Advice on partners

I’ve got the UAS version and I love Tekkaman. I prefer to play a heavy zoning game and now that I’m getting pretty good at dropping some of his bigger combos regularly in normal game play, I want to improve more by getting a good partner.

So far I’ve been partial to Tekkaman Blade, Ryu and Soki. What characters would you guys suggest and why? I’m open to having any effective partner, but I don’t believe in picking someone for their assist. I also might be leaning to characters good at keep away, but want to hear what you guys have to say before putting too much more thought into it.

Thanks in advance.