I suffer from ladder anxiety, especially when I'm learning a new build.

A few nights ago, the first night of the new ladder season, I played my first ladder matches in a while and went 0-3. Some were better than other, but they were all losses.

I knew something was wrong, so I decided to ask for some help from the Terrans in my clan. The advice was pretty much gold. Well, at least it's most likely to get to Gold. Essentially, what clanmate was able to point out was that I was being pretty inconsistent in my build, and I had to make sure to stick to and practice that build. I've moved away from Vibe's Bronze to GM mech build, but I have a similar strategy (get close to maxing, move out), as I'm not good at micro yet.

My clanmate pointed me to Terrancraft, and after reading a bit, I settled on the Intermediate 1-1-1 build from Terrancraft. It takes you to the divergence point, but it was enough for me right now. The rest is expanding, building scvs, more production etc.

A couple things I noticed in the last days with this build:

• I was initially afraid of the add-on swapping. I am a LONG way from feeling comfortable, and there are gaps in my production and add-on building and swaps that won't serve me in higher leagues. That said, I committed to the idea that this was something I had to do. The results–faster production and stim upgrades earlier.
• Supply blocks are still a major issue, but more of an awareness. If I get past 46, I will get to triple digits before the next one. But I still have a long way to go here.
• Stim rocks. With this build, I'm getting it a bit earlier than I had been (I hadn't been getting at all with the Vibe build). I realized that having stim and enough marines makes a huge difference. It gives me the confidence to move out earlier (before 10 minutes, a true achievement for me) and with enough bio, I seem to handle mid-game skytoss so much better.

Over the the past few days, I practiced against the AI, and with exception of on time where I purposely had the computer play very hard skytoss, I won them all (very hard ai). Each time, the build got a bit tighter. Taking that build to the ladder, though, is another matter. I get nervous; I see probes and freak; where is the banshee? So I finally clicked play tonight with my new build. The result: 4-0. I'll be the first to tell you that wins don't mean everything, but they are nice. I feel better playing a tight build and losing to someone better rather than playing horribly but winning, but playing a good game and winning is a great feeling and validates the practice time.

Remember to build your supply depots!