All Standard F2L Cases [Intuitive F2L Mastery] — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00In this video, I’m going to show  you the best intuitive solutions
2. 0:03for all of the 41 standard F2L cases  while applying great finger tricks.
3. 0:07So to get the most out of this tutorial,  make sure you’re familiar with beginner
4. 0:11F2L and finger trick basics like home  grip, pinch moves, and push moves.
5. 0:17But aside from that, all you need  is a cube and you’re good to go.
6. 0:21Standard F2L cases occur when  both of the pieces of the pair
7. 0:24we’re solving are either in the top  layer or stuck in their own slot.
8. 0:29So this is a standard case.
9. 0:30This is also a standard case because  the corner is stuck in its own slot.
10. 0:34But this is not a standard case because  the corner is stuck in a different slot.
11. 0:38These standard cases are the  foundation of your F2L knowledge,
12. 0:41as all of the other non-standard cases  will build on the same techniques.
13. 0:45Now a common mistake people make is only learning  how to solve these cases in the front right slot.
14. 0:51But here’s the problem — some cases are  actually meant to be solved in the front left.
15. 0:55The two separate cases I’m showing right now  have the exact same solution, just mirrored.
16. 1:02And since you can almost mirror every case,
17. 1:04it means you only need to learn  about half of the 41 cases.
18. 1:08Now 20 cases doesn’t sound so bad now, does it?
19. 1:11And to quickly tell which side to solve a pair  on, we’re going to look at the edge orientation.
20. 1:16When looking at an F2L pair, the  edge can either be good or bad.
21. 1:21A good edge has a top color that  matches either the front center or
22. 1:25the opposite color — which in this case is green.
23. 1:28This edge is a good edge.
24. 1:30And this edge right here is also a good  edge because red is opposite of orange.
25. 1:34A bad edge, however, doesn’t match  either the front or back centers.
26. 1:39So this is a bad edge.
27. 1:40Good edges like this one right here can be  solved using only R-U moves or L-U moves,
28. 1:47which is ideal for fast execution.
29. 1:50If you have a bad edge, however — for example,  this edge right here — the simplest fix is to
30. 1:55just rotate to either side, which now  turns the same edge into a good edge.
31. 1:59For now, always rotate so the slot  you’re solving into is in the front,
32. 2:03because we’ll cover back slot  solutions in a later video.
33. 2:06But before we jump into solutions,  I’m using my new favorite cube right
34. 2:10here — the Moyu Weilong Ferrocore —  which I actually helped co-develop.
35. 2:14So if you’re looking for a dope speed cube,
36. 2:16you can grab one at TheCubicle.com, the  best spot for all speedcubing things.
37. 2:21And don’t forget, if you ever buy something, to  use discount code CUBEHEAD for a huge discount.
38. 2:27Guys, your support helps me to keep making this  video, so thank you so much for considering it.
39. 2:32Back to the video.
40. 2:34Now if you remember from beginner F2L,
41. 2:36there are four easy inserts — and these  are also part of the 41 standard cases.
42. 2:41First off, we have the right pair.
43. 2:43And applying edge orientation right here,
44. 2:45you can tell it is a right pair because the  top color of the edge matches the front.
45. 2:49So you can solve this using only R and U moves.
46. 2:51For the right pair, we just want to move it aside,
47. 2:53open the slot, insert it,  and close it — like that.
48. 2:56However, there’s one more insert that I want  to show you, which we call a sledgehammer,
49. 3:00or simply a sledge — because we’re going to  use these moves more often for other cases.
50. 3:04For this insert, we just want to first put the  pair in its position, hide it, fix the cross on
51. 3:09the right, and then do an F’ by bracing the middle  layer with your pinky and doing this right here.
52. 3:15And if you’re wondering — it is  always better to use a sledge as
53. 3:17an insert when there’s no oriented  yellow edges for your last pair.
54. 3:21So if I do a sledge right now, you’ll have  a better chance of getting a good OLL.
55. 3:25What’s also handy about the sledge is  that we can use the algorithm from this
56. 3:28angle right here to solve a right  pair when the edge isn’t oriented.
57. 3:32We can do the same sequence of moves — putting the  pair in its position, hiding it, fixing the block,
58. 3:38and fixing this block right here — which is a good  way to solve this pair without having to rotate.
59. 3:43And we can just mirror these  solutions to a left pair.
60. 3:45So a normal insert looks like that.
61. 3:49A lefty sledge — like this.
62. 3:53And a hedge from this angle  right here — just like that.
63. 3:58The other easy insert looks like this  — we have different colors on top.
64. 4:02Now for this one, just connect the two pieces,
65. 4:04insert it by using a pinch,  and close the slot — like that.
66. 4:08Exactly the same on the left side — just like so.
67. 4:13Every case from now on will simply  be setup moves into an easy insert.
68. 4:18So during the video, I will show  the setup moves in round brackets
69. 4:22and the easy insert in square brackets,  which makes it easier to follow along.
70. 4:25I call this the Intuitive Solution  Formula, because the setup moves
71. 4:29are usually just three moves — and it makes  it really easy to grasp what is happening.
72. 4:33Once we have an easy insert, we just  insert it in one of the front slots.
73. 4:37The first cases we’re going to cover are when both
74. 4:40of the F2L pieces are in the  top layer but not connected.
75. 4:43And the reason we’re starting with these  is that they’re really easy — because
76. 4:46we’re just applying all of the  techniques from beginner F2L.
77. 4:49For the first pair, we have the  same color that is facing up.
78. 4:52So we want to move the edge next to the corner.
79. 4:54The way we do that is by putting  the corner in the back, right here.
80. 4:58Hide it, push the edge next to it,
81. 5:00bring the corner back — and now we have  a pair, which we can insert like that.
82. 5:06Now remember guys — whenever I’m  solving the orange-blue pair,
83. 5:09I’ll just be doing the mirror  case in the front left slot.
84. 5:12So the solution will be exactly the  same, but just using lefty moves.
85. 5:16So for this pair right here,  we can just hide the corner,
86. 5:19push the edge next to it,  and then insert the pair.
87. 5:22And we can use the exact same  principle for this case right here.
88. 5:25We have the same colors facing up — hide the  corner, move the edge next to the corner,
89. 5:31bring the corner back, which creates  a pair — and we can insert it like so.
90. 5:36Now we have the mirror case  right here — hiding the corner,
91. 5:40putting the edge next to it, bringing  the corner back, and inserting the pair.
92. 5:46For the next disconnected pair, we  have different colors facing up.
93. 5:49So this time we want to move the edge right  here so we can form a three-move insert.
94. 5:53The way we’re going to do that is  by putting the corner in the back.
95. 5:56And if we now hide it, we can push  the edge in its correct position.
96. 6:00Then solve this case by pushing it in — like so.
97. 6:05For the mirror case, solving it on the left side  — we can once again just hide the corner, push the
98. 6:09edge into position, bring the corner back, and  solve this insert by pushing it in — like so.
99. 6:15Now we have four more cases  where white is facing up.
100. 6:18These are really simple, because we’re going  to use the same principles as beginner F2L.
101. 6:22So — aligning the edge, hiding the  edge, bringing the corner over the edge,
102. 6:27bring it back, and now we have a pair — like so.
103. 6:31Now the lefty mirror solution — hiding  the edge, bringing the corner over it,
104. 6:36bringing the corner back, and inserting the pair.
105. 6:39This time, the edge is right here  — but we can do the same thing.
106. 6:42Align the edge, push the corner over it,  bring the corner back, and insert the pair.
107. 6:49And for the mirror case — just align the edge,
108. 6:52hide it, corner over it, bring  it back, and insert the pair.
109. 6:57Moving on to the corner-in-slot cases.
110. 7:00These cases have the corner we’re solving in the  correct slot, but the edge is in the top layer.
111. 7:04Now the first case has a solved corner  and an oriented edge right here.
112. 7:08Up until this point, whenever  we had an oriented edge,
113. 7:11we just did two-gen solutions  — just R-U or L-U moves.
114. 7:15However, now we’re going  to kind of break this rule,
115. 7:17just because this solution  I find to be way better.
116. 7:20So — just putting the edge in the  back, doing a sledgehammer right here,
117. 7:24which sets up a three-move insert  in the front right — just like so.
118. 7:28And even though this one has F  moves, it can be done really fast.
119. 7:31Now for the mirror solution — this time,  the edge is oriented to the left side.
120. 7:35Once again, put it in the back, do a lefty  sledge into this three-move insert — like that.
121. 7:41Now for the next corner-in-slot  case, white faces to the left.
122. 7:44Notice that if we bring the  corner next to the edge,
123. 7:47we form a pair right here — but we’re not going  to do F moves, because this edge is oriented.
124. 7:52What we can do instead is just hide the  edge in the back, bring the corner over it,
125. 7:56and then if we bring it back, it forms a  pair — which we can just insert like so.
126. 8:02Exactly the same for the mirror  case — just hiding the edge,
127. 8:05bringing the corner over it,  and then inserting the pair.
128. 8:09For the final two corner-in-slot cases  — this time white faces to the right.
129. 8:13Notice that we cannot form a pair like  this — so this is a different case.
130. 8:16These two colors are not matching.
131. 8:18If I bring the corner right here by just taking  it out, we actually set up a three-mover.
132. 8:24And notice that this sequence of moves is  just a sexy move into an insert — like that.
133. 8:31Then for the mirror case — just doing  a lefty sexy into an insert — like so.
134. 8:36Moving on to the cases where the edge  is stuck in the slot we’re solving into,
135. 8:40and the corner is in the top layer.
136. 8:42Important to note is — whenever  an edge is in the middle layer,
137. 8:46rotating doesn’t affect edge orientation.
138. 8:48Because right here, we have a good edge — the  top color or the front color matches the center.
139. 8:52But if we rotate, the same is still true.
140. 8:55So for these cases, you never want to rotate —  because it doesn’t help with edge orientation.
141. 8:59For the first case, we have a  solved edge and white is facing up.
142. 9:03The intuitive solution is basically inserting  the corner from this angle right here,
143. 9:07which sets up this case we’ve seen before.
144. 9:11But that solution is basically  just doing three inverse sexy
145. 9:14moves — and that’s how you should memorize it.
146. 9:16When the edge is flipped in its  own slot and white is facing up,
147. 9:19it kind of looks like we have  a flipped pair in its own slot.
148. 9:22Now the best solution for this  one is actually a little trick.
149. 9:25If you put the corner in the back like  that and do a sledgehammer, it sets up
150. 9:30a pair — which we can just straight-up  insert in the front right — like so.
151. 9:34When we have a solved edge and white is  facing left, this is a pretty good case.
152. 9:38Notice — if I put the corner in the back, we have  blue right here and in the front, blue as well.
153. 9:43So if we hide the corner, the  edge will come into the top layer.
154. 9:46Then we can just move it next to the corner,  bring the corner back, and insert the pair.
155. 9:52This time, white faces to the right.
156. 9:55Notice that red is facing up, and if I put the  edge in the top layer, we have blue right here.
157. 10:00But with the corner on the left,
158. 10:01we can actually just take out the edge  — and notice we’ve set up a three-mover.
159. 10:05So we can just insert that — like so.
160. 10:08Now we’re going to see two pretty annoying cases  — where the edge is flipped in its own slot.
161. 10:12For the first one, white faces  to the left — and there’s a lot
162. 10:15of things you can actually do to  set it up into an easy insert.
163. 10:18Notice here we have different colors,
164. 10:20so I can just take out the edge,  which sets up a three-mover.
165. 10:23But even with the corner in the back left  — if I just put the edge in the top layer,
166. 10:27notice we also have an easy insert  right here, which we can take out.
167. 10:31However, the solution that I advise you  guys to learn is with the corner in the
168. 10:35back left — setting up this three-mover,  but pushing the corner next to the edge.
169. 10:40The reason I think this is the best solution  is because now we have a pair — and generally
170. 10:44speaking, a pair gives you a bit more  freedom with how to insert it and stuff.
171. 10:49We could even rotate and insert it to the left.
172. 10:52Or, for a rotationless solution, we  can just do a hedge insert — like that.
173. 10:56oH nO dOt CaSe.
174. 10:57Now when white is facing to the right, we can do a  similar solution with the corner in the back left.
175. 11:02However, this time we’re going  to start with doing F moves.
176. 11:05Notice that red is facing up right here.
177. 11:07If I do an F’ using my thumb,  we set up this three-mover.
178. 11:11So if I put the corner  right here and do an F move,
179. 11:14we build this pair right here — and now  we can just insert it with R-U moves.
180. 11:18Now, because rotating doesn’t influence  edge orientation for these cases,
181. 11:22I advise you guys to learn the mirror  solutions on the left for all of these cases.
182. 11:26I’m not going to repeat myself though,  because they’re exactly the same solutions.
183. 11:30But if you want to get an overview,
184. 11:31check the pinned comment — you can  find a PDF with all of the solutions.
185. 11:35Now we’ll see the cases where both pieces  are in the top layer — although connected.
186. 11:40On average, these aren’t the best cases,
187. 11:42and oftentimes we’ll just set them up into  another pair that we know how to solve.
188. 11:47For example, for this case right here,  where we kind of have a pair but the edge
189. 11:50is flipped — we’re just going to insert the  edge, which gives us this case right here.
190. 11:55We just want to put the corner in the back and  form a pair, which we can insert — like that.
191. 12:00And even though this is a long  solution, it flows extremely well.
192. 12:04Now the same solution for the  mirror case — so first of all,
193. 12:08insert the edge, set up a pair, and insert it.
194. 12:13Then for this case, we have the edge right here.
195. 12:15The solution for this one is pretty easy,
196. 12:17because we can just hide the corner  in the back and move the edge to the
197. 12:21place we want it to be — to set up this easy  insert, which we can just push in — like so.
198. 12:27Same on the left side — just hiding the corner,
199. 12:31setting up a three-move insert,  and pushing it in — like so.
200. 12:35Now for this case, white faces to the  left, and we have the edge right here.
201. 12:38What we want to do is just insert the corner  right here, which sets up into this case.
202. 12:44Important for the finger tricks is —  you want to push this insert right here,
203. 12:47so you can alternate your hand  to put this edge in position.
204. 12:51Then just solve it by hiding the edge and  forming a pair, which you can insert — like that.
205. 12:56Now I know the solution is pretty long,
206. 12:58but this is what we call a TPS spam  — because you can really turn fast.
207. 13:03Same solution for the mirror case right here  — so we can once again insert the corner with
208. 13:07a push right here, align the edge, and  then just solve this case right here.
209. 13:13Then we have white facing  up, oriented edge right here.
210. 13:15It’s pretty easy to set up an easy insert, because  if you just hide the edge, red is now facing up.
211. 13:21So we can just move the corner into the  correct spot, and if we bring back the edge,
212. 13:25we have an easy insert — which we can  insert in the front right — like so.
213. 13:31Then the mirror solution  right here — hiding the edge,
214. 13:34putting the corner in place, and then  just inserting it in the front left.
215. 13:39Then for this case — white facing up.
216. 13:40This time, these colors are matching.
217. 13:42Once again, we have a TPS spam  solution because it is pretty long.
218. 13:46What we want to do is just insert the corner into  its own slot, which sets up this case right here.
219. 13:51Now ideally, after inserting  the corner, we want to push
220. 13:55right here — because alternatively,  you’ll really overwork the left hand.
221. 13:58Then go into this solution by hiding the  edge and just inserting the pair — like so.
222. 14:04And just as a demonstration —  you can do this pretty fast.
223. 14:08For the mirror case, we want to do  the same thing — insert the corner,
224. 14:11push, and solve this pair right here.
225. 14:16And lastly, we have the worst set of  cases — and that is when both of the
226. 14:19pieces are stuck in the slot you’re solving into.
227. 14:22Now the first two cases aren’t that horrible,  because we have a good edge right here.
228. 14:26We can just apply the same rule,  which is taking them out in a way
229. 14:29that splits them up — right here — and  then deal with a case we already know.
230. 14:35Just like that.
231. 14:35So even though it’s a long solution, it’s  just R-U, and you can really spam TPS here.
232. 14:40Same this time — but white faces to the right.
233. 14:43Split them up, and then deal  with a case we already know.
234. 14:48But the next two cases have a flipped edge in  its own slot, so we’ll have to deal with that.
235. 14:52Now for the first case — white facing to the left.
236. 14:55We just want to split both pieces up.
237. 14:57Notice — by putting them in the  top layer, we now have a bad edge.
238. 15:00So naturally speaking, we  would rotate to solve it.
239. 15:03However, for this case, it actually flows better
240. 15:05to take them out and first set up  the three-move insert — like this.
241. 15:10And because we’ve been doing R-U moves so far,
242. 15:12it’s actually a bad idea to rotate to  this side and insert it on the left side.
243. 15:16Instead, what we can do is actually  do a U and a rotation — which together
244. 15:20becomes a wide d move — and insert  this pair into the back — like so.
245. 15:26Now, we haven’t covered back inserts yet  — I have a separate video about that — but
246. 15:29just follow along, because  this shouldn’t be too hard.
247. 15:32And even though this is a long  solution, it flows pretty well.
248. 15:36Now, when white is facing to the right — or  when we’re facing the two colors that are
249. 15:39matching — we could once again do this right here  and rotate to solve it in the back or the front.
250. 15:45However, what I noticed flows slightly better is  just taking them out as a pair, actually — and
251. 15:50then straight away form a three-mover, like this,  which you can solve in the back — like that.
252. 15:58Once again, this might be a bit confusing because  of the back insert, but we’ll cover that later.
253. 16:02And then, the final case.
254. 16:03We have a flipped edge and a solved corner.
255. 16:06For this one, once again, we want to take both  pieces apart and deal with this case right here.
256. 16:10Now ideally — once again — because we’re  doing R-U moves and because solving in the
257. 16:15back is usually a good idea, we can do a U and  rotation together, once again by doing a D move.
258. 16:21Pair those two up — like this — and  quick spoiler for the next video:
259. 16:26When you have a back pair, it’s usually  better to insert it with a U2 flick, like so.
260. 16:32Once again, we have a stuck edge — so  rotating doesn’t change the edge orientation.
261. 16:36So you might as well just learn how  to solve them from the left side.
262. 16:39Since you made it to this point in the video,  I just want to give you a quick applause. 👏
263. 16:44But now I quickly want to talk  about how you want to practice this.
264. 16:47In your regular solves, you just want to look for  standard cases — for example, this one right here.
265. 16:51Look at the edge orientation.
266. 16:53We have a good edge right here — but for now,  we only know how to solve in the front slot.
267. 16:58So we’ll have to do a double rotation.
268. 17:00But if you get it from this angle — for  example, we have a bad edge — rotate
269. 17:03to the side where you know the slot  you’re solving into is in the front.
270. 17:06And then just do the solution to that pair.
271. 17:09And if you ever get to the point where there
272. 17:11is no standard case — just look  for a pair you’re solving into.
273. 17:14This edge is in the wrong slot,
274. 17:16so just take it out so that you can  work on this standard case right now.
275. 17:20However, if you want to practice  this more effectively, you can
276. 17:22check out cube.academy — because I  have an overview of all the cases.
277. 17:26But even better — there’s a free PDF  with setup moves for each case and all
278. 17:31of the solutions we’re going to take  a look at in the Intuitive F2L videos.
279. 17:35So if you ever get to the point where  you want to expand your F2L knowledge,
280. 17:39you can see the Intuitive F2L  video playlist on screen right now.
281. 17:43Oh yeah — and buy my cube.
282. 17:45Discount code: CUBEHEAD.
283. 17:46Huge discount.
284. 17:48See you guys. ✌️