On the x-cross topic again... I don't have the tools to see how to preserve the made pair easily, much less in 4 moves. I'm sure I'll head-desk as soon as someone shows me the trick, the scramble again: B' D2 L2 F' D2 L2 U2 F2 R2 B D' L2 B U R F L2 U' L U2
Having reread my post, I perhaps did not express myself very clearly.
I didn’t mean you should do anything differently when making the cross.
But have you noticed that the four moves you did to make the cross also solved the green orange pair in the back?
You did a four move xcross!
However, you seemed unaware of this because you then proceeded to remove said pair, when solving what you considered to be your first pair.
My further musings are only that it if you go back and have a look from the start it is interesting to see the manner in which the green orange pair splits up then rejoins as you made your first four moves.
What I learnt was that it’s not so much about thinking about how to “preserve” the pair (for it wasn’t preserved, it split up then joined together again) but...
If you tracked the pair in your mind (edge and corner independently) as you planned your cross, you would have been aware that an xcross would form.
All the best YouTube teachers recommend infinite inspection time to plan first pair in inspection until you can get this down to 15 secs. This area is my biggest weakness so I’m trying to focus on it right now...
I’m not sure I have the discipline to do this... anyway, happy cubing