I was bored and wrote a thing because people keep asking us questions about this in the PS Room
Why Sleep is Bad in National Dex
There are many differences between National Dex and standard OU, both from a tiering perspective and a meta perspective. And yet, in the National Dex room, one of the main things that we are asked about is why Sleep is allowed. I won’t pretend to know the tiering nuances of banning sleep for standard OU tiers, since I largely stay in my NatDex bubble and have likely played less than 50 total games of current generation OU. I do, however, understand the general “why” of banning sleep. It’s an incredibly annoying status condition that forcibly incapacitates Pokemon in a way that isn’t replicated with any other status condition barring Freeze, which can’t be induced with any of the consistency that sleep can. Indeed, sleep inducing Pokemon have the potential to win games for their team by shutting down one of the opponents Pokemon or giving your win condition a free turn. Indeed, you would think that in National Dex, a metagame that has been battling offensive power creep since its debut, would have a place for a status condition that potentially gives any number of huge threats free turns or a favorable game condition.
This is simply not the case in practice. Sleep is incredibly rare in high level tournament play. I’ve more than likely watched more Gen 9 National Dex team tour games than anyone since the beginning of 2026 for my usage analysis posts. Hundreds of Zamazentas have crossed my screen since then, and dozens upon dozens of many others. And I can count the amount of time I’ve seen a sleep move come out on one hand. Anecdotally, it’s not common on ladder either, and no Pokemon that commonly runs a sleep inducing move is OU by usage. I believe there to currently be two main reasons for this.
The Absorbers
:sv/gholdengo::sv/gliscor:
I personally believe Gholdengo to be the single best Pokemon in National Dex, and while some people may disagree with me on it being the absolute best, I don't think any serious player would put it outside of the top three. There is no Pokemon that replicates its simultaneous offensive and defensive pressure by simply existing on the opponents team. It finds ample switch in opportunities onto passive Pokemon that make much of their progress through status conditions, and it itself can consistently force progress in a way that few Pokemon can. With boosted Z-Moves as a constant threat, even on defensive sets, this is not a Pokemon you want to be giving free turns to. And yet, for reasons we will get into later, almost every “viable” sleep user does just that. It’s simply too easy to throw Gholdengo into these Pokemon and start blasting as they are forced to flee.
Just Gholdengo in of itself might have been fine, but the sleepers have to contend with yet another threat. Gliscor has been a consistent thorn in their side for years, as its constantly Toxiced state makes it functionally status immune. While Gliscor isn’t quite at the heights of viability that it enjoyed in 2025, it’s still an ever present piece that must be accounted for when building, lest it litter the Ground with Spikes and spread Toxic to its hearts content, or just start boosting up itself if it is a Swords Dance set. This is another Pokemon that you really don’t want to be giving free switches to too often. Sure, Gliscor is 4X weak to Ice, which theoretically gives the sleepers an ability to hit it on the switch with a coverage move, but most of these are still not very strong, and if you get the prediction wrong then you are using what is likely a very weak move into whatever else your opponent has at their disposal. Both of these are also frequently on the same team, mind you, which further complicates matters. Even beyond this, there are your standard Grass-types that are immune to powder moves, or Regenerator pivots that can eat a sleep and conceivably get enough free turns throughout the game so that they can wake up again later.
Now, to be clear, I don’t think any of these on their own are disqualifying. Teams without either Gholdengo or Gliscor exist, so it’s far from out of the question where you would get a matchup where the sleep will be connecting and potentially give you the upper hand. Hell, if these were the only issues I’d be running sleep. Sadly (or thankfully, depending on your point of view), a far bigger issue is simply the quality of the sleepers.
To break this down further, I will be going over every single Pokemon that could conceivably run a sleep move in National Dex, and going over why they either A) don’t run sleep moves very often or B) just aren’t common or good in the first place.
The Grass-Types
:sv/venusaur-mega::sv/amoonguss::sv/tangrowth:
Three Grass-types that learn Spore or Sleep Powder are on the VR as of writing this: Mega Venusaur, Amoonguss, and Tangrowth (and standard Venusaur, technically, but thats a sun sweeper that can't afford to waste moveslots on Sleep Powder). Physically defensive Grass-types are of perpetual interest in National Dex thanks to their ability to counter Ogerpon-Wellspring and most Fighting-types. Of these, Mega Venusaur is by far the most viable, with its impressive bulk, Thick Fat, and solid overall coverage. This might seem like a recipe for a solid Sleep Powder user, especially since it forces out Ogerpon-Wellspring easily. This is unfortunately not the case. The vast, vast majority of Mega Venusaur users do not deviate from its standard set of Giga Drain, Sludge Bomb, Earth Power, and Synthesis. Synthesis is entirely non-negotiable for a Pokemon whose main flaw is its extreme vulnerability to chip damage. Sludge Bomb is also nigh mandatory, as it allows Mega Venusaur to immediately force out Wellspring and generally be annoying to switch into thanks to its solid Poison chance. This leaves Earth Power and Giga Drain, and dropping either of those is very hard to justify. Earth Power allows Mega Venusaur to dent various Steel-types that would otherwise switch in easily, including sleep’s mortal enemy in Gholdengo. Giga Drain lets Venusaur immediately threaten various Water- and Ground-types while also helping itself out with healing, and if you’ve never used Mega Venusaur before then let me tell you it really needs all the help it can get in that department. The end result is that dropping any of these moves for Sleep Powder just feels terrible, and even then it’s still not that hard for defensive Gholdengo or Gliscor to switch into you anyway.
But who needs Mega Venusaur, really, when there’s another Grass/Poison who can hold Heavy-Duty Boots and has Regenerator, and doesn’t even have to settle for the paltry accuracy of Sleep Powder, instead going for the classic Spore? Indeed, Amoonguss is also ranked on the VR, and has some great traits for this role at first glance. With Boots in hand and Regenerator helping it out, Amoonguss doesn’t have to click Synthesis every time it switches in with a layer of hazards down. It still forces out Wellspring easily, and it can conceivably fit Hidden Power Ice on its moveset to hit Gliscor. Sounds great right? Well, when you take a look under the hood, it kinda falls apart a little bit. First of all, the HP Ice thing sounds great in theory, but you also do less than 50% to Gliscor with it, so you don’t really prevent it from absorbing the move. You also have no way of even pretending to threaten a Gholdengo switch in, so you let it in for free every time you come in. This points to a broader issue with Amoonguss. Mega Venusaur has solid offensive stats to go along with its bulk, which is part of what can make it really annoying for certain bulky offense teams to deal with. Amoonguss can’t even pretend to do this; once it uses Spore it becomes literally the most passive Pokemon of all time. Hell, against Gholdengo teams it just feels that way even before a Pokemon on the opposing team has been slept. This practically makes Amoonguss a stall exclusive pick, as stall can fit hard Gholdengo answers that most teams can’t afford, such as Clodsire or Calm Mind Blissey, and it’s far from mandatory on these teams. To make matters worse, on such teams it doesn’t even always run Spore, since having an opponent slept instead of say, Toxiced, isn’t always ideal for stall teams.
Lastly for the viable trio, we have Tangrowth. A starkly different defensive profile, Tangrowth’s loss of the Poison-typing and worse mixed bulk is overall detrimental in the National Dex environment. It still counters Wellspring, and overall functions as a general physical wall, but its lack of special bulk or relevant special resistances makes it very vulnerable to most of the tier’s special attackers in a way that Mega Venusaur and Amoonguss don’t really have to worry about. Tangrowth also has no way of dealing with potential Gholdengo switch ins outside of Knock Off, which isn’t actually that threatening to most Z Move Gholdengo sets. Additionally, Tangrowth is very strapped for moveslots after the prerequisite Sleep Powder, Grass-STAB, and Knock Off. Hidden Power Ice pressures Gliscor, Landorus-T, and Garchomp, but you are setup fodder for Kingambit without Focus Blast. Anecdotally, Tangrowth just feels…really awful to use. It thuds into so many popular Pokemon, especially once its slept a foe, and it has to flee from every single good Special Attacker. Unless you run Assault Vest, which nobody does and can’t sleep opponents anyway.
If you wanna dive even deeper into the depths of “theoretical viability” then I guess you could look at Breloom and Smeargle and go “Hey look! Spore!” and try them out. I’m not gonna go in depth as to why these guys are bad though. Breloom has all of the same “easy to switch into” issues that the others have while also being a Grass/Fighting-type that doesn’t check anything that Fighting-types or Grass-types are supposed to check. Smeargle is outclassed as a Sticky Web lead by Araquanid and Ribombee, and Spore doesn’t really move the needle very much when the biggest battle that these leads fight is usually with Magic Bouncers.
The Hypnosis Guys
:sv/iron valiant::sv/ninetales::sv/xurkitree:
Listen, we know what kind of person you are if you’re unironically running Hypnosis. You’re here for a good time, 60% of the time, and you’re here to make sure that regardless of whether it lands or not your opponent is not going to enjoy their game. Darkrai is banned here, of course, so let’s look at what could conceivably run Hypnosis if you feel like doing a little bit of gambling.
Iron Valiant immediately stands out from a viability perspective. Theoretically Valiant can come in, land a Hypnosis, and start blasting or set up. Valiant is also much more threatening than the aforementioned Grass guys (moveset permitting of course), and can in particular erase Gliscor with Ice Punch. Of course, the problems begin with that coverage. Set up variants of Iron Valiant already have coverage issues with three moves at their disposal. With Hypnosis, you are either eschewing a set up move or running only two coverage moves, which simply does not leave you with enough moveslots to hit everything Iron Valiant needs to. This is further compounded by the fact that Valiant is pretty straight forward to revenge kill if it isn’t running Booster Energy, and Booster Energy sets simply aren’t very strong unboosted. Life Orb sets do exist, but they are almost exclusively run with Tapu Koko, who obviously has horrible synergy with any Hypnosis stuff. Practically, this doesn’t really work out unless you get a god matchup into a team that is probably very weak to other Iron Valiant sets, not just Hypnosis.
The other one I would like to mention is Ninetales and Alolan Ninetales and honestly, if I were to run Hypnosis on anything it would probably be this guy. Ninetales is a viable choice for a sun setter largely thanks to its access to Healing Wish, which can be really useful for sun teams as they looked to squeeze as much out of their breakers as possible. The downside being that its generally just…not good at all on its own terms. Usually it runs Will-o-Wisp to dissuade stuff like Tyranitar and Garchomp from switching in for free, but if you really wanted to you could run Hypnosis instead to ruin like Galarian Slowking or Tyranitar and then give a sun sweeper a free turn that could be critical in the long run. Gholdengo also can’t switch into it confidently, which is another point in its favor. Of course, Hypnosis is too inaccurate for this to be a reliable strategy, but if you really felt like living on the edge then I could see this being fine-ish. Alolan Ninetales isn’t generally considered viable, as Snow is extremely hard to build, but this would arguably make even more sense on Alolatales since it can’t even run Will-o-Wisp to burn Tyranitar, and Mega Charizard Y can usually switch into it pretty easily as well. Snow is very, very rare at top level, however (despite my personal affection for the playstyle), and even beyond that you still have just over a coinflip chance of Hypnosis landing even if you predict correctly with it. And even then, there isn’t a lot stopping Tyranitar or Mega Charizard Y from switching into you even while they are asleep to deny Aurora Veil.
I’ll give a cursory mention to Xurkitree because yeah we’ve all been cheesed by Z-Hypnosis but it’s also ridiculously easy for a lot of teams to revenge kill and loses to a lot of Grasses. Funny Pokemon and can definitely be frustrating but again not a consistent choice in the slightest and has had the same issues for like a decade at this point.
I hope this has shed some light as to why sleep is still legal here, and why it simply isn’t complained about that much. Sleep will not be allowed in Generation 10 National Dex, so hopefully this will immortalize this weird little footnote for this status condition in Generation 9. See you all in NDPL!
