Opponent has Thought-Knot Seer in play, I want to Baral's Expertise it, but I don't have anything to cast "for free" in my hand. I don't quite get the timing of it, if I can cast a card I draw of Seer's last ability "for free" or not. On another note, can I return my own Seer and immediately recast it with Expertise?
As far as I know combo Kari Zev's Expertise + immediately Flinging that creature as a free cast does work. Am I right?
I guess the main question is do I have a window to choose a card in my hand between first and second effect of any expertise, or do both effects happen simultaneously?
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Standard: UR Like grixis midrange but worse
Modern: UR Bloo
In general, you perform the actions of a spell "in the order written" (C.R. 608.2c).
For Baral's Expertise, you return the permanents called for to their owners' hands and then choose to cast a card from your hand (if you have any to cast [C.R. 608.2d]). Thus if a nontoken permanent is returned to your hand this way, you can cast that card from your hand with Baral's Expertise provided it's a nonland card in your hand (C.R. 701.4a-b, 305.1, 305.9). (Note that you can cast Baral's Expertise even if you don't have another nonland card in your hand or even any other card at all in your hand; you choose what card to cast, if you choose to cast one, when Baral's Expertise resolves [C.R. 608.2d].)
For Kari Zev's Expertise, you will have control of the targeted creature or Vehicle by the time you choose to cast a card with Kari Zev's Expertise, so that, provided that permanent is a creature, it can be sacrificed to pay for Fling if you cast it this way.
EDIT: Clarification and deletion of first paragraph after comment 4 was posted.
To clarify Peter's answer, returning your opponent's Thought-Knot does not work the way you want. What happens there is that you return their TKS to their hand and its ability triggers but is not put onto the stack yet. You then continue resolving Expertise to cast a card for free (which you don't have). Expertise resolves and then the trigger goes onto the stack to let you draw a card. This will resolve well after the Expertise is done resolving so you will not have the card in your hand to cast off Expertise.
The other scenarios work because the sequence of actions all occur within the Expertise spell resolving (bouncing your own TKS or stealing a creature than Fling-ing it). Because bouncing your opponent's TKS introduces a trigger, the timing is slightly different for that one.
As far as I know combo Kari Zev's Expertise + immediately Flinging that creature as a free cast does work. Am I right?
I guess the main question is do I have a window to choose a card in my hand between first and second effect of any expertise, or do both effects happen simultaneously?
Modern: UR Bloo
For Baral's Expertise, you return the permanents called for to their owners' hands and then choose to cast a card from your hand (if you have any to cast [C.R. 608.2d]). Thus if a nontoken permanent is returned to your hand this way, you can cast that card from your hand with Baral's Expertise provided it's a nonland card in your hand (C.R. 701.4a-b, 305.1, 305.9). (Note that you can cast Baral's Expertise even if you don't have another nonland card in your hand or even any other card at all in your hand; you choose what card to cast, if you choose to cast one, when Baral's Expertise resolves [C.R. 608.2d].)
For Kari Zev's Expertise, you will have control of the targeted creature or Vehicle by the time you choose to cast a card with Kari Zev's Expertise, so that, provided that permanent is a creature, it can be sacrificed to pay for Fling if you cast it this way.
EDIT: Clarification and deletion of first paragraph after comment 4 was posted.
The other scenarios work because the sequence of actions all occur within the Expertise spell resolving (bouncing your own TKS or stealing a creature than Fling-ing it). Because bouncing your opponent's TKS introduces a trigger, the timing is slightly different for that one.
Modern: UR Bloo