I'm not sure what the adaptive f2p guide was, but there are a few major changes in the past several months to any f2p guide.

1) You can't do well in Squad Arena. You just can't. People will buy Hyperdrive Bundles and crush you. Your only hope is that they're so incompetent that they mismanage their roster over time and you can catch up to them, or they quit over time. A competent Hyperdrive purchaser will always be significantly ahead of you, the advantages compound over time.

2) Since you can't compete in Squad Arena, focus more efforts on Fleet Arena as a source of crystals. The Hyperdrive ships are not that strong. Plus it's just easier to place near the top of Fleet Arena because the shards are 1,000 players vs. 20,000.

3) Separatists are a legitimate alternative to Phoenix as your starting team. You get fewer legendary characters overall, but you get Padme. I'm still not sure if this is a good idea because even if you get Padme, that's not going to catch you up in Squad Arena. You might be better off going with Phoenix, into Empire, into CLS...the old method...and focusing on other areas of the game than Squad Arena.