Pokémon Trading Card Game/Rock Club

The Rock Club is a great place to start your adventure no matter what deck you have, since Gene is the only Club Leader you can duel without any prerequisites. Rock doesn't have its own unique energy (Rock, Ground, and Fighting types are all grouped under Fighting Energy), so you'll find that like Brock before them in Pokémon Red and Blue these guys use a mix of Rock and Ground types, with a few others thrown in for good measure.

All of the starting decks should have an equal chance here, since you're not going to be relying heavily on Normal / Colorless cards. If you're looking to hit weaknesses, though, you should try the Bulbasaur & Friends Deck, as some cards included in every deck here are weak to Grass-Energy Pokémon. Just don't bring an Electric-heavy deck in here once you start experimenting, unless you like a serious challenge. Even Surfing Pikachu is still a Lightning-Type, after all.

Matthew
Matthew is found in the club lounge.

Most of the Basic Pokémon in his deck can stall you out. It's a good idea to be hitting them with their Grass weakness or status effects. His Snorlax cannot be affected by status effects and has its own weakness in Fighting type. At the same time, it takes 4 energy for Snorlax to start attacking. The Hard Pokémon deck does not have Double Colorless Energy cards in it.

Golem and Rhydon are his biggest threats. Try to take out Geodude and Rhyhorn before they are able to evolve. If they do evolve, keep them from building up energy. Their attacks and option to retreat have high costs and they won't be able to do anything without energy. Marowak can be a problem if it gets lucky coin flips. A Pokémon with Fighting resistance would reduce its threat even further.

Ryan
Ryan is found in the main hall of the club.

Andrew
Andrew is found in the main hall of the club.

Club Master: Gene
There are no prerequisites for facing Gene, so if you just want to get the medal without any fuss you can head straight for him. Facing the other members can still help you get cards to improve your deck though. If you find yourself losing to Gene several times you might want to do so.

Rhyhorn makes yet another appearance in Gene's deck. This time there are no Rhydon in the deck so Rhyhorn will be using Leer to stall. This will let the other Pokémon in Gene's deck to build up on energy. You'll want Gust of Wind or Switch cards, or enough energy to choose to retreat to break Leer's effect. A couple of Scyther are nice here with their free retreat, and can slot into any deck because of Slash's use of Colorless energy. Gust of Wind is a good Trainer card to use against Onix too if it gets too many energy on it. Its Harden doesn't break when your active Pokémon retreats or switches making it more annoying than Rhyhorn if coin flip luck is in his favor.

Diglett can hit hard in exchange for its lower HP. Dugtrio hits hard too, but doesn't suffer from HP being below average. Take it out before it evolves if you can. The main threat of the deck is a Golem line. Gene has Pokémon Breeder which he can use to skip directly from Geodude to Golem. This is scary if the Golem now has enough energy to make an attack. Otherwise it is an invitation to force the Golem in to the active spot and wipe it out. Having to deal with the entire Geodude line in order is scarier with Graveler able to use Harden while building up energy. If Gene is able to get his two Defenders on Golem it'll be able to Selfdestruct without taking itself out. Take it out on your turn, or you'll give Gene a free Selfdestruct to use on you.

Once you defeat Gene, you'll be given the Rock medal.