How To Build Winning DFS Lineups In Stokastic Sims
July 19, 2026
How To Build Winning DFS Lineups In Stokastic Sims
The Stokastic Sims will happily hand you a full set of optimized lineups in a few clicks. The problem most players hit is the very next step: that pile of builds all looks the same, and none of it feels like yours. The better move is not firing the sim's raw output, it is shaping it. Below I will walk through the three levers I use to turn a stack of near-identical NFL DFS lineups into ones I actually want to play, including the single filter that lets you cut a specific quarterback-and-running-back pairing without disturbing anything else.
In Summary
- The Sims build and simulate your lineups from your initial settings; the customization in this article happens after, on the lineups you favorite.
- Uniques (0 to 8) force each favorited lineup to differ from every already-favorited one by that many players, which diversifies both your player pool and your lineup shapes.
- ROI Boosts, now sortable by position, nudge a single player up or down across every lineup they appear in.
- Filters cut lineups by stack type (no triple stacks, or single stacks only) or by the exact player combinations you do and do not want.
Watch The Video
Every step below is easier to follow with the tool on screen, so here is the full walkthrough. It runs through the new uniques control, the position-sorted ROI boosts, and each filter on the example NFL slate the host uses in the video. The players are there to illustrate the tool, so treat the mechanics as the takeaway rather than any one slate's names.
Start With A Full Build, Then Shape It
The workflow starts the way it always does. You build your lineups in the Contest Sims, simulate them, and favorite your top 150. That set of 150 is your raw material, and everything in this article operates on it rather than on the players list. Before you build, dial in the contest archetype and percent to first as well, because those settings decide what field the sim is even modeling.
One workflow habit to lock in now: any time you change a player's ROI boost or your uniques setting, un-favorite your top lineups and then re-favorite them so the tool reselects against the new settings. The sim does the math no human can do by hand. Your judgment is what you apply on top of it, and these three dials are how you apply it.
Set Uniques To Diversify Your Lineups
A "unique" is a rule that forces variety between your lineups. If you set three uniques, every lineup that gets favorited after a previous one has to have at least three players different from any lineup already favorited. The range runs from 0 to 8, and if you do not want the constraint at all you leave it at zero and the tool favorites the top projected lineups without forcing any variety.
Here is what it looks like in practice, using the video's example slate. With Jonathan Taylor questionable and marked out in the data, Trey Sermon graded as one of the best overall plays and showed up in 76% of the top lineups. Push uniques up to six, get aggressive to prove the point, and re-favorite those top 150: Sermon is still the most-rostered player on that slate, but his exposure falls from north of 70% to roughly 30%.
| Uniques Setting | What it forces | How aggressive it is |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | No constraint | The sim's straight optimal; heaviest on the top plays |
| 3 | Each lineup differs by 3+ players | A moderate spread |
| 6 To 8 | Each lineup differs by 6 to 8 players | Maximum diversification (8 is the ceiling) |
The six-unique setting is the one to sit with, because it is the one the video actually demonstrates. Cutting your most-rostered back from over 70% down to about 30% is a huge swing in exposure, and that is the whole trade uniques make: you give up a little raw projection in exchange for a portfolio that is not all riding on the same names. When a single back can soak up that much of your exposure, spreading it out is often the safer way to play a large field. New to the idea of leverage? Our guide to NFL DFS leverage and game theory covers why that spread matters.
Use ROI Boosts To Nudge A Single Player
Uniques reshape the whole portfolio at once. Sometimes you do not want to overhaul the whole set, you just want a little less (or more) of one specific guy. That is the ROI boost. Nothing changed in how the boost itself works, only how you find players: it is now sortable by position, so you can flip to quarterbacks, running backs, receivers, tight ends, or flex and find the player you want in a second instead of scrolling one giant list.
The mechanic is simple: change a player's ROI and every lineup that includes him inside the Contest Sims picks up that boost. With uniques set back to zero so the boost's effect stands on its own, apply a negative 15% boost to Trey Sermon. Re-favorite, and he now shows up in 62% of lineups, down from that 70-plus percent mark before any boost. That is the same player we just moved with uniques, but this is a dial rather than a hammer: a targeted trim instead of a portfolio-wide shakeup. Made a change you do not like? Hit clear boost and every adjustment resets to zero. Steering exposures this way is the heart of controlling your player pool, and the boost is the cleanest tool for it.
Want to build, simulate, and shape your own lineups exactly like this? The Stokastic Sims generate lineups from a full contest simulation, then hand you the uniques, ROI boosts, and filters to make them yours. Take 10% off your first payment with code SIMSBUILD10: Start with the Sims.
Filter Your Lineups By Stack Type And Player Combo
This is the promised scalpel, and it comes in two flavors. The first is the stack-type filter. Open your filters, choose stack type, set it to "does not contain," and type a three, and the tool strips out every QB-plus-three (triple stack) lineup before you favorite. It runs the other way too: type "QB+1" and it shows only single-stack lineups, a quarterback with exactly one of his pass catchers. Reach for it whenever you have a firm preference on how big your stacks should be.
The second flavor is the player-combo filter, and it is the one that solves the pairing I teased up top. On this slate Brock Purdy graded as one of the top quarterbacks and Jordan Mason as one of the top running backs, but Mason is not a prolific pass-catching back, so a Purdy-plus-Mason pairing is not the correlation you actually want. Set two filters, "lineup contains Purdy" and "lineup contains Mason," and every build with both surfaces on screen. De-select them and you have surgically removed just that combination while leaving the rest of your 150 untouched.
Push it further and set "lineup contains Purdy," "does not contain Mason," and "lineup contains Deebo Samuel," and now you keep your Purdy and 49ers exposure through a receiver you genuinely want to stack, with the running back you did not want filtered out. Any combination of contains and does-not-contain works, which is what makes this a scalpel where uniques was a hammer and the ROI boost was a dial.
A Worked Example: Shaping One NFL Slate
Here is how I would layer the three levers on a slate like the one in the video. I open the Contest Sims, build and simulate my NFL lineups, and favorite the top 150. Straight out of the sim, Trey Sermon is in 76% of them, which is more exposure to one back than I want in a large field. So I go to work, broad first and precise last.
The broad pass comes first. I add uniques and re-favorite, which forces each lineup to differ from the ones already favorited and pulls Sermon's share down from that 76% while the rest of my pool spreads out. Then the fine tuning: I still want a touch less Sermon specifically, so I drop a small negative ROI boost on him, clear and reset if I overshoot, and re-favorite once more. The scalpel comes last. I do not love Brock Purdy stacked with Jordan Mason, so I filter for the lineups that contain both, de-select them, and keep my Purdy exposure running through Deebo Samuel instead.
Three tools, a couple of minutes, and the 150 lineups I am about to enter are no longer the sim's generic optimal. They are diversified, trimmed where I wanted, and free of the one pairing I did not believe in.
The move: broad first, precise last. Uniques to spread the pool, an ROI boost to trim a single name, then filters to cut the exact combinations you do not want.
Which Lever, And When
Three tools, three different jobs. The quick way to choose is to ask what you are actually trying to move.
| You Want To... | Reach for | Because it... |
|---|---|---|
| Spread Exposure Across Your Whole Portfolio | Uniques | forces every favorited lineup to differ from the last |
| Carry More Or Less Of One Specific Player | ROI boost | moves that single player across all his lineups |
| Remove Or Require An Exact Pairing Or Stack Shape | Filters | works lineup by lineup, surgically |
The middle row is the one people underuse. Most players either take the sim's output as-is or nuke it with heavy uniques, when a small ROI nudge on one or two guys is all they wanted. Pick the tool that matches the size of the change you have in mind.
Keep it in perspective: the simulated numbers behind these lineups are a ranking, not a promise. They compress as the field gets sharper, and they do not guarantee a cash. What these three levers give you is control, the ability to pull the lineups you believe in off the top of a correctly-built field instead of firing whatever the machine spits out first.
The Bottom Line
The Sims do the part no human can do by hand: build a full set of lineups and grade them against a simulated field. But the reason two players can run the same sim and end up with different builds is everything that happens after that build. Uniques decide how much of your portfolio rides on the same names. ROI boosts decide how much of any one player you carry. Filters decide which exact combinations make the cut. Start from the sim's optimal, spend two minutes on these three dials, and the lineups you fire are both mathematically sound and unmistakably yours. That gap between the raw output and the shaped build is where the edge lives.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a unique in the Stokastic Sims? A unique is a diversity rule for your lineups. If you set three uniques, every lineup favorited after a previous one must contain at least three players that are different from any lineup already favorited. It spreads out your player pool and your lineup shapes so your builds are not near-copies of each other.
How many uniques should I use? Leave it at 0 for the sim's straight optimal, use a middle setting like three to dial exposure back without going all the way, and go higher toward the 6-to-8 ceiling when you want aggressive diversification. The walkthrough uses six to show how far it can move exposure.
How do the ROI boosts work? Change a player's ROI and every lineup that includes him inside the Contest Sims picks up that boost, so a negative boost trims his exposure and a positive one raises it. The update makes boosts sortable by position so players are faster to find, and clear boost resets every adjustment to zero.
How do I remove a specific player pairing from my lineups? Set two filters, one for "lineup contains" each player, and every build with both appears on screen. De-select those lineups and the pairing is gone while the rest of your builds stay intact. Add a "does not contain" filter to keep one player and drop the other.
Do I need to re-favorite after making a change? Yes. Any time you apply a uniques constraint or an ROI boost, un-favorite your top lineups and then re-favorite them so the tool reselects against the new settings.
New to the Sims? They build and simulate your lineups, then give you the uniques, ROI boosts, and filters to shape them into the builds you want. Take 10% off your first payment with code SIMSBUILD10: get the Stokastic Sims. You can also try the free Sims or browse projections in the NFL DataHub first.