COTD - 27th June 2011 - Rainbow Energy

Today's Card of the Day is Rainbow Energy, recently reprinted in HGSS: Base Set.
This card has been around for a while and was event printed in a Double Rainbow Energy version in EX: Crystal Guardians. However, today it is just in the single version and acts as any type of energy when attached to one of your Pokemon. The cost for this is that you have to put 1 damage counter on the Pokemon you decide to attach this energy to.
Sounds like a fair deal, but when would we really need to use this card? Well, if you have multiple attackers in one deck, you could include Rainbow Energy so that you have the option to attack with both, without having to run multiple energy types.
The other use is to give the ability to a one-off tech to do some attacking. Say you are running a 1-1 line of Donphan Prime in a deck, you could have Rainbow Energy in there to get Donphan attacking rather than running a single Fighting.
To me, it seems a lot more beneficial to just run the odd energy simply because it's able to be searched from the deck and doesn't add any damage to you. The extra 10 damage could be crucial during a game, but the choice to run Rainbow Energy means that you can use it on your main attackers as well, if needed.
An interesting combo for Rainbow Energy is Roserade from Unleashed to use in conjunction with its Poke Power. 'Energy Signal' inflicts different special conditions to the defending Pokemon depending on which energy you attach to Roserade, Poison for Psychic and Confusion for Grass. Where Rainbow Energy comes in is that it can count as both energy at the same time, meaning that both special conditions are inflicted on the opponent. This could make for a very interesting rogue deck including Leafeon UD with its 'Miasma Wind' attack, which does 50 damage times the number of special conditions on the defending Pokemon for just a Colourless energy.
Ursaring Prime is also an option for Rainbow Energy since adding the damage to it will benefit Ursaring's output damage due to its Poke Body.
Unfortunately, this is the only place where I would see Rainbow Energy having a significant effect on a deck. I would much rather just run a second type of energy to offer more options for recovery and searchability. Saying that though, this card can be useful in some situations when you want energy that can suffice for any attacker, no matter what one it is since Rainbow Energy can adapt.
Overall, I'm, going to give this guy 5/10. It could be used in some decks, like the Leafeon and Ursaring ones mentioned above, but it just isn't versatile enough in this format.

Thanks for reading this Card of the Day and check back tomorrow for the next one as well as a Deck Surgery!

Dan