Now I know I may get a lot of stick for this but bear with me. My favourite team WAS team rocket for a very long time, I mean they had the criminal image, they stole pokemon to use for evil but the team rocket story never really had any continuity with itself it was like, "Oh theres a hidden hideout in celadon games", "Oh, we've taken over the pokemon tower", "Oh Now we're taking over silph" before finally "Oh our leaders the final gym leader". Another problem I have not only with Team rocket, but also Teams Magma, Aqua and Galactic is that they use really predictable like zubats and rattatas Etc. My new favourite is Team Plasma there story is continuous, They take pokemon from trainers to liberate them (PS: I have never seen them abuse pokemon except in the Dreamyard) they take the dragon skull because they think its the legendary pokemons skull. It actually explains their every action as to what they are doing and why. Also Team Plasmas pokemon are far less predictable as they seem to change from area to area. Not only that but they are also the first team to actually achieve their goals of taking over the world for a brief period, but they still did it.
On a side note: I don't blame Team Magma for wanting more land, Hoenns like 99.9% water.