Maru's MASS THOR DEFENSE - Starcraft 2: Maru vs. Dark

Maru vs. Dark in yet another insane game between two of the greatest starcraft two players. This time Maru going for a defense involving mass thors, ghosts and more.
Match: Maru vs. Dark
Tournament: GSL Code S - 2022
VODs: / @afreecatvesports432
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StarCraft 2 is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and released by Blizzard Entertainment.

[@SC2HL]

Any suggestions for a better title? This game truly displays Maru’s mastery of the game, and I highly doubt any Terran will come close to his level. Simply incredible to watch

[@Necroneer]

On the contrary thank you for another Maru highlight.

[@Darthkeyblader13]

more maru highlights!!!!!

[@zzz181085]

Yes and please post more

[@yunfanfan9452]

Maru's defense has been the best I've seen for any Terran. Just incredible. Just seems that he suddenly became a complete player a few years ago, then dominated Terran and GSL. Now his defense is just next level.

[@bakajanai.]

Keep em coming

[@jonamaximiliankao9262]

Didn’t even finish reading the title; saw Maru and clicked

[@marlyman123]

Same bro. Fav player

[@LixtianShanghai]

lol, this is me .

[@warboy4153]

Literally saw Maru and Thor..click

[@SecondsFromEternity]

Yah mon it's has Maru? I saw mass thor and clicked

[@jmobraz]

Exactly haha

[@newvagabond1375]

Gotta love this new era of Maru's playstyle, even though its mainly turtle if the game shifts into, you gotta appreciate how godly his micro and choices are

[@biglittledude496]

It's honestly a fun turtle to watch too. I love seeing zerg's squirm, they finally know the pain us Terrans feel having to be the aggressors

[@diokosa7001]

Maru literally doing the starcraft equivalent of a rope a dope

[@snowdazeTV]

What would you say is his old playstyle? Any replays? I also feel like this is how Dark plays late game ZvZ lol

[@JulianCastelle23]

@@snowdazeTV Maru is famous for his insane counter attacks and Medivac drops as well as liberal application of the Ghost nukes (sometimes to himself). Check his 2020 games and before in this channel, it is a night and day difference to this current one.

[@tigera6]

Yeah, the reason Maru came up with this style was because of his shoulder injury, so he chose to play this passive and turtling style to ease up the stress on his shoulder, that was around 2 years ago. Then he actually putting more work and develop it more into the current style.

[@r0uter000]

As the saying for Maru goes "if Maru's ahead you've already lost, if you're even with Maru you're actually behind, if Maru's behind you're even."

[@Fiaw1]

Nerf overpowered ghosts and he suddenly isn't as good

[@soulblad3X]

@@Fiaw1 yeah no shit terran would be dog shit

[@Vit-Pokorny]

@@Fiaw1 i mean you cant just nerf ghosts becuase thats what keeps terran relevant in late game against both protoss and zerg.

[@mariusevander2214]

@@Vit-Pokorny Slower energy generation , slightly higher cost , if tweaked instead of nerfed it would be good .

[@TakingThisWay]

@@mariusevander2214 you just suggested straight up nerfs though??

[@YUNIZHERE]

Man the TvZ lately are so fun to watch! Especially Marus play style is so cool!

[@hondajacka2]

Maru making impossible comebacks look routine.

[@mEtil5656]

If you are a terran fan

[@YUNIZHERE]

@@mEtil5656 I'm a Maru Fan 😆

[@arandombard1197]

So Dark won the game, then Maru said "no, actually I win" and turns it around with just a ragtag group of ghosts.

[@crazzynez]

Honestly tastosis absolutely sucks nowadays. Don't get me wrong I love what they used to be, one of the best casting duos. I love their color commentary, but recently it's like we are watching different games. The huge fight between dark and maru seemed to be swinging in Darks favor, but Maru evacuated with most of his ghosts, and at the last second the neurals ran out on the three thors and they obliterated the broodlords. Dark is the one with the ragtag army at this point. The ultras and lings that remain he splits off and allows groups of 2-3 ultras to just get sniped off instead of facing marus army united, he just let's his ultras get sniped off for free. Once those ultras died dark was dead. when Maru killed those broodlords he was so far ahead since his ghosts would have free reign.

[@reallyidrathernot.134]

@@crazzynez timestamp for that fight?

[@crazzynez]

@@reallyidrathernot.134 So there was the huge engagement at around the 13:05 mark where dark loses all the broods. Dark is up supply but army supplies are similar and marus is way stronger. Dark spends his bank and maru snipes a base and engages him at around the 15:00 minute mark and once again saves all his ghosts. Dark is in a world of trouble with his weaker army and economy in shambles, and then does the maneuver where he just sacrifices his ultras for free.

[@Fiaw1]

Ghosts are insanely overpowered for a while now. They should had been nerfed a while ago, and when blizzard does, true terran player skill will be exposed

[@vanagandrd4877]

@@Fiaw1 Sure, as long the Queen also take some nerf, or else Zerg will be untouchable both early and late game

[@Abrexfroman]

I always love games where both players find themselves having to fight for tiny advantages because they are both so poor!

[@lordlopikong6940]

Seems like that's every Maru game

[@meh5759]

i gotta say this game turned out to be one of my favourites. it really showcases how absolutely terrifying dark can be with his aggressive micro, stellar positioning and multi prong attacks. and maru is... well maru. cant beat that guy.

[@cristianperezbrunet7944]

Maru has taugh all terran players many valuable lessons: 1-Biuld as many CCs so you have unlimited mules 7u7 2- Ghost are OP, so keep those medivacs for late game to support them. 3-Use building to your advantage, make use of SC2 AI to make Zerg attack anything but you troops and those Ultras only hits buildings XD

[@kirkjiao3296]

Hellbats in the lategame are brilliant additions.

[@Thesoundofgaming_]

they got extreme value roasting the lings, and can hold more bane detonations than marine/marauder, so its extremely worth it tbh

[@joshuakim5240]

I'm honestly surprised that other Terran players don't use them more since they're a low-micro solution to mass ling/bane comps that shouldn't be difficult to incorporate like most of the other micro-insanity Terran units.

[@Necroneer]

They're so mineral efficient.

[@Gil-Galad]

@@joshuakim5240 For literally years, people have been asking why pros don't use hellbats against lings and ravens to clear creep. Finally, Maru of all players starts incorporating them in the army, and then people ask "Why didn't anyone do this before?!"

[@Whalery]

@@joshuakim5240 Mech transition wasn't a thing back then. Even with the thor's huge change, the hellbats' potential had never been unleashed. They were seen as a dumb unit in most scenarios because of their slow movement speed. Mech transition was brought out by TY to combat against Dark's another revival of Brood Lord/Infestors post-nerf in 2020. The major problem was cracklings that kept counterinf those thors/ghosts/tanks/liberators. This has to be the best discovery in the matchup. Also, hellbats suck for the most part until they have 3/3 and blue flame to one-shot broodlings/cracklings. That's why the transition to them is still so hard even in nowadays TvZ late-game.

[@NGBigfield]

Maru brought some very surprising builds lately

[@almercpaul8523]

This should be titled: Maru's Insane Marine-Hellbat Comeback vs Dark

[@RachelTension]

Damn, I think dark misclicked right at the end there and rallied his infesters right into maru

[@Athinira]

No. He was trying to get them to the ghosts - Maru pulled them back.

[@granolacash3340]

It was a tactical mistake. Dark thought he could rush and get to some of the high value units. He underestimated how many units Maru had managed to save up

[@Sir_Tomoyuki]

Thanks for the upload, this was a great game to watch! I know Maru is the best, but Dark is no slouch himself, and this match was full of swings and turnabouts!

[@brownjonny2230]

13:06 Even when he's losing, Maru somehow makes it like he's winning in the next moment. And actually wins this time around. What a champ.

[@aljeronegimpayan7905]

That was insane! I had my fingers crossed on the last minute of the game

[@zzz181085]

WTF is this rollercoaster of emotions? Maru is the GOAT

[@Necroneer]

Maru vs Dark, this is going to be a nice series~

[@mvez10]

I add a few games a year to my sc2 playlist, this made it on that list easy

[@badtiming2208]

For how strong Maru looked the entire match, it still felt like Dark had a good chance of still winning. What a match.

[@infojaviernova]

Amazing Maru, impressive :)

[@colts8146]

One thing I completely didn't understand was tasteless' confidence in thinking it was over before it was over. I'm like have you not seen Marus games the past 6 months???

[@aaronalquiza9680]

THAT TWIST ENDING

[@palebears8913]

Bruh dark totally had this until he blow his bank on 11 ultras. I think he misread how many ghost and gas bank maru had left hard.

[@TylerLovato]

Sc2 commentary is one of the best

[@fortheregm1249]

The only thing that can counter a ghost is Another ghost. Dark finally figured it out.

[@Matt-mn1nn]

Well played. Maru is an amazing Terran player

[@kal2352]

Maru with the miraculous defense, simply amazing.

[@vinagnihotri]

Wow..Just wow, what a comeback from Maru.

[@jamesonlewallen3825]

Marus comebacks are epic

[@makuntizichi7148]

maaan i love watching this while i eat. I just finished eating now and guess what? vid posted 1 minute ago ..

[@garyzhu690]

me too

[@prolezerg]

omg !!! with this game anyone cant imagine

[@babaspector]

I watched this game a few weeks ago. was on the edge of my sit with my mouth open half of this game. maru really is a god.

[@artanis5163]

herO vs Bunny was also good match. The play by herO is absolutely incredible. Deserves some highlights as well.

[@axelmolina1031]

Maru is the Serral version of Terran, undoubtedly the greatest Terran player in the world. You have other great terrans like TY, Innovation, Clem, Byun. Still Maru has a lot to accomplish

[@kevincepeda3868]

Personally, i think Serral is a bit too overrated and I am saying a bit because i don't think he is one of the best. Don't get me wrong, i think he is really good. He dominated a lot of KR players back in the day, but that was back when Zerg was too unbalanced. Investors were the most broke units in the game. Once the meta shifted and Zerg got well deserved nerfs, Serral struggled to find his real potential. Players like Maru, Dark and even Reynor on the other hand were godlike back then and still are even with the meta changes. That is in my opinion what makes a player "legendary" and one of the best

[@xsision5513]

@@kevincepeda3868 has serral lost these past few months?

[@Glass_Half_Full]

@@xsision5513 well, he lost to reynor in kob. To answer your question, YES.

[@lhywood9438]

@@kevincepeda3868 Serral is not bad, but sometime he is not trading efficiently. A lot of the time he is just winning because the amount of his army and income. Considering the performance of his early game, still one of the best Zerg tho

[@antonioau_gb89]

@@xsision5513 he didnt even qualify to DH Valencia dude

[@TEHSRNM]

Darks neurals are crazy! But Maru Oh wow GOAT!

[@dedoso]

Fantástica partida

[@paulocosta2901]

ITs interesting Dark plays Zerg like Zerg should be played and its just awesome!!

[@Hwaism]

commentator: both supplies had just plummet but one player has enough money to remax out and that player is Dark. Maru: Hold my beer.

[@vanguard6498]

Marus so awesome, I didnt doubt for a second that he would win

[@NyanGeneral]

I see Maru, I click. The dude is just so fun to watch, as he plays all terran units and improvises strategies, i avoid serral games because it is Muta/Ling/Bane every single game.

[@vanguard6498]

facts, never a boring moment with Maru

[@V3x0r]

Maru doesn't lose until the defeat screen shows up for him.

[@JSs586]

10:37 that huge load of banelings killed 1 Thor and that's it, Dark literally threw his money and larva away

[@Kems_live]

he hoped for ghosts though...

[@sg-hunter]

Mules op

[@kibateo]

Lings and ghosts were the real mvps of this game

[@naezro]

Lol mom P

[@CheshireCoffee]

Idk what's going on but I'm here all for it

[@lhfirex]

There are so many Dark vs Maru games featured on this channel, I wonder if they're becoming good friends or bitter rivals?

[@khemeher]

Maru playing Terran is actually a 4th race. He's on his own level, with his own evolving play style.

[@mrbyorself]

Stellar play, but I felt pain for those unprotected mineral lines.

[@wnms5479]

"Epic Ghosts defense" would be more correct !

[@ricky4129]

Maru will get mules nerfed if he plays this well😢

[@jaeloli3463]

Maru is carrying the hopes and dreams of all terran players. When he retires, SC2 would just be zerg v protos Fekfest.... well maybe we get buff by then cuz terran would look weak since maru is not around anymore... #playLikeMaru

[@michaelhellwig421]

Maru is super good!

[@lhywood9438]

Maru is just pure good

[@garyzhu690]

Not sure why the casters always count Maru out halfway. With every fight the bank becomes more and more even, 10 workers vs 50 is scary but army supply was larger and had plenty mules. Marine hellbat with some ghosts and medivacs are not a bad comp at all either. infestor are sniping ghosts but the infestor gets traded out too, can't be that efficient

[@ExuCaliba]

“When your ahead of maru it’s even” God damn.

[@CptCh4os]

What even is Maru, man? :D

[@deseanlothian]

Compared to maru vs reynor. Dark had some good ideas to counter maru's death grinder of thors and etc. In maru vs reynor. Maru's usage of hellbats to clean up broodlings and lings was phenomenal. So althought i seems weird fkr banes to trade out for hellbats. Without the hell bats the thor seem vastly more vulnerable. Obviously there was alot more to it and the map as well, but just a aspect that i noticed watching.

[@Kittenfunny]

Dark one of the zerg that can counter Maru massive turtle play, bannelings to keep the ghost away from emping the infestor and snipe the brood lord and ultralisk, those spell caster unit one of the key unit to break terran late game army

[@martinblake2278]

No minerals, no gas, 80 supply count vs 100 plus on the opponent's side, and just a handful of Ghosts for an army. But still won? WTF Maru!

[@javierribes3620]

Maru is a god

[@RocketLeon45]

thats wild. I thought maru was going to lose

[@Chris971.]

Why is the pro map pool so much cooler than the regular one? Is this like early access to next season's map pool?

[@dereksoup]

His so good Dark but wow how did Maru win GG

[@MsHojat]

I've always felt like Orbital Commands are overpowered.

[@maxcoma2055]

Maru, лучший теран что я видел.

[@tempkjahdbkdkwjbxk]

I can't think of another player who abuses non-meta units more then Maru. Back in 2019, Maru basically invented the mass Raven TvT meta. Then mass Thor vs broods instead of mass air. Then mass ghost in TvZ. Now hellbats lmao dudes has a crazy mind

[@georgemitev-]

This is just brilliant. Maru is a complete master of Terran. An inferior race that wins in such a fashion. For me, pure Master. Maru is the most talented and hardworking player with the worst race.

[@giggusmaximus2167]

Found the terran player

[@kozatas]

Yeah, Terran is inferior when you can't control the only spellcaster, ghost.

[@acershaw8442]

@@kozatas You prolly forgot the micro potential of almost every other non-spellcaster terran units

[@nilsonsq1]

Thor so scary since 2010

[@holdenmcgroin8699]

Maru is a Jedi

[@momom6197]

How do you deal with ghosts as a Zerg? Why, snipe them, of course!

[@cjkhis1037]

I thought Mary was dead lots of times during this series. What a chad

[@Glass_Half_Full]

I haven't played since BW, I only watch because of Maru.

[@somebody1828]

Where can i see the whole thing??

[@kaotheold8507]

Before this game I always thought that terran basicly can't win a four player map on modern era. Epic play from maru

[@lifewcj1264]

Mary is insane

[@sMASHsound]

how on earth did terran come back from that?!!! wow

[@espurr3496]

Maru died like 3 times but still won

[@toaletttbord]

Maru is the GOAT, any other players would be super dead in this game...

[@lingsc7948]

The way Maru plays just makes you really want to root for him... even as a zerg main

[@reallyidrathernot.134]

that gg sort of came out of nowhere? felt like maybe the commentators weren't 100% on it - didn't do a bad job, but still.

[@xidjazulix]

a better title would have been "look how busted ghosts are"

[@artanis5163]

Tasteless said that Dark won the game like 3 times but Artosis warns him that is never the case with Maru

[@guivolp]

This is ghostmarinecraft 2

[@yurijai9801]

How dafuq did Maru win that....crazy!

[@Supersmallpig]

Maru噶比賽韌性真係好可怕 學到了恩雖然估計是會用系鐵拳哈哈哈

[@AceVenturaWhenNatureCalls]

The casters mentioned 3 o'clock base. Then Maru takes it. And they never show it or mention it for the longest time lol. And Dark doesn't take or check it. Very odd. Finally they show it at 8:14

[@Giomenrn]

Is it even possible to beat Maru?

[@m4a17878]

Nothing can win late game zerg except ghosts

[@Dropbare]

So Dark just ints and GGs instantly. What a let-down.

[@ladhkay]

wtf!! I'm watching this game and still dont know how dark lost!! better even how'd maru win?!?1

[@TheDedictvi]

>"He's hanging on by a thread" >170 army supply later >Maru up over 30 army supply >"Dark needs to end this" Did casters bet on Dark in this match or something or what's up with this huge bias from casters against Maru? They usually trust Maru to win anything, but here they are signing him off while he is on full supply with a decent bank while almost never being close to losing.

[@begg3495]

Just one of them was counting him out

[@ajcannQn]

There were a couple big wins from Dark, and it looked like he was outmaneuvering Maru everywhere. Couple that with the higher tech production at the end (ultras and infestors versus hellbats and marines), and it feels like the momentum lies with Dark even when behind. Spellcaster supply is also very deceptive when used well, and as they were commenting in the infestor v ghost skirmishes, Dark was using the infestors very well there (tbh his Viper micro was a little sloppy at times, but he got some good parasitics and abducts). Also, with Maru's army so spread out for the entire game(defending his entire half of map) even with the supply numbers showing up, it doesn't look all that impressive, and the actual army he can fight with in any one place is much lower. On numbers alone Maru's in the lead, and in the end he was, but with the momentum, tech, and spellcasting (not even mentioning economy), it can feel like Dark is still leading the game from behind. It might be incorrect in the end, but it's a fairly even cast all things considered. An honest mistake, and still an enjoyable cast, so I wouldn't go as far as saying "huge bias." Also, could be that they just didn't want to play the "Maru winning from behind" angle for the umpteenth time, mixing it up so it doesn't get boring and focusing on the other side.

[@martinblake2278]

Anyone on that position would have counted Maru out. Pathetic minerals, no gas, his entire army wiped out, out supplied. Maru is just insanely godly with those Ghosts.

[@faustopf-.]

I-N-S-A-N-E

[@sinappanis]

I"M by no means good at this game but I sometimes question pros decisions. Obviously the game is taxing and maybe that is part of the reason but why would Dark not finish off the depot wall with biles. It's free damage and he wasn't doing anything with that chunk of army anyways. It would have supply blocked Maru and he could have gotten away with no losses because of how far the tanks were back.

[@thiaahmin7176]

Bring Back Terran God KTFlash

[@jeffthevpnuser]

I'm a simple man i see maru i clic

[@tyrellwreleck4226]

Dark is so good at winning impossible fights but he gets too impatient on winning the game. This is the difference between him in serral.

[@MrFancyGamer]

maru was about to lose then printed money w 8 mules a pop

[@Yan.H]

8:28 those flanking ghosts and their EMPs Italian chef kiss edit: wow when dark just attack moves the infestors into the final fight and lost them all. Tragic stuff.

[@playmond2461]

The ultras made dark lost