tl;dr Creep is better than it was but lacks the positional gameplay and still hinges on nuking the opponent out of nowhere after drawing the right card. Skip to end for groovy tweaks that could make it more fun for everyone.
Up front, I want to say that I played back at release and quit around the time that the official forums were taken down…or scheduled to be taken down, because they’re still here? Who knows. Anyway, I played mostly a Creep Abyssian deck (~350wins). I just came back a few days ago and things are…different. Whatever happened in between then and now I have no knowledge of.
I’m not asking for a revert to the old Creep, btw. I understood that it was a flawed mechanic and suggested several nerfs of a different nature myself. I also understand that changing Creep too much would require reworking many of the new cards that interact with it. Rather, I’m expressing concerns about the direction the change took. Hear me out, if you will, and I look forward to your thoughts.
Previously, Creep was the most board intensive way to play the game. You had very limited generation mechanics and very little boxing power. To win, you had to dance around what little Creep you had while avoiding threats and frantically boosting your card draw. The biggest problem was that it wasn’t very fun for your opponent when it worked–they might have to endure several turns of being unable to reach you while you fished for something to finish them off. On the other hand, it was not fast enough to stand a chance against more aggro decks. When I left, every viable competitive deck was aggro.
After the changes, Creep no longer poses a threat on the board. It’s faster, now, but still slower than average. An aggro deck can just ignore the Creep entirely and beat you down. The 1 damage ping isn’t useless, but doesn’t have much influence against anything other than swarm Abyssian. On top of this, the threat was shifted into 2 new legendary cards (which are locked behind an expansion, I might add), and it is nearly impossible to win with a Creep deck unless you play them. This means that, like before, there’s no winning before your 8-mana turn unless your opponent somehow can’t deal with your creep generation minions. Basically, Creep functions as a game clock–you and your opponent both ignore it until it blows up in one of your faces.
Allow me to break that down a bit~
-Creep used to rely heavily on positioning with the mechanic serving as removal, funneling and damage. Choosing where to place it had a huge effect on the game. Now, it doesn’t really matter too much.
-With the huge damage loss, it is necessary to include more hard removal. Before, you could choose between damaging a general and removing a threat–now, you just play whatever removal spell/minion is meta. This shifted the deck much closer to uniformity.
-Creep decks used to consist only of basic and non-legendary cards (at their core). Now, the cards necessary to make Creep work are all difficult to get legendaries. Sister Kelaino requires having all of the base set legendaries unlocked…which is literally over 9,000 spirit away for me. Variax can’t be crafted and is tough to fish out of the expansion. Obliterate can be crafted, but can only be used once and has to be a lethal or you basically lose the game. On top of that, non-legendary Punish is key for removal that won’t clog up your already slow deck and is also locked behind an expansion. That role used to be filled by displacement spells + damaging Creep.
-Creep used to be an involved and challenging mechanic to use. Getting your generation done while also fighting off enemy minions was difficult as none of the Creep generating cards could hold their own. You also had no way to force anyone to stand on Creep until your 7-mana turn and then had to save a Shadow Nova to finish the enemy in many cases. There was RNG in the draw, yes, but victory was determined by the application. In the new system, your minions are a little more threatening, but victory is determined by how fast you draw your legendary, 8-mana finisher.
Given the choice between the two, I think the new system is healthier for gameplay. However, it follows the disturbing trend of downplaying the importance of the board in favor of hinging game outcomes on RNG. I want to ask about a suggestion for maintaining some of the old flavor without radically redesigning the game.
Previously, while the old system was in place, I suggested only using Creep that was connected to determine damage. That would have allowed for some positioning help while also rewarding opponents for well-placed removal and giving them relief from unseen nukes. My hope was that the change would allow for more Creep generation and stronger minions. It seems that the new system hoped to accomplish similar objectives but drained all of the threat out of the creep and gave most of it to late-game finishers rather than the minions. My goal now is to think about ways to even that threat out a bit.
The following ideas are not meant to all happen together. They’re also not my Magnum Opus. I’m about 100w into this new system and am still trying to feel it out.
Main Goal: Make Creep positioning more important without making it overbearing. Also, even out threat among Creep/minions/finishers a bit.
Improve Creep damage to 2
This would make ignoring the Creep a more impactful choice and raise the importance of placement. It would require changing Darkspine Elemental from double damage to, maybe, +2 damage. More threat in the Creep but less overall damage potential.
Creep based draw
I’m thinking a spell that draws a number of cards equal to the amount of Creep connected to or on the square you choose. Again, it improves the importance of placement. Drawing too few or too many cards could be an issue.
Neutered Obliterate
This card seems like an echo of all the worst things about Creep. You see it coming but can’t do much to stop it…then it just ends the game out of no where. What about changing it to only blow up the Creep connected to or on the square you choose, dealing damage to enemies nearby any of the squares equal to twice the exploded Creep. The cost would have to come down, but this way placement is important and opponents can manage their risk. Also, the card would have more use cases since it wouldn’t remove ALL of the Creep…unless you wanted it to and worked for that.
Opening Gambits or Spells that change Creep
Something like changing Creep to deal more damage but disappear when stepped on by an enemy. This could be boardwide or just for connected Creep. Something else might stop Creep from damaging enemies but cause it to heal allies instead–it would also disappear if stepped on by an enemy.
Minions with Creep proximity bonuses
To improve on the idea of slowly taking over the board, a mechanic (artifact, single-minion ability, spell) could give a minion bonus stats based on how much Creep is nearby. It would be similar to the current Juggernaut, but opponents could avoid it by stepping out of range. Positioning is key to making this useful.
Perpetual Creep generation
This sort of exists already for Cass, but could be expanded if giving enemies more ways to interact with Creep like the aforementioned disappearing once stepped on. The idea is to have an option to finish the game gradually by increasing your threat radius rather than in a single burst or by summoning truly silly amounts of fiends. I think a 2-3 mana spell that generated 1 square of Creep then shuffled itself into your deck would do the trick.
Creep to minion mechanics
I don’t mean Variax–he seems ok (maybe gaudy), but I’m thinking a spell that transforms a square of Creep into a minion. Perhaps stronger spells could transform all connected Creep into a minion with stats based on the amount of Creep consumed. There could even be a minion that consumes all of the Creep it walks over and grows more powerful or causes the Creep to explode. The idea is that Creep becomes less static–you’re constantly generating and consuming Creep and are more powerful when you can lay down roots for a while.
Creep Escapes
A 4-5 cost spell that transfers your general from one Creep square to another anywhere on the map and consumes both.
Altar of Creep
A structure card that generates 2 squares of Creep per turn nearby. If no non-Creep squares are nearby, it starts converting squares that are connected to the Creep around it. It should only be usable on squares that already contain Creep and should be relatively cheap with ~4 health.
Non-finisher Legendaries
Part of the game is having cards that end matches, though it’s generally more interesting if those cards give the opponent a small window to react. Obliterate is an exception but is very destructive, so gets away with it. Variax doesn’t do anything when he’s played and the summoned minions don’t do much on the next turn either. I want to try for a legendary that increases the threat of Creep by improving the threat of minions/spells that depend on it.
-An 8-mana spell (Fetid Bloom?) that causes each square of Creep to generate an additional square of Creep in every nearby square, but maybe cause it to disappear when stepped on. This would hype up the creep-dependent nature of my other suggestions and allow the neutered Obliterate to function similar to the current one but with more dependence on positioning and a 1 turn offset where the opponent could try to stomp some of the creep out.
-An 8 mana structure (Totem of Decay?) with Provoke that pulls all of the Creep all over the board and rearranges it in a spiral around itself. The more Creep, the larger the spiral gets. It’s too expensive to play with other cards, but could effectively be a 1-turn offset finisher if you’ve maintained enough Creep.