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Tricked-Out F2L Edge Inserts (Hello, S Moves!)

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It’s been a few weeks now since I posted my PLL attack video. It’s not that I’ve been cubing less, but just that I haven’t had a lot of time for documenting things. A particularly busy month at work and family stuff — including a couple great birthday celebrations for my boys — evaporated my free time.

As of my last post, I had learned all PLLs minus the Gs. Since then, I’ve learned Ga well and Gb poorly. The two being inverses, I’m now able to practice them more fluidly.

I also stumbled onto and subscribed to TellerWest’s Youtube channel, featuring some really great “tricked out” algorithms that are far faster and more efficient (for the more advanced and dexterous of cubers). This particular F2L video caught my eye, since F2L edge inserts have been especially slow for me. (Edge inserts are when a corner is properly placed, but the edge is in the top layer.) After watching a few times, I realized that they weren’t the longest or hardest algorithms. So I gave them a try — and, in so doing, encountered my first S slice.

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N Perms

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I’m not sure what compelled me to try, but, a couple months ago, before I had really ventured into PLLs, I decided to learn the Na Perm. It drove me crazy trying to master an algorithm that long, with a couple awkward (at the time at least) D moves to boot. It turns out the execution is really kind of elegant in a way that feels like the Sidewinder OLL (in that you sort of follow a F2L pair around around the cube).

Feeling frisky, I next turned to the Nb analogue. No dice. The most common Nb algorithm seems to be (R’ U L’ U2 R U’ L)2 U. But L turns are like kryptonite to me. Although you can develop a decent flow with that algorithm, the juggling back and forth from the left side to the right drove me nuts. Nb would have to wait.

Wait no longer. With the PLL headboard now reasonably notched — with nothing but Nb and G Perms left to learn — I decided last week that it was time. I played with the various Nb algorithms on the PLL wiki, and finally settled on this one, a sort of funhouse mirror of the Na Perm: (z) 2x[ (D’ R U’ R2′) D (R’ U) ] R (z’).

Here’s a video of both:

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Ra Perm Drills

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I received an email responding to my last post (the one in which I declared this a blog for the mediocre!). I explained at the end of that post that, yes, clichéd as it is, the best advice for learning complicated algorithms is practice, practice, practice. The email asked how I practice. The short story is algorithm-by-algorithm, perm-by-perm. I just learned the Ra PLL, for example: (R U2 R) D (R’ U R) D’ (R’ U’) (R’ U R U R’). It was among the harder perms I’ve learned, and I’m not fast at it — between 3 and 4.5 seconds. So, I just drill over and over and over. Do it, reset, do it again. Here’s a quick video showing it:

Yes, that’s a just-purchased off-brand Stackmat timer connected to CCT on my work PC. “Shanty” form Bright Light Social Hour’s brilliant self-titled album is barely audible in the background.

PLL Madness

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Over the past three months, I’ve accomplished something I thought I never would: I’ve learned most of the PLL Perms for the last layer. Henceforth, Summer 2012 shall be known as:

Honestly, I never thought I could learn all of these. Continue reading →

V Perm — Booya

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UPDATE: This alg sucks. I long ago migrated to a totally different version, which is (odd as it may sound) my favorite alg.

After a brief hitaus from learning new algorithms, I posted over the weekend about learning Y Perm (and its two constituent OLLs). Feeling emboldened, I ventured into V Perm this week.  According to smart people, 1/18 of solves should see a V Perm.  Maybe something about my F2L technique puts a thumb on the V Perm scale, but I feel like I see it at least every 6 or 7 solves.

In any event, I learned it.  It was hard.  About as hard as I expected.  And I’m still slow at it.  But it works.  Here’s a quickie video showing me clunk through it:

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