Suerte

Suerte
 

I read an article in which the word suerte was used, but it didn't appear
to mean luck. It more closely seemed to mean assortment (perhaps a varied and unpredictable assortment). Is this a common usage? Here's the quote:
"tambien puede comer esa suerte de tapas griegas"

Suerte has a few different meanings - 'chance', 'luck', 'fate' and 'sort' or 'kind/type'. In a bullfight, each phase is known as a suerte.

All the meanings are commonly used.

In the sentence it seems to indicate an ad-hoc assortment, and I wonder
if suerte is used that way commonly. I know I have never seen it or heard it before.

Would you be understood if you said: la caja lleva una suerte de vario bonbones.

Absolutely. :)

Hmmm... I more or less disagree here: It would be understood if you mean "some kind of varied candy"; you're not sure that those things were actually candy. :D

Llevaba una suerte de bufanda. -> She/he was wearing something resembling a scarf / some kind of scarf.

"Suerte de" in Spanish is much more like "some sort of", not really "assortment".
For the candy sentence, we'd rather say something like "la caja tenía bombones/dulces surtidos" / "varios tipos de bombones/dulces". :)

Yep. It doesn't mean assortment. It means 'kind/type' or 'sort', as mentioned above.
The sentence poli wrote would be understood, but, as you stated, not as an assortment.

la caja contiene un surtido de bombones

una suerte de grapa = some sort of staple / something that resembles a staple

esa suerte de tapas griegas = some typical Greek food that reminds "our" tapas

"suerte" means here sort of a dummy indirect description, comparison or definition; something you say trying to be understood

Thanks everyone. This is a new meaning I was unaware of.