I would go with Preparations and Slaked Thirsts anyway. Gives you the option to do some maneuver wounding as well, on various occassions. Corsairs are good in the cycle, but they are a bit lame. Hate and Anger, and that Isengard card that makes you toss X and draw X is nice as well. Stupid swarm could be very lethal.
I guess I could run a massive Isengard+Moria drawing shadow mixed with a stupidish swarm. Don't you think with
Preparations and
Slaked Thirsts, it's just too many cards? Hahah I could give it a try though; I want to have this deck irl just for fun lol.
And as for Isildur, he indeed does allow me to play
Hardy Garrison early, but what with me needing draw things very early, and also needing 2
men out to play
Hardy Garrison, it saves slots I could use for other things, as well as saving me the trouble of having to draw two Gondor guys instead of just one. But hey, I could easily try a version with Frodo.