Messed around with this character a little bit. Great damage potential. I would agree with the sentiment of putting him first. Typically, it seems more important to preserve stock as opposed to Drive, and Drive generally doesn't grant extra options, just more damage. As such, when building your team, it is better to put characters who don't make use of a lot of stock in front while putting characters who gain options or new combo pathways with stock in the rear. EX Kyo really only uses stock to increase his damage, while he makes great use of Drive cancels to extend combos and build extra stock (another good reason to put characters who utilize Drive cancels well in front, they build way more meter). His no stock combos deal very respectable damage, especially once Drive comes into play.
His HD combos with stock do murderous damage, but I don't like anchors who are overly reliant on HD as their selling point. It just feels like you are limiting yourself because you will be hunting for the HD starter, which may make you more predictable.