super relevant for me. I have been playing this game with my 6 yo daughter and was frustrated many times that we could not find a set even though the odds said that we should. Finally the mystery is solved.
Is brute force the only way to solve the game? I only glanced over the rules so I'm not sure, but it seems like a solution would involve finding subgraph isomorphisms (which is NP-complete) or something along those lines.
Agreed, this totally validates our experience of the game.
He mentions in the article that the game has 205 5-star reviews out of 238. I heartily recommend this game - it's one of the most mentally challenging games that is equally accessible to children from about 6 all the way to adults - pretty much everyone competes at the same level.
Also, http://3e.org/set/ is great for practice.