Yuga Labs is expanding Bored Ape Yacht Club into a trading cards game with Mudwater, a project combining a competitive game, physical collectibles and digital assets on Solana. Its first collection, Swamp Origins, gives existing Ape and Mutant owners a free allocation of packs while establishing several markets around the same underlying cards.
The game is a compact contest for two players. Players place cards on a three-by-three board, comparing numbers along adjoining edges to capture their opponent’s squares. Stronger cards must be built up through successive levels. Whoever controls the most squares when the board fills wins.
There is an interesting twist for serious players, however. Each must set aside one randomly selected card, with the winner keeping both. But this is only enforced when playing with owned NFTs. The entry-level web2 Exhibition mode doesn’t use this rule. It also supports computer opponents, matchmaking and games with friends, providing a route into play without collecting.
The initial Swamp Origins collection contains 120 designs, with foil, serialized and eight unique cracked-ice editions. The fixed supply comprises 240,000 packs, each containing ten cards: 2.4 million cards overall. Rarity gives collectors something to pursue beyond assembling a usable selection for games.
Sealed packaging is an asset. Twenty-four digital packs can be combined into a box, and ten boxes into a case. The process is also reversible. Each format trades separately, recreating the distinction between buying individual cards, opening packs and preserving sealed products familiar from established collectible-card markets.
As for seeding the market, each Bored Ape holder can claim ten packs and each Mutant Ape two, with claims closing on 19th January 2027. Ethereum-based Totems enable claims, while packs and cards reside on Solana. Indeed, 71% of the total supply of cards will be distributed to existing holders, with 3% given to partner community such as Otherdeed holders, and only 20% available for direct purchase.
As for the option to generate physical cards, Yuga describes a system in which cards stored in a vault. Owners can redeem NFTs for delivery of the underlying physical card, or submit physical cards for tokenization. Such conversion is labeled coming soon.
As for the wider implications of Mudwater for the BAYC ecosystem, trading combines a 2.5% royalty with a separate 2.5% reflection fee, which is used to purchase ApeCoin for distribution to Mudwater holders.
In terms of current trading, OpenSea’s figures show the strongest market in unopened packs: approximately $620,600 in cumulative trading. The cheapest listed pack was about $72, with roughly 1,700 wallets owning at least one.
Individual card trading has generated $294,900 in cumulative volume, with around 1,825 owning-wallets. The pack price floor was approximately $0.87. Boxes had $38,500 in cumulative volume with a floor of $1,577. Together, packs, cards and boxes accounted for roughly $954,000 in trading volume.
You can find out more at the Mudwater website and play online here.