It's no surprise that the world of Pokemon, with its tiny and isolated settlements and concerning lack of father figures, provides ripe grounds for criminal enterprises. Every region seems to have at least one evil team trying to steal Pokemon from other trainers or destroy the world with uncontrollab🧸le power.
But while their costumes look like they were purchased at Party City and most of their names sound like amateur softball teams, Pokemon villains are the real deal. Ranging from petty thugs to militant corporations, these Pokemon antagonists are a colorful and fascinating bunch. Here's every evil Pokemon team ranked worst to best in terms of villainy and efficacy.
Updated June 19, 2023 by Kyle Chamaillard: Equally important to Gym Leaders and Elite Four Members are the evil teams that stand in the way of your Pokemon journey. That means it's important to keep this list up to date with the most sinister groups in Pokemon while maintaining current editorial standards. We've decided to update this list to include Team Star and see where they rank among other evil Pokemon teams.
15 Team Yell
Team Yell from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Sword and Shield doesn't espouse any evil ideals or harbor any heinous plans. In fact, their main goal is to cheer on your rival, Marnie. They're not thugs or thieves. On the contrary, they're just a bunch of Gym trainers from the Spikemuth Gym led by Marnie's brother, Piers.
This is an interesting change, but it makes this team mostly harmless. In fact, they actually help you at the end of the game. So while they're presented as an evil team, they're really just a bunch of Poke-hooligans.
14 Team Star
Like Team Yell, Team Star doesn't really have any sinister intentions or desire for global dominance. In fact, they might be the most relatable evil team in any Pokemon game because, at the end of the day, they're just rebellious students fighting for what they believe in. Team Star also f🌳eatures a group♍ of intriguing and memorable leaders, while ꦯoth🐼er villainous teams usually only have one.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Scarlet and Violet contain three distinct storylines, and one of them involves battling and unearthing the truth behind Team Star's origins. While their backstory is surprisingly emotional, they aren't nearly as malicious as other evil teams that have appeared across the series.
13 ও Team Snagem 𓂃
Team Snagem from Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness is nothing more than a lowly group of thieves stealing Pokemon for Team Cipher. Most evil teams only appear in a single game, but despite being 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:featured in two GameCube titles, Team Snagem is fairly forgettable cꦦo🧔mpared to everyone else.
While Team Snagem isn't the first gang of thieves to steal Pokemon, they are unique in that those they steal have their hearts closed off and are turned into Shadow Pokemon. It's up to Wes, the main character of Pokemon Colosseum and a former member of Team Snagem, to take them back and purify them.
12 ♏ Team Break 🎉
Team Break from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Masters EX is as basic as enemy teams come. Not only is thei𒅌r costume just a mask, but their only real✅ motivation is to steal Pokemon and end the Pokemon Masters League.
The only thing that makes them interesting is that, apparently, the masks take control of the person they're on. This means that the trainers wearing the masks may not actually have a say in what they do. However, there is yet to be any information on who is ultimately pulling the strings here and what their true goal is.
11 Team Skull ♚ ♏
Originally a group of trainers that threatened 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:one of the Kahunas in Alola, Team Skull is now a dismal mish-mosh of society's bottom-feeders, sulking in hopeless privation and pariahdom in Shady House, Po Town. While led by the charismatic and capable Guzma and Plumeria, Team Skull's gross lack of motivation and abject poverty prevent them from achieving lofty ambitions.
The best they can do is harass locals and pilfer occasional goods. Nothing sums up the quintessence of Team Skull more perfectly than the words of a certain grunt: "So, what? I'm lower than a Pokemon? I already got self-esteem issues, man!" Basically, if you're a fan of The Offspring, you'll love Team Skull.
10 💫 Miss Fortune Sisters
The Miss Fortune Sisters from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Legends: Arceus are former members of the Diamond Clan, Pearl Clan, and Galaxy Team who became bandits. Surprisingly, they've been quite successful, having stolen from the Ginkgo Guild on multiple occasions.
What makes them especially interesting is that they aren't necessarily evil; they're just done with their respective organizations. They need to survive, and they might as well get back at the groups that did them wrong. This makes them more likable than most evil teams, even though battling them is very easy.
9 Team Aqua
Team Aqua is a band of grizzled seafarers that want to flood Hoenn so that Pokemon - or at least Water-type Pokémon - have a better place to live. After failing to flood Mt. Chimney with a stolen meteorite, they manage to wake up Kyogre, Hoenn's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:legendary water Pokemon, with the use 🐓of a Red Oꦜrb aboard a hijacked submarine.
Of course, as with any and every hubristic villain, Tea𒁏m Aqua fails to tame the primal force they unleash, and it becomes up to you to stop it from destroying the world. Team Aqua is not particularly villainous, but it would be correct t﷽o call them misguided and extremist.
8 Team Magma 🌞
Team Magma, as the foil to Team Aqua, is a grou🌊p of scientists that wants to expand the land of Hoen🎶n in order to create more living space for Pokemon. After failing to activate a volcano with a stolen meteorite, they stir Groudon from its sleep with the use of a Blue Orb.
Team Magma and Team Aqua parrot each other to a considerable degree, but that's kind of the point. You could honestly swap places with either of these teams and it would make sense.
7 ꧅ The Aether Foundation ﷽
When you first meet the Aether Foundation in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sun and Moon, they seem like a good group with the goal of curing and preserving Pokemon. This seems like a noble effort, and for some of the employees, it is, but this all gets completely skewed when their leader, Lusamine, is hellbent on researching 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the Ultra Beasts.
Driven by the need to find and protect the Ultra Beasts, Lusamine recruits Faba and other members of the Aether Foundation to travel into the ultra wormhole at the cost of all of Alola, and freezing Pokemon in order to keep them safe. While the Aether Foundation has lofty goals, it's drastically brought down by a small group led by a woman obsessed with protecting Pokemon in all the wrong ways.
6 Team Fla𓆏re
Team Flare from X and Y is a group of goofballs in Cheeto-colored zoot-suits. This may not strike fear in most players, but their morbidly ridiculous plans certainly will. These fascist fashionistas, helmed by Lysandre, plan on harnessing the powers of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Xerneas or Yveltal to activate an🦹 ancient weapon in order to eradicate all life and build a better ꦆworld.
What's most terrifying about Team Flare is that this extreme plan makes no sense. While there are explanations in the anime regarding Lysandre's logic, X and Y doesn't even try. It sounds more like a plot straight out of a doomsday blockbuster rather than a Pokemon game, but the darker tones really add to the tension and make Team Flare a particularly worthy adversary.