Black Fire

[Zephyr]

I have a question regarding the Compendium ruling on the GE Houndoom.

Q. When using Houndoom's "Black Fire" attack, what happens if I discard an Energy card that provides multiple types of Energy at the same time?
A. If the Energy card you discarded provides all types (for example, Rainbow Energy), then both effects would trigger - the "Black Fire" attack would to 70 damage AND apply the Burned Special Condition to the Defending Pokemon. (DP:Great Encounters FAQ; Feb 21, 2008 PUI Rules Team)

First of all, the attack reads that the attacking player must choose to discard either a fire OR a darkness energy, thus implying that choosing both is not an option.

Second, rainbow energy and cards of that kind (like Multi) specifically state that they provide all types of energy but only ONE kind of energy at a time. At the time of discarding energy from Houndoom, one can't simply say that multi energy provides both darkness and fire energy at the same time. Not only does this violate the terms of the attack, it also violates the statements on the energy itself.

Please justify to me the ruling on GE Houndoom as it stands.

 

[PokePop]

You misstate what Rainbow et al say.
They don't say "provide only one kind of energy at a time."
They say "provide only one energy at a time." One unit of energy that is. Which is important for figuring out if an attack cost has been paid, or how many energy are attached or discarded, but don't matter when looking at what color(s) have been discarded.

This forum is not for "justifying" rulings.
The ruling is correct.
Feel free to start a topic in one of the discussion forums about this. But I suggest you do a search for previous topics on just this because it has been discussed before.
This ruling, in fact, dates back to the Mew promo from the Southern Islands mini-set from around 2001.

Note that Rainbow provides all colors, all the time. There is no choice. You don't choose what color it is.
When it's discarded and then the attack looks to see what color was discarded, it sees both of the colors that it's looking for.