[Gen 3] GEN3 Nuzlocke Run - I'm Trying to Do Stuff in Here

I'm gonna do a play-through of the 3G games (R/S/FR/LG/E) since those were the last set that I actually played but never really finished. Browsing around the internet, I'm being drawn to some of the ideas and components of nuzlocke runs, like the diversity of possible lineups and increased difficult with nuzlocke/realism rules. I guess the kicker is that I'm also a completionist and I don't wanna just rampage through these games and then can them. I want the runs to build towards some end or final, completionist goal.

So I'm gonna aim to go through these games under the nuzlocke-ish ruleset, but as things develop and I find a way to breed members that have competitive EVs/nature/movesets that I can use for things like Battle Tower or runs in future games.

The idea here though is that I can't "finalize" a member unless I have obtained a couple of things through my playthroughs:
- A mother to produce an egg
- A father to pass down any egg moves/TM moves that I want the final version to have
- Access to areas that allow for proper EV training
- Money to pay for day care services

I know this is all very ambitious, unlikely, tedious, exciting, useless, and fulfilling all wrapped into one. But who am I to argue against nostalgia.

Now I want to do this through legal means only, trading between the five GBA games as I complete them under these "nuzlocke-style" set of rules. A game is absolved from these once I've beaten the E4 in that game.

I'll be using an initial copy of Emerald for breeding purposes only and to collect Dex entries in. This copy will start out only containing one Slugma (hatching purposes), one Macho Brace (EV training), one Everstone (Nature breeding), and $0.

I have no idea if I explained what I'm trying to do in any kind of understandable fashion, but seeing as how very, VERY few people will read all of this anyways, it is what it is. My children's children will read this and when they do, they will bask in my tales of triumph.

"I don't throw darts at a board. I bet on sure things." -- Gordon Gekko, "Wall Street"


I need a name, something i'm going to use for every game throughout these runs. And i wanted it to be related to my day 1 internet moniker. But it doesn't fit


Nothing fits, and nothing looks aesthetically pleasing


I eventually just went with this, but looking at it now, it sucks. I kinda think the first one was better, but i'm already five minutes into gameplay so it's way too late to start over


I picked up this POTION from the computer. given the ruleset i'm playing under, i'm thinking inventory management is gonna be super key. catching a ZIGZAGOON would alleviate a lot of that concern with its Pickup ability, but until then I have to use these healing items pretty optimally


Building on that, i'm kicking this whole thing off with the cheesiest starter of them all. GORDON the Gecko. Gimme that grass-type healing move early on. Longer-term, with Gordon not being female, it doesn't open up the door for me to breed in a more competitive version of Treecko. For now, i'll rely on him getting through the actual storyline and he's got some decent IVs (30 HP, 29 Speed) that he can pass along as a father in the Monster/Dragon egg group. Characteristics wise, Hasty decreases Defense for Speed. At first thought, decreased Defense doesn't sound good at all for a Nuzlocke. On the flip-side, this Overgrow ability boosting Grass-type moves when HP is low seems like it could be very beneficial, especially early on with Absorb

"Mothra . Queen of the Monsters." -- Dr. Chen, "Godzilla: King of the Monsters"


So i've got GORDON but now i need to game plan how i'm going to train him up before the battle with May. I basically need to navigate conserving Health and PP, and also ideally saving my one stop at Mom's healing station for when I can leverage it across a larger lineup. The Oldale Town PC can't really be used yet because I can't box GORDON and leave myself with nothing. I have the Potion from my room I can use and also the upcoming Potion from the Oldale Mart guy.


Early season strategizing. The limits on healing magnify the PP of attacking moves. It makes using moves like Leer much more important. I.E. using three Leers and one Pound instead of four Pounds


This is basically the game changer. Self-sourced healing, at least for HP


But thinking ahead, even with Absorb, i could risk running into Wurmples, where Absorb won't really get me much. At 7 HP, i basically have to decide if i roll the dice and hope for Zigzagoon/Poochyena and use Absorb to heal, thereby saving my Potion


But then i see that $3,000 sitting in my bag (soon to be $3,300 after May) and i remember that i'm rich. Don't need to worry about conserving Potions yet


Pause right here. The way I have my rules set up, even without any catching mechanisms, if i run into something here on the way to May, i count that as my Route 103 encounter and essentially forfeit that catch opportunity. I mapped out my exact route, limiting the number of patch-steps I would take, all for no reason since the very first patch got me into a battle with Poochyena. So there goes Route 103


So this I wasn't too worried about since GORDON was sitting pretty at Level 9 with close to full health. Battle went predictably easy


Did the return trek to Littleroot Town and got this little reward


Now I can actually start doing stuff. Hoping for a Zigzagoon with Pickup


Good news is that this Wurmple is Female, meaning if I can eventually get a Male species in the Bug group, I can breed this thing into somewhat of a viable team member


So maybe i embellished a little with the title. Queen of the Monsters, not very likely. But MOTHRA from the Godzilla movies was top of mind since I recently binge-watched that series with Kong vs Godzilla coming out. So the IVs here aren't particularly great, though there is a 30 in Special Attack in case this thing turns into a Beautifly and makes my nickname aptly irrelevant. This Shield Dust ability is pretty interesting though. I imagine status impacts are a lot more annoying with limited item use

"Got tired. Got tired of being the punchline to every joke." -- Ziggy Sobotka, "The Wire"


I want to get to Route 104 so I can add a third guy to the roster and then using Mom's house to heal all three guys in one go after training. GORDON's PP was running low though, putting that plan in danger. Luckily he learned Quick Attack and picked up room for another 15-20 battles in him


Similarly, MOTHRA picked up Poison Sting, which I hope to abuse versus some of the non-attack guys on Route 102 (Ralts, Seedot)


There's nothing I could do catch-wise in Petalburg City yet, but one day I'll come back and use my catch right here in this pond, almost assuredly for a Magikarp


So I made it to Route 104. Health bars and PP levels are in good enough shape. At this point, I think i can make it through this Route and dabble into Petalburg Forest for a catch before having to revert back to Mom's house. I have two Potions in stock, and two trips saved up for the Oldale Mart and the Petalburg Mart that i can use for Potions, Antidotes, Paralyze Heals, and Balls


Route 104's encounter got me exactly what I was looking for. A Zigzagoon, and female to boot. The Pickup ability basically should save me from worrying about healing items in the middle of long treks, tough by rule, I can't stock up more than 10 in any single item. Also, I'm going to need Nuggets for breeding in the day care.


Might as well


I didn't want to risk killing it so I figured I'd give it a shot while it was still in the Green. Trying to catch anything outside of a red health bar was blasphemy to my younger self


Caught it on the first go, shouldn't be surprising as ZIGGY (Sobatka) was never really formidable in any way, shape or form. But really, I'm loving ZIGGY for this run. Lots of normal attacks with a lot of PP (Headbutt, Quick Attack), PP Up, lots of different HMs it can pick up. I'm liking the versatility

"I gave myself Jerry on purpose . . . I gave myself the tapeworm." — Frank Reynolds, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"


Making my way through Route 104 and ran into this trainer's Level 8 Tailow. What's worse is that I had Level 5 MOTHRA out there so I had to use a turn to get GORDON out there, giving Tailow a free Focus Energy. So now I'm Quick Attacking away, afraid of the coming critical hit Peck (if Tailow has it). Luckily early game AI only used Quick Attack as well and none of them were critical


Oh btw, this is what I'm talking about. ZIGGY is no joke


Okay so I'm gonna step one foot inside Petalburg Woods, try to pick up a fourth member and the high-tail out of here to train everyone until I run out of HP/PP. then I'll heal up at Mom's and get going


Another Wurmple, this one already with Poison Sting. So this isn't all bad because I want a Male Bug that I can take to the day care center eventually with MOTHRA and get me an exceptional Dustox/Beautifly. The early evolves will also help me carry the burden through a couple of routes when I need to box GORDON to give him a breather. Plus this increases the chance that I can get a second member on the team with Absorb


So like mentioned, this one had Poison Sting and I stupidly didn't stock up on Antidotes yet. So I'm panicking at this point and decided to just hurl catch attempts at this thing. It broke out of the first two Poke Balls, so remember that Ultra Ball ZIGGY picked up, this is what it was meant for. This moment right here. Funny enough, both MOTHRA and JERRY have Lax personalities

"You had what it took to get into my office; the real question is whether you got what it takes to stay." — Gordon Gekko, "Wall Street"


This update here is going to be full of training up for the first gym battle. Like the Gekko says, making the team is one thing but can any of these guys actually spruce into good enough shape to carry their own weight? But before anything I need to use my one trip to the Oldale Mart before heading into the woods to stock up on Potions, Antidotes, Paralyz Heals, and Poke Balls (about five each)


And then some extras like this


Also, looks like the MOTHRA nickname is gonna pan out


So i did what i could to train these guys until i ran out of healing supplies, at which point i got the free healing session for everyone at Mom's house. There won't be many of these full lineup healing opportunities, so can't get spoiled here


Before heading into the woods, i used my Petalburg Mart trip to at least get what i could, which wasn't much. i took the three Potions and bounced


honestly nothing too eventful happened in Petalburg Woods. GORDON put in work in both the wild and trainer battles. what was kinda worrisome was me not being very comfortable with really putting anyone else out there


a lot of this happening


is he patronizing me


why is this still route 104. that's disappointing since now the grass up here doesn't qualify for another catch opportunity


i mean i'll be planting berries for sure, but not because i care about the beauty of flowers. Leppa Berries in particular could be super useful for longer training sessions


this is the kind of stuff i've been doing. finding opponents that can't damage me, praying for them to get poisoned and then String Shooting until they slowly die. this is how i have to train JERRY. riveting stuff


Rustboro is huge, it took forever going from building to building, but getting this 30 PP move to give to ZIGGY was worth it


just want to say that big batch meal-prepping is a game changer


before going into the gym, i spent a good amount of time trying to efficiently train and thankfully it this turning point where some of these guys started picking up some serviceable moves. ZIGGY with Headbutt and MOTHRA with Confusion and Gust


so JERRY, i was hoping would evolve into a Silcoon just for that extra diversity in the lineup but instead looks like we are going duo Dustoxes here. i guess it's not the worst thing in the world, especially with the way i have the rules set up here where in order to heal someone, i have to take them out of the lineup temporarily while they recover in the PC. so depositing MOTHRA may not be that disruptive since I also have JERRY


For the Oldale Pokecenter, i decided to deposit ZIGGY to get some of that PP back and then withdrew him in Petalburg, while depositing MOTHRA


After picking up some Super Potions at the Rustboro Market, i was finally ready to go see Roxanne with this lineup. the plan here would be to kind of preserve GORDON for the actual matchup with Roxanne, while using MOTHRA (who i withdrew in the Rustboro Pokecenter and deposited JERRY to heal up) for all the pre-leader trainers


MOTHRA did her part. For whatever reason, the first Geodude that this trainer sent out was the scariest at Level 11, and then each one after that just fell in levels after that. The Confusion move makes MOTHRA so much more usable


honeslty i was thinking to just ride this and let her take her shot against Roxanne's Geodude but opted against it. i'm just too used to depending on GORDON. i also didn't want him to take a hit on the switch out when that Nosepass came out (level 15, i didn't know it would be that high!). the battle never got that dangerous. Absorb kept my health bar afloat and after some time, i was able to do away with both Geodude and Nosepass


came out of that battle way stronger too

"[Leslie's] one of those low-talkers. You can't hear a word she's saying!" -- Jerry Seinfeld, "Seinfeld"
"LOUD NOISES!!" -- Brick Tamland, "Anchorman"

I botched some of the earlier screenshots for this update, including my Route 116 catch of a female Whismur and my Rusturf Tunnel catch of a male Whismur. I named the female Whismur, LESLIE, after seeing that this was called the Whisper Pokemon. That instantly reminded me of low-talker Leslie from the classic Puffy Shirt episode of Seinfeld. The male Whismur i looked at the evolutionary change and named him BRICK since all i could think of when i saw what Whismur's evolutionary chain looks like was LOUD NOISES!!


I've been using ZIGGY to clear the way through those boatload of trainers in Route 116 and the Magma battle in the cave. I'm thinking that i'll preserve as much Confusion/Gust/Fury Cutter PP as i can for MOTHRA and GORDON so that i can use them in the second gym. I've also set up this little patch to grow Oran and Leppa berries so that I can catch BRICK and LESLIE up on some training.


At first i always though that these mushrooms were just to sell but after looking it up, it seems like they do have some trade-in value in Fire Red/Leaf Green if i want to re-learn any old moves


So whenever i played these games it was always on the emulator and always at like 3x speed. this part right here was always a pain because the old dude would be running a hundred miles per hour and i could never time my button right to stop him. on this playthrough, i've actually been playing at normal speed (except when training) so that i can experience the sounds of the game. dude now moves at a much more appropriate speed for his age


There's a bunchh of routes/areas that i have pent-up catch opportunities for. Namely, Petalburg City, Route 106, Route 107, Dewford Town, and Route 115. In the next update, I'm going to take this Old Rod and hit these spots up again, hunting for a set of Magikarp parents and Tentacool parents that I can breed down the line.

"Wait for a hero? Barbara Joan Gordon - Be your own damn hero." — Batgirl, "Batgirl #25"


I went into Granite Cave as soon as I got to Dewford and in my excitement to get my next catch, I think I made a potentially fatal flaw. If was more deliberate about things, I would have maybe used a Repel to make it to the next floor in the cave to have a chance at Aron. Instead I wandered around at the top floor at got this.


So we now have BARBARA the Zubat, which theoretically is good for the Dewford Gym though I already have MOTHRA and JERRY for that. My concern right now is that third gym and that cycling road where there's like a hundred Magnemites. I'm not sure I have a single attack on my roster that is even neutral against Steel types . . .

"It's the ocean, silly, we're not the only two in here." — Dory, "Finding Nemo"


I promised everyone some fishing, so I left Granite Cave and went to all the routes and towns I've previously left encounters on the table. First was Petalburg City.


With an Old Rod, it's hard to believe that quote from DORY is accurate. I'm also fully aware that in this image here, I'm actually fishing in a small pond and not the ocean. The nickname here doesn't make a ton of sense, but it does make some sense if you consider that Magikarp is a fish and Gyarados is blue.

"Jellyfish sting. Oh it hurts! It hurts!! It hurts!!" — Monica Gellar, "Friends"


Next I went to Dewford Town and to see if I could either get a Male Magikarp as an eventual breeding partner for DORY or a Tentacool


2/2. A female Tentacool, which I've named MONICA. Not many references to jellyfish in film and tv culture that I could remember, but the jellyfish pee scene from Friends always sticks out

"I'm here to talk to you about my little friend here, Blinky. Many of you consider it to be a hideous genetic mutation. Well, nothing could be further from the truth." — Montgomery Burns, "The Simpsons"


Route 107 up next. Still looking for some male breeding partners


It's like whatever I want, these encounters are giving me. BLINKY the male Magikarp sets me up for a future Magikarp egg. As it stands now, I have a path forward for a bred Magikarp, Whismur, and Wurmple from the roster that I currently have.

Allow me to impress upon you the severe mistake you have made." — Klaus Heissler, "American Dad!"


The last trip on this expedition is Route 106. At this point I'm feeling good because the first three catches are just what I wanted, and I'm thinking here that any Male catch would be good to breed MONICA with


So it turns out that Magikarp and Tentacool are in different breeding groups? That makes this fourth catch of KLAUS the male Magikarp not as ideal, but at least it's a good backup in case BLINKY goes down for some reason or if I need a second Male in this breeding group to pair with an upcoming catch. I do want to note that BLINKY has some great IVs versus KLAUS so he's definitely getting priority


After all that activity, I finished the session with some training, including gaining this gem of a move for nuzlocke purposes

"If the world lives to see another century, please remember what Mothra did for you and the planet you live on." -- Cosmos, "Godzilla vs. Mothra"


Okay so I'm not at the Dewford pokecenter making my one substitution and healing deposit. Initially I figured i'd pick up JERRY and go with the dual Dustox lineup, but thinking ahead a little bit, I figured i'd take MONICA the Tentacool instead. This should improve lineup diversity, and maybe I could train her up to pick up a water move to help me get through Granite Cave


On the topic of training, I had been growing some Leppa Berries (still abiding by the limited pack capacity rule of 10 and under) and figured i'd use these to try to train up MONICA and BARBARA the Zubat. I'm trying to get Bite for BARBARA and a water move (Water Gun? i'm trying to not look at Serebii to see what attacks everyone learns) for MONICA. BARBARA's Leech Life is a very, very weak move that can't even take out these Level 3 Poochyena's in one hit, but at least it's getting me some HP back


This training session was trash. BARBARA and MONICA just have such weak attacks so the only guys I could take them against was in the early routes, giving me ~20ish XP and both are naturally slow growers. I got an extra level out of them before running out of resources.


I'm going into Brawly's spot with this lineup. The plan is to use GORDON and maybe some ZIGGY for the trainers and then MOTHRA to take care of Brawly.


So the problem right off the bat was that these Meditites kept using Bide and GORDON had nothing but Attacks, which made it scary. Especially since I can't switch out given some of these were 1 vs. 1. I was just using Fury Cutter, and honestly got lucky that I missed one of them so that the Bide blowback wasn't too harsh. Eventually I was able to Quick Attack my way out of it. I then had to go to MOTHRA to polish everyone else off


I knew there was a Makuhita at the end here, but really this Machop gave me problems. Mostly because Brawly used two Super Potions, though that did allow me to use a Full Restore when things were looking bleak. I walked in with my 4x resistance but those Seismic Tosses didn't give a damn about that. After about a million Gusts, Machop finally went down.


The Makuhita honestly wasn't that tough. Not compared to the Machop since he was just spamming Knock Off, which did very little damage to MOTHRA. Easily the most valuable player through this gym run and it's been refreshing using something like a Dustox for crucial parts of the game.


Where to go from here? Well I need to do that Steven errand in Granite Cave but i don't have any one really capable of getting through all the Arons on the way. I'm basically in waiting mode until i can grow more Leppa Berries to restore PP for Absorb

I know Granite Cave can be navigated without Flash, I think i've even done it before. But I jus didn't want to take a bunch of extra steps in that cave and run into Arons that would be difficult to take out. Plus I figure i'm getting close to the Day Care so i'll be breeding in a new Dustox/Beautifly soon anyways. With all that in mind, I took out MOTHRA's Poison Sting and gave her Flash.


I kept thinking about Arons that i completely forgot about Mawile. At least against Aron, i could use GORDON's Abosrb. But with Mawile, i had nothing that was even neutral. I ended up having to burn like four of MOTHRA's Confusions to take it out. . . and then i ran into a second one, which took another four


This Everstone is important for breeding purposes and being able to pass on desired natures


This could be interesting. I've been thinking about how to beat Magnemites and Magnetons, and Steel Wing might be a possible answer, though i would have to teach it to Zubat, which might not be all that helpful


Routes 108 and 109 are two more encounter opportunities. Route 108 i'll have to wait on, but Route 109 on the other hand is another chance to get that male Tentacool


It went down against one Quick Attack. Not a huge loss considering I already have a female Magikarp, but it wouldn't have hurt to have an extra


Not like i have any Ground moves to use


Yes please

"I'm going to be real with you, alright? I'm not like the best dragon, you know?" -- Sisu, "Raya and the Last Dragon"


This right here counts as a new are also, another Tentacool opportunity


This one I managed to catch and named it SISU after the blue dragon thing that was playing as an ad on my tv while i caught this


I love that this shop exists. Saves so much time when it actually comes to EV training. Of course, i'll need a ton more money for all that

"I'll like to try out for the team, my name is Lola Bunny." -- Lola Bunny, "Space Jam"


Route 110 marks the next catch opportunity. I'm not too hopeful that anything particularly useful is going to come out of this, and I'm probably going to be proven right with this Minun catch, which i'll name LOLA without even knowing for sure if this is a rabbit or not


I think i'm gonna have to start putting this to some use because GORDON and MOTHRA are doing everything and the rest of the guys are becoming too difficult to train with all of the pokecenter restrictions


Ugh i forgot about this battle. It's got that Combusken too, which could wreck my top two guys. I'm going into this battle with GORDON, MOTHRA, and ZIGGY as my three against her three


Ughhhhh, i knew it. I used a couple of GORDON's Screeches to weaken Combusken, thinking I could get ZIGGY in there and take it out with a single Headbutt. But he hit me with a Double Kick and got a critical hit to boot, killing ZIGGY in one go. This was painful for a couple reasons. ZIGGY was my third strongest team member, i was really relying on its Pickup ability, and it was a female that i could have breeded and EV trained. Big, big loss


Trying to stay focused on the task at hand, I noticed that Flamethrower is available as a TM in Mauville Game Corner. Maybe I could breed the Whismur's together, EV train a strong egg up, and then teach it Flamethrower to cover my Steel weakness. But i need money and i lost ZIGGY's Nugget pickup ability


Oh man what a teaseee. My Route 117 encounter was another Zigzagoon, this would have healed all wounds. But a critical hit knocked it out in one hit . . . blown opportunity


So now I find myself at a decision point. Can I start breeding? Do I have enough money to farm breed? Is it worth trading away two of my parents for one superpowered egg? Or should I jump straight into Sapphire and use that game to possibly catch a couple of Zigzagoons and trade some of my Ruby roster away for those guys and hunt for some Nuggets??

"Behind me is the miracle of birth. Soon, a stork will fly overhead delivering a baby panda." -- Brick Tamland, "Anchorman"

I opted to pause the Ruby playthrough and begin the project of breeding LESLIE and BRICK together to yield an ultimate version of Whismur.


Prior to this whole adventure, I did a nuzlocke run on Emerald all the way through Mauville so that i could "unlock" the breeding center. I then released everyone I caught except for Slugma and made this my de-facto breeding universe. I also depleted all my money so that all financing for the breeding would have to come organically from the main journey of the R/S/F/L games that I'm posing about in this thread


I traded LESLIE and BRICK onto this version, attaching a Nugget and a Stardust that i've collected in Ruby so far, giving me $6,000 to start with. I know this is not nearly enough, but it's a start and once I run out of money ( . . . by the end of this post) I'll have to decide whether to keep going through Ruby or maybe starting the Sapphire run where I'll have early access to Zigzagoon/Pickup catches again.


Breeding, breeding, breeding and then 56 eggs later . . .


I got a nature that I wanted. All this just to set up the Everstone and now start breeding a bunch of Adamant Whismurs. During the process, I was also able to get a male Whismur with 1/28/29/29/31/11 IVs, meaning there's 4 elite IVs in there that I can pass on to the next generation of eggs


But of course, the first iteration of breeding exhausted all the money that I had. So now I'm moving onto starting the Sapphire run. I'll play that one through until I can get enough sources of money (Nuggets/Stardusts/whatever) to finish the Whismur breeding cycle. I could have also continued the Ruby playthrough, but I think I'd rather wait until I have the suped up version of Whismur for that game to help me get through the third gym. I'm not at all confident that my current roster can get me through . . .

"We're gonna get those eggs back!" -- Red, "Angry Birds"


I'm starting the Sapphire run with RED the Torchic. I feel way better about having the fighting moves and fire moves type coverage to more easily move past the early settings of the game versus the issues I might have in moving Ruby forward. Ideally I can pick up significant money along the way (in the form of Nuggets, Stardusts, other items that I can sell) so that I can continue breeding Whismur. Then i'll tack Flamethrower onto that ultimate version of Whismur and use that to get through the third gym and cycling road.


I wasn't able to get through Route 103 without hitting an encounter, so there's a lost opportunity right there.


I beat May and went through the beginning parts of the game, which I won't bore you with. One thing to note though was the lack of Absorb in this run will make me become more resource-intensive I think, especially in early training sessions. This is the stock up session I did in the Oldale Mart. I still have one Mart left in Petalburg City, as well as healing sessions available at Mom's house, Oldale PC, and Petalburg PC. But the PC's are only good for 1 member at a time

"Look at that worm go. Who says there are no more heroes?" -- Bender, "Futurama"


So the first catch up comes on Route 102, where I got SLURM the Wurmple. This makes the third Wurmple caught in the two runs that I've started, which isn't bad since I need two sets of parents to breed both Beautifly and Dustox. In Ruby, I have MOTHRA and JERRY as one set, and in Sapphire I now have SLURM as the potential mother for the second set.

"Earthworm Jim! A hero for all time" -- "Earthworm Jim"


On Route 104, I got hit with yet another Wurmple. This one I named JIM. These Wurmples, even in the near-term, might not be a horrible thing. Especially if I can get some healing moves like Absorb, Morning Sun, or Moonlight.

"I hate to break it to you, but this is where our kind naturally lives." -- Jewel, "Rio"


The last spot up on this catching spree before I take a pause to train is Petalburg Woods, where I run into some fresh blood. I caught JEWEL the Taillow, though I do notice now that my best chance of scooping up multiple Zigzagoons with Pickup is probably behind me and that I'm once again off to a start where roster type coverage isn't all that great.