How about a quick breakdown then? Even to my untrained eye, he clearly likes using a pattern of "Throw max-out. If opponent does X, do Y. If opponent does A, do Z."
Well, DeeJay is just like Guile in that you want to force them to come to you. The one good thing he has over Guile is a crouching move that allows him to retain both charges (for projectile and AA) and advance forward, his c.rh slide. It's probably the worst slide in the game, but it not moving him far is a good thing, imo, since you can more accurately quickly walk backwards if you need to change the distance you want it to bring you forward. The short distance it moves him makes it less useful for getting under projectiles, but if you learn the timing you can still do it, and there's plenty of situations you can use it on reaction to projectiles at close distance to get a sweep counter-hit while sliding under. He's got amazing normals, a really good anti-air, and a great mixup game when he gets the chance to use it.
Phil doesn't really utilize any of this, though. He used to back in the day, but not anymore. He does do maxouts for spacing, which you should do, and tries to bait people into jumping at him to AA, which, again, you should do. It's his offense and mixups that he gets incredibly lazy with. DeeJay's probably one of the best tick-throwers in the game (throwing your opponent after the block stun of a weak move, like a jab, wears off), but that's basically all Phil does with him when he gets in. He doesn't go for counter-hit setups (which DeeJay is great at because of his amazing normals) or, on block, doesn't often go for crossup attempts (which DeeJay is also great at with his j.mk and j.d+lk, his knee attack, which actually changes the trajectory of his jump -- it's hard to combo off of, but it can be very disorienting), or really anything else. He just tick throws with him, 90% of the time off of a c.lp off of a j.mk, whether it connects or not.
Now, when it comes to fighting games, if your opponent can't stop something then just keep doing it. It's part of the genre, hell, the same thing applies to basically anything competitive. You force your opponent to commit to stopping something if they've shown they can't, and then you fake doing it and hit them with what counters the counter. It's like that DeathStroke clip ("Do you want to play the fucking game?"), where Phil goes full scrub-mode. If you can't get past something, that's your fault. It's part of the reason why the FGC basically doesn't ban characters or tactics or anything, and why the FGC looks down on Smash: the players refuse to change their strategy to accommodate the 'randomness' of stages and items, they just ban everything that makes the game unique instead.
So, I don't really
blame Phil for doing what he does, because it's a product of the environment he's playing in: they're not the best players, they only play when Phil does, and they mostly only play Phil. But he's not playing DeeJay anywhere near his best, he's doing what he needs to do to win, which is trying to bait his opponents into jumping, playing a neutral projectile game, and tick-throwing. If he tried that shit against anyone competent he would get absolutely murdered.
As an addendum regarding Smash and the rest of the FGC:
I think it was the first year Smash was in Evo that they came to a sort of truce, where only like half of the shit was banned in order for it to be admitted. Top 8 at Evo East, West, and Vegas were still full of expected players, except maybe one or two instances where people felt that the players weren't worthy of the spot and they benefited from certain things not being banned. But Smash players refuse to try anything different instead of realizing that space control or being able to chase people down might become more pertinent to the game and open up options for them. The gripe is always something along the lines of "Well, if a player gets this item in this position on this stage, it's impossible to get in on them." Well, guess what, don't let it fucking happen! Your priority is now to make sure you have control of that side of the stage so they can't get there. Prioritize movement instead and don't let them get the item. Part of being talented at something is overcoming difficult or seemingly impossible situations. You see it all the time in other types of competition. Not in Smash. In Smash you just ban everything.
