With only a couple of days left until Whispers of the Old Gods finally arrives to Hearthstone Blizzard has opted to reveal all of the cards that will be brutally mauled gently tapped by the patented nerfbat.

In true Blizzard fashion a portion of the cards was handled so expertly I'm genuinely impressed by the development team, while the other portion was done so terribly I'd be genuinely impressed if these cards ever see play again. Here's the full list of nerfs, and if you're interested in Blizzards reasoning behind each change, head over to the official website:

• Ancient of Lore - Only draws one card now

• Force of Nature - Costs 5 mana and the summoned Treants no longer have charge

• Keeper of the Grove - Stats have been reduced to 2/2

• Ironbeak Owl - Cost has been increased to 3 mana

• Big Game Hunter - Cost has been increased to 5 mana

• Hunter's Mark - Cost has been increased to 1 mana

• Blade Flurry - Cost has been increased to 4 mana, no longer does damage to your opponent (RIP)

• Knife Juggler - Stats have been reduced to 2/2

• Leper Gnome - Stats have been reduced to 1/1

• Arcane Golem - Stats have been increased to 4/4, no longer has charge (RIP)

• Molten Giant - Cost has been increased to 25 mana

• Master of Disguise - Now grants stealth only until your next turn (RIP)

I won't go into detail about the majority of these changes as they are fairly self explanatory, but the Blade Flurry nerf might be one of the biggest nerfs the Hearthstone team has ever delivered, on par with Warsong Commander and Starving Buzzard which have been hit so hard they literally never see play anymore.

While I can understand the need for a Blade Flurry nerf, it does limit potential weapon design after all, why did they do the classic Blizzard double-nerf by both increasing the mana cost, and making it useless as a finisher. With the state its in right now you can pay 7 mana and 2 cards to get a worse version of Flamestrike, how exciting! I really do hope the 5 Rogue cards that still remain unnanounced will enable unique decks to shine, because with the nerfs announced today the already underrepresented class is going to become even worse, especially since the nerf hit Valeera's only "real" boardclear.

Ranting aside, I do look forward to April 26 and Whispers of the Old Gods because Hearthstone is in need of a shake-up right now, and what better way to do so than by throwing out all of the overpowered stuff, and bringing in 134 new cards.