Hi new player here

To be honest, I don't have much idea of what new accounts need or don't need now.

It looks to me that you're heading towards Thrawn and Emperor Palpatine unlocks.  To unlock Thrawn you need Phoenix.  Phoenix with Capt Rex are a pretty good team, even to 'near' endgame, and is still a team endgame players want/need in their back pocket.  Also, Phoenix have 2 ships that are quite useful. 

You're probably looking at Commander Luke Skywalker as your first 'biggish' unlock?  His team is very good, but a bit dated.  Every new team that comes out seems to counter him to a degree.  

So, if you unlock Thrawn and Palpatine, this also opens up an Empire ship combination for you.  Thrawn is extremely useful, as he's very 'plug in', he'll work with many different line-ups due to him giving a turn to another character.  Palpatine is not, but.... he does lead an extremely effective team that includes Mara Jade and eventually Star Killer.  So, if you do unlock Palp, you need to go for Mara too.

Darth Vader sadly, is very dated.  However, in the back of my mind something is telling me he might be getting a re-work.  He can go in the Palp line up until you get Star Killer.

In conclusion, my thoughts are (and this could be very dated advice)  unlock Thrawn and Palpatine.  Make sure you farm Mara Jade and Captain Rex (maybe be difficult though), then work on CLS.  You'll have 2 good teams Phoenix with Rex,  Palp with Mara and 2 fleets,  Thrawn Empire and Rebels.

Note, if anybody disagrees with this, they probably know more about current new players.