For a while now, I’ve had a decent alg for flipping a placed but misoriented F2L edge: r (R U R’ U’) r’ U2 (R U R U’ R2). As I wrote earlier, this is a “purer” alternative — in that it does not affect the orientation of the U corners — to the standard algs of R’ U S’ U’ (R B’ R’) S R B and (R U R’ U’) (U’ R U2 R’) d (R’U’R). It’s regripless and fairly fast, but still a bit a clunky.

While learning an S-slice alternative to another F2L case (coming soon), it occurred to me that S may open up possibilities here, too. I reached out to TellerWest, king of tricked out algs, and we identified this as possibility:

R’ U S’ U’ (R B’ R’) S R B

As shown in this video, it works quite well:

S moves are not that easy nor natural for a lot of folks. But, with a fair bit of practice, I was able to find a rhythm and groove that made this alg work. On lockier cubes, it does present challenges. But when executed well on a good cube, it’s quite nice.

Of course, mine doesn’t even compare to TellerWest’s other-wordly execution of his other home-brewed alg of R2 U2 (F R2 F’ U2) R’ U R’. His video is pretty mind-blowing. Maybe I’ll tackle that one next. For now, I’m fairly pleased with this S-slice version.