Starcraft 2 PvT Proxy Oracle Rush Build Order

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The Proxy Oracle rush is one of the most exciting and aggressive openers for Protoss players in Starcraft 2. Its effectiveness and ease of use has made it particularly popular on the ladder and it is routinely used by players of all skill levels.

This build involves placing a hidden proxy Pylon near the Terran base in a position that is close by air but far by ground. The Protoss player then rushes to a Stargate, placing it at this proxy Pylon. An Oracle is then Chrono Boosted out and sent in for the attack as soon as it spawns.

By proxying the Stargate, the Oracle arrives at the Terran base much quicker. Oracles can then focus on bursting down SCVs and Marines as they are very strong versus these unit types. A Terran who has no defense against the Oracle can quickly lose 15+ SCVs before the Oracle finally runs out of energy.

Generally, this build is reserved for two player maps, but it can be used on 4 player maps if you make an effort to scout the opponent's spawn location as soon as you drop the first Pylon.

Proxy Oracle Rush Build Order

Here is the build order for this particular build:

9/10: Pylon
10/18: Gateway (Gateway comes down as soon as Pylon finishes).
13/18: Assimilator
13/18: Send Probe out to get in position to build proxy Pylon. Send this out the "long way" around the map so the opponent does not spot the Probe moving out.
15/18: Cybernetics Core
16/18: Assimilator
17/18: Pylon
19/26: Stargate
21/26: Stalker
26/26: Oracle
26/26: Pylon
30/34: Oracle
33/34: Pylon
33/34: Nexus
34/42: Warp Gate Research
34/42: Robotics Bay

From here, continue with your attack until you run out of steam. Try not to lose any units if possible. You can fall back to your natural expansion under construction and work on adding on units for a follow up attack. The Terran should be far behind at this point and will be unable to recover.

Strategy Considerations for the Oracle Rush

Controlling your Oracles is actually quite easy. With just a couple units to micro, you can devote a lot of attention to their control. The only rule here is to avoid Bunkers, Missile Turrets, and groups of 6+ Marines (an Oracle can take out 5 Marines or less, six is the magic number where the Marines are favored). Try instead to focus on SCVs and small packs of Marines. Go for mineral lines and hang out in front of the Barracks to pick off solo Marines as they spawn.

To increase our win rate when using the proxy Oracle build, there are two things we should consider: what transitions make sense after the Oracle rush and the steps you can take to increase the strength of the Oracle rush.

Transitions

Getting the Nexus, Warp Gate Research, and the Robotics Bay as recommended in the build order are not actually mandatory parts of the build, but they let you advance smoothly into the mid game after your Oracle rush ends. Oracles do not have enough energy to destroy the enemy's base, so even if you inflict a devastating attack, you need something to fall back to after your Oracle rush ends.

With this infrastructure up, you can focus on saturating each base and getting up to Colossus tech. You can also use your 2 Oracles harass to throughout the game once they get some energy back. They should be able to prevent the construction of a third base from the Terran while you work on getting your own economy up and running.

Making the Proxy Oracle Rush Work at the High Level

Proxy Oracles can be effective even at the professional level, but the build needs a little something extra in order to make it work against top tier Terran players.

That "something extra" that makes the build many times more effective is that initial Stalker. You want to send this Stalker across the map when the first Oracle is about to finish and have the Stalker attack at the front door. With good micro and kiting, Stalkers are able to inflict damage to early Marines without taking much (if any) damage in return.

If you can thin out the Marine count with that initial Stalker, the Terran will have significantly less Marines with which to defend themselves. Since a Terran needs a cluster of 6+ Marines to defend against an Oracle, even killing just 1 or 2 Marines with your initial Stalker can make a big difference.

If the Terran opponent has all of their Marines sitting at the top of the ramp to their natural expansion to chase away Stalkers, fly into the main with your Oracle. The Terran will quickly pull back their Marines to deal with the Oracle, allowing your Stalker to safely slip up to the high ground.

Between your Oracle and Stalker, once you kill all the Marines, the Stalker can move into the base and start attacking enemy workers and structures. Focus on killing new Marines as they spawn followed by preventing Missile Turrets from being constructed by picking off the SCVs that are constructing them.

If you take down all the Marines, you can also start Chrono Boosting more Gateway units out of your single Gateway. If the Terran is unable to accumulate any Marines because your Stalker and Oracles keep picking them off as they spawn, a single Zealot will be able to come in and deal a surprising amount of damage.

Conclusion

The Proxy Oracle is a great build to use at all skill levels in Protoss vs Terran. It works particularly well on two player maps as you do not have to scout to know where the opponent has spawned. At the top level, you will also need to get a lot of use out of your initial Stalker to get the most out of this rush.