How to prepare opening for correspondence thematic tournament I like to play correspondence thematic tournaments as a way to practice/learn new openings/variations. Since they are unrated, I sometimes try wild/unusual moves to see what happens. However, I was wondering which is the best way to prepare for this kind of tournament if one wants to obtain best results (=win as many games as possible).
Thematic tournaments are those where all players start the game the same way, with a previously decided opening variation. This gives you the opportunity to study in advance the said opening. How do you do that? And how do you choose your moves?
Previously, I have taken the rather simplistic strategy of choosing the move with the highest winning percentage according to the database. But this sometimes leads you to inferior situations if you don't look to what happens in posterior moves.
Also, in correspondence games (ICCF, at least), players may use any help (books, databases, computer engines) they like in choosing their moves. So opening traps are unlikely to work.
UPDATE 20-10-2020
I am not interested in getting advice for a particular opening, but rather on the method you follow to prepare for such a tournament. Also, one of the interests of thematic tournaments is the opportunity to find and test new/unusual lines. I am also interested in the method to do this.
I’m not sure if a correspondence chess thematic tournament is the right place for learning the basics of an opening. For obtaining good results, i recommend:

Know your opening. Study all available grandmaster games, try to understand their plans. Get help by an engine, a book and/or a strong player. Be aware that the winning percentage of a line in a database is historical: The line might have been thought playable for a while, than the refutation was discovered, no one played the line since, so the winning percentage might remain high for a bad line. Don’t enter a correspondence chess thematic tournament until you have learned the opening. If you want to learn by playing, play a rapid online thematic tournament.
Prepare a new idea if possible. That’s something else than „wild moves“. And it is difficult. A lot of playable ideas have already been tried. But there are lines that have been played once and could be revived. And other moves have never been played and might prove correct. Test your ideas with some engines to see what happens. Your opponents will also use engines, so there is no need to play bad moves in a tournament just to see what happens and loosing a game by doing so. But don’t believe an engine a single word about complicated endgames ;-) That’s the reason why correspondence chess still exists in spite of engines.

While in an unrated thematic tournament, you will find players who do not respect their opponents and play „wild moves“, be kind and don’t do so. Even unrated events are taken serious by most of their participants.