I have been collecting and playing with magic cards since I was just 6 years old. Unfortunately, last year a break in and fire in a family home destroyed the majority of my 18,000 card collection. I started this fundraiser in the hopes that I might be able to hopefully rebuild some of that collection that meant so much to me.

I was introduced to Magic by my godmother back in 2003, I believe in part, to distract me from my parents divorce and the game quickly became something I latched onto. Everything about it from the game mechanics to the world to the art to the creativity of play and organisation- it was all very much my thing.

Then on the morning of my birthday I remember opening my first two decks: Swarm and Slam from Dark Steel and Burial from Apocalypse. I was so excited that I couldn't wait for the sun to come up and was allowed to open them in the early hours of the morning. I still remember sitting in the dark being confused, straining to see why it seemed so many of the cards looked the same. This was my first proper introduction to land cards and I was looking at the art for my now favourite run of swamps in magic (the ones from Invasion).

I built my first deck using a mix of cards I'd been gifted by my godmother and ones I had received for Christmas. It was Red and Black and creatively called it Maximum Ogre Damage (because there were a bunch of ogres and direct damage in it).

The next cards I got were the 8th edition 2 player starter set featuring Giant Octopus and Norwood Ranger. Then from here and for the next 20 years or so I supplemented my collection with decks, booster packs, those 75 card tournament packs, fat packs, singles, the works. And I regularly would sit down for hours on Mondays (they were cheaper on Mondays) to go through the commons and uncommon singles boxes at my local magic shop picking out the individual cards I'd like for my decks. The owner was lovely and he sometimes gifted me cards from the new sets including Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi, Gleencrawler, Reckless Wurm etc.

Magic is by far the game I've played most in my life. The countless hours of organising my cards, reading them all, building decks, playing them out - whether by myself or with others - meeting friends and getting new players into magic.

I moved around a lot due to the situation with my parents and eventually moved away to study. During this time I stored most of my cards with my godmothers in their home. Unfortunately last year their house was broken into and a fire broke out. When they told me it was like a gut punch. I had spent so many days and nights having the best time with them in that house growing up and I knew how much the place meant to them and me. One of the first places their mind went, in consideration of me, was that they did not know the current state of the magic cards that were stored upstairs. I myself was forced to confront the possibility that all of those cards were gone and with it a huge part of my life and childhood.

Loss is something I think we have to accept growing up and I understood that but even then I held out some hope that maybe my cards hadn't been destroyed. The building wasn't burned to the ground. It had lost its roof and had structural collapse and was now unstable and crumbling but the entire thing hadn't been leveled. The fire had started on the other side of the house so maybe the firefighters had managed to stop it before it reached the room with my cards.

It was two weeks before we were allowed inside, with the structure deemed unsafe. When we finally got in to check I was confronted with an unfortunate reality. My initial hopes that the fire hadn't reached that room were somewhat correct. It had only just reached it before being put out. If that had been all then the worst the cards would have suffered is smoke damage. But whoever had broken into the house had emptied my collection out all down the hallway. A sea of cards spilled outside the room, out of their boxes and drawers all emptied out across the floor.

Whoever broke in had been looking for anything of value to steal and didn't know the value of any of the cards. I can tell because some that would be the prime obvious targets for stealing were still there. So they'd just torn through my collection emptying them out without a care. This meant that the fire had reached a lot more of them than it would have and any storage they were in to protect them had been undone. But the biggest problem was that the entire collection was absolutely soaked through and many of the cards now had mold growing through them also. Whether this was from the water used by the firefighters or from being exposed to over a week's worth of rain without a roof overhead I can't say, though I have a suspicion that neither were beneficial.

Most rares in their sleeves and binders were so water logged and moldy and stuck to the plastic that they were unrecoverable. Most decks were stuck together and stricken with mold inside their cardboard boxes. Cards throughout the massive pile were destroyed to varying degrees ranging from smoke damaged to incinerated or torn apart. Some were even stuck to the floor in an unsalvageable fashion.

It was heartbreaking and we saved what we could, trying not to spend too long inside the damaged building to avoid breathing in too much soot and chemicals from the burned building or mold spores which hung thick in the air.

Later when attempting to sort through the cards it became clear that even most of the ones I'd rescued from the house were still now ruined by their condition. My collection was made up of somewhere in the region of 18,000 cards, very possibly more as I had to count by eye based on what was left.

I created this fundraiser in hopes that the MTG community might be willing to help me rebuild my collection somewhat. I don't make a lot of money and so for now, without assistance, I wouldn't be able to rebuild my collection. It meant so much to me and I know there's a strong community of huge fans of Magic the Gathering who might be moved by my story and be willing to help. I'd prefer not to have to say goodbye completely to the game I loved all my life.

Any support would mean the world to me. Thank you for taking the time to read.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more then please feel free to get in touch with me. I'd be happy to elaborate more and engage with the community.

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