You can definitely still have a good mag.
When you say "only 5 DEF and a ton of POW" are you talking about a mag that would be 5/195/0/0
def/pow/dex/mind
or 12/188/0/0
Both of those mags are hard to come by, and not reasonable for a 1st mag IMO.
There's only one way to get the 195 POW stat...