Delusional ebay Seller - February 6th Edition

2008-09 Strat-O-Matic Basketball Card Set + Extras In Original Shrink Wrap 🤣

What in the world would make this person think that somebody would pay $901.00 for this Strat-O-Matic basketball board game season?!?!

Coaches Challenge

The Coaches Challenge, or "green light special" as Celtics color commentator Brian Scalabrine likes to call it, was introduced prior to the start of the 2020 NBA season and has played a prominent role in NBA games since.  As such, I thought it would be really cool to add the coaches challenge rule to my Strat-O-Matic basketball board game play.

Coaches Challenge Rule

A coach may call a timeout to utilize a Challenge to trigger a review of an F(1), F(2), offensive foul, or T result against his own team. Roll a 20-sided die. If the result is a 9 or lower, then the challenge is deemed successful (the call overturned), and the challenging team does not lose its timeout. If the result is 10 or higher, then the challenge is unsuccessful (the call not overturned), and the challenging team loses its timeout.

For seasons from 2020 - 2023, a team will be allowed a single challenge in each game. Beginning with the 2024 season, teams will be allowed a second challenge if their first challenge is deemed successful.

My research has found that Coaches Challenges have been successful right around 45% of the time, thus the 9 or lower mark on the 20-sided die in order for a challenge to be successful for this rule. As a side note, I like to refer to optional rules like this as "reality rules." These are rules that aren't implemented for statistical accuracy purposes, nor as strategical or tactical options, but instead are intended to add a touch of "realism" to the game.

Full disclosure, I stole the term "reality rule" from the 1987 release of TSR's "Top Secret/S.I." roleplaying game, which implemented optional rules to make gameplay seem more "realistic."

Here is a link to the official NBA Coaches Challenge rule.

Solitaire Game Play Options Update

The Solitaire Game Play Options document has been updated. The main change is in regard to the Determining Shot Type rules. In the previous version, if a player rated to shoot from both outside and inside did not attempt a three-point or penetration shot in certain situations, then a die roll against the shooting stars would determine whether or not an outside or inside shot would be attempted. That has been changed to a straight 50/50 chance of the player attempting an outside or inside shot, regardless of the number of shooting stars the player has.

In the previous versions, if a *I rated player, for instance, did not attempt a three-point or penetration shot, then there was an 83% chance that the player would attempt an inside shot and a 17% chance he would attempt an outside shot. A ****I rated player would have a 33% chance of attempting an inside shot and a 67% chance of attempting an outside shot in these situations. Obviously, when we get to the point where an Outside/Inside rated shooter may have an outside or inside shot, there should be a 50/50 chance of either occurring. 😣

Other changes were the fixing of typos and/or poor wording in the text in certain sections of the document. The new version is now available for download from the X Files section.

New Tournament Section

I've added a new Tournaments section to the blog, where I will post the results from my various solitaire play tournaments.

I mainly play with modified Super-Advanced rules in my games, which is the Super-Advanced game rules, modified by incorporating the rules from my Solitaire Game Play Options document. But, for the sake of variety (and comparison), I will also be playing tournaments using the other rule sets as well, unmodified Super-Advanced, Advanced, and even Basic. The formats of the tournaments will also vary.

Each tournament page will have the bracket at the top, which will be updated as games are completed, followed by a description of the tournament format and rules used during play. I will also provide a link to game notes and statistics for each game, and possibly even a link to the scoresheet used for each game.

My hope is that these tournament results will not only be entertaining, but informative as well, giving an insight as to how various rule sets affect the statistics generated by the game.

Record Price for Past Season Basketball Set

Holy Cow! A 1982 season basketball card set just sold for $485.00 on eBay this past Sunday. 😮I have been looking for out-of-print Strat-O-Matic basketball cards for over 20-years now on eBay and I have NEVER seen a set sell for north of $290.00. This must have been the "Holy Grail" set for whomever submitted the lone bid to win that auction.  I can't come up with any other explanation for dropping that much dough on an out-of-print basketball card set.

Now, 1982 is one of the two seasons from the 80s that I do not possess, the other being the 1981 season. So, I was watching this particular auction with interest. My thought was that there is no way in hell anybody is going to make the opening bid price of $485.00. I figured that I would wait until the final day of the auction and then make on offer based upon what I think is a fair price for that set, $300.00. Imagine my surprise, and disappointment, when I saw that somebody had actually met the opening bid price. Alas, I would not be adding the 1982 season set to my collection. 😔

This got me thinking about the sad state of affairs when it comes to the availability of past seasons for the Strat-O-Matic basketball board game. There are currently only fourteen seasons available from Strat-O-Matic for the basketball board game, 1999 - 2000, 2003 - 2007, and 2017 to present (after the 2023 season drops near the end of October). When the original printing of a season set sells out, that's it. Strat-O-Matic does not print any additional sets to restock the sold-out season.

That's too bad, considering that in today's day and age the ability exists to digitalize these out-of-print card sets and to either offer printed sets via print on demand, or to simply offer PDF files of those sets, which purchasers could print and cut out on their own. Instead, out-of-print of Strat-O-Matic basketball card sets are only available on the secondary market, which results in scarcity, and in turn exorbitant prices.

Individual Close/Normal/Sag Defense (Advanced Game)

As players of the advanced game know, each coach selects a team defense card, close, normal, or sag, which is then consulted whenever a D result occurs on the black die, and whenever an X result occurs on the black die, the X column of the offensive player's defender is consulted.

In my opinion, the team defense card represents "help" defense, with a close defense indicating a coach directing the unit on the floor to help aggressively against outside shots (resulting in less help available vs. penetration shots), a sag defense helping aggressively against inside shots (resulting in less help available vs. outside shots), and a normal defense not over-helping against inside nor outside shots. Each individual defender's X column then represents his optimal defensive ability vs. outside, penetration, and inside shot attempts for those with this viewpoint.

On the other hand, I can also see where players of the advanced game might view the team defense card as indicating that EVERY individual defender in the unit on the floor is playing his opponent Close/Normal/Sag, with each individual defender's X column representing each player's average defensive ability vs. outside, penetration, and inside shot attempts. Those with this viewpoint would see this as totally unrealistic, and rightfully so. For these players, team defense represents the optimal defensive ability of the team as a whole (resulting from the defensive mentality of the coach or organization, let's say) vs. outside, penetration, and inside shots. Each defender's X column should then be adjusted to represent his defensive ability based on whether he is trying to better defend the outside shot (thus weakening his ability to defend a penetration shot), better defend the inside shot (thus weakening his ability to defend an outside shot), or not adjusted at all, indicating that the player is not overplaying to try to better defend an outside or inside shot by the player he is defending.

For those who ascribe to the latter philosophy, the following rule change may suit your sensibilities over the rule as written.

Individual Close/Normal/Sag Defense

Use the Normal team defense card for each team, for the entire game. Individual players may defend either close, normal, or sag. Make the following adjustments to a player's X columns, depending on the defense being played:

When playing normal, do not make any adjustment to the defender's X columns.

When playing close, upgrade the defender's Outside X column one level, downgrade the Penetration X column one level, and make no adjustment to the Inside X column.

When playing sag, upgrade the defender's Inside X column one level, downgrade the Outside X column one level, and make no adjustment to the Penetration X column.

Players' defense against their assigned offensive player may only be changed during a stoppage of play. In a switch situation, you may temporarily change the defense of the defender based on the player he has switched on to.

X column levels are as follows:

6: blank
5: 2-4
4: 2-5,11
3: 2-6,10
2: 2-7,10
1: 2-9
0: 2-12

Disregard results from the BLKD portion of the X column if the block number listed has become part of the GOOD range of numbers after an X column has been upgraded or downgraded, due to a player playing close or sag. 

"Unguarded" Three-Point Shots (Advanced Game)

I have always found it odd that the Strat-O-Matic basketball game has rules that increase the FG% for Outside and Inside shots taken by players who are left unguarded (when a shooter's defender is participating in a double-team against another offensive player) but does not increase the FG% for three-point shots attempted by players who are left unguarded. 😕 Well, I decided to rectify that, and then some, with the following suggested rule adjustments:

If a player is left unguarded due to his defender participating in a double-team against another player OR whose defender is the designated inside block man, an X roll on the special black die does not result in an automatic missed three-point shot. Instead, treat the X roll the same as a Blank roll instead, reading the result of the shot attempt from the shooter’s 3-Pt. Shooting section.

Using this rule adjustment, one can no longer ignore the three-point shooting ability of players when making decisions on who to leave unguarded when employing a double-team or when choosing which player to be the defensive inside block man.