Empire team after Phoenix

Palp vader nihlas sion and thrawn are the current meta. In a shard as young as yours even nihlas and sion at 3 stars would likely be viable so if you can unlock and gear them, that's how I would go. Both can be bought from the store so it wouldn't take long to get a 3 star nihlas if you missed his launch and you probably have sion since he just came out. And as soon as you can farm them to higher stars I would. I have both at 7 stars and use the team in arena and the only teams i have trouble with are mirror match teams with more gear/mods or occasionally jtr teams that are modded out better than what I have. I'm in a Nov 2016 shard so I'm hoping my team will remain meta for awhile longer since traya is likely to be the new meta and it is unlikely that anyone in my shard is unlocking her anytime soon. This is also the team that does best against her at least so far. And in a young shard you would have even more time before anyone could dream of getting a new meta when it came out since it will likely be in the same form as traya or jtr as far as difficulty to get.