Info
You can`t lose stars while this is in your deck.
See this card on Hearthpwn
Aug. Dean Ayala is a Game Designer, working in final design on the Team 5 Team 5 (also known as Blizzard Team 5) are the Blizzard Entertainment development team responsible for Hearthstone. A "small and nimble" team of 15 members for much of the game s original development, the team has 
Hearthstone The Hearthstone icon Hearthstone (formerly known as Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft 1] 2]) is a free-to-play digital collectible card game from Blizzard Entertainment. It was first announced in a presentation by Rob Pardo at the 
design team.
Official
As a game designer on Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone team, Dean Ayala is primarily focused on testing and balancing new cards in development. He also contributes to Adventure design, matchmaking, and bug fixing.
Ayala joined Blizzard Entertainment in 2011 as part of the quality assurance team where he supported the development of World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and Hearthstone before making the transition to game design. Dean is passionate about all of Blizzard’s game franchises and has welcomed the opportunity to work on several titles since he joined the company.
Dean is an avid gamer who enjoys playing all types of games, from collectible card games and team brawlers to first-person shooters and MMOs. As a former restaurant consultant, Dean enjoys eating good food and will travel anywhere to find it—especially if it’s good pizza.
Videos
History
Prior to Hearthstone, Ayala had worked as Quality Assurance on StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and on Diablo III. When Ayala first heard what type of game Hearthstone (then code-named Pegasus) was, he was "actually a little bit disappointed", thinking "I don`t really play card games." Be that as it may, after taking the game home, Ayala soon began playing it for several hours each night. With no substantial experience with similar games, Ayala describes Hearthstone as "the first collectible card game I`d ever put a lot of time into."
With the first Ranked Season in Dec. 2013, Ayala was surprised to discover he had achieved rank 1 legend, ranking as the top player in the Americas region at that time. After sharing decklists for his current decks on an internal mailing list for Hearthstone players at Blizzard, Ayala was contacted by Mike Donais Mike Donais Set: CREDITS Type: Minion Rarity: Legendary Cost: 6 Attack: 4 Health: 8 Battlecry: Replace all minions in the battlefield, in both hands, and in both decks with random minions.See this card on Hearthpwn 
, at that time the sole member of the final design team, focusing on card balance. Ayala began to help Donais with playtesting, and a few months later on 16th Jun. 2014 officially joined the team.
Notes
- In the reveal streams prior to the releaseAnnounce of new expansions such as The Grand Tournament "From east to west, heroes are sent, seeking glory in the greatest of events... there are knights on noble steeds; those who will bring them to their knees; there are monsters to test their mettle
and Whispers of the Old Gods "Now I ve got a tale to tell you... of the ones from long ago. There s an evil that s been dreaming, but now it s softly screaming! From the darkness their power will grow. Their voices are , Ayala has served as opponent in showmatches designed to reveal new cards. He has also designed the decks used by both players.
- On Dec. 14th 2014 Ayala reached Legend rank 1 in the Americas region. Prior to joining Team 5, Ayala had previously reached Legend rank 3 in the May season The 25 numbered ranks in Ranked play. Ranked (also known as Ranked Play) is the serious side of Play mode, with players able to earn special ranks to reflect their prowess in battle this season. , as well as rank 4 in the Jun. season.
- According to Mike Donais Mike Donais Set: CREDITS Type: Minion Rarity: Legendary Cost: 6 Attack: 4 Health: 8 Battlecry: Replace all minions in the battlefield, in both hands, and in both decks with random minions.See this card on Hearthpwn in Sep. 2016, Ayala plays "a lot" of Arena.
- On Nov. 29, 2016, Ayala reached 8,000 Play mode wins and 2,000 Arena wins on his main account. Be that as it may, Ayala has stated that he uses several different accounts, which he frequently uses to play multiple games at once, meaning that his total number of wins is likely exponentially higher.
- Ayala describes his average work day as "lots of playtesting, lots of coordinating with teams like engineering and art, and people working on the set that`s coming next, and the people working on the set that`s coming after that, and making sure that we`re all sort of on the same page". Ayala works "mostly on cards ... making sure the card designs are fun, and finding what decks they go in", as well as predicting the coming meta, and of course "lots of playing Hearthstone".
Trivia
- Ayala describes himself as a "very, very, very competitive person", determined to win even during playtesting matches. He has stated playtesting Yogg-Saron was the first time he intentionally passed up lethal Lethal is a term used in Hearthstone to refer to damage sufficient to defeat the enemy hero, and win the game. "Having lethal" is used as a measure of imminent and unavoidable success, similar to in Hearthstone, in order to see its effects play out.
- The World of Warcraft World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Blizzard Entertainment. The game was first released Nov. 2004, and has since seen six expansions: The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of NPC Shadow-Sage Iskar was created in tribute to Ayala, referencing his username, `Iksar`. The legendary ring Ayala`s Stone Heart, added with Legion, is also a tribute. The ring`s flavor text reads, "In the pits of Valhalas, Ayala the Relentless cut down foe after foe on his way to legend. Becoming more lethal as his opponents weakened, he was truly terrifying to spectate."
- Ayala states that it took 4 rejections and "a lot of work" before he was hired at Blizzard, and encourages those seeking jobs in the industry not to give up after a rejection.
- Ayala says World of Warcraft World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Blizzard Entertainment. The game was first released Nov. 2004, and has since seen six expansions: The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of quest design is what first made him want to be a game designer.
Card art
The art for Ayala`s credits card Credits cards are non-playable cards that depict prominent members of the Hearthstone development team. These cards are not found in play, but are displayed in random order during the game s credits, accessed through the Options 
was created by James Ryman James Ryman is the artist for the cards shown here. Contents 1 Cards 2 Uncollectible cards 3 Heroes 4 Boss 4.1 Heroes 4.2 Cards 5 Tavern Brawls 5.1 Cards 6 Credits and debug cards 7 
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Gallery
 Ayala in 2014 |  Credits card artwork |
