moskonia Profile Joined January 2011 Israel 1448 Posts Last Edited: 2014-01-11 18:43:50 #1



Hello Dwellers of Team Liquid, since you cannot edit old threads I bring a new thread for



What makes my Spine Crawler rush unique? Well while the normal Spine rush consists of a single Spine Crawler built on the edge of the opponent's creep, the MSR goes straight to the face, no trickery! The rush consists of a Spine Crawler behind the mineral line, and that Spine Crawler is protected by other buildings (mainly Evolution Chambers)





The build:

Make a Spawning Pool on 9 supply.

Build a drone, then stop making workers.

Send 3 drones about when the Spawning Pool is started.

When you reach the enemy base build the 1-2 Spines and 1-2 Evolution Chambers, depends on the map (see below).

Followup with lings.

Win.

*On frost you will need to send 2 workers to scout about 40 seconds before the pool starts, so that you can start the rush on time.





Sadly the MSR is too powerful to have on all maps, so on maps it doesn't work on you will need to use other means for victory.



In the current map pool 4 maps are worthy, Frost, Heavy Rain, Habitation Station, and Daedalus Point.





Building placements:



It is very important to memorize the building placements, a small mistake will cost you the game. Screenshots were taken in games versus the AI



Heavy Rain:







Note: one worker can attack the spine, but it cannot kill it before it morphs.



Habitation Station:







Daedalus Point:









Frost:







Note: the Spine Crawler can only hit part of the mineral line, thus the lings are necessary to finish the game.





Comment versus hatch first:



If the opponent goes for Hatch first then you're in luck since a 9pool is the hard counter to a hatch first, you can spawn 6 lings and a spine or 2 if you want, or got for the regular rush and count on the slightly later lings to clean the natural when the drones transfer to it.





There are no up-to-date replays, but you can view them at the old thread that was linked at the top. Will update when there will be. This build won me many games in WoL and I see no reason why it shouldn't work in HotS as well





*Credit to Existor for the the banner Hello Dwellers of Team Liquid, since you cannot edit old threads I bring a new thread for the glorious MSR . This guide is for ZvZ only and is the equivalent of a boss cannon rush like the one commonly used on Daybreak.What makes my Spine Crawler rush unique? Well while the normal Spine rush consists of a single Spine Crawler built on the edge of the opponent's creep, the MSR goes straight to the face, no trickery! The rush consists of a Spine Crawler behind the mineral line, and that Spine Crawler is protected by other buildings (mainly Evolution Chambers)Make a Spawning Pool on 9 supply.Build a drone, then stop making workers.Send 3 drones about when the Spawning Pool is started.When you reach the enemy base build the 1-2 Spines and 1-2 Evolution Chambers, depends on the map (see below).Followup with lings.Win.Sadly the MSR is too powerful to have on all maps, so on maps it doesn't work on you will need to use other means for victory.In the current map pool 4 maps are worthy, Frost, Heavy Rain, Habitation Station, and Daedalus Point.It is very important to memorize the building placements, a small mistake will cost you the game. Screenshots were taken in games versus the AINote: one worker can attack the spine, but it cannot kill it before it morphs.Note: the Spine Crawler can only hit part of the mineral line, thus the lings are necessary to finish the game.If the opponent goes for Hatch first then you're in luck since a 9pool is the hard counter to a hatch first, you can spawn 6 lings and a spine or 2 if you want, or got for the regular rush and count on the slightly later lings to clean the natural when the drones transfer to it.There are no up-to-date replays, but you can view them at the old thread that was linked at the top. Will update when there will be. This build won me many games in WoL and I see no reason why it shouldn't work in HotS as well