Wow, good luck, Mike. It's a lot of fun. Are you going to pair up the wings with their correct edges, and then solve the edges like a 3x3x3?
No, I've walked through several sighted 5x5x5 attempts, and it works well to just solve it like a 4x4x4 BLD up until the center edges, so here's what I do (it's really very close to Chris and Daniel's method, except that I never saw a tutorial on the 5x5x5 instead of the 4x4x4, so I had to come up with my own method for the middle edges):
1. Solve the corners. Leave parity for later, if there is one.
2. Solve the center corners.
3. Solve the wing edges, leaving the middle edges exactly where they started.
4. Solve the center edges. (I've noticed that for commutators, these are the easiest of all commutators to do!)
5. Solve the middle edges, doing it exactly like I would the 3x3x3. So first I do edge orientation, which I can do safely without messing up wing edges or centers using M' U' M' U' M' U2 M U' M U' M U2, and then I do edge permutation, which I always use the algorithm M' U2 M U2 with setup moves to do. I use this algorithm a lot on the 3x3x3 anyway, so I'm used to thinking of the setup moves to use it.
6. Fix parities, exactly like Chris describes in his original 4x4x4 tutorial.
I use commutators exactly like Chris and Daniel describe in the tutorials for centers and wings - their stuff really helped in figuring them out. That was the hardest part - learning how to do the commutators, and then learning to do them reliably.
I can see how matching the wings with the middle edges might have some advantages. You'd not have the limitation of just a few algorithms that work - you could use all your normal 3x3x3 algorithms (as long as the centers and wings have been finished first!), and it seems like it's a little easier to figure out which side of the middle edge each wing piece goes to than it is when matching the centers. But you have the disadvantage of having to look for the middle edge piece as you look for where each edge piece goes, whereas with my method you know right away if you know the color scheme. All things told, though, I think your suggestion makes a lot of sense - I'm tempted to switch, but probably I won't switch until after my first couple of attempts. It is a cool idea.
So Trevor, what's your process?
Keep up the good work.
