is also of paramount importance. Remember to try and snipe observers off before cloaking your Ghosts and trying to EMP High templars. Position your Vikings in a way that it can hit their Colossi without getting hit by stalkers, this can get complicated at times. Also, spread your army and kite as if your life depended on it! Kiting back is the only real advantage you have vs. Protoss, especially if they go Zealot Archon.

The most important thing is that you should determine where to engage and fight. A choke point may be a good place to engage provided they don't have Psionic Storm. If they do, try spreading your army and wait until AFTER they storm to attack again.

The only way to get better at this is to practice. You don't even have to ladder to improve your army control though. You can create custom games where you can instantly create 200/200 armies of  Terran and Protoss and practice this way either by yourself or preferably with a practice partner.

 

Conclusion

This matchup can be daunting at first. There is so much to think about and if you forget a single thing you may fall flat and die. So my suggestion is to take it step by step and just focus on doing a single thing per match.

Always have a game plan, and if you are ever unsure whether to change your plan mid-game or not, it’s almost always better to stick with the plan. This is because by sticking with the plan you know what you should do. If you change, your new goal might not be clear and thus whatever you had in mind might not even work out.

I hope you get something useful out of this. Finally, this is all based on my experience (I am a Masters player on EU), my friends’ experiences, and also from the pro streams that I very regularly watch. If you have any suggestions/corrections based on this article please comment below or tweet at me @dbrisingr.

GL, HF!