Well, what I like about the new set is that they are getting around to reprinting the buddy / check lands even if they are allied colored. Those actually do need a new printing because they were primarily in M10-M11, which at this point are positively ancient. They do need to get around to the Shadowmoor and Lorwyn block filter lands as those are extremely popular casual play lands that just suffer from being under printed and under opened, especially compared to the far more competitive Fetch / Shock lands that populate most modern decks. The later have to get reprinted just from the massive demand in the modern market for them. Another aspect of the new set that is nice to see is the tribal support and the possibility of a boros walker. I don't think we've really had a good boros colored planeswalker since Ajani Vengeant was printed, and that guy is still pretty competitive even if he isn't showing up in a lot of lists.
The leak may be bad for their financial side, but I feel that the public and magic community need to see where the game is going that far down the line right now. Maro himself said that the changes would take time, and getting a preview of the slow changes being made to better the game is good for player morale: Especially following the ban mania that happened and the unfun cards like Emrakul, the Promised End, Aetherworks Marvel, and the infamous Copy Cat combo that plagued standard recently.
While I'm with you on the RW walker, unless you're talking about in the moral sense as a character, Nahiri would like a word with you.
Personally I'm hype for Vraska. I liked her last card and I really want more GB walkers since its my second favorite color combo.
I know she sees play, but I'm not a big fan of that particular walker card. She is feels narrow compared to Ajani Vengeant and mostly sees play in prison and control decks like this one...
Which coincidently runs both walkers. Vraska we'll just have to see, but that particular color combination is already pretty strong, so even if she is good I just can't get as excited for her. We're talking the colors that have some of the strongest removal spells in the game with Maelstrom Pulse and Abrupt Decay. Most recent addition to this combo is now Fatal Push.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I've already seen some of the cards when it first leaked, that is enough for me, for now, I will wait till spoiler season to check on others. Besides my dislike towards the theft, I also want to build up my own anticipation.
I'm in the camp of not wanting spoilers like this so early, it just detracts from the current spoiler season that I enjoy.
That said, I am watching the WWE announcement reveal thing on the stream right now and I no longer care how WotC feels. This is terrible, and the most cringe thing I have ever seen. If this is how they want to offer spoilers, and all common filler at that, bring on the entirety of Ixalan.
God this is awful.
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Tournament Victories:
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Well feelings nepuetral for me I'm still hyped for this despite the leaks I'm one of the those guys who likes no surprises.
And plus everyone is wrong not all of the rares are in there
To prove it show me 15 mythics inside that print sheet also some are still beyond too blurry to make out, like for example that other t-Rex like one (not the legendary) we still don't know about that.
If you want hype stop looking at these leaks for several weeks.
Not the best use of 15 minutes of my time, but here you go. Sorry for numbering the rares out of order -- I just went as I found them.
It seems to me that the people that are hit by this are the retailers selling singles. There was a lot of noise when the accusations that someone had the full list of Eternal Masters reprints came out. Now, the accuser eventually backed down, but since Magic cards are a totally unregulated market, I wouldn't be at all surprised if big retailers were getting information ahead of time. Either in small ways - youtube channels of the retailers getting cards to preview - through to big ways - why not give your buddy there a heads up when you know a big reprint is coming or a new mechanic that'll change the meta in a potentially profitable way? It seems like, if we follow the money, that's the group that's most affected by… not even the leaks but by the absence of them until two weeks out.
Ah, now we are getting closer. Good analytical skills.
Slow-drip method of card reveals isn't working. It's time to adapt to the current age of social media WotC, or this will just continue happening.
I am in 100% agreement with your statement. And these leaks are a perfect example of that frustration. I'm not condoning the leaks, but Wizards does a good job of burying their heads in the sand.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
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It's a 121 sheet. 53 rares printed twice and 15 mythics printed once.
If anything to complain about is the fact this is a rare sheet. Finding out ALL the rares and mythics in the set is kinda anticlimactic.
And the fact this leaker is trolling everyone by not taking clear photos.
If a set is terrible, i wont buy it.
If i know nothing about a set early enough, i will not pre-order and will most likely not buy the set unless its a hit later on.
If a set is spoiled and its promising, i will pre-order them and most likely buy more.
In that sense as long as sets just from time to time get fully spoiled due to leaks, its totally fine.
If that happens "all" the time, it becomes a real problem especially with weak sets (but its their fold to print a terrible set to begin with).
I hate knowing all the cards all at once.. I look forward to having a new card revealed or set of cards, and the discussion afterwards. The previews are the only reason I really go online. When there is no spoiler season, I have no reason to go online and nothing to look forward to. So having something revealed too early takes away months of spoilers that I, and many others, look forward to.
I <sarcasm>love</sarcasm> that people are advocating for ruining someone's life over this. Wow.
Well if they stole the sheet it could be criminal, but otherwise just civil action, and I don't think wizards is going to let that opportunity pass them. However, they may never be caught.
Well if they stole the sheet it could be criminal, but otherwise just civil action, and I don't think wizards is going to let that opportunity pass them. However, they may never be caught.
I bet theres some kind of "ID" on that sheet to identify its factory / day of print and the like.
But who knows.
Maybe thats why the quality of the pictures is that bad too.
Another thread might be in line for this topic. But this is the kind of stuff that fuels the rampant insider trading that goes on before new sets hit. If this person can get a whole rare foil sheet, what's to say others don't regularly get tipped off on what new cards will in a set a few months down the road.
People are buying into the narrative that this somehow hurts the game, and they're all reaching for their pitchforks. But, I think keeping the info on future sets so tight lipped is actually bad for the game. You end up keeping the general public in the dark until the last minute, but in the time leading up to that, a handful of people are buying up all the cards that the general public will want in a few months.
Just because a company don´t lose money over a leak doesn´t mean it´s okay just to leak everything, especially if it´s illigal to do so. It´s still about respecting companies product and understanding the work and thought put into the products.
Yeah, and I am not saying any of that is false. The leaker should be punished to the full extent of the law. But that wont restrain me. This isnt someone's private photos, nor is this hurting national security. The reason people are excited to see these cards is because they think WotC has a good product and they want to see it. That isnt the worst problem a company could have.
Except it diminishes the excitement their customers have regarding intervening products, thus leading directly to reduced sales and a loss of revenue. Revenue that is necessary for WotC to continue producing said products.
E3 just revealed a lot of games that won't be coming out in two weeks, most that won't be coming out in the next 18-24 months.
They still sell, people still love them.
If WotC fears we'll not buy their product if not under the influence of immediate hype it's because they know it's ***** and are literally selling us a cat in a bag. In that case they don't desserve pity or customers.
If what they fear is their mediocre marketing not generating enough likes/notes/upvotes because of leaks, it's really all on them to improve their contnent. Rudy, Goldfish and The Professor aren't successful because people hype them, people hype them to success because they produce good contnent.
On the other hand, WotC is now led by the man who was in charge of the Xbox 360 brand's marketing strategies at the time when guerrilla marketing shills were pushing the "PS3 has no gaems" meme all across the internet. So this may actually be a "conspiracy".
If the guy actually posting this purchased it and then posted it on Magic sites like the Magic subreddit, the likelihood that he knew he was purchasing stolen goods is very high, and that is also a crime. A crime which he has flat-out admitted to.
There are legal defenses against this, but nothing strong. 1) "I didn't know this was protected IP?" a) "If you know anything Magic IP, then yes, you did. If you didn't, and had to find the place to post it, then you had the time and ability to determine whether it was protected..." Etc. etc.
Or, he can sell it to someone outside of US who does not give a damn about US laws.
Heck i'm sold on the dinosaur legionaries, and if the set is as wacky to draft like Amonket i'm all in. Tottaly with the folks who wished this was C17 spoilers. That leak got me hyped and told my shop i need at least one of each deck.
Also the foil sheet is lined with id marks. So im sure Wizard's already knows where this came from and not far from who.
I <sarcasm>love</sarcasm> that people are advocating for ruining someone's life over this. Wow.
I must have missed something. I don't remember anyone advocating ruining someone's life. A few of us discussed the legality of it, but if the leaker broke an NDA, they already know they have the law against them.
I wonder how they'll address this. This is worse than the New Phyrexia incident (sure we don't get the commons/uncommons, but considering the general quality of those, the chances of a Fatal Push against a 3-mana Lightning Bolt/Lightning Strike isn't very high) because of the length of time between.
They will be a lot more careful about their announcement this time round though, the Kozilek incident got some of us (me as well to so degree) upset, because it sounded more like they were throwing a tantrum rather than addressing the incident to their customers. Although considering the way MaRo says that the New Phyrexia incident caused it to sell less than it could have, I wonder if we can just fire that shot straight back now (even if it was true, the statement itself is so accusatory in nature I'm very tempted to take the opportunity to use it against marketing now, I'm not condoning anything that happened here, but since it already happened, might as well see exactly how the structure worked from its "crumbling" process...).
There is a reason WOTC spends millions of dollars on their marketing department and it is the same reason all big companies do which is that it is because marketing is an absolutely crucial part of whether a product will succeed or not. I would not be surprised if the marketing and public relations department over at WotC is considerably larger than that of the entire creative department.
The way WotC trickles out spoilers, times the release of their stories, crafts their teasers and trailers etc. are all part of a multi-million dollar marketing campaign that countless man hours of research and implementation have gone into. The reason WotC is willing to sink millions of dollars into this marketing strategy is because it is a key part of promoting, hyping and selling their product. To suggest that having almost every hype generating and future meta defining card in a set spoiled two sets ahead of time won't have an impact on their bottom line is very silly. I am not a marketing expert nor do I work of WotC so calculating the exact details of the coming financial impact is beyond me but one thing is certain which is it has completely derailed their entire multi-million dollar marketing strategy for the next half a year.
With a company like MTG the intellectual property is the product. We will see most of the rare and mythic cards from Ixilan available to play on various third party MTG software proxies probably within a week or two. Half of that sets meta will be solved before a single card even hits the market. It's similiar to a movie in this respect. If a blurry incomplete copy of a movie is leaked months before it is released in theaters it's ticket sales are decimated. Sure watching that crappy blurry version is nothing like getting to see it glorious Imax 3d, but it will completely gut the hype regardless. Ixilan will literally be old news before it even hits the shelves. MTG is a huge game world wide. It's sales are upwards of 300 million dollars a year, so if the leak costs them even just a few percentage points of their sales for the set then the hit will be in the millions of dollars. Talking to a buddy of mine who is a marketing major he thinks the losses will likely be considerably higher than that.
It's a shame. MTG has been limping along for a while now. The last thing it needed was a huge kick in the teeth while it was trying to get back on its feet again.
WOTC spends countless millions of dollars on their marketing department
That sounds highly unlikely with their extremely low ad presence. Hell some people have speculated they make some bad products on purpose just so they'll have product placement at big box toy aisles without having to actually pay for PoP ads/displays. You'd think they'd actually put those life-size Garruk/Avacyn cutouts at big box to catch a new costumer's eye but nah, they just rot behind the counter of a LGS where the enfranchised players barely see it when purchasing cards they already wanted. Same with the huge ass banners you never see outside of GPs and the trailers that pretty much only reach people who already have WotC/Magic in social media.
If they actually spend several millions each season for this, someone is diverting resources hardcore.
I really want the second hand market and online retailers to choke on that. Buying our cards for less than half and selling them at outrageous prices. For WotC: They are owned by a big corporation, they will recover. Cut the drama.
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Cult of the Succubi Eating Kitten and Brotherhood of Hamsters - Zombie One/Hulking One - Brotherhood of Hamsters disapproves of Damage on the Stack amputation, the corruption of Mythics, and the "Major changes to Extended" in July 2010. You aborted our cards., but we approve of the Modern format. Even if it doesn't ha ve Carrion Feeder or Caller of the Claw in it.
Dex: http://deckbox.org/users/Egementium_instructoid
The way wizards has handled their card set releases has been god awful for a while regardless of leaks. They basically are hiding how good or bad a set is and trickle feed the public so that "hopes and dreams" fuel speculation and set interest. Will this help them sell sets? Yes, but it's hardly something that, as a consumer of their products, should be actively encouraged. What kind of fanboy white knight dementia do people need to have to want to sacrifice their own well being for a publishing company like wizards and hasbro? If someone loves the game that is one thing, but Wizards and especially hasbro has done very little to make people like them as a publishing company. Look at this objectively here: What people want is more of the game they love. What people don't want is a publisher doing their best to sink themselves via price gouging on luxury products, avoiding printing what the dedicated players have been asking for across multiple formats without a massive public outcry, and pushing too much product out and overextending themselves, resulting in design and balance issues.
What has the company done in response to this outcry? Given a "promise" they are going to fix things in the future without any kind of showing of this despite saying we wouldn't see it in hour of devastation (Hello overcosted Lightning Strike in the upcoming standard...), left high MSRP on products that have secondary market values due to lack of supply rather than strict demand (Commander Anthology), released an underwhelming board game product with cards that work pretty much only with the decks included (Archenemy Nichol Bolas), and are depending completely on peoples nostalgia for Dominaria and the return of core sets to get folks hyped for the future, even roping in a famous previous developer / designer of the game to work on the later sets.
Keiji Inafune -> Megaman to Mighty No. 9. is enough of an example to want to play wait and see on a future Dominaria set instead of getting hyped for it. Is it worth getting hyped for the return of the setting itself and potential lore? That I would say yes assuming they don't go the way of BFZ with it, maybe focus on a completely different storyline that doesn't involve the gatewatch at all, but possibly a return to a world with the descendants of the famous characters of Time spiral picking up the pieces.
So should people get upset if someone leaks something via cell phone to the public? No, you really shouldn't. The only time someone should care about this stuff is if the company was nice to the public like Bethesda... who kind of blew it this E3 by doing this entire mod DLC thing they are trying to push.
Okay, that is probably a bad example, but you get the point.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The way wizards has handled their card set releases has been god awful for a while regardless of leaks. They basically are hiding how good or bad a set is and trickle feed the public so that "hopes and dreams" fuel speculation and set interest. Will this help them sell sets? Yes, but it's hardly something that, as a consumer of their products, should be actively encouraged. What kind of fanboy white knight dementia do people need to have to want to sacrifice their own well being for a publishing company like wizards and hasbro?
Exactly. It's a form of Stockholm Syndrome. Wizards has been failing at developing non-sucky sets for a while now, and tries to compensate by milking all the "hype" as much as they can to boost sales.
The extent to which they depend on hype to sell a set is the extent to which it can't sell itself, and people who wail and gnash their teeth about being deprived of the hype experience -- as though that was some fundamental part of playing Magic: The Gathering -- are just playing into WotC's game.
I know she sees play, but I'm not a big fan of that particular walker card. She is feels narrow compared to Ajani Vengeant and mostly sees play in prison and control decks like this one...
http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=15886&d=297572&f=MO
Which coincidently runs both walkers. Vraska we'll just have to see, but that particular color combination is already pretty strong, so even if she is good I just can't get as excited for her. We're talking the colors that have some of the strongest removal spells in the game with Maelstrom Pulse and Abrupt Decay. Most recent addition to this combo is now Fatal Push.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
That said, I am watching the WWE announcement reveal thing on the stream right now and I no longer care how WotC feels. This is terrible, and the most cringe thing I have ever seen. If this is how they want to offer spoilers, and all common filler at that, bring on the entirety of Ixalan.
God this is awful.
Indianapolis Regionals 2009 (Standard)
Worldwake Gameday (Limited)
See my alters here: http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q16/jimmy2do/Cards/
Not the best use of 15 minutes of my time, but here you go. Sorry for numbering the rares out of order -- I just went as I found them.
Ah, now we are getting closer. Good analytical skills.
I am in 100% agreement with your statement. And these leaks are a perfect example of that frustration. I'm not condoning the leaks, but Wizards does a good job of burying their heads in the sand.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
If anything to complain about is the fact this is a rare sheet. Finding out ALL the rares and mythics in the set is kinda anticlimactic.
And the fact this leaker is trolling everyone by not taking clear photos.
If a set is terrible, i wont buy it.
If i know nothing about a set early enough, i will not pre-order and will most likely not buy the set unless its a hit later on.
If a set is spoiled and its promising, i will pre-order them and most likely buy more.
In that sense as long as sets just from time to time get fully spoiled due to leaks, its totally fine.
If that happens "all" the time, it becomes a real problem especially with weak sets (but its their fold to print a terrible set to begin with).
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
Well it shouldnt be a surprise that WotC will do everything to find and sue that dude.
But thats really is not a surprise.
As a person doing the spoilers, you run high risk and its not really easy to sell these sheets in any official public way.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
Well if they stole the sheet it could be criminal, but otherwise just civil action, and I don't think wizards is going to let that opportunity pass them. However, they may never be caught.
I loathe creatures! Praise Prison and Land Destruction!
My Peasant Cube (looking for feedback)
I bet theres some kind of "ID" on that sheet to identify its factory / day of print and the like.
But who knows.
Maybe thats why the quality of the pictures is that bad too.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
People are buying into the narrative that this somehow hurts the game, and they're all reaching for their pitchforks. But, I think keeping the info on future sets so tight lipped is actually bad for the game. You end up keeping the general public in the dark until the last minute, but in the time leading up to that, a handful of people are buying up all the cards that the general public will want in a few months.
If you haven't seen Alpha Investments Channel, you should be warned. It's generally NSFW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bus0ilETy8Q
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B
They still sell, people still love them.
If WotC fears we'll not buy their product if not under the influence of immediate hype it's because they know it's ***** and are literally selling us a cat in a bag. In that case they don't desserve pity or customers.
If what they fear is their mediocre marketing not generating enough likes/notes/upvotes because of leaks, it's really all on them to improve their contnent. Rudy, Goldfish and The Professor aren't successful because people hype them, people hype them to success because they produce good contnent.
On the other hand, WotC is now led by the man who was in charge of the Xbox 360 brand's marketing strategies at the time when guerrilla marketing shills were pushing the "PS3 has no gaems" meme all across the internet. So this may actually be a "conspiracy".
Or, he can sell it to someone outside of US who does not give a damn about US laws.
Also the foil sheet is lined with id marks. So im sure Wizard's already knows where this came from and not far from who.
Many thanks to DNC at Heroes of the Plane Studios
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
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They will be a lot more careful about their announcement this time round though, the Kozilek incident got some of us (me as well to so degree) upset, because it sounded more like they were throwing a tantrum rather than addressing the incident to their customers. Although considering the way MaRo says that the New Phyrexia incident caused it to sell less than it could have, I wonder if we can just fire that shot straight back now (even if it was true, the statement itself is so accusatory in nature I'm very tempted to take the opportunity to use it against marketing now, I'm not condoning anything that happened here, but since it already happened, might as well see exactly how the structure worked from its "crumbling" process...).
The way WotC trickles out spoilers, times the release of their stories, crafts their teasers and trailers etc. are all part of a multi-million dollar marketing campaign that countless man hours of research and implementation have gone into. The reason WotC is willing to sink millions of dollars into this marketing strategy is because it is a key part of promoting, hyping and selling their product. To suggest that having almost every hype generating and future meta defining card in a set spoiled two sets ahead of time won't have an impact on their bottom line is very silly. I am not a marketing expert nor do I work of WotC so calculating the exact details of the coming financial impact is beyond me but one thing is certain which is it has completely derailed their entire multi-million dollar marketing strategy for the next half a year.
With a company like MTG the intellectual property is the product. We will see most of the rare and mythic cards from Ixilan available to play on various third party MTG software proxies probably within a week or two. Half of that sets meta will be solved before a single card even hits the market. It's similiar to a movie in this respect. If a blurry incomplete copy of a movie is leaked months before it is released in theaters it's ticket sales are decimated. Sure watching that crappy blurry version is nothing like getting to see it glorious Imax 3d, but it will completely gut the hype regardless. Ixilan will literally be old news before it even hits the shelves. MTG is a huge game world wide. It's sales are upwards of 300 million dollars a year, so if the leak costs them even just a few percentage points of their sales for the set then the hit will be in the millions of dollars. Talking to a buddy of mine who is a marketing major he thinks the losses will likely be considerably higher than that.
It's a shame. MTG has been limping along for a while now. The last thing it needed was a huge kick in the teeth while it was trying to get back on its feet again.
If they actually spend several millions each season for this, someone is diverting resources hardcore.
Cult of the Succubi Eating Kitten and Brotherhood of Hamsters - Zombie One/Hulking One - Brotherhood of Hamsters disapproves of Damage on the Stack amputation, the corruption of Mythics,
and the "Major changes to Extended" in July 2010. You aborted our cards., but we approve of the Modern format. Even if it doesn't ha ve Carrion Feeder or Caller of the Claw in it.Dex: http://deckbox.org/users/Egementium_instructoid
What has the company done in response to this outcry? Given a "promise" they are going to fix things in the future without any kind of showing of this despite saying we wouldn't see it in hour of devastation (Hello overcosted Lightning Strike in the upcoming standard...), left high MSRP on products that have secondary market values due to lack of supply rather than strict demand (Commander Anthology), released an underwhelming board game product with cards that work pretty much only with the decks included (Archenemy Nichol Bolas), and are depending completely on peoples nostalgia for Dominaria and the return of core sets to get folks hyped for the future, even roping in a famous previous developer / designer of the game to work on the later sets.
Keiji Inafune -> Megaman to Mighty No. 9. is enough of an example to want to play wait and see on a future Dominaria set instead of getting hyped for it. Is it worth getting hyped for the return of the setting itself and potential lore? That I would say yes assuming they don't go the way of BFZ with it, maybe focus on a completely different storyline that doesn't involve the gatewatch at all, but possibly a return to a world with the descendants of the famous characters of Time spiral picking up the pieces.
So should people get upset if someone leaks something via cell phone to the public? No, you really shouldn't. The only time someone should care about this stuff is if the company was nice to the public like Bethesda... who kind of blew it this E3 by doing this entire mod DLC thing they are trying to push.
Okay, that is probably a bad example, but you get the point.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Exactly. It's a form of Stockholm Syndrome. Wizards has been failing at developing non-sucky sets for a while now, and tries to compensate by milking all the "hype" as much as they can to boost sales.
The extent to which they depend on hype to sell a set is the extent to which it can't sell itself, and people who wail and gnash their teeth about being deprived of the hype experience -- as though that was some fundamental part of playing Magic: The Gathering -- are just playing into WotC's game.