Another afternoon's report, and this one contains 75% less butthurt than before!  I promise now that I will not complain about protoss again, at least at the silver level.  After watching some of the replays of my protoss matches, I can clearly see where I went wrong and what I need to do in the future.  The fault lies not with the race or the balance, but with my mechanics as a player.  That out of the way, let's dive into today's matches.

First was a ZvZ.  Typically I try to establish an ounce of early ling pressure so I can at least know what my opponent is up to, but today I didn't do that - mistake.  I needed to scout around early because my opponent went a 1 base roach all-in, which caught me totally by surprise and ended me right there.  I wanted to go into liar tech and get some mutas out, but I didn't have time.  I expanded early too - and the worst part is that I wasn't all that stupid, either.  I set up some base defenses - just a few seconds too late!!  I had one spine crawler, and another well on the way when the roaches hit.  If that second spine would have completed, there would have been enough time for me to finish the spire (already on the way) and get some mutas out to defend and harass.  Too late - the roaches rolled before anything could be done.  He was all-in for sure on the roaches too.

Second game was a TvZ - and since we're on the silver level, I was pretty sure I was going to see some bio play.  That's just the way terrans play at the low level.  I stayed at one base for the entire game - got a pool and baneling nest out and went full ling/baneling.  Normally I make a few pressing runs into my opponent's base, but I didn't do that - instead I sat outside his third and massed up a large army of ling/banelings.  A lot of banelings.  I kept reinforcing the army too - and then he dropped me.  Only one medivac of marines.  They quickly cut down my base (almost - my liar was at 100 hp!), so I had to move in immediately.  It looks like my opponent wasn't ready for any sort of counter - I busted down the pittance of a wall-in, exploded his army and scv's, and started working on his buildings.  I was also able to micro quite well - got some lings out in my own base in time to take out the landing force.  He lifted off, but the game was over by then.  I kept lings running under his buildings and the expansions scouted, and saw a factory had managed to land and produce a hellion (only one ling hitting the building couldn't kill it fast enough).  That's all he had left, and sent the hellion in on a suicide mission to my base.  It died and he left without a GG.

What did I learn today?
At the level I am, one-base plays are the way to go against zerg and terran.  Against zerg I have two options right now at my skill level.  I can go mass roaches or I can go mass muta.  Next game, I'm going to try going mass muta.  Throw down some statc defenses, get to fast liar and spire, macro hatch, and crank them mutas out.  Hopefully then I can out-harrass if my opponent goes mutas too, or I can catch them with their pants down with roach only.  Either way, I feel like I am more prepared for the next round of ZvZ.
Against terran, I feel like the only way to early play for me is to go with mass ling and baneling.  A priority should be better scouting - run a few lings up their ramp to get an idea of what's what in their base.  I can see if they're going bio or turtling in.  I can also actively deny any expo and keep them on one base as well.  My most recent opponent had ample static defenses, so muta play would not have been the cutting edge it could be.  I'll stick with the busts - and next time throw in a few upgrades too.

On a mechanical level my macro is getting better too.  I am spending my cash a lot better, and keeping up with creep spread and larvae injections.  This game was short enough so I was able to go back and forth to manage the creep tumors and larvae injections.  I'd like to have put down a few spore/spine crawlers in my base to deal with that marine drop, but it was dealt with easily enough in the end.  My micro is also crawling forward too - I managed a nice mass of lings in several different directions, scouting and denying building landings with them during the endgame.  I also kept up with production then too - starting to macro up in case my opponent had some hidden shenanigans somewhere.

All in all a good afternoon - learned a lot and saw improvement in my skills and rankings.