It is not uncommon for Magic: The Gathering fans to ‘spec’ on a card, buying up multiple copies in anticipation of a spike. It’s a gamble. You’re hoping your chosen card will shoot up in price, and that you’ll be able to sell it on to turn a profit before the value drops. Perhaps a new deck archetype has emerged and you’re in on the ground floor; maybe you spotted a neat combo with a card from a new set; or perhaps your favorite content creator just lauded an old, unloved card’s efficacy to an audience of thousands.
And then you have ‘Mine Collapse Guy’, who has purchased more than 5,000 copies of the same common, cheap Magic: The Gathering card, apparently just for the memes. As you might’ve guessed, that card is Mine Collapse, a Modern Horizons 2 removal spell that can be cast for free at sorcery speed, if you sacrifice a Mountain.
According to the fan, who currently goes by the online handle Lazy Gaming, the Mine Collapse spec started as a joke on a Discord server. Another user was unironically touting the card as the most overpowered spell they’d ever seen, and as a gag, a couple of users all agreed to purchase a few hundred copies.
But over time, Lazy Gaming says they actually started to believe in the card’s potential – in the right context. “It’s unironically in every red deck I can slot it in, due to its versatility,” they say. “One mountain is not going to make or break my strategy – especially with more recent sets that include mechanics like Earthbending.”
While several of their social media posts have sung the praises of this spec, the collector tells Wargamer their actions aren’t about making money off the card. “This is my pet MTG card. It has nothing to do with being a good spec, but if it happens to take off, fantastic,” they explain.
This devotion to a seemingly random red card has made ‘Mine Collapse Guy’ one of Magic’s Reddit micro-celebrities – like Minotaur guy, and that fella who enrages people by rating every new card based on its potential in Modern.
Lazy Gaming’s commitment to the bit is legendary. They regularly buy hundreds of copies of this one card, and their collection includes a giant framed Mine Collapse print, a donated copy signed by several Magic artists, and even a Mine Collapse blanket. While vending at shows they’ve given out copies of Mine Collapse free in goody bags.
A Mine Collapse single usually sells anywhere from 5 – 40 cents, so adding new cards to the collection is not very expensive. Lazy Gaming says they try to buy a large number each year to keep the pile gradually growing. At times, though, their own demand for the card has apparently pushed it out of their price range, and they’ve had to wait for a while for it to settle back down.
Judging by activity on Reddit, it seems like other fans have joined in on the meme too, so there may be no chances of achieving a Mine Collapse monopoly any time soon. Lazy Gaming operates a ‘tracker’, where players can log their own copies of Mine Collapse, and explains that there are about 10,000 cards entered on it now, spread between a dozen different fans.
Mine collapse guy says if the card ever received a reprint, they’d probably put a stop to their mission. I, for one, hope it never happens.
Come join the conversation on the Wargamer Discord. And check out the MTG release schedule to see what’s coming up this year.
Source: Wargamer
