The real time sink is actually the Alexendrites IMO. Consolation is that a failed meld won't lose the alex but only the materia.

The Novus is a time sink itself either way you do it. 50 days wait if you refuse to run mythflox (Every 2 days you can get maps: 2 from dailies, 1 from 800 myth map purchase since daily roulettes gives at least 400 myths per day) and within this 50 days you can SB to your heart's content. Or you could rush mythflox while SBing a little and fork out some gil for materias if you have to. All in all it's still a sink.