I think I've got something basic working. If you log in, hit "More...", and then Subscriptions, you can see the list of searches you're subscribed to. From there you can view the searches your subscriptions are based off of, as well as delete the subscriptions.

To create a new subscription, find a "search" that you like. You can do this by using any of the shortcuts on your navigation bar that go to a search page (Unread Replies, All Unread, Thread Replies, etc.). From there, next to the read/unread options, you should see a "subscribe" link, that let's you use your search as a subscription.

This means that you can pick and choose which rules you want to be notified with. Don't care to get emails about somebody's posts? Use: -user:kaiden. Don't want to get spammed on the noise coming from the idkfa section? Use: -item:idkfa. Only want to see things you haven't read yet? Use: is:unread.

And, because I'm not just some conjurer of cheap tricks, you shouldn't feel like you need to have one subscription rule that does everything, or that you need to write your rules so they're mutually exclusive. You will only be notified once about each new post (even if more than one rule matches), and then never again.