Photon Torpedoes doesn't even drain HP. That's not the mechanic that was taken. It's the one also shared by Ice Bolt and Fire Bolt.
Yeah, but the task says to "reverse" mechanic as one of the options to change a card. And that's exactly what was made, the card mechanic was reversed
Yes, but it's specified that the mechanic should be unique to an element.
Take a card in the game with a mechanic or theme unique to that element. Then reimagine, reappropriate, reinvent, or reverse engineer it for a different one! How would that element do it differently?
A few things to clarify here, then. First, a nitpick: it's mechanic
or theme. As long as you think you can vaguely justify it in some way, shape or form, then you're good to go. It's a reasonable expectation that voters can tell if a submission doesn't fit the comp. If something's particularly egregious, COs will step in, but I doubt that'll be necessary.
To be clear, "it" refers to the card, not the mechanic/theme that is unique to a particular element. So you are redesigning or reinventing a card with a unique theme or mechanic. It does not mean you are redesigning or reinventing the unique theme/mechanic(though you can do that too), just the card that has it.
In this particular case, bolts share a mechanic, but not all the mechanics of a particular bolt spell are shared, and their themes should be considered quite different. One shared aspect does not equal all aspects of the cards in that set are shared. In fact, the 3 bolt spells were what inspired the comp idea. Can that be considered a weak defense? Sure! But these are examples, and my take is that if there is even a vaguely passable explanation for the theme you're going for, it's fair game.
