Don't know if you're looking for a partner still, but I've recently picked up Duk, and it's been a lot of fun, though with a lot of failures and losses online. He's so different from my mains (Ling & Lei) ... Some references if anyone's interested in Duck: LYUG has a Bread & Butter on him, there's a good vid of AVP: Aeris vs OFDP (Jack & Duk) as well that's pretty fun too watch.
Interesting question for everyone, how do you compose your team member and order? For myself, I choose my teams based purely on what I think is fun. Don't care about netsu impact or anything. Regarding order, I start the round with whom I perceive is the lighter/pokier character.
Oh yes I know all about Marduk. TeeVo is one of Toronto's best players and he put me in loser's the last time I went there for a tournament (he's a Leo/Marduk user). Marduk is pretty damn good. At the wall, it's death, especially with his ground hitting grabs doing obscene damage and you are forced to guess what's going to come at you! Dunno why I didn't try him out, I'd like to... I'll eventually get to him The next character I wanna legitimately learn is Baek, dunno when I'll get around to it though
About team selection, I like using characters that take advantage of as many mechanics the game offers as possible. That's why I settled with Hwoarang because of his stance cancels give so much freedom in Tag Assaults along with his other tools like Air grabs, just frames, tech traps just make for a fun character to play as. Someone like Nina or Lei offer more but once I started getting proficient with JFSR I couldn't turn back. And I settled for Julia as secondary because she is so much scarier than Hwoarang, and more times that not I'll bring her in with Netsu which makes matters even more juicy for me Also, doesn't hurt Julia is the prettiest character in fighting games!
Started with Armor King/Heihachi... but Heihachi demands consistent execution and consummate wavedashing once you get to a certain level and Armor King's new improved tools just didn't mesh with my playstyle. Also have an Angel/Michelle team for fun to celebrate low tiers. All of my other teams of Asuka/King ; Leo/Zafina ; Anna/Jun ; DJin/Capos were made just so I could learn the characters after getting rolled up by them online or in tournament. T_T