NSOM defined

At the moment there are two ways to oust methuselah from game of VtES. Reduce the player’s pool to zero, by whatever means, or foil his/her withdrawal attempt with Brinksmanship in play. Brinksmanship shenanigans are rarely seen and earn their very own entry anyway. This leaves us with reducing players pool to zero which is usually achieved either by:

1.     Damaging political votes or

2.     Bleed actions

These are the two normal ways to oust people, everything else is considered non-standard ousting mechanisms, NSOM for short. I also count as NSOM bleeding and politics when the method used bypasses the normal defenses used against these, or when damage from single action is enough to oust someone sitting on decent amount of pool, say 10+. Examples of these are Death Star builds utilizing Revolutionary Council or power bleed utilizing Will-o'-the-Wisp or Blind Spot to deny both blocking and bleed redirection.

To count as NSOM it’s not enough to slap couple of Anarch Revolts to your deck, the non-standard part should actually form a significant part of your ousting capacity. That said, most NSOM still work best as secondary or complementary ousting mechanisms where they give you that little bit of extra oomph over your regular bleeding and politics or paired with other NSOM

Why bother with NSOM when bleeding and politics work so well, have proven to be effective?
This is mostly question of taste and variety, it’s nice to try something different for change. However NSOM does have its advantages. First is the element of surprise, as they are rarely seen people don’t know how play against them. Second, many of them are quite hard if not impossible to defend against, you can’t redirect damage from Enticement. Third is the giggles factor, the look on your opponents face when they realize you’re playing an unblockable choir deck or a Betrayer deck with all their favorite vampires in your crypt that is bigger than their library.

If NSOM are so unstoppable, how come you are not devastating the tournament scene left and right?
The answer is manifold. First of all even when they are complementary to other strategies the NSOM require you to build your deck around them. Many of them are quite card intensive leaving precious little space for decent master/defense/combat modules.

Others are tied to exotic disciplines or clans that come with their own set of problem or restrictions, Daughters of Cacophony and their melpominee discipline have nice power cards and lots of stealth options but suffer from very limited crypt and having virtually no defense capabilities. Of course the challenge of trying to build around these limitations is one of the things that attracts me to NSOM.  
Also many of NSOM strategies are meta-dependent, they require your opponents to cooperate with you by playing / not playing certain kinds of decks. If your main ousting method is Anarch Revolt, you can bet everybody except your cross table ally is playing Anarchs. Same with Elder Kindred network, you could blast them for huge amount of pool if only they would vote, but no they are all playing dominate bleed. This again is something any NSOM build worth their blood should take into account and try to turn into an advantage. They’re all playing Anarchs? That is fine I’m also playing Camarilla segregation. They’re not voting? Hey nice, next to Elder Kindred Networks my deck is also packed with KRCs, it’s bit boring but I just vote my way to victory.

The last two and probably the most important reasons are player skill and multiplayer aspect of our beloved game. NSOM attract table hate. Many NSOM like Smiling Jack deal collateral damage alienating your allies, or if you are not careful oust people at wrong order. And even when your strategy only hurts your prey like 419 Operations, you are most likely still dealing with at least two predators at minimum. If your prey has no defense against your clever NSOM, their only chance of survival is to remove you from the game and other players are quite likely to comply as it’s easier to oust you than to actually work out how to defend against you. This I find my greatest challenge, as table talk has never been my strongest point.

Below you can find some NSOM strategies I have played, seen other play or at least tried to build over the years. These are just ones that I could quickly recall and the list will probably expand if I have time to actually write this blog with any regularity.
     

Key card(s)	Description	Requires	Rating/ my experiences
419 Operation	Stackable action card that stays on table causing more damage over turns.	Osebo	SOLID. I have built so many variations of these and actually achieved some moderate success, earning me couple of final spots. Also there are some examples at TWDA helmed by other more skilled players.
Aching Beauty	Blocking minion with Aching Beauty cost pool, combine with bleed or some other pool reducing action to force agonizing choice on your opponent. Stackable.	Toreador	N/A Never build myself, but have faced these many times and they can be nasty.
Anarch Revolt, Antediluvian Awakening & Smiling Jack	Master cards hurting everyone on table	N/A	SOLID Stable of many wall decks, require some skill to not oust wrong people (like yourself).
Betrayer	If someone has brought out vampire you have on your uncontrolled region, put Betrayer in play to cause pool damage over many turns	N/A	IFFY Interesting, but very meta dependent. Best time to play is right after release of a new set.
Choir + Harmony	Stack many choirs to table and burn then all with Harmony for massive damage	Daughters of Cacophony and Melpominee discipline	SOLID, But difficult to build and play though there are quite a few TWDA entries featuring this combo.
Constant Revolution	Put this action card in play to cause every other methuselah to lose pool or cards each turn. Effect increases over time.	Anarch Baron	SOLID If you’re playing an Anarch wall there is no reason not to include this card, hell this is the reason to play Anarch wall.
Dragonbound	Event, causes pool damage for minions in torpor	N/A	GOOD / IFFY Bit of a mixed bag. If you’re playing a combat deck it’s nice to include but the minus hand size can be nasty.
Elder Kindred Network	Anti-vote tech	Ventrue	IFFY My all-time favorite, but quite meta dependent. I have built tens of decks featuring this baby. Max damage 17, preys ousted 2, predators back ousted 7.
Enticement / Inside Dirt	Burn edge to cause pool damage as action	Serpentis discipline / !Nosferatu	GOOD Requires to build your deck around, does not really work as splash-on.
Fame, Leadership Vacuum, Tension in the Ranks	Master cards that cause pool damage for torpored minions	N/A	GOOD Stables of combat decks
Hell For Leather / Predators Transformation	Combat cards that cause pool damage when you torpor / burn a minion in combat	Anarch + Obteneration  /  Abombwe	IFFY On paper I love these, but over the years I have only seen two decks that really used these effectively.
Judgment: Camarilla Segregation	Stackable action card, stays in play and hurt every player with non-camarilla vampire	Prince / Justicar	IFFY Nice splash-on if you’re playing with titled Camarilla anyway. Too meta dependent to work easily on its own.
Scorn of Adonis	Action modifier that makes voting against your political actions costs pool. Combine with damaging political votes to force lose-lose situation on your enemies.	Toreador	N/A Not played yet, but weenie vote with these looks interesting on paper.