White Hat strategy, with careful utilisation of Black Hat 'volume' toolz, is the only way to go for serious SEO on big phrases. You want quality, longevity, no tricks, but mass volume... And BH toolz are required for that kind of volume.
Just keep all direct/1st tier linking very clean & content-based (articles/2.0's etc); and even 2nd tier if you're paranoid.
Multi-tiered strategies are how you protect yourself.
The bottom line is, you're never going to rank for any real keywords without some link volume and velocity. Use BH toolz cleverly; think outside the box, and keep your strategies white/grey...
That, or stick to micro/long-tail niches where you don't need volume.