Tzu San Niang

For the life of me, I can't think of a single time that I'd want to use this effect. It's so slow and expensive.

I've got her (?) in a deck right now that uses a bunch of characters with "into play" abilities, as is common for the Hastur faction. Think of her as an alternative to Victoria's Protege that can also help kill people and return opposing characters to their player's hand. 

It's also an interesting way to play "chicken," especially if your deck has some skill modification in it. If you use her on offense, the defender can go in thinking that they'll keep you from succeeding, but then when you boost your skill or lower theirs, they lose those characters. Alternatively, they hang back, suspicious that you could stump them that way, and you get multiple tokens for being unopposed.

 

Finally, note that if you play Tzu San Niang on defense, you can't "succeed," and therefore the forced response is not triggered. "Success" at a story is only the result of the active player prevailing in a skill struggle. (Cf. Jacob Finnegan and Melisande LeBeau.)

You rarely want to use Finnegan on defense for that very reason. You'll lose him afterward every time. LeBeau is more flexible.

I guess Niang could work with Dreams in Limbo.

Yes, Niang is really good if you want to use her like a super Doorway, bouncing a lot of your own guys at once (maybe even before you set off your own Dimensional Rift). If you want to bounce your opponent's guys, that's harder. Maybe use some green, which has a lot of ways to force your opponent to commit to stories. That would be one way to get multiple uses out of the same Mariner. He bounces before he can die.

I guess it can work. Just seems like a lot of trouble to go through.