Serious post: What CC is referencing is the Clan Flamingo that actually existed several years ago, and now has devolved into pretty much just a skype chat between the old guard and a mostly-defunct clan thread.
Based on my experience with how a focused group of designers can accelerate the whole process, I suggest that you try and organize a second generation custom card Clan/IRC channel/Skype group and open that up to CCC as a whole. There's a lot of new designers pumping out content these days, and nothing beats real-time chat for hashing out designs and organizing testing. We actually just finished up a draft of a custom set not too long ago! We've also done custom set battles on Cockatrice, etc. etc. With enough interested people you can get things done fairly effectively with a real-time chat and not fragmented threads.
At this point I'm mostly just asking for a show of hands, but long term it would be really nice to have a community going, and I saw somebody mention holding weekly playtest events which is also a fantastic idea - clan or otherwise.
So basically, if we were to go down this route, what would you prefer to happen?
I was working on The Izzet Problem and came up with this. It's very unrefined, but I like the space it plays in and I think it hits Izzet's flavour.
Sonic BoomR
Sorcery (C)
Sonic Boom deals 1 damage to target creature or player. Amplify (Not the Legions One) I — If this is the second spell you've cast this turn, Sonic Boom deals 3 damage to that creature or player instead.
Amplify (Not the Legions One) II — If you've cast another spell this turn, Sonic Boom deals 3 damage to that creature or player instead.
Really liking new Worship. I don't think it's worthwhile having too many cards that expressly care about the number of tapped creatures you control, though. You don't want the mechanic to play second fiddle to another theme and it smacks of masturbatory "too clever for its own good" design.
Visit Ghost Dad1W
Instant (C)
Exile target creature. Return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
Administer of TithesWB
Creature — Vampire Cleric (C) Worship — When Administer of Tithes enters the battlefield, you may tap another untapped creature you control. If you do, target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
2/1
Basilica Ordinator1WB
Creature — Human Knight (U)
Vigilance, lifelink Worship — When Basilica Ordinator enters the battlefield, you may tap another untapped creature you control. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on Basilica Ordinator.
2/2
Oblivion Seraph4WB
Creature — Angel (R)
Flying Worship — When Oblivion Seraph enters the battlefield, you may tap another untapped creature you control. If you do, destroy all tapped creatures.
5/5
Akrasa, Big Spider4BG
Legendary Creature — Spider (M)
Reach
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
Whenever a creature an opponent controls with a -1/-1 counter on it dies, put a 1/2 green Spider creature token with reach onto the battlefield for each -1/-1 counter on that creature.
4/8
Draw-Go relies on counterspells. I suppose a Draw-Go deck could emerge in constructed, but that's not a concern because I'm almost completely focused on Limited due to a lack of resources to play-test a full-fledged Constructed environment.
I'm referring to a playstyle where a player simply holds back all of their spells to cast reactively, causing the other players to hesitate to play anything. This might seem fun in theory - this happens in high level constructed all the time - but in practice you will find that games are more fun when players do things.
There's a reason for that. It's not a bad mechanic in as much as it's incredibly powerful. If the cards are good, you'll end up with a situation where a player casts the same spell every turn. If you neuter it in development, you end up with Cipher. And I'm sure you know how that was received.
Also relevant: If you give only one guild what is essentially a returning mechanic, its fans are going to be pretty upset.
Quicken: Complete flavour dud. The Azorious are many things, but quick is not one of them. That said, I think this has a surprising amount of play to it. I'd try to make sure that you can't just sandbag Quicken cards and play draw-go. That's no fun. Swarm: Basically scavenge with the numbers moved around and mostly much better. You can make this interesting with creative use of power and toughness, but it's never going to be that interesting. I suppose it's flavourful though? Malicious: This is actually really cute. It's the Zendikar "bloody" mechanic with the added bonus of letting suicide aggro get in on the action. As a self-confessed cultist, I would play it and I would be happy about it. Bloodrite: This is a lot of hoops to jump through for what is honestly a very small upside. This is win-more at best, and asking to be blown out at worst. I'm not a fun. It also doesn't hit the flavour of the Gruul Clans. In fact, it feels almost Rakdos/Golgari. Mutate: This has memory issues. Creatures with alt. costs are fine, but this is too clever for its own good. Template it like this: Mutate [Cost] (You may cast this for its mutate cost. If you do, it enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter.) If this has a +1/+1 counter, do a barrel roll. Flavour hit. Spy: This does not affect the board (or even the game) at all and requires a lot of support to even do anything. I don't even dislike it, I actively hate it. You've managed to top Cipher as "Most Disappointing Dimir Mechanic". It's flavourful, but much too literal. Thrive: This is mostly just reinforce except without any value as a trick. I don't hate it, although I don't think this is the best fit for Selesnya. Worship: Okay this is cute. I would hazard against making this just ETB effects with a downside tacked on, though. That won't feel good for anybody. It also doesn't hit the flavour of The Church of Deals; remind yourself that Orzhov play for the long game and kill you in tiny little taxes. Spellbound: This is just buyback. Buyback either leads to stagnant games or appears on bad cards exclusively. Wizards doesn't like it. I don't like it. Consider Quicken. Assault: Remember that newbies may not know that you can cast spells post-declare attackers pre-damage, or that this will count creatures you are attacking with, as opposed to ones you have attacked with. Boros are all about small creatures working as a team and next level combat tactics. This is not that. It's also pretty awkward on creatures, which is important since RW are very much creature colours.
In general, remember that Guild mechanics are allowed to be fairly shallow - you only need to get ten or so cards out of them - but they must be flavour home runs and they must play "like the guild". It's possible to make a good mechanic that is just not right for a guild!
I think we may have a miscommunication on what type of power level I'm aiming for. The RW uncommon gold card is aimed at a similar power level to Blood-Cursed Knight or Reclusive Artificer. They are rewards for being in a color pair but not something you would usually ever first or second pick in draft. Does that make more sense?
Like maybe I'm still undervaluing the card and you think that the card is weaker than I do. However remember that flashback is in the set, making the prowess keyword pretty powerful in limited.
Yeah, I get that. I just think the effect - in limited - is underwhelming. The effect is fairly niche and often irrelevant in the late game, and for it to pay off before then you need a critical mass of flashback instants. If you can't make good use of it, it's fairly underwhelming.
Like I said, though, this is a development concern and my evaluation may be off. If it playtests well, everything is groovy.
Rage of Demons2BB
Enchantment - Aura (M)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gains trample and rumble X, where X is the number of Swamps you control.
Creatures must block enchanted creature if able.
At this point I'm mostly just asking for a show of hands, but long term it would be really nice to have a community going, and I saw somebody mention holding weekly playtest events which is also a fantastic idea - clan or otherwise.
So basically, if we were to go down this route, what would you prefer to happen?
Sonic Boom R
Sorcery (C)
Sonic Boom deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
Amplify (Not the Legions One) I — If this is the second spell you've cast this turn, Sonic Boom deals 3 damage to that creature or player instead.
Amplify (Not the Legions One) II — If you've cast another spell this turn, Sonic Boom deals 3 damage to that creature or player instead.
Instant (C)
Exile target creature. Return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
Administer of Tithes WB
Creature — Vampire Cleric (C)
Worship — When Administer of Tithes enters the battlefield, you may tap another untapped creature you control. If you do, target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
2/1
Basilica Ordinator 1WB
Creature — Human Knight (U)
Vigilance, lifelink
Worship — When Basilica Ordinator enters the battlefield, you may tap another untapped creature you control. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on Basilica Ordinator.
2/2
Oblivion Seraph 4WB
Creature — Angel (R)
Flying
Worship — When Oblivion Seraph enters the battlefield, you may tap another untapped creature you control. If you do, destroy all tapped creatures.
5/5
Akrasa, Big Spider 4BG
Legendary Creature — Spider (M)
Reach
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
Whenever a creature an opponent controls with a -1/-1 counter on it dies, put a 1/2 green Spider creature token with reach onto the battlefield for each -1/-1 counter on that creature.
4/8
Artifact (R)
1, T: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool. Spend only colorless mana to activate this ability.
IIW: CMC 13
There's a reason for that. It's not a bad mechanic in as much as it's incredibly powerful. If the cards are good, you'll end up with a situation where a player casts the same spell every turn. If you neuter it in development, you end up with Cipher. And I'm sure you know how that was received.
Also relevant: If you give only one guild what is essentially a returning mechanic, its fans are going to be pretty upset.
Swarm: Basically scavenge with the numbers moved around and mostly much better. You can make this interesting with creative use of power and toughness, but it's never going to be that interesting. I suppose it's flavourful though?
Malicious: This is actually really cute. It's the Zendikar "bloody" mechanic with the added bonus of letting suicide aggro get in on the action. As a self-confessed cultist, I would play it and I would be happy about it.
Bloodrite: This is a lot of hoops to jump through for what is honestly a very small upside. This is win-more at best, and asking to be blown out at worst. I'm not a fun. It also doesn't hit the flavour of the Gruul Clans. In fact, it feels almost Rakdos/Golgari.
Mutate: This has memory issues. Creatures with alt. costs are fine, but this is too clever for its own good. Template it like this: Mutate [Cost] (You may cast this for its mutate cost. If you do, it enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter.) If this has a +1/+1 counter, do a barrel roll. Flavour hit.
Spy: This does not affect the board (or even the game) at all and requires a lot of support to even do anything. I don't even dislike it, I actively hate it. You've managed to top Cipher as "Most Disappointing Dimir Mechanic". It's flavourful, but much too literal.
Thrive: This is mostly just reinforce except without any value as a trick. I don't hate it, although I don't think this is the best fit for Selesnya.
Worship: Okay this is cute. I would hazard against making this just ETB effects with a downside tacked on, though. That won't feel good for anybody. It also doesn't hit the flavour of The Church of Deals; remind yourself that Orzhov play for the long game and kill you in tiny little taxes.
Spellbound: This is just buyback. Buyback either leads to stagnant games or appears on bad cards exclusively. Wizards doesn't like it. I don't like it. Consider Quicken.
Assault: Remember that newbies may not know that you can cast spells post-declare attackers pre-damage, or that this will count creatures you are attacking with, as opposed to ones you have attacked with. Boros are all about small creatures working as a team and next level combat tactics. This is not that. It's also pretty awkward on creatures, which is important since RW are very much creature colours.
In general, remember that Guild mechanics are allowed to be fairly shallow - you only need to get ten or so cards out of them - but they must be flavour home runs and they must play "like the guild". It's possible to make a good mechanic that is just not right for a guild!
Also w/r/t articles, Curse has a My Content section but I don't know if it works and/or is worthwhile.
Edit: It works like this?
Like I said, though, this is a development concern and my evaluation may be off. If it playtests well, everything is groovy.