Deathstalker Rexxar


 * ''For other appearances of Rexxar, see Rexxar (disambiguation).

Deathstalker Rexxar is a legendary hunter hero card, from the Knights of the Frozen Throne set.

How to get
Like all other death knight hero cards, Deathstalker Rexxar is 1 of the 9 possible hero card rewards for completing the prologue of the Icecrown singleplayer adventure.

Strategy
Upon activating Deathstalker Rexxar, you immediately deal 2 damage to all enemy minions. This allows this card to be used in a more control-based Hunter deck, clearing the enemy's field while preparing to dominate with your Zombeasts. You are also provided with 5 armor, giving you an additional defensive boost to help turn the tides.

The main reason to use Deathstalker Rexxar though is, of course, his Hero Power, Build-a-Beast. 2 Mana for a "draw" is already a very strong effect (stronger than Life Tap with its 2 Health cost), but rather than a random card, you're molding a powerful minion.

Build your beast according to your situation. If you need to establish defense, make a beast with Taunt. If you are low on health and need to stabilize, make a beast with Lifesteal or Rush. If the opponent has minions with high health, make a Poisonous Zombeast. If the opponent's health is low, look for Charge or Stealth to finish them off.

Try to create synergies with the effects provided. Poisonous can be an extremely strong keyword when combined with Charge, Rush, or damage dealing effects. Lifesteal synergizes fantastically with beasts with Taunt, as well as beasts that have damaging effects such as Exploding Bloatbat and Bittertide Hydra.

As a rule of thumb, Zombeasts are often stronger than the sum of their parts. For example, a Crackling Razormaw stitched with a River Crocolisk will result in a 4 Mana minion with a powerful effect and a 5/5 statline, which for 4 Mana is far above the standard power curve. While building minions with powerful synergy is preferred, any Zombeast is usually more than worth the cost of summoning.

While Zombeasts can be undoubtedly powerful, there are times when you should not even play Deathstalker Rexxar, namely when your opponent's almost dead. Losing Steady Shot considerably lowers their reach, and Hunters can find themselves being unable to land the killing blow. When having a healthy early to mid-game lead, especially against classes and decks that lack healing or Taunts or have many high-value minions and removal, being able to chip down the last of their Health with Steady Shot is better than trying to out-value your opponent with Zombeasts. Avoid playing Deathstalker Rexxar in these cases, unless you absolutely need the Battlecry to survive.

Quotes

 * Summon
 * The eternal hunt has begun.

Emotes
Each hero has their own selection of audio and written emotes that are produced in response to specific events. For more information, see Emote.

Lore

 * ''When Rexxar’s hunt came to a premature end, he was resurrected as Deathstalker Rexxar. When played, Deathstalker Rexxar fires a flurry of arrows—dealing 2 damage to all enemy minions—and replaces your hero, granting 5 armor and changing your Hero Power to Build-a-Beast.


 * ''Build-a-Beast allows Deathstalker Rexxar to stitch together a horrifying new Zombeast by ‘Discovering’ pieces of two former animal friends. The new creation combines all the stats of both creatures he’s sewn together; mana cost, attack, health, and card text. The beastly abomination is then added to Deathstalker Rexxar’s hand to later be unleashed on a hapless foe.


 * Terrifying indeed! Of course, there are many other threats to found within the Scourge.

Deathstalker Rexxar is the version of Rexxar.

In the web comic Forest for the Weary, a Pompous Thespian tells a cautionary tale about Rexxar, who one day discovered that a great evil had descended on his forest home — the air was frigid, and the forests and everything that walked within them were dying. This corruption was revealed to be the result of the druid Malfurion Stormrage, who had become pestilent, a corruptor of nature commanding legions of bugs. Rexxar fired his bow at the corrupt druid, but the insects chewed apart his arrows and poisoned his companions, Misha and Huffer. With sorrow in his heart, the hunter swore he would do anything for the power to do what was right. Suddenly, the shadow of a fell over him, but in its place was only the stranger Gul'dan, who had just what Rexxar wished for. All that the warlock asked in return was a single life. Rexxar accepted, and was resurrected as Deathstalker Rexxar. He was taught by Gul'dan how to grant his beloved animals immortality and unholy power. The thespian's tale is interrupted when the audience members begin suggesting that Rexxar used his powers to stitch together various animals into horrifying Zombeasts. Although the thespian tells the listeners to not get carried away, he is swayed by the donations of gold coins and continues by telling how the most fearsome Zombeast of all was the dreaded "sharkbear". Deathstalker Rexxar and his Zombeasts marched against Malfurion's forces and defeated the corrupt druid, but just as Rexxar moved in for the killing blow, Malfurion revealed that he himself had simply been trying to protect the forests as well before being swayed by the promises of a twisted throne: he and Rexxar had fallen victim to the same force.

The deathstalker's sickly green color scheme and propensity for stitching living creatures together into abominations appear to suggest an association with the death knight specialization.


 * "While free from the Lich King’s grasp, some death knights still embody the ever-corrupting nature of the Scourge plague that once threatened to consume Azeroth. No matter their allegiance or cause, they remain defilers of life; and nowhere is their callousness more on display than when threatened. Inflictors of the most aggressive of diseases—and masters of raising unhallowed minions from the ground—these unholy death knights are vicious melee combatants, capable of striking with the force of an undead legion and unleashing pestilence that would bring their foes to ruin."

For more information, see Knights of the Frozen Throne.

Trivia

 * Deathstalker Rexxar's card design changed "maybe 10 different times" during development, with each iteration drastically different from the others. One of the earlier versions of the card had him summon 5/5 zombies for each Beast minion that had died that turn, while a later variation instead caused him to resummon all Beasts that had died during the game, similar to Bloodreaver Gul'dan's Battlecry effect. The card was later changed yet again to summon three Beasts from the player's deck. Build-a-Beast was originally planned to be a collectible spell card which simply allowed the player to Discover two Beasts and combine them, but the spell was so well liked by the developers that it was "promoted" to Deathstalker Rexxar's Hero Power.
 * Keeping the pool of beasts for Deathstalker Rexxar up to date for future expansions is a "fairly complicated endeavor".
 * Deathstalker Rexxar is the only other hero card with a unique entrance quote and mirror entrance, the other being Shadowreaper Anduin. These can't be heard normally, but were originally used for the Rise of the Zombeasts and Duel of the Death Knights Tavern Brawls.
 * While the original mask of Rexxar is a reference to Darkwolf's mask, Deathstalker Rexxar's mask more resembles Wolverine's.

Controversy
Upon release of the expansion Kobolds and Catacombs, players found that Deathstalker Rexxar's Build-a-Beast hero power did not include cards from Kobolds and Catacombs. This made many players frustrated. When asked why the hero power was like this, Mike Donais responded: "The challenge was not a coding one. It was combining 2 text boxes into one across 15 languages. A lot of things that work ok in English don't work as well in other languages. When text is written for a card, it has very specific templates and line breaks and spacing to make it fit and look good and some languages actually have very different rules and would surprise you what they have to do."

Four days later, Donais responded with a forum post, in which he agreed with the community, and said there will be change. He said the following: "Many players have noticed that Deathstalker Rexxar’s Hero Power does not include any of the new Beasts that were added with the Kobolds & Catacombs expansion.

Since then, some players have provided constructive feedback regarding the state of Deathstalker Rexxar, and we agreed that a change to the Hero Power was warranted.

As such, we will be updating Deathstalker Rexxar’s Hero Power to include new Beasts going forward. Please be patient, as this is a fairly complicated endeavor and we may need to start with a smaller change before a more permanent solution is implemented. We don’t have a date for this change to share with you today, but we will provide more information once we have it.

Please also note that as new Beasts are released, we may need to mark some of them as exempt for various reasons, much like how King of Beasts is currently excluded from the pool of Beasts that Deathstalker Rexxar’s Hero Power can pull from." 

Patch changes

 * Build-A-Beast updated to include Kobolds & Catacombs and The Witchwood Beasts.
 * Added.