Should You Buy the Memethology Card Game?
We're evaluating the TCG that Bankless, Edge City and others love.
Crypto has an unhealthy obsession with trading card games. It baffles me to see people buying digital versions of graded Pokemon cards that are held in custody by someone else.
It's the worst of both worlds.
I store my Magic cards in decks. I'm not crazy (yet) but I play against people who play with >$20k cards. The kid in me would find it disappointing if I put a Charizard in a slab on a shelf.
The kid in me is happy he gets to *actually* play Magic with friends regularly.
Isn't that what the nostalgia is about?
Don't buy Counter Strike skins. Host a LAN party with friends.
Don't buy a basketball jersey. Play some streetball.
Back to Trading Card Games: when Pudgy Penguins was released, we reviewed it. I recently came across Memethology which is a digital/physical TCG focusing on internet memes.
While I remain skeptical of crypto as a viable breeding ground for a new TCG (mainly because people in crypto only like a product as long as they can use it to make money or post content), I wonder if this could be different.
WHAT IS MEMETHOLOGY?
“Memethology is a living trading card game about the internet’s biggest ideas, icons, and inside jokes.”
Digital “BASED Genesis” boosters are currently available for 0.00042 ETH to mint via Metamask. Quests with additional rewards are “Coming Soon”.
According to Devfolio they've sold $70k+ worth of product (about 10k+ digital packs) across 2 sold-out drops and produced >300 unique cards.
The cards are playable online and offline and available through both physical and digital drops. Information on rarity is scarce and there isn't really a secondary market yet.
HOW VALUABLE ARE MEMETHOLOGY CARDS?
Using our proprietary TCG assessment framework™, we look at collectibility across the following axes: IP, Playability, Art, Demand Dynamics, Digital Game.
IP. On the surface, the focus isn't on proprietary IP here as Colton (the Founder) open sourced the game and wants to enable permissionless contribution.
Playability. The rules aren't shown publicly online so I can't comment on this but early feedback seems positive.
Art. The art is tastefully AI-generated. I think it’s as good as AI art gets. Take what you will from that.
Demand Dynamics. Very few physical cards have been distributed so there should still be plenty of opportunity here even if you missed some of the early digital drops.
What’s not clear is what the link will be between playability and value:
The goal is to deliver a Pokémon Pocket-style experience but without their aggressively extractive monetization.
As a kid, my brother and I loved Pokémon but often lost out just because we couldn’t afford the top-tier cards. That won’t happen here. This is all about building an inclusive ecosystem.
For other TCGs, it’s often the strongest (overpowered) cards that have the most market value whether during a time when they are in the competitive rotation or later for nostalgic reasons.
One differentiator is the Sponsor partnerships which has led to some unique packs being distributed such as “Edge” packs for Edge City.
Digital Game. The digital version looks really bare bones but pleasant to the eye. I don't like the direction that modern TCGs are going in with flashy visual effects and animations and like this toned down version. I believe there are many other under-explored art directions.
On the surface, Memethology isn't as advanced as Pudgy Penguins, Vibes or other TCGs that are built on existing IPs.
It has a real story, however.
Colton vibe-coded and vibe-generated the whole game, it’s all documented in his blog. They are not just focused on monetizing an IP through another product, they are exploring at the intersection of mythology and joy through play.
Flipping through Colton’s blog gave me as much joy as reading Making of Karateka. At times I've considered making a trading card game myself enabled by all the tools we now have, but that will probably never happen? I'm happy that Colton is living that dream for all of us.
And Memethology isn't simply using AI to make the process of creating the TCG cheaper, they are exploring AI as a medium for collaborative game design, even considering a DAO:
HOW TO SPECULATE ON MEMETHOLOGY
No financial advice here, but here’s how I'd approach building a collection of Memethology cards:
As a comparison point, non-foil collections of Vibes TCG are going for $1000 and foil collections aren't easily found. I would try to get my hands on some of the earliest editions of physical cards whether through buying or tracking Colton down in various events in anticipation of drops.
As for digital packs, it’s much harder to predict their value as it is related to whether the game will eventually be successful. I'd only buy them for fun and if you actually intend to play the game.
After that, you could get a player community together and start playing the game and sharing feedback with Colton.
This TCG is way more early than Vibes TCG when we first came across it. It’s also a genuine grassroots effort and a monumental accomplishment to do a full stack physical/digital TCG as a solo Founder. For that reason, I'm rooting for it.