The Rock Jock Jostle

I don't think that there is a Rock Gym in existence that cannot be conquered with a combination of tenacity and Super potions, but Grant made me pause.  Most Rock Gyms are a defensive slog and are not so much difficult as they are drawn-out.  When I played Red version, I remembered I would spend the whole match debuffing Onix with growl, tail whip, and string shot before letting Leech Seed slowly whittle it down (Bulbasaur hadn't learned Vine Whip yet) and in Sapphire version,
things weren't any different.  The pokemon were  never tough or hard-hitting, but they were always a pain in the ass to deal with, the Rock Gym basically designed to remind you, the player, that you won't be able to kill EVERYTHING out there with one Thundershock attack and that there are some types that your pokemon just plain will not be able to match-up against.  It's more of a reality check than a straight-up fight, and the gymleader is meant to yield to you only if you GET the lesson it is trying to teach you.

That's why the Rock Gym is typically first.

Grant opened the match with Amaura, the pokemon I got from my fossil, and after struggling to remember what types it was and finally deciding it was something like Rock and Ice (it is, by the way), I opened in my typical way of Rock-gym fighting strategy with Aerodactyl's "Scary Face" attack.  Then, I was immediately KO-ed with a super-effective takedown.  It was then that I realized that Take-Down is a normal attack, so I was obviously overlooking something, but it wasn't until Kirlia and Floette were both similarly One-Hit-KOed that I smartened-up and realized that I needed to change tactics.  This Grant is clearly not a typical "make-you-defeat-me-(rather than me defeating you) Rock Gymleader".

I was able to finally defeat Amaura with Scrappy (after finally recalling that Ice/Rock was twice weak against Fighting), but Grant's next pokemon, Tyrunt (who is most likely the resurrected Jaw Fossil) took both him and Ivysaur out handily (but not before Ivy Leech-Seeded him).  Along the way I found that Tyrunt was NOT weak against neither grass, nor water attacks (meaning he must have a dual typing as either rock/grass or rock/dragon) and ultimately, it came down to the very end where a barely alive Froakles took Tyrunt out with a Quick Attack that I was not sure would even do enough damage (Froakles was paralyzed and was low enough-leveled to Speed-tie the Tyrunt, so I couldn't leave it to a 50-50 Water Pulse in the final hit of the match).

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And so I was awarded the Cliff Badge and the ability to use Strength.  I withdrew my Hippopotas and Flareon from the PC for the next leg of my journey and promptly went to sleep because it is best to end a session with a smile on your face.

Current Squad:

FROGADIER/Froakles/lvl.21
IVYSAUR/Ivy/lvl.21
FLAREON/Hotfoot/lvl.20
FLOETTE/Pixie/lvl.20
SCRAGGY/Scrappy/lvl.20
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.20

On Rotation: Pikachu, Kirlia, Hippopotas