Countering & Standstill

[adwilgo]

Situation :
I have Standstill in play.   My opponent plays a Brainstorm, I choose to Counterspell the Brainstorm. 

So the stack is 1.)Brainstorm  2.)Standstill Trigger 3.)Counterspell

Am I correct with the way the stack works?  Since my Counterspell is the first spell off the stack, does the Standstill trigger for my opponent?  Standstill says when a spell is played, and I am a bit confused by this.  Is a spell still played when it is countered?

This question ties into another.  When an Imprint card is played, and countered, is a card ever chosen for the imprint, and thus out of the game.  Or does that part of the Imprint card never go into effect.

I appreciate the help.

[islanderboi10]

He plays brainstorm, which triggers the standstill. You draw 3 cards and then play counterspell. I think that's how it would work.

[Limbo]

As for the standstill:

If you do it like this:
Stack Bottom
Brainstorm
Standstill trigger #1
Counterspell
Standstill trigger #2
Stack Top

If you respond to trigger #1 with a counterspell, you generate a 2nd trigger. As the drawing of three cards includes sacrificing the standstill, trigger #1 fizzles after that, as there is no standstill to sacrifice(you still counter the brainstorm though, if your opponent does not respond). However, the smarter thing to do (if you are the one playing the counterspell, and still want to draw 3) is to let standstill trigger #1 resolve before you cast the counterspell. In that case, the counterspell won't trigger the standstill as it isn't in play anymore, you got to draw 3, AND you can still counter the brainstorm.

As for imprinting stuff, the imprint thingy is a triggered ability that is put onto the stack after the imprint card has been succesfully put into play.

Hope this clears it up.

[epeeguy]

Am I correct with the way the stack works?  Since my Counterspell is the first spell off the stack, does the Standstill trigger for my opponent?  Standstill says when a spell is played, and I am a bit confused by this.  Is a spell still played when it is countered?

A spell is considered to be played whenever you announce it, put it on the stack and pay the costs associated with it (CompRules 409.1).  Standstill will trigger at this point, when the Brainstorm is played.  So, at the point you could respond, the stack consists of:

Standstill Trigger (top)
Brainstorm (bottom)

At this point, you can either choose to play the Counterspell, or let the Standstill trigger resolve.  If you play Counterspell, this will cause the Standstill to trigger again.  If you instead pass, then the Standstill trigger will resolve, and net you 3 cards.  However, the Brainstorm will still be on the stack (CompRules 413), as only the spell or ability on the top of the stack resolves when both players pass without doing anything.  Any other spells or abilities wait for the players to pass again, so you can still respond to spells or abilities on the stack, after one has been resolved.

This is a bit more technical way of answering the question, but I wanted to include the specific rules involved in the situation, to help further illustrate the situation.