Even if it did require pentamelding they have made pentamelding so much more accessible recently

Do you want 11 and 12 materia? Set a retainer to collect the animal part of the collectible and just go from there. You can also buy them with cosmocredits

Do you want lower filler materia? Island sanctuary prints them like nobody’s business and requires like 5 minutes of your time per week

Put 12’s in the first 2 slots, 11’s in the third slot and 9’s in the 4th and 5th slot, you’ll soar over the breakpoints for little effort, just a bit of weekly maintenance