Marnie is one of your most formidable rivals in Pokemon Sword and Shield, and often causes problems if you haven’t built your team around countering her. As a result, an awful lot of people struggle with defeating Marnie, who is also on her way to become the Champion — and is definitely good enough to actually do it.

So, if you’ve been having trouble with Marnie, don’t fret: we’ve put together a comprehensive guide on how to beat Marnie in Pokemon Sword and Shield, covering everything from a range of Marnie counters, to specific Marnie strategies.

Pokemon Sword and Shield Marnie - How To Counter Marnie

You probably know by now that Marnie specializes in Dark-type Pokemon, meaning that she’s going to pretty much annihilate any Psychic or Ghost type you bring into battle. As a result, it’s probably best for you to make sure you train more Pokemon than just the ones in your core party, because if one of your main team members is any of these types they’re going to be completely redundant in a match against Marnie.

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The types you’ll want to focus on in order to beat Marnie are Bug, Fighting, and Fairy, which are all super-effective against Dark-type Pokemon.

Pokemon Sword and Shield First Marnie Battle - Budew Drop Inn

The first time you battle Marnie in Pokemon Sword and Shield will be at Budew Drop Inn in Motostoke City. Her team for this battle is as follows:

Marnie Pokemon Battle 1

  • Croagunk, level 24 — knows Poison Sting, Venoshock, Revenge, Sucker Punch
  • Scraggy, level 24 — knows Beat Up, Headbutt, Low Kick
  • Morpeko, level 26 — knows Bite, Thunder Shock, Quick Attack

There are a couple of things to note here. First of all, a lot of skilled Pokemon players recommend picking up a Wooper early in the game in order to get Quagsire, a Water/Ground hybrid with respectable stats.

If you have a Wooper or Quagsire, make sure you use Ground attacks instead of Water attacks on Croagunk. The former is super-effective, while the latter will restore Croagunk’s HP as a result of its Dry Skin ability. On top of that, Wooper and Quagsire’s Ground typing negates Electric-type moves, compensating for its Water typing, making Morpeko — who is also weak to Ground — pretty easy to take down.

Of the three starting Pokemon, Grookey is weak to Croagunk’s Poison Sting and Venoshock, Sobble is weak to Morpeko’s Thunder Shock, and Scorbunny is… well, it’s weak to nothing here, but it’s not very strong in this fight either. Catch a Wooper, raise it to level 20, and voila — you’ve got a Quagsire, aka King Marnie Counter.

Pokemon Sword and Shield Second Marnie Battle - Route 9

The next time you face off against Marnie comes significantly later in the game, so it’s only natural that her team has developed quite a lot. Your Quagsire, while still useful, can’t do all of the heavy lifting for you anymore, and despite having a penchant for Dark-type Pokemon, Marnie’s new team still has decent type coverage.

Here’s how her team looks now:

Marnie Pokemon Battle 2

  • Liepard, level 42 — knows Fake Out, Torment, Nasty Plot, Sucker Punch
  • Toxicroak, level 43 — knows Venoshock, Sucker Punch, Swagger, Poison Jab
  • Scrafty, level 43 — knows Brick Break, Scary Face, Crunch, Swagger
  • Morpeko, level 44 — knows Quick Attack, Torment, Spark, Bite

As you can see, her team is almost a full 20 levels stronger than last time, and both Croagunk and Scraggy have evolved into Toxicroak and Scrafty, respectively.

If you happen to have kept training your Quagsire and it’s now around the same level as Marnie’s team, you’ll make easy work of Toxicroak and Morpeko. Scrafty is far more formidable now, and benefits from STAB (same-type-attack-bonus) for powerful moves such as Brick Break and Crunch.

Both Scrafty and Liepard are weak to Fighting and Fairy moves, meaning that if you happened to keep a Machop or Tyrogue on your team throughout the game, you should be able to handle them pretty easily with a Machoke/Machamp, or Hitmonlee/Hitmonchan/Hitmontop.

You can also catch Ralts in the Wild Area in foggy weather. After evolving it into Kirlia, you can evolve it again into Gardevoir, who is one of the most powerful Fairy types in the entire game. You’ll also have had the opportunity to encounter Morgrem in the wild at this point, which you can train all the way up to Grimmsnarl, whose Dark/Fairy hybrid typing makes it an absolute monster against Marnie’s entire team.

Pokemon Sword and Shield Third Marnie Battle - Wyndon Stadium

This battle takes place in Wyndon Stadium, meaning that it’s the one where you and Marnie officially compete in the Champion’s Cup. Her team here is as follows:

Marnie Pokemon Battle 3

  • Liepard, level 47 — knows Fake Out, Torment, Nasty Plot, Snarl
  • Toxicroak, level 47 — knows Venoshock, Sucker Punch, Swagger, Toxic
  • Scrafty, level 47 — knows Swagger, Scary Face, Brick Break, Crunch
  • Morpeko — knows Bullet Seed, Torment, Spark, Bite
  • Grimmsnarl, level 49 — knows Spirit Break, Darkest Lariat, Bulk Up, Torment

As you can see, this is very similar to Marnie’s previous team. The only real difference is that she now has a Grimmsnarl, who she can also Dynamax.

You’ll want a Steel-type to take down Grimmsnarl. Duraludon is a good bet, and can be caught pretty easily in the Wild Area. It is damaged normally by both Dark and Fairy-type moves, and has a sufficiently high defense stat that even a Grimmsnarl with Bulk Up will struggle to deal any real damage. Also, its STAB Steel-type moves are super-effective against Grimmsnarl, making it pretty easy to take down.

After this, you can have a rematch with Marnie in Spikemuth Gym, where she has replaced her brother as Gym Leader. She has the exact same Pokemon, but they are higher levels — 59, 59, 59, 60, and 60, respectively, as per above — and know much stronger moves.

Toxicroak and Scrafty in particular have much more precarious movesets now, with the former having access to Drain Punch, Earthquake, and Gunk Shot, while the latter knows two elemental punches and gets STAB from Drain Punch and Crunch. This is also the team Marnie will use if you challenge her again in Wyndon Stadium.

You can use a similar approach here, once you’re careful of Earthquake and Scrafty’s new type coverage with elemental punches. Realistically, a decent Steel-type and either a Fighting or Fairy type can make easy work of her own team, if you play your cards right.

So there you have it — Quagsire is the Marnie Killer early in the game, and remains particularly effective against the majority of her team throughout. Fighting and Fairy types will always do well against her, so make sure to keep your Machop or Tyrogue from the first few hours, and be sure to pick up a Morgrem in Glimwood Tangle so you can decimate her team with a Grimmsnarl of your own. If you’ve got Quagsire, a Fighting-type, a Fairy-type, and a decent Steel-type, you’ll be able to take down Marnie at her strongest without breaking a sweat.

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