Derail & Rescue Energy

[Rainbow Ranger]

Does derail discard rescue energy before it can come into effect if the opponent's pokémon will be knocked out by the damage?

Some rulings lead me to think the opponent decides the order but other rulings talk about adding up damage last to see if a pokémon is knocked out by which time derail would have already discarded the energy...

thanks!

 

[PokePop]

Please reference the Pokemon that the attack comes from when asking a question. It makes finding the text a lot easier!

Now, I think you have misread some rulings, because damage is never "added last".
Rarely, something comes before it, but damage is still way at or near the beginning of the attack steps.

What you might have read was that attack effects are resolved before the KO is checked for and done.

So, the energy discarding effect of derail is done, Rescue it discarded.
Then, after that, the KO is checked for. And, since there is no Rescue Energy attached. the Pokemon is discarded.

Regarding deciding order, that is only for effect that happen at the same time.
For example, do you return a KO'd Pokemon to the hand with Rescue Energy, or do you send it to the Lost Zone due to an attack effect that was placed as part of the attack.

Note that in such a case, the effect of the attack was placed earlier in the attack phase, but is trigggered at the time that the KO-discard is going to happen.