Cerebro often suffers greedy players who try to maximize its output. I envisioned a deck in which Cerebro played an important yet nonessential role, and this is what I found.
This is a C5 deck, but the focus is not on Cerebro alone. This deck utilizes Scarlet Spider and Doctor Doom, two cards that create multiple 5-Power cards. It adjoins these with Arnim Zola and Iron Man (two separate ways to double output). Mystique can mock Iron Man or Cerebro. Ravonna Renslayer cheapens Cerebro, Iron Man, Arnim Zola, and Mystique.
Other supporting 5-Power cards include Omega Red (who can also be copied by Mystique, cloned by Arnim Zola, or strongly supported by Iron Man), Wave (to get the more expensive cards out early), Hydra Bob (replaceable by Martyr) and Ant-Man (both serving as cheap 5-Power cards).
Shadow King is the linchpin here. Defensively, he can reset any permanent changes to your 5-Power cards- making them eligible for Cerebro again. His offensive ability doesn’t hurt either versus cards like Blob, Gilgamesh, Silver Sable, Cassandra Nova, etc.
In this deck, despite it being C5, only half of the cards reach the 5-Power ceiling. This deck still puts up numbers. 5 Power is a lot of Power, and these numbers are constantly being duplicated, doubled, and augmented by this deck’s supporting cast. But, most importantly, locations like Monster Island are not the end of the world anymore! Cerebro plays a strong role, but is no longer central to the success of this deck.
As of writing, I have climbed 20 ranks and am about to hit Infinite with this.