In my opinion, I'm better at Standard Diplomacy because I have a better understanding to the map's balance that dictates the map's dynamics through geography and geopolitics, which are included in its prequel Colonial Diplomacy although it's less played so I don't know that map's balance and dynamics well, and I'm more of a poor-medicore diplomat.

"Mike has successfully hammered this point home to me on a few occasions by pointing out that the standard game is anything but balanced, and yet it's, uh, playable."

The balance is through the whole map makeup. Standard Diplomacy is divided by the stalemate line dividing the sphere's of influence by 17-17 supply centers between the West-East sphere's of control. The stalemate line isn't totally a fixed position derived through the map's dynamics or players' decisions as the game progresses like Army v Fleet ratio.