Phoenix good for many things. Unlocking Emperor Palpatine, good defence team GAC, good start in arena, good 3 staring nodes, and GW.
If I was staring a new account, I’d go hard on First Order, with a bit of Phoenix. SLKR is by far the easiest GL to get. Many of the required characters and ships can be farmed pretty easily or purchased in the cantina/guild/fleet stores, and many early on. Phoenix get you Palpatine that you need, and having them will do you well in GAC too. Even early on you would have a good arena squad. Replacing it for the better FO as you unlock their shards and level them up. You would have a good fleet.
At the end of it all, you’d be in a great place for a GL.
With any spare energy, I’d go for geos like the other person said. Unlocks padme. Now you have FO, Phoenix, Geo teams. Working towards a GL, and because so many Galactic Republica characters come by on their own, you can have a kick ass Padme team.