PvT Double Forge Build - History and Guide

If you have been following the latest Starcraft 2 games and casts in professional major tournaments such as the recent GSLs, MLG and Dreamhack, Protoss has been doing extremely well recently. The latest build that is used very often by the top professional gamers in the PvT matchup is currently the PvT Double Forge Build. Let's have a look at the brief history of this build. LiquidTyler is one of the very first Protoss out there to have tested with this build which utilizes the double Forge superior upgrades against the Terran arsenal. This was back during the early part of 2012 if I am not mistaken. The main focus of this build is to get double Forges early in the game. With the power of chaining Chrono Boost together with early upgrades, Protoss can have a superior army in the mid and late game. Tyler's build gained some popularity within the Western community for a short period of time. However, during the initial phase this build was not refined.

Skipping to months later the first Korean that showed to the world how to property use a Double Forge Build was a lesser known Korean Protoss professional gamer, CreatorPrime. Creator first revealed this build during the GSTL against team IM (if I am not mistaken), where he was able to take down ~3 of the top Terrans in Korea including the best Terran in the world currently, IMMvP
with this build alone. Suddenly the Double Forge build surge in popularity overnight and is one of the most commonly used builds in the PvT from Battlenet online games in every server to real live tournament events.

With the latest patch where Protoss upgrades for Level 2 and 3 Weapon and Armor as well as Shield Upgrades being reduced, this gave another major Boost to the heavy Forge Upgrade Protoss builds. Previously Ghost has been the scariest and fearsome unit when Protoss opts for the heavy Gateway army builds instead of Colossus builds. The EMP range has been nerfed and reduced. This proved to heavily favoured Protoss as Protoss players around the world began to win the PvT matchup where it was previously heavily favouring the Terran favour.

If you have seen Creator's game, he was able to pull off this build exactly the same or close to perfection every game with minor timing changes. There is no doubt that this player has spent countless of hours practicing and perfecting this build alone. You should be doing the same if you wish to practice this build to near perfection.

Let's take a look at what this PvT Double Forge Build really is. In the general perspective of the strategy for this build, you should be aiming for an expansion early in the game with 3 Gateways with Warpgates Ready. This is most commonly done with the 1 Gate expansion builds where maps are generally getting larger and the removal of close spawn position. Protoss generally favour larger and longer traveling distance maps. On the other hand, Terran always opts for a closer distance.

Why is this so? The answer lies in the design of both races. Protoss generally is a less mobile race and heavily leans towards the late game powerhouse of Colossus and Storms to gain significant advantage and efficiency in army trading. Terran on the other hand is designed being a haressing race where significant advantage is gained once the Stim upgrade is done together with the Marine, Marauder, Medivac combo. The Bio ball is strongest during the early and mid phase of the game once the important upgrades are being completed. Terran can trade armies with Protoss very cost efficiently during these phases. As the game goes on, the game favours towards the Protoss slowly. This is just the general definition of the matchup.

Let's take a look at the PvT Double Forge Build being done by CreatorPrime. This build order is taken from Artosis's blog. All credit goes to him.

Double Forge Build Order
9 Pylon (Chrono Probes 2x)
12 Gate
14 Gas
17 Core
18 Zealot
22 Stalker (Chrono)
24 Pylon
Stalker (Chrono)
30 Nexus

Up to this point is the very standard 1 Gate expansion in the PvT matchup with 3 Units - Zealot, Stalker, Stalker. This is probably the best build currently.

31-34 Gate, Gate, Gas, Pylon or Gas, Gate, Gate, Pylon
38 Robotics Facility
2 Observers
50 3rd and 4th Gas
67 Forge, Forge (Chrono a lot)
75 Twilight Council
Research Blink Upgrade first (You need this to deal with Medivac Drops) then Charge (Chrono)
99 3 More Gateways + Robotics Bay
110 Colossus + Range+ 3rd Base
3rd Finish - 4 More Gateways, 3-3 Upgrade, Templar Archieve

You can make slightly changes to the build when facing against different Terran strategies. In general, the outline for this build is:

• 1 Gate Expansion
• 3 Gate, Robo, 2nd gas
• 2 Forge
• Twilight Council- Blink then Charge
• 3 More Gateways + Robotics Bay
• 3rd Base- 4 Gateways

Keep Chrono Boosting your Upgrades all the time. Once you understand the general outline of this build, you should be practicing it many many times. You should change your build if you sense your opponent is doing some sort of all in or 1-1-1 builds.

This is one of the best builds in the current PvT matchup metagame.

Replays
http://www.2shared.com/file/0rBisJB0/zenexyong.html
VileYong is currently in team Vile. Yong has been doing this build a lot in his PvT games. Yong was previously the Rank 1 Grandmasters player in the North American Server with impressive win rates of ~80%

Resources
Artosis Blog