Against a grindy control deck with heavy removal and counterspells, Mesmeric Fiend becomes excellent, stripping a key Counterspell, Snuff Out, or Lorien Revealed before they can use it. Faerie Macabre gives us a flying body and a free graveyard-hate option: discarding it can exile up to two cards from graveyards, such as a Plunder the Trollshaws before they flash it back or the fuel for an Extract a Confession with evidence. Gatecreeper Vine and Quirion Ranger are purely defensive/mana-fixing pieces that do little when the opponent isn't attacking with creatures; trimming them for proactive disruption is worth it since this matchup comes down to resolving our combo pieces through their permission suite.