by kvenosdel
Is it important that each player knows their own suit combination? I can't figure out a way to do that at the outset of the game very well so I'm just going to pretend that they don't.One important thing to know is whether or not the aces and crowns need to be used in game play. If not I have an idea how to use them for this. If they are you could simply substitute the aces and crowns with a single chip or token for each color that players would keep hidden.
As far as choosing who is on each team it is simply a matter of dealing an ace face down to each player. That is their secret suit.
To pick which suits team up you could deal three crowns face up and the other three face down, each paired with a face-up card. This would give players some indication of what suit they are paired with without revealing the exact nature of it yet. At the end of the game, or part way through they could be revealed.
You could also make a rule that allows players to peak at one of the face down cards during the game. Since I don't know anything else about the game I can't make a good suggestion as to what the rule should be. This would add more information as people looked at cards. Did they choose that card because they are the face up suit or because their suit is face down and they don't know which it is? When they peeked at the card paired with yours was it their suit? Are they your partner? etc...
Hope that helps!
EDIT: I will point out that random suit pairings can end up being imbalanced with the Decktet due to its asymmetric structure. For example, say the goal is for the partners to collect cards that have one of their suits on them. If they have sympathetic suits, such as the knots and wryms, then they available points for them decreases drastically; if they're antipathetic then they have much more available. Just some food for thought.