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I guess most people won't buy a rather Luddite argument, but here goes.

I think I probably (almost) instinctively look for ALSs that have at least 2 candidates in common with the aligned pair first ...

I noticed some discussion of xy-loops fairly recently, & so speaking of the devil .... I suspect that people would find this puzzle boring: if you see the xy-loop, that's just about it. If you d ...

Forthose who prefer to skip the basics:

+----------------+-------------+----------------+
| 49 6 23 | 1 89 7 | 38 5 24 |
| 457 8 1257 | 6 45 3 | 247 147 9 |
| 45 ...

+-------+-------+-------+
| . . . | 1 . 7 | . 5 . |
| . 8 . | 6 . 3 | . . 9 |
| . . . | . 2 . | 6 . . |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 3 5 . | . . . | . 9 8 |
| . . 6 | . . . | 1 . . |
| 1 2 . | ...

After the 9s X-wing, the 7s pointing pair in box8, & clearing up box 2:

+--------------+-------------+-------------+
| 8 1 46 | 5 2 37 | 37 46 9 |
| 569 2 3 | 8 79 46 ...

Thanks Asellus.

Keith, I do see that it's not necessary to use an APE, but that's how I saw it. If you write down the possible pairs for r78c7 you'll find that none of them includes a 2 or a 4 in ...

Now I've read Keith's post, including the link to the APE discussion, but that hasn't left me much wiser. I can see vaguely that the deletions I made are essentially because of an intersection of AL ...

Marty, I've just read your post. I'm sure you're right, that APEs are a subset of more general methods. (And as I've said they're probably not common.) But . . . they're easy for some of us to spot ...

Thanks Peter, but I think I'm sorry I asked!
Right-hand boxes with 7s gone (because of the UR78):

+---------------+
| 6 235 7 |
| 1 35 8 |
| 234 9 245 |
+---------------+
| 2 ...

Thanks Danny & Peter. Amazing Eurekas! By 'magic bullet' I did indeed mean deleting the 5 in r3c9.

I don't know how other folk see things: I mean do you think in Eureka? (I do for an ordinary ...

I can't begin to match Peter's nice move.

The old-fashoned way: SFish in 5s (or loop of 5s), followed by simple colouring on 5, followed by xy-wing.

Thanks Ted. I think I follow that. It's impressive anyway.

A skyscraper followed by a W-wing is one method. (Same digit for both.)
No doubt there are more creative solutions available!

Menneske 1499018, rating 727

+-------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 148 1348 2 | 13789 5 134 | 3689 36789 4789 |
| 468 7 36 | 389 3489 2 | 1 5 ...

Thanks, Asellus: very neat. I didn't think of starting with r2c4, but wouldn't have had the confidence to do it anyway.

Ted & Norm: I'm very impressed!. In my readings I noticed a comment of Dnny's, that times had moved on since he first posted puzzles, and I can see that this is true. The (apparently) casual use ...

Menneske 2170801

+------------------+----------------------+----------------+
| 8 345 1 | 235 2345 9 | 6 235 7 |
| 9 345 2 | 3567 34567 356 | 1 35 8 ...

Thanks: very neat! (I didn't think of using the ALS in r1, & indeed didn't notice it.)

Most of us would see this via the ALS in box1r23, because you can see without thought that r2c8 = 5 remov ...

+--------------+-----------+-------------+
| 1 2469 268 | 5 3 7 | 468 249 689 |
| 245 24 258 | 9 6 248 | 1 7 3 |
| 3 2469 7 | 1 48 248 | 468 249 5 |
+--------------+------ ...

When I joined a few weeks ago, I was embarrassingly crass (frustration perhaps, though that's a reason rather than an excuse). Anyway, it's been good fun catching up, doing old DAZ puzzles, etc.

H ...