Kit Clement
Premium Member
A typical but lucky FMC attempt
L2 D2 B D2 // 2x2x2 Block
U' B2 D' B U B' // 2x2x3 Block
R D R' D2 // F2L '1
F' R F R2 F' R2 F //F2L
R2 B' R' B' D B D' R B //OLL
R' F2 R U D' F2 U' D R F2 R2 //3e
41 ETM
Ending F2L differently,
L2 D2 B D2 // 2x2x2 Block
U' B2 D' B U B' // 2x2x3 Block
R D R' D2 // F2L '1
D R D' R' F D' F' D //F2L
D R2 D2 F D F' D R2 D' //OLL
D2 r' D R' D R D' r D2 B R' B' // 3c3e
43 ETM
critique this please
First off, including the scrambles always helps. I made one with cube explorer: R2 D2 B R B R2 L2 U' F U R2 B' R B (14 optimal? Are you generating purposefully easy scrambles?)
First: why did you AUF on OLL? You could have cancelled 3 moves between F2L/OLL and another 3 between OLL/PLL for a 35:
L2 D2 B D2 // 2x2x2 Block
U' B2 D' B U B' // 2x2x3 Block
R D R' D2 // F2L '1
F' R F R2 F' R2 F //F2L
F' R' F' U F U' R F //OLL
F' R F' R' F' R' F' R F2 R' //PLL
Going earlier, note that you have a 2x2x2 block far sooner than you say:
L2 //2x2x2 block
After this, you seem to want to extend the 2x2x3 normally, but it comes at making one of your pairs (blue-orange-yellow) difficult to preserve later. I think it's easier to work on this 2x2x1 extension first:
B2 D2 //+square
And then pace the blue-orange-white pair. You can now use this 1x2x3 to create a PS-F2L
U' B' U B' //PS F2L
You're now incredibly close to getting a skeleton, we can now focus on solving the green-red edge in a way that solves all edges:
D2 F D F' D' B //5c
This leaves 13 to 5 corners, which is a pretty good solve. Insertion finder gets a 25 for this when only using pure comms (24 if you use longer comms): https://fewestmov.es/if/8d5dd489479f724c7211bec0865266b7
Another interesting finish is by seeing some pseudo-slotting stuff at the PS F2L - notice you have a pseudo-pair built one move before the PS F2L-1 is built, so if you pick up after that step, you can first insert the edge, then insert the pseudo-pair and leave 3c in 16 moves:
L2 //2x2x2 block
B2 D2 //+square
U' B' U //F2L-1.5
D B' D B U F D2 F' U' D2 //3c
Insertion finder gives this an optimal finish of 23: https://fewestmov.es/if/779b0a88e58ddd1deaac4066f98eb262
I would try to give you advice using the F2L-1 that you gave, but the EO is just not good in that state to get good finishes. If we back up a bit to this point though:
L2 D2 B D2 // 2x2x2 Block
Notice that you're 1 move away from a 2x2x3. In your solution, you do:
U' B2 D' B U B' // 2x2x3 Block
Which is 6 moves to make a 2x2x3 instead, just to preserve a pair. Additionally, just doing the 1 move to finish the 2x2x3 and breaking the pair gives you much better EO (only 2 bad edges from Petrus orientation) so using 5 moves for a pair and bad edges is definitely not worthwhile. If we try that start instead:
L2 // 2x2x2 Block
D2 B D2 B2 // 2x2x3 Block
Notice that there are a lot of ways to finish the Petrus EO and get some pairs along the way too. One example:
D' F D2 F' // EO+pair
This is only 4 extra moves and is a lot easier to work with this EO. The parity is bad on this case though, so it doesn't lead to a great finish (that I can see, at least), but all other things considered equal, this is much better to work with than your 2x2x3 marked substep.
Also, if you don't know how to use NISS yet, you should. I didn't use it in any of these examples (mostly because this scramble was super easy already to find continuations on) but it will make your options for continuations much more plentiful and make it easier to work with pseudo-blocks.