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?

I have never used the Mieses Opening. I will check it out.

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.

I've been using the Mieses as an unorthodox alternative to my normal Reti. If I can play side-lines in the Modern Defense as black, then why not from the white side? It seems to reduce my draw ratio, especially against opponents who are willing to play aggressively in a reversed defense.

Here's a common line for me, though the position could be reached from any number of move-orders, including the Anderssen and Hungarian openings.