I just played a single master Tournament yesterday with Nicodem and went 2-1. I beat Perdita and Zoraida and lost to Collette.
Paralyze=Win.
I had A Line in the Sand and flipped all five counters on Turn Two, with a Nicodem crew.
I like Von Schill with Nicodem. He packs a ranged punch and adds a lot of mobility utility. The Dead Rider is also super-effective with Nicodem. I like to drag Nico up with the Dead Rider to get Nico that much closer to paralyze.
I typically only bring the vultures if I'm also bringing Killjoy or Bete.
Finally, I agree, it is super important to focus on your strategies. For Line in the Sand, I went mobile with Von Schill, Dead Rider, and Gaki. (Gaki using their close phase move to chase Von Schill).
For Deliver a Message, I picked up a Shikome. I also picked Frame for Murder and named the Shikome and he HAD to kill the Shikome with Perdita. So that Shikome bought me 6 points right there.
Finally, for Supply Wagon I took Belles and Killjoy. Unfortunately, the Mechanical Rider went crazy and slaughtered Killjoy in one activation, but the Belles were there to try to mess up Collette's positioning. They did work to some extent. It's also nice to summon a Flesh Construct right next to an unguarded wagon.
Anyway, definitely build for the strategy and use Nicodem's abilities intelligently. Sometimes summoning is the wrong move. Sometimes summoning a Punk Zombie in base-to-base with a Line in the Sand marker, then having that Zombie flip the marker is the right move...