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OU DPP OU Metagame Discussion Thread

I'll be posting my teamdump I've built myself in 2025 that I've still used in 2026. Will ramble about specific teams and structure without much planning, as I'm on my way to take a break/leave from the tier/smogon for a long time. Explained it more in my previous posts, but this isn't rlly relevant to the post anyway so dw. There's not much else where I can talk about things that interested me, so better now than never.

Skjermbilde 2026-08-16 161742.png

This is my go-to click team whenever I feel like wanting to flowchart with little thoughts or when certain ladder periods encourage me to use this. It's basically a Sash-focused team where your game plan is to remove hazard users in an overwhelming brute force way. Sash Gliscor + Scizor is designed to combat Scarf Rotom + Gengar, along with SpA invested Starmie to dish out damage. The SpDef bulk on Scizor helps massively against Timid Starmie and other Specs attacks in order to give it a bit more longevity to abuse Scarf + U-turn. Originally the 4th move was Bullet Punch, but I didn't like the lack of damage gave some mons the opportunity to just stay in and roost freely. Knowing I ran Toxic on Scarf Scizor on one of George's builds, I implemented it here, and it gave me some critical success. I forgot the Starmie's 76s Def on bulk on specific rolls, but it helped me to minimize chances to die to any CB Ttar, probably like surviving +1 Jolly Crunch from Ttar as my assumption. The last three are just synergistic mons to just overwhelm and force trades tl;dr. Dragonite and Lucario both tend to force trades, but are often played with ppl assuming it's Life Orb or Choiced on Luc, or it's just clicking strong moves on Dnite as a trade. Sash just don't rlly give a fuck, and I've honestly just won by maintaining sash at the games pretty well lol. The NP Celebi covers certain scenarios vs like Steel types, DD HO, and Suicune, as my team is rather awkward, as my intuition told me. Now the team is extremely flawed regardless lmao. Good hazard stack, Sub Rotom as a whole, and just prone to para and being forced to mixture 3-4 mons for Sub Rachi is not ideal for consistency, but I found it worthwhile to talk about it as I've been around 1450-1650 consistently, as it kinda takes advantage of how "conditions on scenarios" in a very straightforward way.

Skjermbilde 2026-08-16 163632.png

Definitely one of the 2 am building moments I built back in Machamp suspect lmao. This team carried me so much, specifically on Machamp ladder, and it's a team I still think of this day occasionally. Not sure if this is a weird structure that can be optimized or not look as goofy like this, but I've always found double spin kinda awesome af, and the concept of Zapdos abusing hazards in DPP OU a strong possibility despite the tricky synergy alr. Here are other similar builds I think I used along with this one.

https://pokepast.es/e95fff391c4da3f7
https://pokepast.es/82685dd737782d34

Skjermbilde 2026-08-16 164421.png

Another unorthodox I've made is a Sub Jolteon team, inspired by one Kristyl and Tycarter's Jolt teams. This team is definitely designed without Loom, as I've built two SkarmJolts teams before in the sleep meta: https://pokepast.es/30ad792a3ba03372 and https://pokepast.es/8dee542ed9028db0
I'm not rlly good at explaining the process except that most of them are built like that due to defensive + offensive synergy meshes well. I've used SkarmJolt twice in tours, once in DPP PL and DPP Trio vs George with the Zong one. If you wonder, the Lucario set has the most unhinged EV spread like that; I like sub not breaking, and this was designed with that in mind to tank on CB Ttar's guaranteed. And the Occa Bronzong is there bc of Heatran and Infernape, which was an intuitive reason. Pretty fun team until the opponent knows it, so you will see some of the wackiest ct plays on ladder like lmao. But otherwise I enjoyed using this whenever I felt like laddering with one of my many alts.

Skjermbilde 2026-08-16 171606.png

If you've played ladder a few years ago, or encountered me or know me decently enough, you are somewhat aware of the existence of this cheesy strategy. Lady Bug used the top one vs Laurel as SPL, but unfortunately there was a bit of unluck, but more on misplays rip. Despite how infamous I am with this cheese in DPPCord, I've never talked about it in here and only briefly with Probobass for DPP Ladder Achievements. The whole theory of this concept is that you're trapping a Steel type and cripple it in some way, so your endgame Magnezone sets up with Starf + Recycle and then proceeds to sweep the whole team. This concept should always work in any DPP OU metagame in theory because of as the 99% of the teams are always Steel-type, and there's a high chance the Steel-type mon runs any hazard moves, or clicks a non-super effective move on the Magnets. It's always an unspoken rule to understand that if you want to build viable teams, you're forced to bring a Steel-type, and I'd say if you observed the teambuilding and Top Players, this rule will always be applied as timeless.

I've done that enough in plenty of times that people had to make absurd adjustments to avoid the cheese, and gotten DMs about the cheese by some ladder specifics, funny enough. I'd pull it out in tours against inexperienced players, and even if the strategy doesn't work, some of the teams are good enough for me that I still have a chance to win it out despite the failed moment. To use this, you've to approach the game from a very different angle and use heavy emphasis on conditioning your opponent and luring them out. So this requires a slightly more technical understand how the tier is played, in short. I'll make a quick comment that the spinning is more consistent than non-spinning, as it gives you many more opportunities to condition your opponent, thinking that you want rocks away, and eventually force them to use hazard once the spinner is gone, which is a strong conditioned opportunity for you to take advantage of. As for some sets, most Rachi leads are designed with the bulk of taking on any Heatran sequences at lead, but otherwise not much else to say, I guess.

1786910189130.png

Roserade in itself is where I'm the most known for in the community, for better or worse lmao. Now, when it comes to the teams themselves, it has a problem that hasn't been completely solved or found a satisfying answer yet. Roserade teams are capable of handling all archetypes in my mind, but the dilemma is how much it can cover against playstyle in one team. And the big obstacle is whether it's capable of handling Stall + Offense, specifically Bulky Offense and Hyper Offense types of builds at the same time. My answer to that is no atm, and I find it a huge challenge that's not answered rlly. The difficulties can come in many different ways, such as awkward timing to pressure for Lefties Metagross/Heatran in certain builds with no spikes and lack of long-term switch-ins vs both of them, Taunt Gyarados being a nuisance against lots of Roserade teams, esp with Swampert paths. Stall with Tspikes + Hippo or fat steels like Protect Metagross, etc. My point is that the problem is a problem that I failed to answer for now, as the closest in my mind is Hazard Stack Roserade+ Sub CM Rachi, as ngl, that Osgoode set is lowkey cheating and with Tspikes it simplifies the gameplan in so many ways lol.

As for the teams, the top one is most updated and obviously my own take on the sample team from Osgoode. The EV specifics are like adding more speed on Roserade + Heatran to maneuver around vs 220 Empo and Adamant CB Ttar, but I've changed the sets in a way to be more unfair. Tspikes + Phazing is honestly so broken that I'll talk bout it later, but using double Phazing gives me so many weird long-term plays and cripples mons that Rachi appreciates a ton. It makes the team super lame to play against as it's tedious and you're prone to get flinched by Rachi, etc n such. It has some struggles handling vs Metagross Lefties, Taunt Gyarados, Bronzong, and especially Mixgon that kinda don't rlly give a fuck on half of the tiers. But otherwise it does its job. All teams up here besides the top 2 and 3 are built in Pre-Sleep, and that SpDef team was used only once vs George at DPP trio. Lowkey cringe and evil team, but that's just how I can be at times lol.

While I like Roserade for casual + competitive reasons, eventually I was more interested in T-Spikes in DPP OU as a whole. I've built and used different T-Spikes mons; I even tried T-Spikes Smeargle because there was something that caught my attention about the move as a whole. With sleep being banned and indirectly reducing Breloom's usage in the tier, a heavy amount of increase in grounded mons surged in 2026. Less Breloom matters for the T-Spikes users as Loom tends to overwhelm most viable T-Spikes users in the long term, despite many of them having the typing to check it, and that's a death rule of having a supposed Loom check being reduced by chip damage, and that's not accounting for sleep, mind you. T-Spikes users have a much better time managing around Loom without the need to slow down the pace bc of Spore, and therefore the team has a slightly easier way to map out the sequences vs generally. As mentioned, with the higher usage on Grounded Mon, Tyranitar, and Donphan, structured teams became more popular here, and the same goes for certain offensive teams that bring mons like Suicune, Swampert, Infernape, etc. So after seeing/playing the tour games and having been overusing it a lot on ladder, I think it's extremely overtuned in a cheap way. Its biggest weakness has always been the users and awkward time to fit, but atm, how the meta has shaped itself, I'd also believe they've gotten enough interactions to be active in the field that it can easily bypass many teams by the threat of T-Spikes alone. An opinion of mine is that it should be able to win against two grounded mons unless that team has a grounded poison mon; examples on cores are CB Ttar + Donphan/Starmie, Celebi + Starmie, Infernape + Ttar Suit/Water mons, etc. A what-if theory I've always been thinking of is that if there is a state where oppressive mons like Defensive Latias and Zapdos(think with like Protect/Roar w/ T-Spikes) have found the perfect structure to invalidate Ttar by T-Spikes pressure alone, and then the team has a perfect response to handle the Steel types, for Latias it's most likely Metagross, Scizor, and Empo, while Zapdos is lowkey Heatran, and some specific Rachi sets alr. Just in a very flowchart way where it kinda centralizes the meta. I wonder if that's something people complained about in the past, as BKC mentioned smth with that before Clef was popular; people were frustrated with hazard stack, and that kinda lived behind my mind occasionally. The thing with me is that I'm a type of player that likes to try and push the meta to its limits, often pushing the meta in a way that it's "feeling" to be solved. Basically the worst type of player you can have lowkey. Unfortunately, DPP OU is one of the few tiers I've struggled to do so as there are so many obstacles and "rules" you have to take into account, and being inaccurate on that matters enough for me. It's pretty much the biggest reason why I've a hard time building and adapting to it, as it's just a very complex tier with many things to factor in, and it's just "impossible" for me to make a satisfied team with these rules intact. That was in the Loom-meta, of course, but now my intuition tells me there's something that can feel "solved or aging very well" as the meta's pace on offense and defense has made the tier inherently slower in my mind. If there's something I'd like to figure out, if it's true, it's if there's another path of using T-Spikes but having oppressive mons/structures against the current stall teams without the reliance of Thunder Ihead Rachi, maybe...

If I'll be back on this tier and site again, I'll approach the tier differently than I would do now, both in building style and mindset, and find out an appropriate style for this tier since DPP OU is fun af. I did not build teams for shit post-sleep ban, and it infuriates me to no end when I tried; I lost the motivation to continue, not fun af. But it can be; I'll not come back for 5 years to a decade, idk. Not worth worrying about that, and best to focus on what's important.

With that said, I played a good amount of DPP tours for 2026 and did better than I expected, not gonna lie. But I wouldn't get these results if I didn't have strong connections to the high/top players' teams lol, so all credit to them. With that said, there are some shoutouts I feel that deserve to carry me in here.

Student of Sinnoh One of my closest buddies in this tier and one of the longest ones within the DPP community. I remember meeting you back when I was a 1300-ish noob, and honestly didn't expect our relationship to bloom so hard. You've helped me so much in team tours before I was known. In Pokemon Perfect team tours, RoaPL and gotten me in DPP playoffs by the end of the year, but not only that, I've gotten much better as a player bc of your builds and discussions we have had. Nowadays we are both a little chilled out from talking mons and talking more about general things instead, but still I wouldn't be here if I didn't continue our discussions back from the BKCcord when that was the DPPcord before the server existed haha!

TyCarter Even to this day, I don't know when we started to talk so much together. You mentioned one of the Pokemon Perfect PL was when we first met, but I think at some point you asked me to help with preparation and building style, and it just never really stopped since then. SoS may be a bit jelly, but I def talked to you more than him in 2024, which is crazy for me. I'm glad you've evolved and have found some place in the community on DPP/Smogon overall, and I wish you the best to achieve the goals you want from here. It's been a huge pleasure to get to express myself, and I'm glad I had an important impact on your tournament runs <3

PDC Not sure why and when you continued to talk to me, but I suppose after our numerous ladder games at 1500/1600 ratings, you eventually came to talk to me about building teams, eventually some preparation and things just exploded from there. Admittedly, at that point I didn't know your rep or impact on the tier, despite seeing you play here and there from SPL, e.g. With that said, I've talked to you most in terms of DPP discussions in 2025 and 2026, and highkey been carried by you even if they are tricky to pivot for most other people. Congratulations on succeeding at so many things in 2025, and eventually you may hunt down DPP in SPL specifically alone or with others; you got it, boss. I'll say I'm sorry for putting you in the last 30 min prep vs my opponent on certain builds and deciding moves so many times; the worst ones are pivoting teams with piss poor performance!! But seriously though, it was super fun to talk with you, and I cannot be thankful enough to you.

There are more players I would talk about, like Le Don, Byrum, Hugo, Aubury, etc, but I'm pretty emotionally drained from these damn posts in the past weeks lol. I can say thanks to the DPP community for making my time as enjoyable as possible. I've been playing the tier for 5+ years, I'd believe, and damn, I feel a little old rn lol.

Thanks for reading my metagame posts. Here's the full builder before I wipe the teams from showdown: https://pokepast.es/804f33af0f6bd02a
 
I'll be posting my teamdump I've built myself in 2025 that I've still used in 2026. Will ramble about specific teams and structure without much planning, as I'm on my way to take a break/leave from the tier/smogon for a long time. Explained it more in my previous posts, but this isn't rlly relevant to the post anyway so dw. There's not much else where I can talk about things that interested me, so better now than never.

View attachment 856186

This is my go-to click team whenever I feel like wanting to flowchart with little thoughts or when certain ladder periods encourage me to use this. It's basically a Sash-focused team where your game plan is to remove hazard users in an overwhelming brute force way. Sash Gliscor + Scizor is designed to combat Scarf Rotom + Gengar, along with SpA invested Starmie to dish out damage. The SpDef bulk on Scizor helps massively against Timid Starmie and other Specs attacks in order to give it a bit more longevity to abuse Scarf + U-turn. Originally the 4th move was Bullet Punch, but I didn't like the lack of damage gave some mons the opportunity to just stay in and roost freely. Knowing I ran Toxic on Scarf Scizor on one of George's builds, I implemented it here, and it gave me some critical success. I forgot the Starmie's 76s Def on bulk on specific rolls, but it helped me to minimize chances to die to any CB Ttar, probably like surviving +1 Jolly Crunch from Ttar as my assumption. The last three are just synergistic mons to just overwhelm and force trades tl;dr. Dragonite and Lucario both tend to force trades, but are often played with ppl assuming it's Life Orb or Choiced on Luc, or it's just clicking strong moves on Dnite as a trade. Sash just don't rlly give a fuck, and I've honestly just won by maintaining sash at the games pretty well lol. The NP Celebi covers certain scenarios vs like Steel types, DD HO, and Suicune, as my team is rather awkward, as my intuition told me. Now the team is extremely flawed regardless lmao. Good hazard stack, Sub Rotom as a whole, and just prone to para and being forced to mixture 3-4 mons for Sub Rachi is not ideal for consistency, but I found it worthwhile to talk about it as I've been around 1450-1650 consistently, as it kinda takes advantage of how "conditions on scenarios" in a very straightforward way.

View attachment 856187

Definitely one of the 2 am building moments I built back in Machamp suspect lmao. This team carried me so much, specifically on Machamp ladder, and it's a team I still think of this day occasionally. Not sure if this is a weird structure that can be optimized or not look as goofy like this, but I've always found double spin kinda awesome af, and the concept of Zapdos abusing hazards in DPP OU a strong possibility despite the tricky synergy alr. Here are other similar builds I think I used along with this one.

https://pokepast.es/e95fff391c4da3f7
https://pokepast.es/82685dd737782d34

View attachment 856188

Another unorthodox I've made is a Sub Jolteon team, inspired by one Kristyl and Tycarter's Jolt teams. This team is definitely designed without Loom, as I've built two SkarmJolts teams before in the sleep meta: https://pokepast.es/30ad792a3ba03372 and https://pokepast.es/8dee542ed9028db0
I'm not rlly good at explaining the process except that most of them are built like that due to defensive + offensive synergy meshes well. I've used SkarmJolt twice in tours, once in DPP PL and DPP Trio vs George with the Zong one. If you wonder, the Lucario set has the most unhinged EV spread like that; I like sub not breaking, and this was designed with that in mind to tank on CB Ttar's guaranteed. And the Occa Bronzong is there bc of Heatran and Infernape, which was an intuitive reason. Pretty fun team until the opponent knows it, so you will see some of the wackiest ct plays on ladder like lmao. But otherwise I enjoyed using this whenever I felt like laddering with one of my many alts.

View attachment 856189

If you've played ladder a few years ago, or encountered me or know me decently enough, you are somewhat aware of the existence of this cheesy strategy. Lady Bug used the top one vs Laurel as SPL, but unfortunately there was a bit of unluck, but more on misplays rip. Despite how infamous I am with this cheese in DPPCord, I've never talked about it in here and only briefly with Probobass for DPP Ladder Achievements. The whole theory of this concept is that you're trapping a Steel type and cripple it in some way, so your endgame Magnezone sets up with Starf + Recycle and then proceeds to sweep the whole team. This concept should always work in any DPP OU metagame in theory because of as the 99% of the teams are always Steel-type, and there's a high chance the Steel-type mon runs any hazard moves, or clicks a non-super effective move on the Magnets. It's always an unspoken rule to understand that if you want to build viable teams, you're forced to bring a Steel-type, and I'd say if you observed the teambuilding and Top Players, this rule will always be applied as timeless.

I've done that enough in plenty of times that people had to make absurd adjustments to avoid the cheese, and gotten DMs about the cheese by some ladder specifics, funny enough. I'd pull it out in tours against inexperienced players, and even if the strategy doesn't work, some of the teams are good enough for me that I still have a chance to win it out despite the failed moment. To use this, you've to approach the game from a very different angle and use heavy emphasis on conditioning your opponent and luring them out. So this requires a slightly more technical understand how the tier is played, in short. I'll make a quick comment that the spinning is more consistent than non-spinning, as it gives you many more opportunities to condition your opponent, thinking that you want rocks away, and eventually force them to use hazard once the spinner is gone, which is a strong conditioned opportunity for you to take advantage of. As for some sets, most Rachi leads are designed with the bulk of taking on any Heatran sequences at lead, but otherwise not much else to say, I guess.

View attachment 856185

Roserade in itself is where I'm the most known for in the community, for better or worse lmao. Now, when it comes to the teams themselves, it has a problem that hasn't been completely solved or found a satisfying answer yet. Roserade teams are capable of handling all archetypes in my mind, but the dilemma is how much it can cover against playstyle in one team. And the big obstacle is whether it's capable of handling Stall + Offense, specifically Bulky Offense and Hyper Offense types of builds at the same time. My answer to that is no atm, and I find it a huge challenge that's not answered rlly. The difficulties can come in many different ways, such as awkward timing to pressure for Lefties Metagross/Heatran in certain builds with no spikes and lack of long-term switch-ins vs both of them, Taunt Gyarados being a nuisance against lots of Roserade teams, esp with Swampert paths. Stall with Tspikes + Hippo or fat steels like Protect Metagross, etc. My point is that the problem is a problem that I failed to answer for now, as the closest in my mind is Hazard Stack Roserade+ Sub CM Rachi, as ngl, that Osgoode set is lowkey cheating and with Tspikes it simplifies the gameplan in so many ways lol.

As for the teams, the top one is most updated and obviously my own take on the sample team from Osgoode. The EV specifics are like adding more speed on Roserade + Heatran to maneuver around vs 220 Empo and Adamant CB Ttar, but I've changed the sets in a way to be more unfair. Tspikes + Phazing is honestly so broken that I'll talk bout it later, but using double Phazing gives me so many weird long-term plays and cripples mons that Rachi appreciates a ton. It makes the team super lame to play against as it's tedious and you're prone to get flinched by Rachi, etc n such. It has some struggles handling vs Metagross Lefties, Taunt Gyarados, Bronzong, and especially Mixgon that kinda don't rlly give a fuck on half of the tiers. But otherwise it does its job. All teams up here besides the top 2 and 3 are built in Pre-Sleep, and that SpDef team was used only once vs George at DPP trio. Lowkey cringe and evil team, but that's just how I can be at times lol.

While I like Roserade for casual + competitive reasons, eventually I was more interested in T-Spikes in DPP OU as a whole. I've built and used different T-Spikes mons; I even tried T-Spikes Smeargle because there was something that caught my attention about the move as a whole. With sleep being banned and indirectly reducing Breloom's usage in the tier, a heavy amount of increase in grounded mons surged in 2026. Less Breloom matters for the T-Spikes users as Loom tends to overwhelm most viable T-Spikes users in the long term, despite many of them having the typing to check it, and that's a death rule of having a supposed Loom check being reduced by chip damage, and that's not accounting for sleep, mind you. T-Spikes users have a much better time managing around Loom without the need to slow down the pace bc of Spore, and therefore the team has a slightly easier way to map out the sequences vs generally. As mentioned, with the higher usage on Grounded Mon, Tyranitar, and Donphan, structured teams became more popular here, and the same goes for certain offensive teams that bring mons like Suicune, Swampert, Infernape, etc. So after seeing/playing the tour games and having been overusing it a lot on ladder, I think it's extremely overtuned in a cheap way. Its biggest weakness has always been the users and awkward time to fit, but atm, how the meta has shaped itself, I'd also believe they've gotten enough interactions to be active in the field that it can easily bypass many teams by the threat of T-Spikes alone. An opinion of mine is that it should be able to win against two grounded mons unless that team has a grounded poison mon; examples on cores are CB Ttar + Donphan/Starmie, Celebi + Starmie, Infernape + Ttar Suit/Water mons, etc. A what-if theory I've always been thinking of is that if there is a state where oppressive mons like Defensive Latias and Zapdos(think with like Protect/Roar w/ T-Spikes) have found the perfect structure to invalidate Ttar by T-Spikes pressure alone, and then the team has a perfect response to handle the Steel types, for Latias it's most likely Metagross, Scizor, and Empo, while Zapdos is lowkey Heatran, and some specific Rachi sets alr. Just in a very flowchart way where it kinda centralizes the meta. I wonder if that's something people complained about in the past, as BKC mentioned smth with that before Clef was popular; people were frustrated with hazard stack, and that kinda lived behind my mind occasionally. The thing with me is that I'm a type of player that likes to try and push the meta to its limits, often pushing the meta in a way that it's "feeling" to be solved. Basically the worst type of player you can have lowkey. Unfortunately, DPP OU is one of the few tiers I've struggled to do so as there are so many obstacles and "rules" you have to take into account, and being inaccurate on that matters enough for me. It's pretty much the biggest reason why I've a hard time building and adapting to it, as it's just a very complex tier with many things to factor in, and it's just "impossible" for me to make a satisfied team with these rules intact. That was in the Loom-meta, of course, but now my intuition tells me there's something that can feel "solved or aging very well" as the meta's pace on offense and defense has made the tier inherently slower in my mind. If there's something I'd like to figure out, if it's true, it's if there's another path of using T-Spikes but having oppressive mons/structures against the current stall teams without the reliance of Thunder Ihead Rachi, maybe...

If I'll be back on this tier and site again, I'll approach the tier differently than I would do now, both in building style and mindset, and find out an appropriate style for this tier since DPP OU is fun af. I did not build teams for shit post-sleep ban, and it infuriates me to no end when I tried; I lost the motivation to continue, not fun af. But it can be; I'll not come back for 5 years to a decade, idk. Not worth worrying about that, and best to focus on what's important.

With that said, I played a good amount of DPP tours for 2026 and did better than I expected, not gonna lie. But I wouldn't get these results if I didn't have strong connections to the high/top players' teams lol, so all credit to them. With that said, there are some shoutouts I feel that deserve to carry me in here.

Student of Sinnoh One of my closest buddies in this tier and one of the longest ones within the DPP community. I remember meeting you back when I was a 1300-ish noob, and honestly didn't expect our relationship to bloom so hard. You've helped me so much in team tours before I was known. In Pokemon Perfect team tours, RoaPL and gotten me in DPP playoffs by the end of the year, but not only that, I've gotten much better as a player bc of your builds and discussions we have had. Nowadays we are both a little chilled out from talking mons and talking more about general things instead, but still I wouldn't be here if I didn't continue our discussions back from the BKCcord when that was the DPPcord before the server existed haha!

TyCarter Even to this day, I don't know when we started to talk so much together. You mentioned one of the Pokemon Perfect PL was when we first met, but I think at some point you asked me to help with preparation and building style, and it just never really stopped since then. SoS may be a bit jelly, but I def talked to you more than him in 2024, which is crazy for me. I'm glad you've evolved and have found some place in the community on DPP/Smogon overall, and I wish you the best to achieve the goals you want from here. It's been a huge pleasure to get to express myself, and I'm glad I had an important impact on your tournament runs <3

PDC Not sure why and when you continued to talk to me, but I suppose after our numerous ladder games at 1500/1600 ratings, you eventually came to talk to me about building teams, eventually some preparation and things just exploded from there. Admittedly, at that point I didn't know your rep or impact on the tier, despite seeing you play here and there from SPL, e.g. With that said, I've talked to you most in terms of DPP discussions in 2025 and 2026, and highkey been carried by you even if they are tricky to pivot for most other people. Congratulations on succeeding at so many things in 2025, and eventually you may hunt down DPP in SPL specifically alone or with others; you got it, boss. I'll say I'm sorry for putting you in the last 30 min prep vs my opponent on certain builds and deciding moves so many times; the worst ones are pivoting teams with piss poor performance!! But seriously though, it was super fun to talk with you, and I cannot be thankful enough to you.

There are more players I would talk about, like Le Don, Byrum, Hugo, Aubury, etc, but I'm pretty emotionally drained from these damn posts in the past weeks lol. I can say thanks to the DPP community for making my time as enjoyable as possible. I've been playing the tier for 5+ years, I'd believe, and damn, I feel a little old rn lol.

Thanks for reading my metagame posts. Here's the full builder before I wipe the teams from showdown: https://pokepast.es/804f33af0f6bd02a
Interesting, I thought only sash & utility Rose is viable since sleep is banned. But good work on scarf Rose!
 
I'll be posting my teamdump I've built myself in 2025 that I've still used in 2026. Will ramble about specific teams and structure without much planning, as I'm on my way to take a break/leave from the tier/smogon for a long time. Explained it more in my previous posts, but this isn't rlly relevant to the post anyway so dw. There's not much else where I can talk about things that interested me, so better now than never.

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This is my go-to click team whenever I feel like wanting to flowchart with little thoughts or when certain ladder periods encourage me to use this. It's basically a Sash-focused team where your game plan is to remove hazard users in an overwhelming brute force way. Sash Gliscor + Scizor is designed to combat Scarf Rotom + Gengar, along with SpA invested Starmie to dish out damage. The SpDef bulk on Scizor helps massively against Timid Starmie and other Specs attacks in order to give it a bit more longevity to abuse Scarf + U-turn. Originally the 4th move was Bullet Punch, but I didn't like the lack of damage gave some mons the opportunity to just stay in and roost freely. Knowing I ran Toxic on Scarf Scizor on one of George's builds, I implemented it here, and it gave me some critical success. I forgot the Starmie's 76s Def on bulk on specific rolls, but it helped me to minimize chances to die to any CB Ttar, probably like surviving +1 Jolly Crunch from Ttar as my assumption. The last three are just synergistic mons to just overwhelm and force trades tl;dr. Dragonite and Lucario both tend to force trades, but are often played with ppl assuming it's Life Orb or Choiced on Luc, or it's just clicking strong moves on Dnite as a trade. Sash just don't rlly give a fuck, and I've honestly just won by maintaining sash at the games pretty well lol. The NP Celebi covers certain scenarios vs like Steel types, DD HO, and Suicune, as my team is rather awkward, as my intuition told me. Now the team is extremely flawed regardless lmao. Good hazard stack, Sub Rotom as a whole, and just prone to para and being forced to mixture 3-4 mons for Sub Rachi is not ideal for consistency, but I found it worthwhile to talk about it as I've been around 1450-1650 consistently, as it kinda takes advantage of how "conditions on scenarios" in a very straightforward way.

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Definitely one of the 2 am building moments I built back in Machamp suspect lmao. This team carried me so much, specifically on Machamp ladder, and it's a team I still think of this day occasionally. Not sure if this is a weird structure that can be optimized or not look as goofy like this, but I've always found double spin kinda awesome af, and the concept of Zapdos abusing hazards in DPP OU a strong possibility despite the tricky synergy alr. Here are other similar builds I think I used along with this one.

https://pokepast.es/e95fff391c4da3f7
https://pokepast.es/82685dd737782d34

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Another unorthodox I've made is a Sub Jolteon team, inspired by one Kristyl and Tycarter's Jolt teams. This team is definitely designed without Loom, as I've built two SkarmJolts teams before in the sleep meta: https://pokepast.es/30ad792a3ba03372 and https://pokepast.es/8dee542ed9028db0
I'm not rlly good at explaining the process except that most of them are built like that due to defensive + offensive synergy meshes well. I've used SkarmJolt twice in tours, once in DPP PL and DPP Trio vs George with the Zong one. If you wonder, the Lucario set has the most unhinged EV spread like that; I like sub not breaking, and this was designed with that in mind to tank on CB Ttar's guaranteed. And the Occa Bronzong is there bc of Heatran and Infernape, which was an intuitive reason. Pretty fun team until the opponent knows it, so you will see some of the wackiest ct plays on ladder like lmao. But otherwise I enjoyed using this whenever I felt like laddering with one of my many alts.

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If you've played ladder a few years ago, or encountered me or know me decently enough, you are somewhat aware of the existence of this cheesy strategy. Lady Bug used the top one vs Laurel as SPL, but unfortunately there was a bit of unluck, but more on misplays rip. Despite how infamous I am with this cheese in DPPCord, I've never talked about it in here and only briefly with Probobass for DPP Ladder Achievements. The whole theory of this concept is that you're trapping a Steel type and cripple it in some way, so your endgame Magnezone sets up with Starf + Recycle and then proceeds to sweep the whole team. This concept should always work in any DPP OU metagame in theory because of as the 99% of the teams are always Steel-type, and there's a high chance the Steel-type mon runs any hazard moves, or clicks a non-super effective move on the Magnets. It's always an unspoken rule to understand that if you want to build viable teams, you're forced to bring a Steel-type, and I'd say if you observed the teambuilding and Top Players, this rule will always be applied as timeless.

I've done that enough in plenty of times that people had to make absurd adjustments to avoid the cheese, and gotten DMs about the cheese by some ladder specifics, funny enough. I'd pull it out in tours against inexperienced players, and even if the strategy doesn't work, some of the teams are good enough for me that I still have a chance to win it out despite the failed moment. To use this, you've to approach the game from a very different angle and use heavy emphasis on conditioning your opponent and luring them out. So this requires a slightly more technical understand how the tier is played, in short. I'll make a quick comment that the spinning is more consistent than non-spinning, as it gives you many more opportunities to condition your opponent, thinking that you want rocks away, and eventually force them to use hazard once the spinner is gone, which is a strong conditioned opportunity for you to take advantage of. As for some sets, most Rachi leads are designed with the bulk of taking on any Heatran sequences at lead, but otherwise not much else to say, I guess.

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Roserade in itself is where I'm the most known for in the community, for better or worse lmao. Now, when it comes to the teams themselves, it has a problem that hasn't been completely solved or found a satisfying answer yet. Roserade teams are capable of handling all archetypes in my mind, but the dilemma is how much it can cover against playstyle in one team. And the big obstacle is whether it's capable of handling Stall + Offense, specifically Bulky Offense and Hyper Offense types of builds at the same time. My answer to that is no atm, and I find it a huge challenge that's not answered rlly. The difficulties can come in many different ways, such as awkward timing to pressure for Lefties Metagross/Heatran in certain builds with no spikes and lack of long-term switch-ins vs both of them, Taunt Gyarados being a nuisance against lots of Roserade teams, esp with Swampert paths. Stall with Tspikes + Hippo or fat steels like Protect Metagross, etc. My point is that the problem is a problem that I failed to answer for now, as the closest in my mind is Hazard Stack Roserade+ Sub CM Rachi, as ngl, that Osgoode set is lowkey cheating and with Tspikes it simplifies the gameplan in so many ways lol.

As for the teams, the top one is most updated and obviously my own take on the sample team from Osgoode. The EV specifics are like adding more speed on Roserade + Heatran to maneuver around vs 220 Empo and Adamant CB Ttar, but I've changed the sets in a way to be more unfair. Tspikes + Phazing is honestly so broken that I'll talk bout it later, but using double Phazing gives me so many weird long-term plays and cripples mons that Rachi appreciates a ton. It makes the team super lame to play against as it's tedious and you're prone to get flinched by Rachi, etc n such. It has some struggles handling vs Metagross Lefties, Taunt Gyarados, Bronzong, and especially Mixgon that kinda don't rlly give a fuck on half of the tiers. But otherwise it does its job. All teams up here besides the top 2 and 3 are built in Pre-Sleep, and that SpDef team was used only once vs George at DPP trio. Lowkey cringe and evil team, but that's just how I can be at times lol.

While I like Roserade for casual + competitive reasons, eventually I was more interested in T-Spikes in DPP OU as a whole. I've built and used different T-Spikes mons; I even tried T-Spikes Smeargle because there was something that caught my attention about the move as a whole. With sleep being banned and indirectly reducing Breloom's usage in the tier, a heavy amount of increase in grounded mons surged in 2026. Less Breloom matters for the T-Spikes users as Loom tends to overwhelm most viable T-Spikes users in the long term, despite many of them having the typing to check it, and that's a death rule of having a supposed Loom check being reduced by chip damage, and that's not accounting for sleep, mind you. T-Spikes users have a much better time managing around Loom without the need to slow down the pace bc of Spore, and therefore the team has a slightly easier way to map out the sequences vs generally. As mentioned, with the higher usage on Grounded Mon, Tyranitar, and Donphan, structured teams became more popular here, and the same goes for certain offensive teams that bring mons like Suicune, Swampert, Infernape, etc. So after seeing/playing the tour games and having been overusing it a lot on ladder, I think it's extremely overtuned in a cheap way. Its biggest weakness has always been the users and awkward time to fit, but atm, how the meta has shaped itself, I'd also believe they've gotten enough interactions to be active in the field that it can easily bypass many teams by the threat of T-Spikes alone. An opinion of mine is that it should be able to win against two grounded mons unless that team has a grounded poison mon; examples on cores are CB Ttar + Donphan/Starmie, Celebi + Starmie, Infernape + Ttar Suit/Water mons, etc. A what-if theory I've always been thinking of is that if there is a state where oppressive mons like Defensive Latias and Zapdos(think with like Protect/Roar w/ T-Spikes) have found the perfect structure to invalidate Ttar by T-Spikes pressure alone, and then the team has a perfect response to handle the Steel types, for Latias it's most likely Metagross, Scizor, and Empo, while Zapdos is lowkey Heatran, and some specific Rachi sets alr. Just in a very flowchart way where it kinda centralizes the meta. I wonder if that's something people complained about in the past, as BKC mentioned smth with that before Clef was popular; people were frustrated with hazard stack, and that kinda lived behind my mind occasionally. The thing with me is that I'm a type of player that likes to try and push the meta to its limits, often pushing the meta in a way that it's "feeling" to be solved. Basically the worst type of player you can have lowkey. Unfortunately, DPP OU is one of the few tiers I've struggled to do so as there are so many obstacles and "rules" you have to take into account, and being inaccurate on that matters enough for me. It's pretty much the biggest reason why I've a hard time building and adapting to it, as it's just a very complex tier with many things to factor in, and it's just "impossible" for me to make a satisfied team with these rules intact. That was in the Loom-meta, of course, but now my intuition tells me there's something that can feel "solved or aging very well" as the meta's pace on offense and defense has made the tier inherently slower in my mind. If there's something I'd like to figure out, if it's true, it's if there's another path of using T-Spikes but having oppressive mons/structures against the current stall teams without the reliance of Thunder Ihead Rachi, maybe...

If I'll be back on this tier and site again, I'll approach the tier differently than I would do now, both in building style and mindset, and find out an appropriate style for this tier since DPP OU is fun af. I did not build teams for shit post-sleep ban, and it infuriates me to no end when I tried; I lost the motivation to continue, not fun af. But it can be; I'll not come back for 5 years to a decade, idk. Not worth worrying about that, and best to focus on what's important.

With that said, I played a good amount of DPP tours for 2026 and did better than I expected, not gonna lie. But I wouldn't get these results if I didn't have strong connections to the high/top players' teams lol, so all credit to them. With that said, there are some shoutouts I feel that deserve to carry me in here.

Student of Sinnoh One of my closest buddies in this tier and one of the longest ones within the DPP community. I remember meeting you back when I was a 1300-ish noob, and honestly didn't expect our relationship to bloom so hard. You've helped me so much in team tours before I was known. In Pokemon Perfect team tours, RoaPL and gotten me in DPP playoffs by the end of the year, but not only that, I've gotten much better as a player bc of your builds and discussions we have had. Nowadays we are both a little chilled out from talking mons and talking more about general things instead, but still I wouldn't be here if I didn't continue our discussions back from the BKCcord when that was the DPPcord before the server existed haha!

TyCarter Even to this day, I don't know when we started to talk so much together. You mentioned one of the Pokemon Perfect PL was when we first met, but I think at some point you asked me to help with preparation and building style, and it just never really stopped since then. SoS may be a bit jelly, but I def talked to you more than him in 2024, which is crazy for me. I'm glad you've evolved and have found some place in the community on DPP/Smogon overall, and I wish you the best to achieve the goals you want from here. It's been a huge pleasure to get to express myself, and I'm glad I had an important impact on your tournament runs <3

PDC Not sure why and when you continued to talk to me, but I suppose after our numerous ladder games at 1500/1600 ratings, you eventually came to talk to me about building teams, eventually some preparation and things just exploded from there. Admittedly, at that point I didn't know your rep or impact on the tier, despite seeing you play here and there from SPL, e.g. With that said, I've talked to you most in terms of DPP discussions in 2025 and 2026, and highkey been carried by you even if they are tricky to pivot for most other people. Congratulations on succeeding at so many things in 2025, and eventually you may hunt down DPP in SPL specifically alone or with others; you got it, boss. I'll say I'm sorry for putting you in the last 30 min prep vs my opponent on certain builds and deciding moves so many times; the worst ones are pivoting teams with piss poor performance!! But seriously though, it was super fun to talk with you, and I cannot be thankful enough to you.

There are more players I would talk about, like Le Don, Byrum, Hugo, Aubury, etc, but I'm pretty emotionally drained from these damn posts in the past weeks lol. I can say thanks to the DPP community for making my time as enjoyable as possible. I've been playing the tier for 5+ years, I'd believe, and damn, I feel a little old rn lol.

Thanks for reading my metagame posts. Here's the full builder before I wipe the teams from showdown: https://pokepast.es/804f33af0f6bd02a
Shing you’re a legend but remember this match we had -

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-900065

My team got wiped out by yours lol… wondering if you have any thoughts on it
 
paralysis is a deeply unserious mechanic. the range of variance it introduces into the outcome of a match can only be described as embarrassingly uncompetitive. is it on the docket for a suspect or no?

the combination of thunder wave's broad distribution and the fact that would be absorbers struggle to actually win the 1v1 vs frequent paralysis spreaders themselves makes dealing with paralysis more about praying than strategizing. paralysis spreaders like zapdos have a debateably acceptable list of answers that properly absorb the para attempt, with hippo, swampert, quag, clef, celebi(?), and blissey on offer, but after that, the landscape of paralysis's balance is just complete nonsense---even then, discharge + toxic on zapdos is a possible move combination that cuts that list down dramatically. twave gyara gets absurd mileage from mindless clicks unless it runs into quag or celebi, and last i checked quag and celebi arent exactly paragons of splashability. jirachi can body slam all the grounds if it wants, and can tech its moveset to 1v1 fat lefties empo with tbolt/thunder or run refresh/fire punch to turn the lefties twave mag matchup into a scrappy mess---and can also just gk pert and quag outright. lefties heatran is the only measurably consistent answer, and even then your heatran is going to lose all of its speed and all of its moves are capped at 75% accuracy for the rest of the game. twave celebi is only competely answered by clef and blissey. i would also argue the mileage azelf gets out of twave broadens its consistency too much, but ill stop there.

gyarados and jirachi alone are just completely ridiculous to account for with paralysis in their toolkit. i can understand being hesitant to kill jirachi itself due to how much it holds together teambuilding, but like, the degree to which paralysis creates pointless games that are just complete wastes of time is egregiously high. just axe para already.
 
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paralysis is a deeply unserious mechanic. the range of variance it introduces into the outcome of a match can only be described as embarrassingly uncompetitive. is it on the docket for a suspect or no?
Protect + Thunder Wave + Iron Head (with SG only)

the 3 horsemen of DPP OU.

Most spammable moves with high returns esp when you’re cornered with no other way out.

T wave is the best though yeah since you just throw it out and cripple whatever for good.
 
paralysis is a deeply unserious mechanic. the range of variance it introduces into the outcome of a match can only be described as embarrassingly uncompetitive. is it on the docket for a suspect or no?

the combination of thunder wave's broad distribution and the fact that would be absorbers struggle to actually win the 1v1 vs frequent paralysis spreaders themselves makes dealing with paralysis more about praying than strategizing. paralysis spreaders like zapdos have a debateably acceptable list of answers that properly absorb the para attempt, with hippo, swampert, quag, clef, celebi(?), and blissey on offer, but after that, the landscape of paralysis's balance is just complete nonsense---even then, discharge + toxic on zapdos is a possible move combination that cuts that list down dramatically. twave gyara gets absurd mileage from mindless clicks unless it runs into quag or celebi, and last i checked quag and celebi arent exactly paragons of splashability. jirachi can body slam all the grounds if it wants, and can tech its moveset to 1v1 fat lefties empo with tbolt/thunder or run refresh/fire punch to turn the lefties twave mag matchup into a scrappy mess---and can also just gk pert and quag outright. lefties heatran is the only measurably consistent answer, and even then your heatran is going to lose all of its speed and all of its moves are capped at 75% accuracy for the rest of the game. twave celebi is only competely answered by clef and blissey. i would also argue the mileage azelf gets out of twave broadens its consistency too much, but ill stop there.

gyarados and jirachi alone are just completely ridiculous to account for with paralysis in their toolkit. i can understand being hesitant to kill jirachi itself due to how much it holds together teambuilding, but like, the degree to which paralysis creates pointless games that are just complete wastes of time is egregiously high. just axe para already.

i agree para hax is annoying and uncompetitive to a certain extant. however there are strategies to defend against it and i even see para improving team flow for teams that use it - like giving the ability to disable a fast switch-in.

also i made a para spam team and it never did too well competitively - it had its moments but wasnt great overall.

also want to mention that if para was banned creating a match like this would never be possible - https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2230229324-0kgqd62mezbw8b2xi1nnfe1vpjimyctpw

like even if it was deemed para was actually broken, it would not be possible to create a match like the one above (a beautiful combination of skill and luck - cutting some OG DPP - turns 102 and 103 were edge of seat for sure)

overall i think it may be worth a shot to test a para ban and see how it goes, but as of now i dont mind playing with para in the metagame
 
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Would anybody actually be sad to see paralysis leave the tier? What exactly is the argument in favor of keeping it in the meta? Mostly here to echo dk 's sentiments in his above post. Paraspam is by far the least competitive playstyle in the meta, and adds an unreasonable amount of variance to an unreasonable amount of tournament games, even at a high level. I thought (as I think many did) that Machamp being gone would temper Paraspam teams and push them out of the meta, but it has proven to still be an outrageously easy pick that players turn to when they are not confident enough in playing an honest game. Maybe this is overly harsh and assumptive of tournament players' intentions, but the fact that an entire play-style exists to eschew player agency and turn high-leverage games into coin-flip-fests is alarming and to me, the definition of uncompetitive. The fact that this playstyle is viable (and frequently picked!) at the highest level is even more alarming.

Even beyond dedicated Paraspam teams, paralysis has far too little drawback and is far too widely distributed for the outrageous long-term benefit it grants. Its ability to flip games in ways that do not feel fair, competitive, or reasonably "outplayable" is (to me) by far the biggest stain on the competitive health of DPP. I'd be interested in hearing some high-level tournament players' thoughts on the matter--I just simply do not see its additive properties to the tier even coming close to outweighing how cancerous it often is. In my eyes, it's even more uncompetitive and deserving of a ban than sleep was, thanks to its omnipresence and far-reaching impact. Curious to know others' thoughts.
 
Would anybody actually be sad to see paralysis leave the tier? What exactly is the argument in favor of keeping it in the meta? Mostly here to echo dk 's sentiments in his above post. Paraspam is by far the least competitive playstyle in the meta, and adds an unreasonable amount of variance to an unreasonable amount of tournament games, even at a high level. I thought (as I think many did) that Machamp being gone would temper Paraspam teams and push them out of the meta, but it has proven to still be an outrageously easy pick that players turn to when they are not confident enough in playing an honest game. Maybe this is overly harsh and assumptive of tournament players' intentions, but the fact that an entire play-style exists to eschew player agency and turn high-leverage games into coin-flip-fests is alarming and to me, the definition of uncompetitive. The fact that this playstyle is viable (and frequently picked!) at the highest level is even more alarming.

Even beyond dedicated Paraspam teams, paralysis has far too little drawback and is far too widely distributed for the outrageous long-term benefit it grants. Its ability to flip games in ways that do not feel fair, competitive, or reasonably "outplayable" is (to me) by far the biggest stain on the competitive health of DPP. I'd be interested in hearing some high-level tournament players' thoughts on the matter--I just simply do not see its additive properties to the tier even coming close to outweighing how cancerous it often is. In my eyes, it's even more uncompetitive and deserving of a ban than sleep was, thanks to its omnipresence and far-reaching impact. Curious to know others' thoughts.
I feel like I’d be okay with this as a more casual player, but my question is, how exactly would you limit this? Would you ban Body Slam? Would you ban Thunder Wave? What about other moves with 30% paralysis rates? IMO Sleep and Paralysis both have their issues but it’s much easier to test sleep as a whole than it is to test paralysis.

The other problem too, is that Sleep is much more species-specific in which Pokémon benefit the most from its existence and by extension its removal. “Sleep user” is a much more concrete thing than “Paralysis user” and that kind of ambiguity could lead to the metagame looking much different than it currently does to the point of players possibility losing interest in the metagame. Paralysis’s Speed drop has both offensive and defensive application and while the 25% full paralysis rate can be annoying, I do think there is enough counterplay to this available, especially with one of ParaSpam’s biggest assets in Machamp no longer legal on the tier. Previously, DPP OU was headed in a direction where the combination of Jirachi, Machamp, Tyranitar, Latias, and Clefable were becoming close in nature to solving the meta in an almost superteam like fashion, but losing Machamp throws a major wrench into the success of the desired win conditions of that strategy to say nothing of teams that diversify 1-2 out of six team slots to other Pokémon for other roles like hazard removal, a secondary win condition, spinblocking, etc.
 
I feel like I’d be okay with this as a more casual player, but my question is, how exactly would you limit this? Would you ban Body Slam? Would you ban Thunder Wave? What about other moves with 30% paralysis rates? IMO Sleep and Paralysis both have their issues but it’s much easier to test sleep as a whole than it is to test paralysis.

The other problem too, is that Sleep is much more species-specific in which Pokémon benefit the most from its existence and by extension its removal. “Sleep user” is a much more concrete thing than “Paralysis user” and that kind of ambiguity could lead to the metagame looking much different than it currently does to the point of players possibility losing interest in the metagame. Paralysis’s Speed drop has both offensive and defensive application and while the 25% full paralysis rate can be annoying, I do think there is enough counterplay to this available, especially with one of ParaSpam’s biggest assets in Machamp no longer legal on the tier. Previously, DPP OU was headed in a direction where the combination of Jirachi, Machamp, Tyranitar, Latias, and Clefable were becoming close in nature to solving the meta in an almost superteam like fashion, but losing Machamp throws a major wrench into the success of the desired win conditions of that strategy to say nothing of teams that diversify 1-2 out of six team slots to other Pokémon for other roles like hazard removal, a secondary win condition, spinblocking, etc.
It would just be thunder wave. Body slam is nowhere near the issue that thunder wave is or any other paralysis inducing move with lower than 100% odds or accuracy.

In DPP electric types are not immune to thunder wave, nor is t wave 90% accuracy as it is later on. Even gamefreak realized how inherently low risk and spammable this was and made electrics immune to it and lowered its accuracy and reduced the percentage that the paralyzed Pokémon’s speed is lowered in future gens.

We are forced to run Lum berry almost as much as we were forced to when sleep was allowed and that is because paralysis is essentially a death sentence to any offensive pokemon that doesn’t have the defenses to trade or is a ground type. A ground type almost always feels mandatory at this point just for t wave.
 
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paralysis ban is silly. competitive pokemon in general revolves around this mechanic to counteract speed which is arguably the most important stat. paralysis is of course overly prominent in dpp ou and adds a level of rng that can feel uncompetitive. it would be nice if we could implement modern thunder wave mechanics (90% accurate, half speed, electric type immunity), but that's obviously not an option. i would argue the only feasible way to counteract this would be to ban jirachi altogether. the majority of paraspam teams utilize jirachi and serene grace body slam neuters the capabilities of ground types as a reliable answers to paraspam structures

it seems obvious that jirachi isnt a good figurehead for a competitive tier given the entirely rng dependant nature of serene grace. jirachi is imo solely responsible for dpp ou's bad reputation. jirachi is most prominent on balance and stall teams and i dont see an issue with nerfing these within the tier due to their over-reliance on paralysis. there are plenty of steel types in dpp ou that can fill its roll as a check to powerful dragon attacks. i really think the only reason jirachi has maintained its place in the tier is because it is so central to the metagame that prominent members of the community would basically have to start from scratch with team building

to be clear, i like the tier with or without jirachi or paralysis for that matter. the sleep ban in particular has done wonders for the enjoyability of the game for me as breloom caused far too many constraints when it came to team building. i just think dpp ou is a really unique tier in that it is the last gen without team preview and has really great improvements over previous gens with the phys/special split, held item diversity, and versatility in team building. kinda sad to me that dpp ou has garnered the reputation it has when i think it could be the idyllic version of competitive pokemon
 
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