Mieses Opening

Also known as Reversed Rat is something I don't think I ever saw until I became a Chess.com Greeter. Many of my 1200 rated opponents have opened with 1. d3 which is the Mieses. 1.......d6 is the Rat Defense. Does anyone who has been playing for a while here ever play this?

The various rodent defenses have pretty much been discredited I think. They are believed to have originated with Morton "The Rat" Mieses who was never able to achieve success with them in tournament play. Of course, this was in the period 1911-1914 and Morton did not have the chance to perfect them owing to his early death from some bad cheese.

1. e4 d6 is the Pirc Defense, it's sound, and 1.d4 d6 could transpose into a number oof different openings, most of which are sound.