This was possibly the most useful video on MechyB I've seen - it shows how to build a sensible board. I have a 2:1 win/loss rate but even for the losses I was able to understand where it went wrong. Other similar videos for other boards would be great 👍👍
Played into a mirror because we had both watched your video. Was an absolutely hilarious match, and came down to who had the first leveled sand worm... I had a level 9 capped sand worm at the end which I didn't even know you couldn't level up past that, and multiple times it was just both our highest level worms alive when time ran out. The deciding factor was that I broke first and bought two melters which did fuck all at level 1 but got lvl2 fast (and then in the final round 3 overlords with wasp upgrade surprise)... actually the most fun match I've had in the game to date.
So I've just run your comp 6 times at 1,700 MMR, hitting the round-upgrade targets you describe, and have a 100% loss rate with it so far, allowing me to graduate back to 1,600 MMR. Each game I've had so far tonight has featured an enemy that: Turn 1, buy no chaff - Markmen, Arclights, or (starting units permitted) Sledges instead. This lack of chaff poses a problem for the scaling we want out of Elite later on. Turn 2, puts 1 Crawler on a flank, who distracts both the behind-the-tower chaff and the Storm for that flank, giving them either a very free tower kill or at least kills the Arcs and Storm on that side. Turn 3, drops 2 Phoenixes that kill essentially everything that's on the board by this point. Whether I continue to force your comp or pivot to address the Phoenixes, guaranteed death by Turn 6 if I put Worms on turn 5 as suggested. So, I've come to the conclusion that there must be some considerations unexplained in the scope of this video for positioning, adjustments, and other on-the-fly decisions that would compensate for enemies who don't just feed into your comp like shown, that you'd have to have made in order to successfully pull this off for so many consecutive games in a tournament. Would you care to discuss some of those? How would you adjust your timing and your positioning against something like Phoenix/Sledge? Since it was effective enough to carry a whole tourney, I suspect you've had to have played against aggro sometimes during said tourney. How do you compensate for those enemies? Are there additional considerations you make when your Arclights have less room to exploit their range?
Sorry to hear that! First off, this strategy is NOT meant to be played against aggro. Worm/arc exploits the most common setups people will use in standard/long-range games. Against aggro, I will simply respond as needed and play a different setup. I will place storms between towers if I start with them and my opponent has steelballs or spiders in their opener, as those are more commonly played on aggro. Enemies that do not buy chaff will be very vulnerable to single target DPS such as marksmen, phoenix, stormcallers and scorpion. If opponents spam fangs, stormcallers will be highly valuable. If opponents make unusual moves and/or purchases, you will have to respond in kind. Unusual moves have the benefit of surprise, but will have strong counters available (which is why they will be unusual). Against early air units, you can buy a couple marksmen or phoenixes. Later, mustangs are great into heavy air boards and the same goes for fortress AA against phoenix and/or wasp. Hope this helps somewhat!
@RoosterTH-cam Okay, so that basically answers my main consideration that I found after playing (and losing) with it more over the evening. It seems that if your opponent opens aggro, you just gotta straight up bail on the strategy, which matches my own findings for my play session. Likewise, if they do a non-chaff opening, just bail on the strategy and respond with a typical one for non-chaff starts. _Essentially,_ if your opponent does anything _other_ than feed you delicious chaff on Round 1, just bail on the strategy. When working in early Marksmen or Phoenixes to deal with early air pressure, I find that means I have to compromise on the build timing somewhere. In your estimation, what part of the timing has the most room to be delayed or moved? Obviously it changes based on the board state, but if you had to move one of them to make room for the AA expenditure early on, would you be delaying Arc Range, delaying the Worm drop, or some other change? I think this is just something that I need to get out of this MMR bracket to actually participate in. At 1,700, it's been genuinely ages since I've played a standard vs. standard game. My last 42 games have been against an aggro opponent according to my spreadsheet, so I guess the strategy just kinda breaks down at an MMR where the playerbase metagame is to just never play standard. Edit: I've since had my first standard game in genuinely weeks and I forced this strat with an Arclight, no Storms start. Outside of delaying getting additional Arclights until like round 6 in order to get AA against a turn-2 double-Phoenix drop, it worked pretty flawlessly. So yeah, I can see why this works well in Standard specifically.
I see the problem here mainly in the mmr-bracket (except for being pushed ofc). Roosters 2.4k opponents will usually make very similar moves. The „Standard“ Moves, that are widely considered „good“. If the ppl in 1.7k played only the „normal“ „good“ moves, they would probably be higher in mmr. So against their chaos, you need way more flexibility, i guess.
Played a 2v2 recently where one guy just spammed worms, mostly on the flanks. His opponent countered with four tech fangs melters and obliterated him. Having a balance is always important.
Air really does not matter vs this. The opponent cannot ignore the ground, or they will simply lose their towers. With worms as frontline, you can easily buy marksmen, mustang, AA wasp or whatever other anti-air you would like. They will remain safe behind all of your frontline. This is only if the enemy commits to air though, no need to overreact if there is no threat on the board and you are at no risk of dying.
Its not a super popular tech, but burst mode phantom rays do well vs worms. I think someone mathed out that a lvl 1 phantom ray squad does 56k per volley with burst mode. I havent checked that math, but they certainly do a lot.
Your videos are like SO helpful! Whenever i play an actual build (except for the boatpush mb), i play something i learned thanks to your detailed videos. They made me a way better player, it even feels a bit selfless, that you share all the tricks so freely. Dont you sometimes feel like keeping things for yourself? 😅
Appreciate it! I consider myself a streamer and content creator first, so I don't have a wish to keep strats to myself haha. Getting people to understand and enjoy the game is far more important to me.
@RoosterTH-cam You are a saint. I just got this game last week and every day I'm climbing ~100 MMR (across all 3 game modes) mainly because of your videos with no signs of slowing down yet. It feels like my skill level is growing faster than the difficulty increase of my competition.
Good video, I'd be interested in seeing a game where your opponent goes acid scorpions against this. I agree that acid scorps are the best counter to worms with armour.
Acid Double Shot Scorps is my go to against sand worms. It isn't a cheap answer, as it's a 300 cost unit you have to double tech, AND the lack of range makes them weak in other match ups. So I only use them if my opponent goes hard into Scorps.
Hi Rooster, thx for tour content. About this video : - What do you think about Phoenix with power shot to counter the worm. Especially with only arclight for covering them, it could be ok ? Dunno if there is enough DPS. - 14:24 : U've trained an exisiting worm while buying a new one. I guess, that you've valued the placement enough that you've willed to sacrifice some xp. Take care !
Much love! I really like charged shot phoenixes, and they would probably have the damage to contest the worms. However, they really lack range, which will cause problems in long-range fights if the opponent picks up marksmen or mustangs. As for the worm level, I wanted it to be able to contest the existing fortress on that side ^^
if opponent used fang shield it would be harder as it counters both of these. you would of course fire the board which is why i would imagine you like having storms at the start but lose on tempo
really depends as you had to invest a lot of money into the spec as elite and range have priority. If your enemies answer is wasp spam, it could work but if it's something like wraiths or overloards, I don't think the arclights culd deal with them on their own.
I don't like AA arc all that much, as they can get overwhelmed by all the different tasks they perform. If the enemy commits to air, you can simply buy some marksmen or mustang for example. They will stay safe behind all the worms causing chaos and kill whatever air units the enemy may have.
I love how everyone uses the term 'cheeky missile'. I know I do! If opponent went heavy air how would you have countered, or would you have stuck with this comp. Like, if he didn't take the 3 marks and took 3 wasps.
Air is not that scary for this comp, as you will be dominating ground with the worms. Because of that you can quite easily buy things like marksmen if you really need them and they will stay safe for the entire round. I am pretty happy to duel wasps with the techs I have, but if an opponent were to commit really hard early on I will simply buy mustangs or AA forts, depending on what I can afford.
I would go with hackers + improved control and high dps like scorpions maybe also some more chaffclearing. Wouldnt look to great if one worm turns around the otherway.
Because this is a small game, it is interesting and some times concerning how much these videos (love the videos btw) change the in game meta. When ones like this drop from you, rat or one of the other big streamers, I see the strategies replicated in game withing a few hours or days. Its a strange dynamic where thr content creators have control of the meta and then the counter meta get created from trying to overthrow these really strong strategies.
I immediately opened the game and copied your tech's. Never knew how to use Worms. I tried this strategy, and got three wins in a row, going from 1250 to the low 1300's. Honestly, I could never play standard, only aggro. Biggest takeaway from this video is how to place chaff for standard. That 5+2 setup is an amazing framework. Should I take Loose formation crawlers in the mirror match? Does that help against max ranged Arclights? Great video. Gratz on the win.
Thanks! I currently run replicate, impact drill, loose formation and subterranean blitz on crawlers. Loose is still very good against any unit with 7 or less splash (like arclights, fortress, typhoon). If you want to run acid, you can take of subterrannean if you like (I just like subterranean as a counter to mustangs).
I will only pre-emptively buy anti-air if I am: A) at risk of dying to lack of AA in 1 turn B) Air units are offered in a free unit drop and my opponent is likely to take those air units In most of these games, I am on high HP, so losing one round to lack of anti-air is not a big deal. In addition, most air units do not have the required DPS to take down armored worms, so I will still be winning the ground. Units like overlord are expensive and rather weak in long-range fights, so I would simply be able to purchase some marksmen, phoenixes or mustangs to deal with air problem. Air units might punish lack of anti-air for a turn, but they do not really fix the long-term DPS problem against worms.
Sandstorm is a tech I only really use when playing worm/wasp, which is a different comp (and pretty niche). Clicking it when you have important ground-based units (like the arcs) will often come back to bite you.
That would be a great play as well! I just felt like I was in a really strong position in the game, so I didn't mind taking the better-scaling card and invest in my board long-term. I am sure that buying two level 2 worms would have worked just as well to close out the game 😄
Boats are not good in standard, as they lack range to compete with units like marksmen and phoenix. If the opponent commits to air, you can simply buy an AA unit of choice (marksmen, phoenix, AA wasp, mustangs) and they will stay safe as the worms cause chaos on the frontline. Most air units do not have the DPS to currently kill worms, which is why you do not see people heavily investing in air boards against it. The opponent might be able to win one round with it, but it is easily countered and they will still be losing the ground war and their towers.
I'm 0:4 with this strat... clearly does not fit me, always loses against air but if I invest into antiair I lag behind and the arc never level well enough even with early range
While Arc/worm is certainly simple, but I fail to see how it is strong. I think it is mediocre at best. All your opponents misunderstand the strength of Arclight/ worm The worms arent the problem- Its the arclights. The problem most people have is that they blindly spam crawlers all day because that is what usually works 90 percent of the time. Unfortunately, arc lights ARE the premier counter to crawlers. The simple solution is to build fangs when you see increasing numbers of arclights. So the counter to arclights is - Fang + Any decent worm counters ( Fortress comes to mind- The classic fang fortress strat will absolutely tear this strat apart), boats, melters, scorps with acid and even phoenix. - It is very hard to win with arclights if the enemy makes a sudden push with shield fangs on the last/second last round. You can easily test this out in single player if you want. recreate the board on the final round of both games, replace all but 2 of the crawlers with fangs+ shield that are staggered, and watch how the battle swings from a win to a hard loss
@@earlkoh216 You are certainly correct in stating that shielded fangs would be a strong counter to arclights, as well as stopping worms for a good amount of time. I think fortresses with fang spawn would definitely be a possible counter to the strat for that reason. However, you don't necessarily know what your opponent will be playing when purchasing units in the early game. Building nothing but fangs will be very vulnerable to stormcallers, and late game you will likely have to use your limited deployments for bigger/more important units. Building a comp that can deal with arc/worm might be possible from round 1, but nothing forces me to simply play a different comp if my opponent is that committed to countering something I have not yet purchased. What is so powerful about the comp is that it indeed builds around arclights, which can be paired with a number of carry units aside from worm. Fortress remains weak in long range fights, and stormcaller + melter is an easy pairing with the core of arcs. While you might be able to buy arc counters, they still need to get through sandworms first, which is not easy at all. And many worm counters will be weak in long range fights, which the arc/worm player can transition back to.
Air will work for one round, after that I can easily buy mustangs for example. Most air units will not be able to kill the worms fast enough, so the enemy will still lose the ground war and their towers. This is also why you don't see the enemy buy air units, as it will not help them in the long run versus the scaling worms.
Got one game with giant specialist and arc+caller and opp was in standard opening position. Placed every unit exactly as the video. Mowed my opp over to the ground. Thanks for the free mmr! Some details: In the 2nd unit drop, opp got two Lv2 balls on one side and stopped one worm's tower rush. On the other side, opp spammed mustangs and stop my two worms during my tower debuff. Next round, I teched replicate negating the balls and teched fire caller with tower oil clearing the mustangs. I'm super spooked by air units threats. The first unit drop had a pack of wasp. I figured I would be economically better off just sell and missile defensing corners. luckily he didn't go air units. I think it was because the board is quite standard-like at early round, so there is no obvious gaps. I wonder what will happen if the opp did go air units. It looks quite hard to set up a line to stop the worm where is not in the range of storm caller...
This was possibly the most useful video on MechyB I've seen - it shows how to build a sensible board. I have a 2:1 win/loss rate but even for the losses I was able to understand where it went wrong. Other similar videos for other boards would be great 👍👍
Played into a mirror because we had both watched your video. Was an absolutely hilarious match, and came down to who had the first leveled sand worm... I had a level 9 capped sand worm at the end which I didn't even know you couldn't level up past that, and multiple times it was just both our highest level worms alive when time ran out. The deciding factor was that I broke first and bought two melters which did fuck all at level 1 but got lvl2 fast (and then in the final round 3 overlords with wasp upgrade surprise)... actually the most fun match I've had in the game to date.
Thanks for the guide. Worked great. Teched Arclights, armor worms with replicate crawlers to finish the melters. Beating melters is always satisfying!
Great vid, well explained, well played. Congrats!
So I've just run your comp 6 times at 1,700 MMR, hitting the round-upgrade targets you describe, and have a 100% loss rate with it so far, allowing me to graduate back to 1,600 MMR.
Each game I've had so far tonight has featured an enemy that:
Turn 1, buy no chaff - Markmen, Arclights, or (starting units permitted) Sledges instead. This lack of chaff poses a problem for the scaling we want out of Elite later on.
Turn 2, puts 1 Crawler on a flank, who distracts both the behind-the-tower chaff and the Storm for that flank, giving them either a very free tower kill or at least kills the Arcs and Storm on that side.
Turn 3, drops 2 Phoenixes that kill essentially everything that's on the board by this point.
Whether I continue to force your comp or pivot to address the Phoenixes, guaranteed death by Turn 6 if I put Worms on turn 5 as suggested.
So, I've come to the conclusion that there must be some considerations unexplained in the scope of this video for positioning, adjustments, and other on-the-fly decisions that would compensate for enemies who don't just feed into your comp like shown, that you'd have to have made in order to successfully pull this off for so many consecutive games in a tournament.
Would you care to discuss some of those?
How would you adjust your timing and your positioning against something like Phoenix/Sledge?
Since it was effective enough to carry a whole tourney, I suspect you've had to have played against aggro sometimes during said tourney. How do you compensate for those enemies? Are there additional considerations you make when your Arclights have less room to exploit their range?
Sorry to hear that!
First off, this strategy is NOT meant to be played against aggro. Worm/arc exploits the most common setups people will use in standard/long-range games. Against aggro, I will simply respond as needed and play a different setup. I will place storms between towers if I start with them and my opponent has steelballs or spiders in their opener, as those are more commonly played on aggro.
Enemies that do not buy chaff will be very vulnerable to single target DPS such as marksmen, phoenix, stormcallers and scorpion. If opponents spam fangs, stormcallers will be highly valuable. If opponents make unusual moves and/or purchases, you will have to respond in kind. Unusual moves have the benefit of surprise, but will have strong counters available (which is why they will be unusual).
Against early air units, you can buy a couple marksmen or phoenixes. Later, mustangs are great into heavy air boards and the same goes for fortress AA against phoenix and/or wasp.
Hope this helps somewhat!
based, both of u
@RoosterTH-cam Okay, so that basically answers my main consideration that I found after playing (and losing) with it more over the evening. It seems that if your opponent opens aggro, you just gotta straight up bail on the strategy, which matches my own findings for my play session.
Likewise, if they do a non-chaff opening, just bail on the strategy and respond with a typical one for non-chaff starts.
_Essentially,_ if your opponent does anything _other_ than feed you delicious chaff on Round 1, just bail on the strategy.
When working in early Marksmen or Phoenixes to deal with early air pressure, I find that means I have to compromise on the build timing somewhere. In your estimation, what part of the timing has the most room to be delayed or moved? Obviously it changes based on the board state, but if you had to move one of them to make room for the AA expenditure early on, would you be delaying Arc Range, delaying the Worm drop, or some other change?
I think this is just something that I need to get out of this MMR bracket to actually participate in. At 1,700, it's been genuinely ages since I've played a standard vs. standard game. My last 42 games have been against an aggro opponent according to my spreadsheet, so I guess the strategy just kinda breaks down at an MMR where the playerbase metagame is to just never play standard.
Edit:
I've since had my first standard game in genuinely weeks and I forced this strat with an Arclight, no Storms start. Outside of delaying getting additional Arclights until like round 6 in order to get AA against a turn-2 double-Phoenix drop, it worked pretty flawlessly. So yeah, I can see why this works well in Standard specifically.
I see the problem here mainly in the mmr-bracket (except for being pushed ofc).
Roosters 2.4k opponents will usually make very similar moves. The „Standard“ Moves, that are widely considered „good“.
If the ppl in 1.7k played only the „normal“ „good“ moves, they would probably be higher in mmr. So against their chaos, you need way more flexibility, i guess.
This strat took me from 800 to 1000 MMR today. Thanks!
Played a 2v2 recently where one guy just spammed worms, mostly on the flanks. His opponent countered with four tech fangs melters and obliterated him. Having a balance is always important.
A heavy enemy airforce would disrupt that quite a bit, correct?
Yeah, I was thinking about that too, how his board has almost no anti air. Only 2 packs of fangs...
Air really does not matter vs this. The opponent cannot ignore the ground, or they will simply lose their towers. With worms as frontline, you can easily buy marksmen, mustang, AA wasp or whatever other anti-air you would like. They will remain safe behind all of your frontline.
This is only if the enemy commits to air though, no need to overreact if there is no threat on the board and you are at no risk of dying.
I was just obliterated by boats and wasps, but probably reacted one turn to late as well.
Its not a super popular tech, but burst mode phantom rays do well vs worms. I think someone mathed out that a lvl 1 phantom ray squad does 56k per volley with burst mode. I havent checked that math, but they certainly do a lot.
Swap armour on arclight for aa.
Your videos are like SO helpful! Whenever i play an actual build (except for the boatpush mb), i play something i learned thanks to your detailed videos. They made me a way better player, it even feels a bit selfless, that you share all the tricks so freely.
Dont you sometimes feel like keeping things for yourself? 😅
Appreciate it!
I consider myself a streamer and content creator first, so I don't have a wish to keep strats to myself haha. Getting people to understand and enjoy the game is far more important to me.
@RoosterTH-cam You are a saint. I just got this game last week and every day I'm climbing ~100 MMR (across all 3 game modes) mainly because of your videos with no signs of slowing down yet. It feels like my skill level is growing faster than the difficulty increase of my competition.
@@Omar_Al_Seddik Much love!
Congrats on the rapid climb and see you on the battlefield soon ;)
Good video, I'd be interested in seeing a game where your opponent goes acid scorpions against this. I agree that acid scorps are the best counter to worms with armour.
Thanks for the nice Video :)
Hello rooster. Would be nice if you could show the melter variant
Acid Double Shot Scorps is my go to against sand worms. It isn't a cheap answer, as it's a 300 cost unit you have to double tech, AND the lack of range makes them weak in other match ups. So I only use them if my opponent goes hard into Scorps.
Hi Rooster, thx for tour content. About this video :
- What do you think about Phoenix with power shot to counter the worm. Especially with only arclight for covering them, it could be ok ? Dunno if there is enough DPS.
- 14:24 : U've trained an exisiting worm while buying a new one. I guess, that you've valued the placement enough that you've willed to sacrifice some xp.
Take care !
Much love!
I really like charged shot phoenixes, and they would probably have the damage to contest the worms.
However, they really lack range, which will cause problems in long-range fights if the opponent picks up marksmen or mustangs.
As for the worm level, I wanted it to be able to contest the existing fortress on that side ^^
What do you think about early Blender Rhino that get support from the sandworm with storm later? Maybe they can work as a bait
if opponent used fang shield it would be harder as it counters both of these. you would of course fire the board which is why i would imagine you like having storms at the start but lose on tempo
Worms can giveth but worms can also taketh away.
Phoenix seems like a pretty good counter.
What do you do if the enemy builds air? Boats / phantom ray
Rooster cooking show when?
Everyone talking about air as weakness to this. Would anti air on the arclights be viable or do they not hit hard enough?
really depends as you had to invest a lot of money into the spec as elite and range have priority. If your enemies answer is wasp spam, it could work but if it's something like wraiths or overloards, I don't think the arclights culd deal with them on their own.
I don't like AA arc all that much, as they can get overwhelmed by all the different tasks they perform. If the enemy commits to air, you can simply buy some marksmen or mustang for example. They will stay safe behind all the worms causing chaos and kill whatever air units the enemy may have.
I love how everyone uses the term 'cheeky missile'. I know I do! If opponent went heavy air how would you have countered, or would you have stuck with this comp. Like, if he didn't take the 3 marks and took 3 wasps.
Air is not that scary for this comp, as you will be dominating ground with the worms. Because of that you can quite easily buy things like marksmen if you really need them and they will stay safe for the entire round.
I am pretty happy to duel wasps with the techs I have, but if an opponent were to commit really hard early on I will simply buy mustangs or AA forts, depending on what I can afford.
I would go with hackers + improved control and high dps like scorpions maybe also some more chaffclearing. Wouldnt look to great if one worm turns around the otherway.
rooster, what is your go to against loose crawler in this build or even in general?
just replicate and more worms?
My preferred counter to loose formation is mustangs!
Fire also does a great job, so something like firecallers could be a nice alternative
Because this is a small game, it is interesting and some times concerning how much these videos (love the videos btw) change the in game meta. When ones like this drop from you, rat or one of the other big streamers, I see the strategies replicated in game withing a few hours or days. Its a strange dynamic where thr content creators have control of the meta and then the counter meta get created from trying to overthrow these really strong strategies.
I immediately opened the game and copied your tech's. Never knew how to use Worms. I tried this strategy, and got three wins in a row, going from 1250 to the low 1300's. Honestly, I could never play standard, only aggro. Biggest takeaway from this video is how to place chaff for standard. That 5+2 setup is an amazing framework.
Should I take Loose formation crawlers in the mirror match? Does that help against max ranged Arclights?
Great video. Gratz on the win.
Thanks!
I currently run replicate, impact drill, loose formation and subterranean blitz on crawlers. Loose is still very good against any unit with 7 or less splash (like arclights, fortress, typhoon). If you want to run acid, you can take of subterrannean if you like (I just like subterranean as a counter to mustangs).
So what would have happened if your opponent wouid have gone aerial?
You don’t have anti air on your arc lights or worms
I will only pre-emptively buy anti-air if I am:
A) at risk of dying to lack of AA in 1 turn
B) Air units are offered in a free unit drop and my opponent is likely to take those air units
In most of these games, I am on high HP, so losing one round to lack of anti-air is not a big deal.
In addition, most air units do not have the required DPS to take down armored worms, so I will still be winning the ground.
Units like overlord are expensive and rather weak in long-range fights, so I would simply be able to purchase some marksmen, phoenixes or mustangs to deal with air problem.
Air units might punish lack of anti-air for a turn, but they do not really fix the long-term DPS problem against worms.
Only thing that wrecked me was mass steel balls.
how do you use sandstorm on worms ? i feel like it always work against me
Sandstorm is a tech I only really use when playing worm/wasp, which is a different comp (and pretty niche).
Clicking it when you have important ground-based units (like the arcs) will often come back to bite you.
re: intensive training - why not skip and elite recruit 2x lvl 2 worms? Just didn't consider it?
That would be a great play as well!
I just felt like I was in a really strong position in the game, so I didn't mind taking the better-scaling card and invest in my board long-term.
I am sure that buying two level 2 worms would have worked just as well to close out the game 😄
what if they go air, like boats on turn 5?
Boats are not good in standard, as they lack range to compete with units like marksmen and phoenix. If the opponent commits to air, you can simply buy an AA unit of choice (marksmen, phoenix, AA wasp, mustangs) and they will stay safe as the worms cause chaos on the frontline.
Most air units do not have the DPS to currently kill worms, which is why you do not see people heavily investing in air boards against it. The opponent might be able to win one round with it, but it is easily countered and they will still be losing the ground war and their towers.
What about boats? They counter all of this.
I'm 0:4 with this strat... clearly does not fit me, always loses against air but if I invest into antiair I lag behind and the arc never level well enough even with early range
I think with the addition of sabertooth, this strat will be worse in next season
While Arc/worm is certainly simple, but I fail to see how it is strong. I think it is mediocre at best.
All your opponents misunderstand the strength of Arclight/ worm
The worms arent the problem- Its the arclights.
The problem most people have is that they blindly spam crawlers all day because that is what usually works 90 percent of the time. Unfortunately, arc lights ARE the premier counter to crawlers. The simple solution is to build fangs when you see increasing numbers of arclights.
So the counter to arclights is
- Fang + Any decent worm counters ( Fortress comes to mind- The classic fang fortress strat will absolutely tear this strat apart), boats, melters, scorps with acid and even phoenix.
- It is very hard to win with arclights if the enemy makes a sudden push with shield fangs on the last/second last round.
You can easily test this out in single player if you want. recreate the board on the final round of both games, replace all but 2 of the crawlers with fangs+ shield that are staggered, and watch how the battle swings from a win to a hard loss
@@earlkoh216 You are certainly correct in stating that shielded fangs would be a strong counter to arclights, as well as stopping worms for a good amount of time. I think fortresses with fang spawn would definitely be a possible counter to the strat for that reason.
However, you don't necessarily know what your opponent will be playing when purchasing units in the early game. Building nothing but fangs will be very vulnerable to stormcallers, and late game you will likely have to use your limited deployments for bigger/more important units. Building a comp that can deal with arc/worm might be possible from round 1, but nothing forces me to simply play a different comp if my opponent is that committed to countering something I have not yet purchased.
What is so powerful about the comp is that it indeed builds around arclights, which can be paired with a number of carry units aside from worm. Fortress remains weak in long range fights, and stormcaller + melter is an easy pairing with the core of arcs. While you might be able to buy arc counters, they still need to get through sandworms first, which is not easy at all. And many worm counters will be weak in long range fights, which the arc/worm player can transition back to.
This seems very weak to heavy air
Air will work for one round, after that I can easily buy mustangs for example. Most air units will not be able to kill the worms fast enough, so the enemy will still lose the ground war and their towers.
This is also why you don't see the enemy buy air units, as it will not help them in the long run versus the scaling worms.
This loses to typhoon boat btw
Typhoon boat is pretty universally an aggro build, and Rooster was clear that this only works in standard v standard
I’m stealing it.
Got one game with giant specialist and arc+caller and opp was in standard opening position. Placed every unit exactly as the video. Mowed my opp over to the ground. Thanks for the free mmr!
Some details:
In the 2nd unit drop, opp got two Lv2 balls on one side and stopped one worm's tower rush. On the other side, opp spammed mustangs and stop my two worms during my tower debuff.
Next round, I teched replicate negating the balls and teched fire caller with tower oil clearing the mustangs.
I'm super spooked by air units threats. The first unit drop had a pack of wasp. I figured I would be economically better off just sell and missile defensing corners. luckily he didn't go air units. I think it was because the board is quite standard-like at early round, so there is no obvious gaps. I wonder what will happen if the opp did go air units.
It looks quite hard to set up a line to stop the worm where is not in the range of storm caller...