The traditional reward was surely End Of Turn: Fact Or Fiction, You Lose?
I have to confess I'm a bit confused by the conversation here. When playing the MODO cube, UW control is one of my goto decks. The important part of the deck is the answer suite, particularly counters / wraths / exile of permanents, and plenty of draw, preferably instant speed, with an arbitrary win condition that can be anything from a late-game Entreat the Angels for a massive amount to a planeswalker ultimate to Mulldrifter / Venser / Glen Elendra beatdown - the latter carried out by almost entirely incidental creatures stapled to effects a control deck wants. Obviously it can't be draw-go all game, but the aim's usually to wrath with a spare answer and a couple of counterspells to move the game into territory ruled by pure card advantage.
The existence of planeswalkers makes it preferable to run some creatures, because wraths don't deal with them, but the creatures control plays are draw spells and counterspells stapled to a body. Gurmag Angler and Delver are aggro-control creatures, efficient cheap beaters. Sea Gate Oracle and Mulldrifter are purer control creatures, there more to chump than close the game out, but capable of the latter once things are in hand. Vedalken Shackles and Control Magic give you as pure a control creature as exists: one that started on the other side of the table.
Control loves wraths because its creatures don't matter. Control likes big draw spells because it plans to use them against a mostly clear board, but it prefers instant speed ones. Control will play pretty much every counterspell it can. Control doesn't really worry about other decks picking up its win conditions, because once the game's locked up, any creature at all can finish it - the inevitability is baked into the answer suite and the draw spells. Control is resigned to having to fight over Oblivion Ring and friends, and artifact ramp, and planeswalkers.
Control decks of this nature have a harder time against non-creature threats than creature threats: planeswalkers, enchantments like Assemble the Legion or Sulfuric Vortex, artifacts like Shrine of Burning Rage. These make Oblivion Ring, Banishing Light, Detention Sphere, Council's Judgement, Vindicate, Utter End and Unexpectedly Absent fantastic picks, and I want to snag at least a couple when building an Esper or UW control deck.
