3 Gate expand is probably the most commonly used Protoss openings in the currently SC2 Protoss vs Zerg matchup. A Zealot followed by 6-7 Sentries from 3 Warpgates into expansion used to work perfectly in this matchup. However, with the rise of the Losira's Roach with Zerglings push around the 7:30 mark made famous by IMLosira as a perfect counter to the 3 Warpgate expand, Protoss players are currently searching for new openings.
The Losira Roach/Ling push is not impossible to stop with the standard 3 Warpgate expand. However it requires multiple well placed Force Fields to survive the onslaught at the back of a nice SIM city wall at your natural expansion. You will need a well placed Cannon as well to prevent being sniped by the Roaches. In the normal 3 Gate expand, Protoss players will normally place the Pylon below the ramp, followed by a Nexus and Forge for a nice wall in and probably an additional Gateway.
Every Zerg players will be very familiar playing against the 3 Warpgate expand after facing it for such a long time. Zerg players will often poke the front of your base to determine your army composition which will easily reflects your build. The traditional 3 warpgate expand is still a very common SC2 strategy, however we are seeing more and more Stargate and Dark Templar openings by Protoss players.
Lets take a look into the1 Gate expansion opening for PvZ. I have seen this build being used a lot by the Chinese players (China Server) such as XiaoT and LoveCD, two top Chinese Protoss players. Both of these players took down EGIdra and mtw_Dimaga during the recent SC2 Gigabyte Starwars tournament. This is a tournament hosted in China with invited players from all around the world such as Idra, Whitera, oGsMC, MarineKingPrime.we and others.
This is the build order for the 1 Gate Expansion Opening
9 Pylon
13 Gateway
15 Gas
16 Pylon
18 Cybernatics Core
100% Core - WarpGate Research and a Stalker
(I have seen more and more players skipping the initial Zealot here. A Stalker will normally be out on time to hold the choke as well. The Stalker can be used to chase down the scouting Zerglings)
24 Pylon below ramp
26 Nexus, Gateway, Gateway to complete the wall below your ramp.
(At this point you should be having 2 Stalkers out with a Sentry)
When to use this build?
The 1 Gate expansion is perfectly viable on large maps such as Shakuras Plateau, Tel'darim Altar, far position and close by air position on maps such as Metalopolis and Shattered Temple. Just be careful if the Zerg is spawning at a near location.
What is so special about this build?
You start your expansion around the 5 minute mark which is earlier than the 3 Gate expansion build. You can then pressure the Zerg with your 3 Gateway armies consisting mainly Zealots and Stalkers while saturating your expansion. The traditional 3 Gate expand invests too much gas in the early Sentries. The 3 Gate expand was previously created to pressure Zerg players from Droning too hard. However, with the current shift in SC2 metagame, Zerg players are often times going aggressive early game against Protoss.
What is weak about this build?
You will be having a very low Sentry count with low Mana during the early to mid game phase. A mass Zergling early game can work very very well against this. Just make sure to Sim city your expansion property.
What to transition into?
You can go for any standard PvZ builds such as Robo, Mass Blink Stalkers, Mass gateways etc.
Replays?
Try searching for mTwDimaga (Z) vs WELovecdPrime (P) Game 3 in the SC2 Gigabyte Starwars tournament.
Conclusion
I have been trying out this 1 Gate expansion build in my online game ladder matches with good success and growing to love this build. I do recommend you guys to try out this build and increase your openings instead of sticking to just 1 build.
Cheers.
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