Wanna know why I don't make 4 thors? Because by the time the mutas hit, even with a standard build that goes for Thors in unit comp, I won't have the thors out in time. And any idiot can magic box mutas and with 36 mutas, it doesn't matter how many Thors I have. Mobility will win in the end. Sure I can keep my whole army together in base but then I lose map control. The key problem I think I have is that I try to do standard builds that work in Masters and up but since my opponents (usually upper gold to the very bottom of platinum) have such odd builds, timings, and transitions. I'd have to dedicate everything to scouting.
Let's say I'm playing vs. Zerg and he goes hatch first. What' the appropriate response? Reactor hellions, duh. I do normal damage with the hellions, do scouting, gain some map control, pressure his 3rd, etc. Then all of a sudden he gets brood lords before there should even be brood lords on the field. I'm talking about people that have their timings so off and use such funky builds it could take out a pro unaware just because it's mechanically impossible at that time to win. Or say against protoss. The right units to build are usually marine/marauder/medivac/ghost and maybe some vikings thrown in if he has colossi. What do I do against someone that gets a little bit of everything. Zealot/stalker/dt/void ray. Weird unit comps like that. It's just impossible to prepare for EVERYTHING if I'm trying to play standard (save orbital energy for scans instead of mules? and let my macro slip? no thanks, I'm not counting on the slight possibility of DTs at SOME point on the game to determine whether or not I should drop mules).
The muta thing, I can't understand. for more than 20 mutas, it would be quite late. So you'll have had plenty of time to prepare, marine/turret + thor means mutas can't go in that area. Thors are a late stage thing, if he's really comitting to them make more, but one or two usually is enough if you see some but not stupid amounts. There is always a terran timing vs zerg before mutas come out, hit that timing if you're have trouble against muta builds.
Your number of 36 mutas seems very exagerated, it's either quite late into the game and he's made that many mutas, in which case, why didn't you pressure him so he'd stop making those things...He can only make bane/roach or muta, not both. If it's exagerated, you'll be fine with thor + turret. or thor + some marines.
Tip vs zerg. Open up your solid marine tank, and push. If its not a standard ling bane muta/ roach infestor/etc builds then he'll die. If it fails, you force less mutas/more units and less econ. You do need to set up correctly and do the push decently obviously. If he's doing some stupid broodlord rush, he's already lost to this "pressure".
There are solid builds, like marine tank medivac/mech. They are solid. Then you have your cutesy builds that throw in banshees and ravens and such. But I mean those have some holes in your defense. Hatch first can be reacted to with a variety of things and not just reactor helion. You can one up him and go CC first/ CC after rax, there is no ONE build to go against other builds.
As for substandard builds like a "everything composition", its about playing reactionary or just having a better composition. Its not easy to react to everything you see in time and sometimes you see it too late.
I recomend saving at least one scan for a chance DTs are coming in/ when you are moving out. Getting caught off guard is just terrible.
I know I don't play terran, so I can't be of great help. But as a zerg, I throw up preemptive evo chamber/lair (for dection) + roach warren against noob terrans. Because I don't know if theyre doign the stupid 20 BFH build and I don't know if they decide to do the 2 starport banshee at 12 minutes in build. But I have such a solid macro over them, that I can afford those resources going into useless precautions.
But I know how you feel about lower level builds. I've lost the stupidest things that just don't make sense. Guy makes tons of spines then all ins you...that kind of **** is just wtf. If I were better I'd hold it off, since he should still be behind in resources if he built spines and assuming I macroed around his level. So I should be able to get units to react to what he's done and still be in a decent position.
There are builds that are general purpose and are general purpose cos they are very safe to use, you might just be slightly behind on the scouting or just slightly behind in macro. Scouting is important, checking army compositions/buildings/positions/bases. Its all very important.
GLHF, practice makes perfect, If you wanna have some practice against me, I would love to help you out. Not sure if the underlying problem is the other people or maybe some flaw in your gameplay. It might be a small combination of both. Trust me on the "solid" builds thing tho, they are solid (or at least relatively more stable).
I got to Plat from Bronze with protoss learning to 4gate and 3gate expand...and learned that if I just made more units/colosis, I win. I got from plat to diamond with zerg learning how to react to different plays, it was a pain, zergs are more reactive than terran/protoss, and it too a lot of getting used to all the scouting and choosing the right units. I also learned to execute solid builds really fine up till like past the 8 minute mark.
