Minecraft wiki entry for Survival_in_an_infinite_desert, associated text: Creepers cannot only help you mine stone or cobblestone; they can also (in Superflat, for example) help you mine down to those useful layers first. If you are good at persuading creepers to explode, without harming you too badly, you can use a series of creeper explosions to dig down. This could save you a lot of time and effort. The other really good thing about creeper explosions is that they cause some of the affected blocks to drop as items. This probably the only way to achieve those drops without some kind of pick.