Tips for a Magic noob?

[Carson]

I just got my Magic and Master's Magic today. I watched a couple youtube vids to learn the Magic solution and am currently solving in around 5-9 seconds on average. I am still having some trouble with making wrong moves here and there though... and once I mess up, it is taking me 5-10 minutes to get it back into a solvable state.

Does anyone have any tips or links for getting the Magic back into a familiar position in a reasonable amount of time?

 

[AvGalen]

Tip 1: Consider getting it back to flat -> 2x4 / 2x6 -> solved the real puzzle.
Tip 2: Really hard to explain, but try to create "pairs". If you have a single tile on the left and another single tile somewhere else you should try to move those 2 tiles towards each other
Tip 3: (only people that know me understand this) Push on the nose of the fish to make "head(s) and tail(s)" of it (seriously, this is often the last step to get it flat)
Tip 4: Just hand it over to me

 

[Carson]

This is still giving me fits... I can solve the stupid thing in ~4 seconds average, but if it gets messed up it takes me hours to fix.

 

[AvGalen]

This is still giving me fits... I can solve the stupid thing in ~4 seconds average, but if it gets messed up it takes me hours to fix.

You haven't accepted tip 1 yet

 

[Carson]

I don't have any problem getting it flat again... but when I get there, I don't understand how to manipulate tiles to get them to a familiar position.

 

[AvGalen]

Getting it flat is really the only hard part.
After you get it flat you should get it back to the required rectangular shape (2x4 or 2x6)
After that you can use the description from http://www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles/magic.htm#start to get it back to the starting position. (I do all of that intuitively and cannot explain it as well as Jaap can)

 

[Swordsman Kirby]

I just got my Magic and Master's Magic today. I watched a couple youtube vids to learn the Magic solution and am currently solving in around 5-9 seconds on average. I am still having some trouble with making wrong moves here and there though... and once I mess up, it is taking me 5-10 minutes to get it back into a solvable state.

Does anyone have any tips or links for getting the Magic back into a familiar position in a reasonable amount of time?

My only tip for magics is not to do them.

 

[hdskull]

Sorry this is off-topic, but where did you get yours? Wal-mart?

 

[Lofty]

I just bought mine at walmart and used this link to solve it from a completely scrambled position. Now I have it solved but no idea what to do with it now because i dont know the speed way.
http://www.geocities.com/abcmcfarren/math/rm1/rm1int.htm
Edit: I just learned from Erik's youtube tutorial and have done like 5 solves and can get sub-5 I can see this getting old fast tho...
Edit: sub-2.5 but sub-1 seems almost imposible... But I've only been at it for around an hour maybe. Not even that many solves.

 

[ExoCorsair]

Tip: buy lots of extra strings / make lots of spare strings.

Otherwise, just focus on moving quickly after the motion becomes muscle memory.

 

[Carson]

Got mine from cube4you... it was EXTREMELY tight, but it has loosened up a lot. (red one, not the black. The last time i was in walmart here, they ony had 3x3 and 4x4 cubes, no magics... but I will check the next time I'm there.

 

[pcharles93]

Tip: buy lots of extra strings / make lots of spare strings.

Otherwise, just focus on moving quickly after the motion becomes muscle memory.

Buy a lot of strings or thick fishing line. I've broken mine about 12 times and haven't restrung it yet. Don't use thin fishing line, because it usually stretches a lot and is prone to breaking.