The Three Worst Team Rocket Grunts

While I do enjoy battling Team Rocket Grunts, some of them are definitely better than others. Most grunts will go down pretty quickly, some will put up a fight. All of them wonder why you beat them, despite using Pokemon with a universal weakness. I’ve discussed the best Team Rocket Grunt, a poor guy with nothing but Magikarps. In today’s article though, I want to talk about the three worst Team Rocket Grunts. Boy, are these guys a pain in the ass…

The Same Psychic Type Over and Over.

There’s only one male grunt on this list. But, coming in at number 3, this guy is a pain. The Psychic Type male grunt is an insanely common grunt, despite Psychic types being considered ‘rare’. Well, except for Spoink, which is everywhere right now. Anyway, this grunt does have a varied lineup, but his first Pokemon is often a Woboffet. Woboffet is a stupidly tanky Pokemon at the best of times, a great choice to throw into gyms.

However, this grunt’s Woboffet is not only super-charged with shadow power, but it also knows Charm. Charm is a hard-hitting Fairy type move. And it hits like a truck against most Pokemon you’d use against Woboffet. I would say that this is a good time to bring out Gengar, but even Gengar struggles against Charm, due to being a glass cannon. Ironically, the rest of the Psychic Grunt’s team falls far faster than his single Woboffet does.

Damn Dirty Dark Types

Number two on this list is the Dark Type Grunt. This Grunt actually should appear on this list twice, because Dark Type Grunts have always been a pain. Their first lineup consisted of nothing but Stunky and Skuntank, who both resist your Fighting and Fairy type counters. Skuntank, as the name implies, is very tanky as well. Unless you get very lucky, it’s almost impossible to not get any casualties while battling this lineup.

Thankfully, the Dark Grunt did change their lineup, and they (as of writing) start with a Sableye. We have the same problem here though, since Fighting moves are resisted by Sableye’s Ghost typing. And her second Pokemon can still easily be Skuntank. Her last slot is more varied these days, with Shiftry and Cacturne being potential options, but they swap tankiness for glass cannon damage. So you can’t win either way.

“Winning is for Winners” Double Snorlaxes

The “Winning is for Winners” Grunt has appeared with all sorts of lineups in the past. Almost always a female grunt, you can’t guess what she has until the fight starts. Most of the time though? There’s a Snorlax in there somewhere. Sometimes two, if you’re unlucky. One of the very first times I saw this Grunt, she had two Snorlaxes and a Dragonite. I ended up beating her down with a Tyranitar and a Rhyperior, but it took ages.

What makes matters worse is that Snorlax always uses Lick or Zen Headbutt, both moves that really fuck over Machamp and other Fighting types. So really, you just have to grind them down with neutral damage. But to make matters worse, there’s often some other tough bastard like Gardevoir, Dragonite or Gyarados backing them up.

Sometimes, rarely, you’ll run into the same grunt but with a Skarmory. That Skarmory is just as annoying.

Bonus number 4: Sierra’s Double Lapras team

The Team Rocket Leaders are supposed to be hard. After all, they’re former buddies with the Team Instinct/Mystic/Valor leaders, so they’ve got experience on their hands. They also have actual real Pokemon that they’re properly connected to and have trained up.

However, for ages, Sierra had Lapras as her starting Pokemon. Lapras is a core PvP Pokemon because it has few resistances (fighting and electric mainly), has a LOT of different moves and does a LOT of damage. With shadow buffs, it does even more damage and suffers little from the reduced defense. We’ve had a few Pokemon like this – Arlo’s initial Scyther was tough, and Cliff’s current Aerodactyl is very tricky.

But the problem with Sierra was that, after you’d beaten that first Lapras, she’d… get a second Lapras. By the time you’d beaten both, you’d be overjoyed to see her Houndoom at the end.

Thankfully though, all these lineups are beatable. You just need to have patience. Lots of it. And hopefully a Melmetal, who will easily stun-lock bosses for you with Rock Slide spam…