Interview - Card Alterer Eric Klug

If you’ve ever sat down to play a game of Commander and wondered how in the world your opponent got hooked up with that unbelievably sweet Force of Will she just used to counter your Squirrel Nest, you’ve experienced a first glimpse into the world of altered cards.

Card alterists are members of a small but constantly growing Magic subculture that take pride in taking what are already some of the most beautiful pieces of cardboard in the industry and turning them into works of art you would be proud to hang next to your diploma and certificate of participation at your grade school’s “Summer Olympics”.

Eric Klug is one of the most popular and well-known alterists around, who told me, “I’ve been drawing and painting all my life since as long as I can remember.” 

His “upbringing and education have made” him “a natural art lover,” which he turns into a variety of styles when he works on the cards. He graduated from the Corcoran College of Art & Design in Washington, DC almost four years ago, which is around the time he got into altering.

It started as a hobby, but then, he said, “I showed a few at my local shop in Maryland and traded/commissioned some to friends. It’s funny; my then girlfriend, now wife, asked me if altering was something I could do full-time.”

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