Dear Bottle Gnomes, 

<3

After this past week writing about my classic 2 drops for each section, I was looking at all the love letters I wrote thus far for 3 mana creatures. And I wrote a whole bunch of good ones, each and every of them:

• Vampire Nighthawk (Such a great weekend together)
• Man-o’war (Otherwise my friend Danny won’t play my Cubes)
• Keen Buccaneer (random draft chaff that fits perfect in my Hanjo Masters #1)
• Yavimaya Dryad (love the sneaky unblockable)
• Fire Imp (a 3 mana Flametongue Kavu?!)
• Imperial Recruiter (a one card combo)
• Flickerwisp (love exiling my opponents their bouncelands)
• Kabuto Moth (my favourite combat trick on a creature)
• Aven Mimeomancer (I can enjoy you forever in my paper draft video)
• Obelisk Spider (you mended my broken heart)
• Sedraxis Specter (helped me win my 3rd Cube Invitational)

But to my surprise there wasn’t a colorless option in there yet. So I set out to find my classic colorless 3 mana creature. The thing is, there aren’t many in my Cubes. Sure, I love myself a Pilgrim’s Eye, but it doesn’t cut it for my classic option. Metalworker is probably the biggest classic looking at his legacy. But I personally don’t have much history with Metalworker, even though he is in my 2009 Power Cube. I ended up choosing you, Bottle Gnomes. 

I used to play you in the sideboard of my blue black Mannequin deck back in 2007. I was always amazed at how efficient you were at stopping aggro decks in that environment, especially with the recursion of Makeshift Mannequin. Heck, even Jon Finkel played 4 copies of you back in 1998 in his Sligh sideboard for the mirror. I always have been so impressed how such a quirky little creature is so potent as a sideboard card. 

Even though you are not in one of my 19 Cubes yet, I’m happy that that is going to change because now you are going to be in the Love Letter Cube I’m going to make. Because you deserve to be in one of my Cubes. 

With love, 

Hanjo