The second of white's "tools" is civil laws. These are rules set up to make sure that the individual does not upset the greater good of the group. White believes that the good of society is more important than the rights of a single individual. The laws white creates help ensure that the group is protected. White’s fervor in this area leads white to use politics and the judicial system.
This desire to protect and create rules defines much of white’s mechanics. White’s defensive nature can be seen throughout the color: life gain, healing, damage prevention, attacker removal, protection, defensive enchantments, enchantment removal, etc. In the past year, white R&D has taken a look at expanding white’s pie by finding more mechanics that tie into white’s core flavor. The richest area proved to be the “making rules” part of the color. As such, we’ve moved both taxing (Propaganda-type spells where you stop you’re opponent from doing something unless he pays a price) and rule-setting enchantments (global enchantments that shift the rules and restrict how players can play, such as Rising Waters) into white. This shift began subtlety in Onslaught and will be ramping up in upcoming sets.
Emphasis mine.
Basically. White is saying "You want to do that? Fine. But first you have to fill out form 126B and pay a tax of 2 mana." I
know this is a blue mechanic. I also believe, in this one instance, that "unless its controller pays
" makes it
also a white mechanic. Nowhere in the color pie does it say blue is the only color that gets counterspells. The color pie only says blue gets counterspells because blue understands how magic works better than the other colors. This counterspell doesn't work like that. This card isn't white saying, I've messed with the magic of your spell so it doesn't work. This is white saying, you're not allowed to do that unless you pay a tariff. Which is a very white thing to say.
