windfall+yawgmoth's bargain

[hollowbody]

I'm a little unfamiliar with how things go on the stack, I haven't played competitive magic since 1997, so this stack business is new to me. Having said that: can I cast windfall, let it resolve and then in response draw a bunch of card's via yawg barg in order to make my opponent draw enough cards to kill him with underworld dreams on the table? My concern is that I don't want to cripple myself only to have the spell countered. What is the timing here? Do I have to respond with Yawg Barg before my opponent has a chance to respond or can I wait until they let the spell resolve before I respond?

[PucktheCat]

Under pre-6th ed. rules there was an "interrupt window."  Any counterspells, or other effects altering the resolution of a spell being cast had to be declared during this window.  After the window closed players could play regular instant-speed effects.  This allowed a player to, as you say, be sure that a spell was going to resolve before playing instants in a way that depended on the resolution of the first spell.

That is no longer the rule.  Everything that once was an interrupt is now an instant, and they all can be played at any time during a stack as long as they have a legal target (i.e., another spell on the stack to counter or otherwise alter).  That means that in your example, your opponent would have a chance to counter Windfall after you have activated Bargain however many times you choose to do so.

The spell affected most by the change in the way interrupts works, I think, was Balance.  I loved to play that card in my old Zoo/5c Sligh deck.  You played it with 1 less land than your opponent and the same number of cards in hand.  Then, after he had allowed it to resolve you Bolted him twice and Wasted your own land.

[Dante]

I'm a little unfamiliar with how things go on the stack, I haven't played competitive magic since 1997, so this stack business is new to me. Having said that: can I cast windfall, let it resolve and then in response draw a bunch of card's via yawg barg in order to make my opponent draw enough cards to kill him with underworld dreams on the table? My concern is that I don't want to cripple myself only to have the spell countered. What is the timing here? Do I have to respond with Yawg Barg before my opponent has a chance to respond or can I wait until they let the spell resolve before I respond?

In addition to what Puck said, once a spell resolves (in this case Windfall), during the resolution, you can't play activated abilities (such as Bargain's ability).  If there are any triggered abilities, they would go on the stack AFTER the complete resolution of the spell.

So if you cast Windfall, then pass priority, and your opponent passes priority back to you, Windfall would start resolving (no Bargain).

The only way to be sure if they aren't going to counter the Windfall is if they pass priority back to you and Windfall starts resolving - once you start activating Bargain, the opponent will have priority between the resolution of the Bargain activations and before the Windfall starts resolving, so they would be able to counter it.

[Harlequin]

Also keep in mind that you, the controler of bargin, also get priority between each draw off bargin.
 Your best bet is not to stack too many draws at once... you get priorty after each draw and before windfall.  So rather than stack.

Draw x15
Windfall.
Because if they counter it. the stack will look like:
(you have not drawn any cards, put you've payed 15 life already)
Counter Winfall.
Draw x15
Winfall.

You would want to stack only 1 draw at time to see if it resolves
Draw x1
Windfall.

After your draw resolves, you get priority again.  So you draw again
(you've drawn 1 card already, payed 2 life)
Draw x1
Windfall.

and again and again......
(you've draw 14 cards, payed 15 life)
Draw x1
Windfall

This way if they attempt to counter you've already draw 14 cards ... and hopefuly you have a FOW and a blue card =P

Now if they attempt the counter:
(you've drawn no cards but have only payed 1 life).
Counter windfall
Draw x1
Windfall

Now you can dig for your answer to the counter.
Pay an addition 1 life 14 times.
Draw x1 (14 times)
Counter Winfall
Draw x1
Windfall.

Resolve draws:
+14 cards, 15 life payed.
Your Counter targeting Couter
Counter windfall
Draw x1
Windfall. (you have +15 -1 counterspell in hand, and windfall resolves)

[hollowbody]

hey, thanks guys for the answers. the deck idea i had in mind did not have any counters in it, just some bounce and the windfalls for blue. i guess thats not going to work out as well as i had thought. its a good thing i didnt actually spend the time putting it together. is there a good resource available for reading up on these technicalities? a local shop is putting together a standard tourney with a mox pearl that i want to win, but i dont want some 14 year old kid pointing out that my brilliant play is completely illegal and non-sensical. 

[Jacob Orlove]

Wizards has a basic rulebook up here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/rules/MTG9EDRulebook_EN.pdf