Lots of people go straight to the guard at the front gate or the Trepie in the cafeteria, but these two are so easy to beat when you only have the starting cards. If you need Elnoyle, Abyss Worm, Tonberry King, Adamantoise, etc. just head to the library as soon as you get your first cards. These two are seriously bad at Triple Triad and drop everything you need in the early game.
At some point I decided that unlocking the card was good enough for me.
Also, interesting you mention it failing replayability standards. I've recently (within the last couple years) tried replaying the game with different restrictions. Like no grinding. So, I'd only draw once if I saw "???". No card games. I only went after items for GFs and ultimate weapons. The game went a lot quicker and was still pretty easy. I still refined items I picked up along the way though. I realized just how many different ways you can get OP.
Then I played through while spreading the GFs and magic across everybody instead of just the main party. That was fun. It made it harder to get OP too early.