I would recommend going with a Schick Injector, finest shaving implement ever devised by mankind. For soap, use whatever you want. There are guys who spend 45 minutes or more on their shave every day, going through their collection of 15-50 DE's and 4-10 SE's, selecting a particular blade (Wearing a white shirt today... better not use a new Feather), one of their many brushes, bowls, mugs, oils, glycerine soaps, lathering creams, and every other combination of gear you can imagine. Plus a custom made rack for their 2nd and 3rd tier vintage razors they haven't gotten around to refinishing yet.... all made in their own birth year.
If I had that kind of time to commit to shaving I probably wouldn't need a job.
The biggest key is to take the hottest shower you can and work the water from the shower into your beard for a couple minutes. That will soften up the bristles enough that you don't have to worry about much else.
About a year ago, one of the girly makeup shops was having a 3 for 2 sale on all kinds of stuff, and I found tubes of green Prorasso shaving cream there. Stacked that with a $10 off $30 coupon and bought enough green Prorasso that I doubt I'll be worrying about soap/cream for quite some time.
Pick up a styptic pencil until you figure out your angles and then it's all downhill from there.
I have a Futur, it sits in the same mug that has my Injector, the brush I never use anymore, and a thing of dental floss I use religiously.
Do whatever you want, just get away from the stupid $2 cartridges that last three days and the cans of spray goo and you can't go wrong.