Pairing rubs and wood

Personal preferences and individual likes and dislikes make a big part of our chouces.

In my opinion, it is more of pairing the wood with the type of meat. Nice heavy smoke flavor for brisket using hickory, mesquite, or even a little lighter with oak.

Chicken and pork go very well with fruit woods, where as delicately flavored game birds and seafood can be easily overpowered with smoke flavor. The more delicate flavors will benefit from the use of alder which has a light smoke flavor.

Your rub gives complimentary flavors to the meat, so most rubs are created to work with specific meats. There are general purpose rubs, but I find most of the general rubs come short on finishing flavors.

^^^^ ditto to MadMan. I use a similar rub on most of my meats for the base flavor. The flavor wood that I use for smoke is mostly for a topical or bark flavor.