Inspire

Inspire is a special kind of triggered effect which activates each time the controlling hero uses their Hero Power. It was created for, and remains closely associated with, The Grand Tournament expansion card set.

Inspire effects are represented by a light blue flag icon under the minion's portrait on battlefield.

Inspire-generating cards
This section lists cards which generate cards that have the ability to Inspire.

Cards with the Inspire mechanic
Even though these cards don't possess the keyword, they behave exactly the same as Inspire cards.

Lore

 * "The courageous deeds of champions have long served as a source of inner strength for others, and witnessing a hero’s gallantry in action can be enough to inspire even the lowliest of squires to great feats of strength."

Conceptually, Inspire effects are meant to reflect the minion being inspired to "great victory" by the heroism of the controlling player. Inspire summon effects are described as "[attracting] additional allies to your cause".

Development
Inspire was the design concept that "started the whole development of The Grand Tournament." Even before the developers knew what they wanted the theme or setting for the expansion to be, they knew that they wanted it to feature the Inspire mechanic. The developers plan and design substantially in advance, and therefore whenever they came up with a card that had such an effect, they set it aside for use in a Hero Power-themed set at some point in the future. Steamwheedle Sniper was in the minds' of the developers as they were searching for a new mechanic for the expansion. The developers had previously prototyped "activated powers" - alternate abilities minions could effect instead of attacking. However, they had been unable to reach a satisfactory design. Inspire provided a way to do something similar, by granting an additional activated effect that belonged to the minion and yet that the player could directly choose when to enact.

Inspire was initially represented by the text "Whenever you use your Hero Power do X". The developers felt that replacing it with a new keyword would both save space on cards and also highlight the new mechanic as a key feature of the new expansion. They also felt that the game had been around long enough that it was acceptable to introduce a new keyword.

Alternate names for Inspire during development include 'Empower', 'Heroism', 'On Hero Power' and 'Hero Powered'.

Inspire cards were intentionally made weak. The team ultimately weren't sold on the gameplay of Inspire by the time The Grand Tournament entered development. Since they had no time to redesign the mechanic and couldn't scrap the expansion's core theme, they felt safer lowering the power level of the cards.

Trivia

 * Inspire is the first keyword to relate to Hero Powers.
 * Inspire was the first new full keyword added to the game. The only other keyword added before it was Mega-Windfury, which was only seen on V-07-TR-0N.
 * Showcase matches streamed just before the expansion's release featured a golden version of the Inspire icon, due to using an old build.
 * Rogue is the only class not to have any class specific Inspire minions. This has been jokingly ascribed by developers to equipping a knife not being especially "inspiring".
 * Descent of Dragons eventually reused Inspire's concept, with the hunter cards Phase Stalker and Dragonbane also being triggered by using your Hero Power, though they are worded with a more generic "After you use your Hero Power" instead.