Actually no, The SCone is as good if not better than R4/M3. The only disadvantage that I see here is that SCDS1 is VERY reliant on the Micro sd card speed, and if you got a japan made one then there's no problem. Also it is not as easy to use as the R4/M3.
The majority of the New generation (Slot-1) users Bought R4/M3 because at the time it was the Easiest to use and SCDS1 along with the EZV wasn't as updated often as the R4/M3. And since slot-1 came out there has been enormous publicity to the DS homebrew community. But since the new generation users was never in the slot-2 era they didn't learn how to do stuff like patching, trimming etc (Which is not that hard). then R4 came in, a 100% clean rom card. the new generation didn't have to learn anything and just click buttons.
The SCDS1 does require you to set save size for the newer games that are not updated in their database yet. but the advantage of that is you do save space in the long run where as R4/M3 is set to max and each save is 512mb big. There using Alot more room.
As of right now SCDS = if not > M3/R4. But people are too in to defending the cart they bought and since majority is r4, Well they rag on all other cards. including nintnedo forums.
Bottom line, NO SCDS1 is not bad at all, is it a great card? Yes, is R4 a great card? Yes, But The people that are new to the DS scene should not get the SCDS1 as their starter card. (kids these days are too dumb to operate such advance systems)
The R4/M3 are however one of the best starter carts right now. its the easiest to use since almost everything is preset for you.
