🔺 Set Match
🧠 Memory · 1 playsSet Match
Find the trios of cards on which every feature is all alike or all different.
About Set Match
Twelve cards are dealt, each showing a number of symbols in one shape, one colour and one style of fill — four features with three possible values apiece. A set is any three cards where each feature, taken on its own, is either identical across all three or different on all three. The rule takes ten seconds to state and far longer to apply at speed, because the eye insists on grouping by the most obvious feature and quietly skips the all-different combinations. The insight worth carrying is that any two cards determine exactly one third card, which turns searching into checking.
How to Play
Tap three cards to claim a set. For each of count, shape, colour and fill, the three cards must be all the same or all different. A correct set is replaced from the deck. Any two cards have precisely one card that completes them.
💡 Tips & Strategy
Any two cards determine the third exactly. For every attribute, if the two match, the third must match; if they differ, the third must be the remaining value. That means you never search for a set — you pick two cards, compute the third, and look for it.
Group the board by one attribute to cut the work. Sorting visually by colour turns twelve cards into three small groups, and sets are either entirely within a group or take exactly one card from each.
The all-different set is the one people miss. Three cards with nothing in common — different colours, shapes, fills and counts — is perfectly valid, and beginners overlook these because they look unrelated.
When you are stuck, sweep the pairs systematically rather than staring. Twelve cards give sixty-six pairs, which sounds like many but goes quickly once you are computing the third card rather than hoping to notice one.