Skaff Elias

Skaff Elias is a former long-time member of Magic R&D and one of the original Magic playtesters and developers who worked on the game before Alpha was released.

The East Coast Playtesters
Together with Jim Lin, Dave Pettey and Chris Page, he formed a subset of the Alpha Playtesters referred to as the "East Coast Playtesters". Together, they designed the Ice Age and Alliances expansions.

Wizards of the Coast
Skaff later held such positions as Magic Brand Manager and Senior Vice President of Magic R&D (1993-2003). The Pro Tour was his idea.

He left Wizards / Hasbro to become owner of Three Donkeys with Richard Garfield. Based in Redmond, Washington, Three Donkeys is a game design, development, and consulting company specializing in unique solutions to problems in the areas of both electronic and board game design.

Playtesting

 * Alpha

Designing

 * Antiquities
 * Revised Edition
 * Legends
 * Fallen Empires
 * Fourth Edition
 * Ice Age
 * Alliances

Developing

 * Arabian Nights
 * Antiquities
 * Revised Edition
 * Legends
 * The Dark
 * Fallen Empires
 * Fourth Edition
 * Ice Age
 * Homelands
 * Alliances
 * Fifth Edition
 * Sixth Edition

Non-Magic projects

 * Star Wars TCG

Influence

 * Skaff was responsible for testing out Steve Bishop's rule that limited no more than four copies of a card in a deck. "It was simply because four was the first number suggested and it worked well.
 * He also shot down the idea to give different card backs to each expansion set. He correctly identified the problem that if you give cards different backs then you could tell what card you were about to draw.
 * Adarkar Sentinel, Adarkar Unicorn and Adarkar Wastes were named for Skaff's friend Aditya Adarkar.