Problems with matching suits abilities like in Star Realms

I sort of like the idea of having random combos. It sort of reminds me of my youth, dabbling in MTG, with all sorts of effects linking together. I know your game is much more specific than that (it seems as I read your post that you would have specific cards that trigger off of other specific cards while still retaining an independent ability if used outside the combo).

I like the idea. If you're making a hacking game and you've got 3 suits which each represent an aspect of hacking, but they all interact to make combos, it encourages players to have to draw from multiple decks of suits to build their deck (not certain of the mechanics here but I'm envisioning something akin to Dominion since I have no experience with Star Realm).

Anyway, my thought is to keep the suit interaction. It makes for a broader, more challenging game. Particularly as it adds an element of complexity to both game play and strategy. I would only drop the suit interactions if the game becomes too cumbersome or confusing with them in force.

This is your "example":

Play card of suit A

Play card of suit C, that activate an ability when played after A

Play card of suit B, that activate an ability when played after C

Instead (my version):

Play card of suit A

Play card of suit C, that activates Ability #1 on card A.

Play card of suit B, that activates Ability #2 on card A.

See the difference? The combos are used to "unlock" abilities on the ORIGINAL card A. Each card can have TWO (2) Abilities that get unlocked by playing a card from another suit.

But the combinations can be unique - and you would have to check which cards you want to use as "A" versus which cards you want to use to "unlock" abilities like suit C or B.

Just an idea for you.

Cheers.

Update: You can sometimes have some more powerful cards that require TWO (2) suits, like Play card B and card D, to activate Ability #2 on card C...

Update #2: You can have even more rules. Like Play card D, to activate Ability #1 play suit A with Power "X or higher"... The possibilities are virtually limitless.

Update #3: You can use "Factions" to identify the PRIMARY "color" for your deck. Like in your OP. And then based on those cards, you know that the cards in your deck that are fodder and which ones you intend to play.

You could also have "build rules", like a deck must be 20 Primary cards and 30 Fodder cards (for unlocking combinations).

For example, look at the "Ivan Radinsky" card.
http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic892540.jpg

The cards's main colour is WHITE.
Its two chaining colours are BLUE and VIOLET/PURPLE.
Its "kicker" card colour is GREEN.

When you play Ivan Radinsky and end your turn, the next player may play a BLUE or VIOLET card and realize its effect. Then, then next player may play a card that "chains" onto the chain colours of their card, and so on. Eventually it becomes the next player's turn when no one else has a card to play in the chain. You can end up cycling through your hand rather quickly in the game, but the consequence is that you begin your turn with fewer cards in your hand.

The kicker is a special card effect. If you play Ivan Radinsky and have a card in your hand whose main colour is GREEN, you can play that as well to engage the kicker effect listed on Ivan Radinsky (NOT the effect listed on the GREEN card).

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Not sure what you mean with your A>B>C>D>A thing, but it sounds like a RPS mechanic. That's not the case in Nightfall if I recall correctly (since attacks were based on card stats, not the colours), but there's no reason to leave it out of your own game.