There are no Protoss counters to mutalisks

[Terra]

When a race can make one unit and win no matter what, obviously that means we should nerf Warpgates.

[Colrath]

When a race can make one unit and win no matter what, obviously that means we should nerf Warpgates.

Never gona give you up.......

[Gemini]

Sentries and pheonix?

[Billymole]

Sigh. For the last time, Phoenix are amazing vs mutalisks. You just can't make 2 of them and expect to counter a dozen mutas. I know this will be followed by plenty of people crying that they can't produce more than that, but it's flat out not true. Scout the enemy base, and if you suspect mutalisks are coming, then you can expect the following few things:

1) He's going to limit his gas usage so that he can build some when the spire finishes, which means until the mutas are out you're going to see mostly zerglings. Use that, and try to overwhelm him before then.

2) Spire takes the longest time to build of any building in the game that isn't a hatchery/nexus/cc. You can have 2 or 3 stargates up before it finishes, which you should be chronoboosting from the moment they are done.

3) Did I mention that Phoenixes completely screw zerg if left unchecked? If you get a couple of Phoenix out BEFORE (gasp) their mutalisks, then you can very quickly hunt down all those overlords he has stashed in corners. If you kill enough of them, then you can completely cripple him. Another way to do that is to go to each of his hatcheries, graviton the queen, kill it and leave.

4) Point 1 again, simply because it's the major point. Either he is saving minerals and gas so he can produce a bunch of mutalisks when the spire finishes (aka, you should be in his base winning right now), or he's producing like mad to keep you at bay, which means he won't have much to build more than a couple mutalisks.

[Terra]

Sentries and pheonix?

Sentries have the manoeverability of Dragoons, and Phoenixes cost an arm and a leg.

You'd honestly be better served comparing a toddler versus a grown man. Sure, the toddler can hit the guy, but it ain't going to do anything substantial.

[Darkenon]

An aggressive protoss can force zerg to spend gas on !@#@ thats not mutalisks

[Meat]

An aggressive protoss can force zerg to spend gas on !@#@ thats not mutalisks

True.

I've never had a problem with mutalisks. I keep the pressure on constantly.. If the zerg slowed down to invest in mutas, they'd probably get crushed. I often end up fighting Roach/Hydra which is STTTTTTTTTRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNG.

[Lazz]

Sigh. For the last time, Phoenix are amazing vs mutalisks. You just can't make 2 of them and expect to counter a dozen mutas. I know this will be followed by plenty of people crying that they can't produce more than that, but it's flat out not true. Scout the enemy base, and if you suspect mutalisks are coming, then you can expect the following few things:

1) He's going to limit his gas usage so that he can build some when the spire finishes, which means until the mutas are out you're going to see mostly zerglings. Use that, and try to overwhelm him before then.

2) Spire takes the longest time to build of any building in the game that isn't a hatchery/nexus/cc. You can have 2 or 3 stargates up before it finishes, which you should be chronoboosting from the moment they are done.

3) Did I mention that Phoenixes completely screw zerg if left unchecked? If you get a couple of Phoenix out BEFORE (gasp) their mutalisks, then you can very quickly hunt down all those overlords he has stashed in corners. If you kill enough of them, then you can completely cripple him. Another way to do that is to go to each of his hatcheries, graviton the queen, kill it and leave.

4) Point 1 again, simply because it's the major point. Either he is saving minerals and gas so he can produce a bunch of mutalisks when the spire finishes (aka, you should be in his base winning right now), or he's producing like mad to keep you at bay, which means he won't have much to build more than a couple mutalisks.

As a Zerg player, you're a jerk for pointing this out... because it's all true.

[Crimson]

3) Did I mention that Phoenixes completely screw zerg if left unchecked? If you get a couple of Phoenix out BEFORE (gasp) their mutalisks, then you can very quickly hunt down all those overlords he has stashed in corners. If you kill enough of them, then you can completely cripple him. Another way to do that is to go to each of his hatcheries, graviton the queen, kill it and leave.



THIS ^^^^^^^^^^ oh man so many people start cussing when you do this

[Blasius]

When a race can make one unit and win no matter what, obviously that means we should nerf Warpgates.

the counter is to scout it early. 1 stargate pumping phoenix. The rest of your gateways should be making a combination of sentry/stalker. Use guardian shield when you fight the mutas. Put 2-3 cannons around your mineral line.

[Audio]

Team liquid held a 7 game tourney between two players Ret (zerg) and Infernal (protoss) .. ... pretty informative replays you might want to watch them.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=115824

Every game infernal gets sentries, they are essential to a zerg match up for protoss. In the first game , infernal uses force field against roaches to a great effect, but in the other 5 games he never uses it.

The match up of ZvP became more clear to me after watching these, zerg exploits any weakness the protoss has, and the protoss has to follow through in every aspect of his game to win.

Zerg doesn't have anti air or cloak detection till tier 2.. Infernal takes a risk and goes dark templars in 2 games, one game ret happends to scout his dark templar shrine and it cost him the game, he trys to save it by turning his DT into archons and pushing, but fails....

[Bearshark]

Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix


For the last time, they don't suck! Make more than 5 vs 20 mutas damn it...

[Nephrahim]

The problem is that the Mutas come as a surprise, and there's no way for one stargate to compete with 2-3 hatcheries, assuming they both have resources.

The answer is to just keep of the pressure, of course. The last 2 toss players I played would NOT let me get to Mutalisks, beacuse they were on my ass the entire game, and I was too busy defending myself to make the investment.

[Namhcir]

The problem is that the Mutas come as a surprise, and there's no way for one stargate to compete with 2-3 hatcheries, assuming they both have resources.

The answer is to just keep of the pressure, of course. The last 2 toss players I played would NOT let me get to Mutalisks, beacuse they were on my ass the entire game, and I was too busy defending myself to make the investment.

if you are getting surprised by mutas, its ur fault if you lose then..

Mutas are not unstoppable as toss, they are actually pretty easy to counter

[Bearshark]

The problem is that the Mutas come as a surprise, and there's no way for one stargate to compete with 2-3 hatcheries, assuming they both have resources.

The answer is to just keep of the pressure, of course. The last 2 toss players I played would NOT let me get to Mutalisks, beacuse they were on my ass the entire game, and I was too busy defending myself to make the investment.

Don't be suprised, scout.

If they are massing mutas build 2-3 starports and pump out phoenix. you only need about half as many phoenix to take em out.

[Terralisk]

I heard there's this unit called a phoenix.

[Stratosspear]

if you are getting surprised by mutas, its ur fault if you lose then..

Mutas are not unstoppable as toss, they are actually pretty easy to counter

The problem is that Zerg has such an easy time tech switching.

Hydra/Roach is INCREDIBLY strong against Protoss early game (I have yet to see a viable strategy that stops my Hydra/Roach push). Even if you do somehow stop Hydra/Roach and get enough Immortals/Colossi to stop it (something that is incredibly difficult to do), tech switching is the easiest as Zerg, so as you sink all of that gas into Immortals/Colossi to stop Hydra/Roach, a Zerg player (who should have a better economy, being the more offensive race which means he can expand his economy more easily) can switch to mass Mutalisks fairly easy, so you won't have enough Phoenixes because you invested all of your gas in stopping Hydralisks. If you invest in Phoenixes early, you won't have enough to stop Hydralisks or Hydra/Roach.

If you somehow get a large enough economy to invest in both more quickly than the Zerg, the Zerg is just doing it horribly, horribly wrong.

[Terralisk]

The problem is that Zerg has such an easy time tech switching.

Hydra/Roach is INCREDIBLY strong against Protoss early game (I have yet to see a viable strategy that stops my Hydra/Roach push). Even if you do somehow stop Hydra/Roach and get enough Immortals/Colossi to stop it (something that is incredibly difficult to do), tech switching is the easiest as Zerg, so as you sink all of that gas into Immortals/Colossi to stop Hydra/Roach, a Zerg player (who should have a better economy, being the more offensive race which means he can expand his economy more easily) can switch to mass Mutalisks fairly easy, so you won't have enough Phoenixes because you invested all of your gas in stopping Hydraliss. If you invest in Phoenixes early, you won't have enough to stop Hydralisks or Hydra/Roach.

If you somehow get a large enough economy to invest in both more quickly than the Zerg, the Zerg is just doing it horribly, horribly wrong.

Colossi and immortals. Every time a toss sees me going for those, I have colossi and immortals knocking on my door within 5 minutes. One trick I have for screwing with them lately is making a bunch of roaches, then going mutas instead of hydras.

It's funny watching the colossi and immortals blow up.

[Huma]

Well i have done a 12 vs 18 with phoenixes and lost, I focused fired and he didn't.

Phoenix is pure air, muta is not. But I loss!

Problem?

YES!

[Stratosspear]

Colossi and immortals. Every time a toss sees me going for those, I have colossi and immortals knocking on my door within 5 minutes. One trick I have for screwing with them lately is making a bunch of roaches, then going mutas instead of hydras.

It's funny watching the colossi and immortals blow up.

Immortals are a soft counter against Hydralisks. If you are quick teching, you get a Roach Warren and immediately get a Lair as well. Any Zealot rush is still dead in the water because Roaches DESTROY Zealots. By the time you get Hydralisks, he has MAYBE, and I mean MAYBE, if he's been really saving and maximizing his time, 3 Immortals. Zerg can outproduce that with Hydralisks at a ridiculous rate, and Hydralisks do perfectly good damage vs. Immortals. You need to get to Colossi to really start countering Hydralisks, and that takes an incredibly long time to tech to.

[Bilco]

The warpgate proxy was out of hand.. but still /agree nerf the #%*# out of mutas.... Can't recall how many games i've lost to them even as terran. They are just to strong for their mobility, resource harass, coupled with how quickly zerg can transition from one unit build to another.

[Hob]

The problem is the zerg player can easily switch unit production. If you start doing phoenixes, he'll get his first mutas bunch killed, use his 5-10 larvea to spawn the ground unit will who hurt you the most (zerglings if you have stalkersetc...) and will hit you real fast with a new force your phoenixes can't deal with. Your force takes time to build up, the zergs dont take so much time so they can swap out much more easily than the toss who commited to anti air.

[Bilco]

The problem is the zerg player can easily switch unit production. If you start doing phoenixes, he'll get his first mutas bunch killed, use his 5-10 larvea to spawn the ground unit will who hurt you the most (zerglings if you have stalkersetc...) and will hit you real fast with a new force your phoenixes can't deal with. Your force takes time to build up, the zergs dont take so much time so they can swap out much more easily than the toss who commited to anti air.

He doesn't even need to kill them off... he can keep them around for resource harass and map control...

Problems are:
-as mentioned before zerg can transition builds to easily with queens and hatcharies

-the correlation of 1 set of a particular unit to counter 1 mutalisk is generally exponential as the # of mutas increase - it is not linear, their 'bouncing attack' make them scale ridiculously well in numbers

-their speed and mobility allow them to easily duck out when in trouble, and make them easily dodge any AOE abilities available in the game.

-grant the zerg player massive map control and makes defending expansions to unrealistic due to the cost effectiveness to do so to stop ~5-8mutas

-The rate at which they can kill workers in resource harassing is unparalleled in a gross manner.

[Thoraxe]

When a race can make one unit and win no matter what, obviously that means we should nerf Warpgates.
You've already shown us you don't understand the concept of this game. Stop QQing
Originally posted by Hob.lawson

The problem is the zerg player can easily switch unit production. If you start doing phoenixes, he'll get his first mutas bunch killed, use his 5-10 larvea to spawn the ground unit will who hurt you the most (zerglings if you have stalkersetc...) and will hit you real fast with a new force your phoenixes can't deal with. Your force takes time to build up, the zergs dont take so much time so they can swap out much more easily than the toss who commited to anti air.
Ok but this is the same from SC1, and I see nobody calling it a problem there. Learn to play against it. The Zerg could always switch unit production quicker than the other races, and because of the Reactor and Warpgate function, the other races have a better chance of keeping up now. And what a coincidence it is that the best time to start utilizing those is right around when the Zerg player would be getting Mutalisks.

[Erathil]

Enough phoenixes do make a good counter, but it seems really forced. Phoenixes are decent at one and only one thing; fighting light air units. They aren't generalists like the mutalisks. You can't use them to raid resource expansions, or do hit and run on workers or tech structures. You can't even use them to defend against basic land-based anti-air. If he switches tactics and attacks with roaches and hydralisks, your phoenixes are just about useless now.

Phoenixes are too limited. They're expensive, and outside their one niche they are are a waste of resources for the army that needs them the most.

As weak as protoss anti-air is, I think the real problem here are the mutalisks. The whole air/ground dynamic has changed. We no longer have multiple units that do massive extra damage to flyers, but rather a handful of units that work well against light fliers, massive units and can target flyers. At the same time, the scout and wraith are gone, leaving the zerg with the only fast raider-flyer in an early tier. Mutalisks have gone unchanged, but most of their counters have been reworked or removed.

And yeah, the point that mutas scale ridiculously well with their bouncing attack doesn't help. They're cheaper than phoenixes and more effective in numbers.

[Oink]

The problem is that the Mutas come as a surprise, and there's no way for one stargate to compete with 2-3 hatcheries, assuming they both have resources.

The only race with a perm cloaked scout, you should have no trouble knowing when he is going for mutas.

[Bearshark]

Well i have done a 12 vs 18 with phoenixes and lost, I focused fired and he didn't.

Phoenix is pure air, muta is not. But I loss!

Problem?

YES!

Did you upgrade at all? I experimented with a friend with even upgrades. 3 phoenix kill 5 mutas without micro. and still have 2 left alive. 6 phoenix kill 10 mutas with 3 left alive. Your 12 phoenix should have smashed em to bits if you were even in upgrades.

[Heffalump]

psi storm

[Scorcher]

The problem is the zerg player can easily switch unit production. If you start doing phoenixes, he'll get his first mutas bunch killed, use his 5-10 larvea to spawn the ground unit will who hurt you the most (zerglings if you have stalkersetc...) and will hit you real fast with a new force your phoenixes can't deal with. Your force takes time to build up, the zergs dont take so much time so they can swap out much more easily than the toss who commited to anti air.

If he has mutas, its unlikely he has any other anti-air units, meaning your phoenixes are free to crush his overlords and starve his army. Grav lift the queen, kill her, then park your air over his hatcheries and play whack-a-mole as the new overlords pop out. There is no answer for this as zerg.

[david]

Enough phoenixes do make a good counter, but it seems really forced. Phoenixes are decent at one and only one thing; fighting light air units. They aren't generalists like the mutalisks. You can't use them to raid resource expansions, or do hit and run on workers or tech structures.
Phoenix are amazing at harassing workers/resource expansions. 1 phoenix lifting worker + 3 phoenixes shooting at worker = worker dead in 1 shot. If they don't have anti-air structures at the mineral line, you should be able to destroy at least 4 workers before their anti-air units get there and force you to leave, which you can do so safely with phoenixe's insane speed. And if they don't have anti-air units, it's pretty much gg since you can absolutely cripple their economy.

I've had pretty good results going for 4 phoenixes fast, forcing my enemies to drop 2-3 defense structures at their mineral lines (after losing a ton of workers), after which I just use my econ advantage to go for a fast mothership/carrier win. Cannons+sentry at the choke keep my base safe (since they won't have a lot of resources to do a mass attack) in the mean time until I have my armada of carriers. I play at silver, but I saw this strategy from a platinum replay vs David Kim (who was slaughtered by the fast phoenixes, so his opponent didn't have to get anything but phoenixes).

[Bearshark]

I'm glad some other people appreciate the Phoenix. It's annoying how many people read one rage thread or try to counter 20 mutas with 3 phoenix and scream "BUFF!".

[Kraytex]

You can't use them to raid resource expansions

You can't even use them to defend against basic land-based anti-air. If he switches tactics and attacks with roaches and hydralisks, your phoenixes are just about useless now.

Phoenixes are too limited. They're expensive, and outside their one niche they are are a waste of resources for the army that needs them the most.


I don't know, that gravity beam is pretty useful at harassing workers and pulling up land-based anti-air into the air so they can't attack back.

[Wingykun]

Ok but this is the same from SC1, and I see nobody calling it a problem there. Learn to play against it. The Zerg could always switch unit production quicker than the other races, and because of the Reactor and Warpgate function, the other races have a better chance of keeping up now. And what a coincidence it is that the best time to start utilizing those is right around when the Zerg player would be getting Mutalisks.

I would say the difference is the anti air available in SC1 compared to SC2. Dragoons and scouts were stronger than stalkers and phoenix, and with brood war you had the corsair which was highly effective against the mass mutas. Even for terran, goliaths and valks mopped up air units quite well, I'd say the viking is about on par with a wraith. So I think it is the lower amount of available anti air, especially at lower tiers, that is making mutas, and zerg's higher flexibility with the introduction of the queen, more of a hassle to deal with. I think mutas need a slight nerf, but thats for blizz to decide, and until then, just need to teach yourself to deal with them as best you can.

[Bearshark]

I would say the difference is the anti air available in SC1 compared to SC2. Dragoons and scouts were stronger than stalkers and phoenix, and with brood war you had the corsair which was highly effective against the mass mutas. Even for terran, goliaths and valks mopped up air units quite well, I'd say the viking is about on par with a wraith. So I think it is the lower amount of available anti air, especially at lower tiers, that is making mutas, and zerg's higher flexibility with the introduction of the queen, more of a hassle to deal with. I think mutas need a slight nerf, but thats for blizz to decide, and until then, just need to teach yourself to deal with them as best you can.

There are plenty of easy counters to massed mutas. If you scout them by the time they already have 10+ mutas though, you will never catch up. If you scout well, and see what they are doing, it is not difficult at all to stop mass mutas.

Even if you do go mass phoenix to counter (and by mass I mean half as many mutas), the phoenix are great for killing off their overlords, cutting down their scouting AND supply.

The corsair is gone, get over it. No more countering 20 mutas with 3 air units.

[Istari]

If you're feeling up to it you can drop/warp in on the base and take out the spire quite often. You can do it with a few DTs as well but that costs more, but if they can't see you, you can screw up their base in other ways with em as well.

[Stratosspear]

The problem is NOT Mutalisks - they play the same exact role as in SC1 and, if anything, this is a problem for Zerg. The problem is the lack of Protoss AA. They need a slightly stronger EARLY GAME counter to air. Later in the game, Protoss AA is much better once you can get Phoenix production up along with an army to actually defend against ground attacks, but their biggest weakness is the fact that they can't defend both early game while the other two races can.

[Bearshark]

The problem is NOT Mutalisks - they play the same exact role as in SC1 and, if anything, this is a problem for Zerg. The problem is the lack of Protoss AA. They need a slightly stronger EARLY GAME counter to air. Later in the game, Protoss AA is much better once you can get Phoenix production up along with an army to actually defend against ground attacks, but their biggest weakness is the fact that they can't defend both early game while the other two races can.

Phoenix and mutas are in the same tier. All air units are in T2. There is a good counter to mutas for every race by the time zerg can mass them.

[Stratosspear]

Phoenix and mutas are in the same tier. All air units are in T2. There is a good counter to mutas for every race by the time zerg can mass them.

Are you just not reading? The problem isn't that AA isn't available - the problem is that Protoss have no way to defend against both ground and air. The root of the problem lies in the fact that Protoss doesn't have a single good GROUND AA UNIT. If the Protoss gets enough Phoenixes to stop a Mutalisk attack, Zerg can tech switch to Hydralisks extremely quickly, and just run the Zerg over. There is nothing the Protoss can build early game that has any chance at defending against both ground and air. If Protoss goes ground heavy, tech switch to Mutalisks and you've basically won. If he went early Phoenixes, he doesn't have a prayer of getting enough gas to get enough Colossi to stop Hydralisks.

[Erathil]

The problem is NOT Mutalisks - they play the same exact role as in SC1 and, if anything, this is a problem for Zerg. The problem is the lack of Protoss AA. They need a slightly stronger EARLY GAME counter to air. Later in the game, Protoss AA is much better once you can get Phoenix production up along with an army to actually defend against ground attacks, but their biggest weakness is the fact that they can't defend both early game while the other two races can.

I think the problem may really be with the mutalisks.

"they play the same exact role as in SC1" is the critical part there. The entire air/ground paradigm was changed in SC2. The scout and wraith are no more, but the zerg still have a relatively cheap, fast raider. Along with the scout and wraith went the most useful and potent anti-air counters terrans and protoss had, the dragoon and goliath.

The other races lost their early air raider and dedicated anti-air. This is, in part, because Blizzard seems to be pushing for more in-depth counters. The anti-air units now are all rather poor, but carry with them special bonuses to certain types of air units. Vikings are good against armored air units, phoenixes are less horrible against light air units, Corruptors are good against massive air units, void rays are good against large air units, but the mutalisk is equally good against all of them, and gets bonuses in scaling in groups because of the bouncing glaive wurm.

The air-ground game has changed to explore new mechanics, but mutalisks are still working off the old system.

[Namhcir]

in my earlier post i wasnt suggesting muta's werent overpowered but that you shouldn't be surprised by mutas....

Imo zerg is still the strongest race in the game if played properly, and it will take time to balance it out, you don't want to overnerf them and make them a crappy race (a la undead in war3)

[Keir]

Sigh. For the last time, Phoenix are amazing vs mutalisks. You just can't make 2 of them and expect to counter a dozen mutas. I know this will be followed by plenty of people crying that they can't produce more than that, but it's flat out not true. Scout the enemy base, and if you suspect mutalisks are coming, then you can expect the following few things:

1) He's going to limit his gas usage so that he can build some when the spire finishes, which means until the mutas are out you're going to see mostly zerglings. Use that, and try to overwhelm him before then.

2) Spire takes the longest time to build of any building in the game that isn't a hatchery/nexus/cc. You can have 2 or 3 stargates up before it finishes, which you should be chronoboosting from the moment they are done.

3) Did I mention that Phoenixes completely screw zerg if left unchecked? If you get a couple of Phoenix out BEFORE (gasp) their mutalisks, then you can very quickly hunt down all those overlords he has stashed in corners. If you kill enough of them, then you can completely cripple him. Another way to do that is to go to each of his hatcheries, graviton the queen, kill it and leave.

4) Point 1 again, simply because it's the major point. Either he is saving minerals and gas so he can produce a bunch of mutalisks when the spire finishes (aka, you should be in his base winning right now), or he's producing like mad to keep you at bay, which means he won't have much to build more than a couple mutalisks.

replay proof

[Raydude]

The problem is that Zerg has such an easy time tech switching.

Hydra/Roach is INCREDIBLY strong against Protoss early game (I have yet to see a viable strategy that stops my Hydra/Roach push). Even if you do somehow stop Hydra/Roach and get enough Immortals/Colossi to stop it (something that is incredibly difficult to do), tech switching is the easiest as Zerg, so as you sink all of that gas into Immortals/Colossi to stop Hydra/Roach, a Zerg player (who should have a better economy, being the more offensive race which means he can expand his economy more easily) can switch to mass Mutalisks fairly easy, so you won't have enough Phoenixes because you invested all of your gas in stopping Hydralisks. If you invest in Phoenixes early, you won't have enough to stop Hydralisks or Hydra/Roach.

If you somehow get a large enough economy to invest in both more quickly than the Zerg, the Zerg is just doing it horribly, horribly wrong.

He's right, if roaches are made early to decieve the protoss, a muta mass won't be expected. Especially when the community is obssessed with roach and hydra combo, scouting would become unnecessary (even if protoss attempts to scout with a probe, roaches should be able to keep protoss in base) and all preparation and tech is made towards counting roach and hydra, not mutas. If the protoss expects a muta rush from the roaches and prepares pheonixes instead, something is obviously wrong here.

[Bearshark]

Are you just not reading? The problem isn't that AA isn't available - the problem is that Protoss have no way to defend against both ground and air. The root of the problem lies in the fact that Protoss doesn't have a single good GROUND AA UNIT. If the Protoss gets enough Phoenixes to stop a Mutalisk attack, Zerg can tech switch to Hydralisks extremely quickly, and just run the Zerg over. There is nothing the Protoss can build early game that has any chance at defending against both ground and air. If Protoss goes ground heavy, tech switch to Mutalisks and you've basically won. If he went early Phoenixes, he doesn't have a prayer of getting enough gas to get enough Colossi to stop Hydralisks.

Now you are moving outside of unit comparisons and into strategy comparisons. Let's say they attack with ground and air. By the time they are bringing out mutas you can be bringing out phoenix. You can mount a force capable of killing their mutas for less minerals AND not sacrifice building ground units or gatherers (Zerg's strength is also its weakness). So now they have an air force inferior to yours and it cost them more. Meaning all things being equal, you have more minerals and gas to create a ground army capable of squashing theirs. Mass mutas are simply outmatched by Phoenixes, and with the money you save on the counter you can create a superior ground force.

[sc2scoorge]

earn Stalkers? :) Stalkers with Blink