Actually I totally get that. I played some offbeat stuff for a while, and it's really amazing how it transposes into all sorts of openings across the full spectrum of chess.
For example 1.e4 d5 2.exd Nf6 sometimes with e6 sometimes with c6 gives you all sorts of french, caro, slav, but also some sicilians, QGA. After 1.e4 d5 e5 of course you can get advance french structures but the bishops can come out, so caro-like stuff too. After 1.e4 d5 2.Nc3 d4 you can get some KID / Spanish like structures. 1.e4 d5 2.d4 dxe 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 is a Blackmar Diemer.
In ICCF apparently 1.b4 is a forced loss (at least that's what I was told), so I can't imagine it getting an even game OTB against decent prep. Obviously no one is going to refute 1.b4 OTB, I just mean white will be worse.
I don't know much theory for 1.b4, I assume most people don't. I wonder what you play, because after 1.b4 e5 2.Bb2 Nf6 3.Bxe5 Bxb4 black's next 5 moves are pretty much automatic, 0-0, Re8, d5, c5, Nc6
Obviously this isn't the only line for white, but I assume black gets a nice edge however white deviates if black knows some theory.
oh the likelyhood of that is quite small. besides you dont just play one card. will my opponent prepare that deeply for 3 4 or 5 moves just as unusual? or say you play a more universal style ,will he prepare agaisnt your mainstream openings , your sidelines and your surprise weapon?
people that play weird stuff rarely only play just one of them for a very practical reason. its actually somewhat too easy to prepare agaisnt you otherwise. you play the whole roulette to make it a knightmare to prepare agaisnt. of course this has the disadvantage that you must know a lot of other stuff inside out. its a trade off.
Oh ok, so you're not playing 1.b4 every game. That makes more sense.
I knew a guy who always played as black 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6
My first game against him I got an equal position, was outplayed in the mid game, but we eventually drew.
So of course I go home and memorize a few deep lines. Too bad I didn't get to play him again.
for example, i currently play 1.b4 1.nc3 (mostly non-transpositions) and 1.b3 but i can easily play lines from 1.e4 1.d4 1.c4 1.nf3 1.g3 and 1.f4 very confortably at any time.
with black i mostly play 1.b6 and 1.nc6 agaisnt anything whitedoes, but believe it or not, a lot of structures you learn in those positions easily lend themselves to learning, french, sicilian, scandinavian and pirc. i can very easily adopt these as well.
its in fact what i intend to do as i get a bit stronger, fully diversify.