Colress Machine and No Plasma Pokemon in Play?

[kevstoy]

This came up at a cities today:

Player A has no Plasma Pokemon in play. But would like to play a Colress Machine. Is he allowed to?

Colress Machine Text: Search your deck for a Plasma Energy card and attach it to 1 of your Team Plasma Pokémon. Shuffle your deck afterward.

The discussion:
- So do you "do as much as you can" which is begin the search then fail the search because there is no Plasma Pokemon to attach to and Shuffle?
- Or, you are unable to play the card, because there is no legal target before you begin to play it?

Thanks!
K

 

[PokePop]

You have to have a legal target in order to play a card. So you couldn't play it.