Just curious as to whether anyone uses the following method.
1. Solve DL and DR with adjacent centres. M slice centres don't matter (2.9 moves).
2. Solve F2L pairs, with free use of the M slice (24.1 moves).
3. Solve DF and DB, and M slice centres (5.2 moves).
4. Finish with OLL/PLL or LL of your choice.
Advantages and reasons I find this appealing:-
1. Step 1 is very short and simple, so planning first pair during inspection is easier (compared to cross).
2. F2L pairs are solved in <URrLlM> with no rotations and no F or B moves.
3. Because the M slice is unrestricted, pair solutions are slightly shorter on average (24.1 versus 27.5 for CFOP).
4. Step 3 is <MU> and based on a few common patterns/triggers, so can be faster TPS than cross, which typically involves several faces.
5. It's easier to look ahead into OLL because the corners aren't changed by step 3.
The only disadvantage I can see is that lookahead is a little harder because you have to be aware of what's in DF and DB while solving pairs.
Regarding move counts, I tried both this and CFOP against the same 12 scrambles, and that's where the estimates above come from (it's only a small sample set, I know). Counts are in STM. Total F2L move count was 32.2 for this method, compared to 33.7 for CFOP. Effectively, cross, which averaged 6.2 moves, was replaced by 8.1 moves for steps 1&3, but that 2-move increase was offset by the more efficient pairs.
Clearly the small decrease in move count isn't enough of an advantage in itself, but move count doesn't appear to be worsened either, so I'm wondering if the other advantages listed above make this worthy of further exploration. I'm considering documenting the F2L cases/solutions.
Thoughts, anyone?