Well, I must admit I'd rather have a pawn on d4 myself, which is the way I'm playing it currently (e4 d5; exd5 Qxd5; Nc3 Qa5; d4 Nf6; Bd2 c6; Bc4 Bf5; Nd5 Qd8; Nxf6+ gxf6).  The consensus so far seems to be I'd better stick to my current play, so that's OK

I believe this was one of the sample chapters that Martin made available and he actually thought he had appropriately dealt with it.

Then one also has the 4...c6 move order (if one plays those Bf5+c6 variations anyway, although it does allow 5.d4! Bf5 6.Bd2!), after which at least 5.d3 is just harmless. There's also 4...Nc6 and 4...Nf6 5.d3 Nc6, both of which are sort of okay.

The way to refute the Qa5 Scandinavian is 4.d4 (if it is possible to refute it, at all).

The variation 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nxd5 is by far too good for black, swapping off a pair of knights in these positions is actually not inconvenient for black at all. Isn't 1.e4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 against the Alekhine more interesting (if one insists on not playing the best move, i.e. 2.e5, once more)?

I'd like to come back to a post by TopNotch in the thread Busting the Scandinavian, reply #3, to be found on 
http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1123590850/3#3, ;
and covering the following variation:

e4 d5; exd5 Qxd5; Nc3 Qa5; Bc4 Nf6; d3 c6; Bd2

There was no reaction to this post and yet IM Andrew Martin in his excellent The Essential Center-Counter regards this "as possibly White's most dangerous try against the modern Center-Counter, particularly in lines where Black intends...Bf5.  Most definitely, Black must not be caught 'shunting' out the pieces himself". 

Hello White players out there, shouldn't we pay attention?! I for one am impressed and would like to know what other participants in the forum think about this variation.

Besides, there's an added bonus:  more or less the same piece placement can be used against the Nf6 Scandinavian and against the Alekhine, as follows:

e4 d5; exd5 Nf6; Nc3 Nxd5; Bc4 Nb6; Bb3 c5; d3
e4 Nf6; Nc3 d5; exd5 Nxd5; Bc4 etc.

I'm always looking for lines that reduce the midnight oil, but are the latter 2 variations as dangerous as the Scandinavian version and if not, are they at least playable?!

I hope TopNotch is reading this as well and that there'll be lotsa reactions this time...