The Idea of a Go-To Deck!
I notice on my main account in Wild where archmage plays that it's also often the same cards and ideas that are used regardless the game rules.
My Go-To Water Deck Strategy!
I naturally love Melee because that's the first thing that I played and learned about when I started playing Splinterlands way back. So one of the cards that I got for my alt account was a Golden Legendary Possibilus The Wise Summoner which at the time I believe paid around 80$ for. Right now it only goes for 24$ with only 552 avaibla which kind how shows how washed up the Splinterlands ecosystem is.
So while I use it all the time, I would need to win a crazy amount of matches to earn rewards to the point where I would recover the expense. The main idea with this summoner is to play it with Melee cards but this leaves it vulnerable to magic attack. In order to counter this, I often try to play the Djinn Oshannus which right now for a single copy trades at the DEC burn price at Peg which makes it a fairly low-risk buy. It also has high speed so there is a chance to dodge. As an alternative I sometimes play the Arkemis The Bear. In 2nd Position I place the Baakjira which gets +3 Melee attack from the Kumu Mastermind while it also gets reach ability from the summoner. So excellent synergy there. The main downside is that it has low speed. Depending on the game rules, the Noa The Just is a better choice in 2nd place. In 4th place I nearly always play the Medaali Guardian which gives some heal and eventually will be able to attack when it gets in 2nd place.
For the backline with 3 options left I pretty much always first go for the Deeplurker which synergizes well with the Tramble ability from the summoner. 2 other options I often use are the Swamp Spitter to give repair or the Verari Wavesmith to give armor depending on some of the other monster choices.
This is the basic setup of the strategy and it can be worked around with different options depending the game rules.
Example!
This is a variation with the game rule where all cards got the opportunity ability which made me play the Venari Marksrat similar to my opponent as it was sure to be hit first. My opponent also had a higher level Summoner and cards but I still quite comfortably managed to win this match
Conclusion!
Having a go-to deck is certainly possible in Splinterlands despite the many game rules and it makes playing modern way more brain energy efficient while at the same time it makes the game much more into a grind just to get the rewards and make sure the capture rate isn't at 50 too long.