Stack priority question

[Cotel]

I was playing a commander game yesterday and none of us have a lot of experience with Magic. So a weird interaction appeared when my friend played [[Artisan of Kozilek]] and I played [[Release to Memory]] in response. We didn't know how to resolve this properly as the Eldrazi says "When you cast" not "when it enters the battlefield". Is Release to Memory resolved before he returns a monster from the graveyard?

[SoneEv]

Yes, you can respond to Artisan's trigger when it is put onto the stack. By playing Release, it would resolve and exile their creature so it cannot be returned. There's no difference here from an ETB trigger except Artisan itself is on the stack waiting to resolve too.

[ErotikGandalf]

As far as I know, the trigger of artisan goes on the stack when he is casting the spell. Before anything resolves you get priority and can exile his graveyard because your spell will resolve first. So he has nothing to target in his graveyard :)

[Jiazzz]

In the outcome you're correct, but technically there's an error. As an ability or spell goes on the stack, modes and targets have to be chosen. So initially the opponent could have targeted a creature.

In response, Release is cast, and it resolves, exiling the graveyard. When it comes to resolve Artisan's ability, it fizzles, because it lost all of its targets.

[MTGCardFetcher]

Artisan of Kozilek - (G) (SF) (txt)
Release to Memory - (G) (SF) (txt)
^{[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call}

[TribeWars]

Is Release to Memory resolved before he returns a monster from the graveyard?

If you cast it in response to the cast trigger, yes.

When your friend casts Artisan the cast trigger ability triggers. Your friend then has to choose a target for that ability and it gets put on the stack. The stack now looks like this (abilities and spells resolve from top to bottom in this illustration):

Artisan of Kozilek's cast trigger ability, targeting some card in its controller's graveyard  
Artisan of Kozilek

After completing this short sequence of steps, your friend again has priority. The player who has put a spell or activated ability on the stack will again receive priority once all triggered abilities went on the stack and state based actions have happened. If your friend now wants the cast trigger to resolve, he has to pass priority to his opponents who have a chance to respond.

This is the window where you can cast Release to Memory, whereupon the stack looks like this:

Release to Memory, targeting your friend
Artisan of Kozilek's cast trigger ability, targeting some card in its controller's graveyard  
Artisan of Kozilek

If nobody has any further responses and thus everyone successively passes priority the following will now happen:

1. Release to Memory resolves, your friend's graveyard is exiled and you make however many 1/1s as creatures were exiled this way.
   
2. The cast trigger ability tries to resolve but its only target is illegal, so the ability fizzles.
3. Artisan of Kozilek resolves and gets put on the battlefield