Stats
Houndoom is a Stage 1 Darkness-Type Pokémon. That means it’s actually about average speed for the current format (with Stage 2 Pokémon being a bit slow and Basics being about as fast). Being a Darkness-Type Pokémon doesn’t help much with Type-matching currently, but it isn’t a detriment either. It’s still an advantage because it lets a card tap into the extra damage available through Special Energy Darkness Energy. 90 HP might be inline with the video games, or at least when this card was released, but it’s just too low for a functional Stage 1 unless it Evolves or has some great effects. The top decks can hit 90 points of damage fairly reliably and fairly quickly, making Houndoom lucky to get off more than one attack.
Fighting Weakness just makes a bad situation worse, as Donphan Prime is still stomping around and gets an easy OHKO from it, though that is the deck’s specialty and this technically just saves it a greater effort. The Psychic Resistance -20 is nice, it won’t come in too handy unless Gothitelle decks really take off but it is at least better than nothing. The single Energy Retreat Cost is easy to pay but given the low HP score, I think we could have gotten a free Retreat Cost instead and it wouldn’t have overpowered the card.
Effects
Houndoom has two attacks, and that’s a bad sign when you’re this small. The attacks need to provide crazy damage relatively reliably or protection or this little doggy is done. The first attack is designed to counter its Weakness, a Weakness common to many Darkness-Type Pokémon. Without triggering the effect, the attack is just a tad weak at 20 points of damage for (D). If your opponent has any Fighting Type Pokémon in play, then the attack states it does an extra 60 points of damage, for 80 damage total. This is great if your opponent has a non-aggressive or at least slow to power-up Fighting-Type on his or her Bench, like a few formats ago. Now though, it just lets you hit Donphan for 60 points of damage (80-20 for the Poké-Body on Donphan) before it OHKOs Houndoom… as long as Houndoom gets the first attack. This is a good idea, but a poor execution, me thinks.
The second attack is similar. For (DD) you hit for 50 points of damage with Dark Roar and discard a card from your opponent’s hand. This is a solid attack, but it needs something faster (e.g. the ability to power up in one turn) or to be on something larger. Special Energy Darkness Energy enables the attacks to hit harder and be just a bit better, but it just isn’t enough since the card only hits hard against the decks that hit it harder, and the discard effect is one turn too slow.
Usage
In short, it isn’t a likely candidate to see play in Modified or Unlimited, owing to its unfortunate Weakness and comparably low HP score. Still in Modified it might see play in a mono-Darkness deck trying for some hand control, but I can’t say that sounds especially appealing. In Unlimited, if you want to discard from the hand you can play a super-competitive deck that will do it first turn. Even in a more laidback setting, there are better options. In Limited play it is worth running, so long as you can run at least a few Darkness Energy cards. The first attack will be quite hit or miss since splashing Fighting-Type Pokémon is usually a good idea for a Limited deck if it doesn’t clutter your deck up. If you can get Houndoom swinging before your opponent gets their Fighting Pokémon, you can enjoy the extra damage before you’re in serious danger. Mostly though the second attack just looks great here, because hands often become cluttered with the pieces of combos that have to sit and sit while you try to manually draw into the rest, and you never know when something normally taken for granted in Constructed will be vital here.
Ratings
Unlimited: 1/10
Modified: 4/10
Limited: 7/10
Summary
Another example of good idea, lousy execution, Houndoom fails to sufficiently counter Fighting Pokémon or be quite effective enough at hand control. At least the card is fairly pretty.
sychic: can be useful, and :colorless: to Retreat is cheap. Fire Counterattack is interesting for :dark:, dealing a basic enough 20, but growing up to 80 damage if your opponent has any :fighting: Pokemon in play, making him an interesting metagame pick (though it should be forewarned that with his :fighting: Weakness, Houndoom won't last long against active :fighting: Pokemon who can live through his attacks). Dark Roar is simple and effective for :dark::dark:, dealing 50 and forcing your opponent to discard a card from their hand.