The move d6 makes this something other than Evans, and the b4 offer now reaps insufficient benefit.
Nh6 was a blunder; Black has other options.
Anomalous Evans' gambit game
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pfren wrote:
steve_bute wrote:
The move d6 makes this something other than Evans, and the b4 offer now reaps insufficient benefit.
Nh6 was a blunder; Black has other options.
I disagree. White's compensation seems quite adequate.
5...Ba5 looks now worse than in the normal Evans due to 6.d4 ed4 7.Qb3 Qe7 8.0-0 and now 8...Nc6 (most natural, and transposing to a proper Evans) is known to be dangerous for Black after 9.e5!
In the game, Black should play 7...Qe7 instead of the blunder 7...Nh6?? but still white has a good game following 8.cd4 Bb6 9.0-0 Nc6 when again the position is known from the Evans proper (white is slightly better after 10.Bb5).
The only dark side under that particular move order is 4...Bb6! when the substitution of ...Nc6 by ...d6 is most likely in Black's favour (and anyway the Evans proper decline by ...Bb6 is the most solid and reliable way to meet it without much theory).
It seems weird that a variant like this is not played at all, it doesn't seem too bad overall at least as a surprise weapon 
melvinbluestone wrote:
It is interesting, but the 'surprise' is really black playing 3...d6 in the first place, instead of the the usual 3...Nc6. Still, it seems like a logical continuation. I found the game Staunton-Cochrane (1842!) where white played 4.d4 instead, and also won.
It's a common response at patz level: in my case 3 times black played Bb6 the other time I got a good position with the gambit accepted and Ba5 but then the blunder came. The main move in the explorer after d6 is Nc3
isnt it just going into this
http://www.chess.com/opening/eco/C23_Bishops_Opening_MacDonnell_Gambit
with nf3 and d6 thrown in?
Fear_ItseIf wrote:
isnt it just going into this
http://www.chess.com/opening/eco/C23_Bishops_Opening_MacDonnell_Gambit
with nf3 and d6 thrown in?
the only thing I can say is that without Nf3 you can play these lines too
..
..
And there is the McDonnell double gambit : Mongredien managed to draw vs Morphy with it
You can get this only from the Bishop's Opening and it doesn't appear in chess.com game explorer but the engine gives a plus to the first player so it can't be too bad. Maybe it's an idea to use for your games too.