Cadillacs and hooker pumps.
tl;dr version:
I dunno, she seems pretty intuitive to me. Like you said she’s got strengths everywhere.
She’s pretty good at rushdown so you can probably play her rather orthodox autopilot if you wanted to. Her tick throw is good, her staggers/frametraps are easy and solid, her crossup is really good and it isn’t difficult to get into position for it, her overhead kind of sucks but you don’t really need it. Off a knockdown she has Cadillac super into instant high/low with while-rising j.A1 or c.A1. Which is nice because you can pester with c.A1 for a bit and then do the j.A1 basically randomly and still get a chunk of damage plus juggle if it hits. If timed right they can’t really avoid it, since guardreversal is risky for them and pushblock doesn’t get them out of it if you anticipate it, you just need to make sure you meaty them so they can’t reversal-roll on wakeup, then plant the mixup.
But the reason I like her so much is her midrange game. So I play more of a reaction/anticipation footsies game with her, roughly around sweep distance. Cadillac is an awesome anticipation anti-air, it’s not totally safe because you’re vulnerable while it’s out but I still love that move to death anyway. When unactivated she is able to move pretty soon after the H.Priestess disappears, so you can even just throw out the caddy and crouch or dash under jumpins or jump back if the opponent comes at you from the ground. It’s really all about dashing-c.A1 and sweeps and just random pokes and basic footsies. IMO, being patient with Midler is easy and rewarding, provided you’re able to put yourself within the midrange where opponents with superior max-range games can’t abuse distance.
A lot of her while-activated moves are great pokes for pestering, but I play with her mostly unactivated for a number of reasons. First of all, qcf+D activation is really important. Combos off anything and it’s a really reliable/good anti-air, fast and huge vertical hitbox plus can’t be air blocked. And more importantly you can whiff cancel her normals into the qcf+D activation, so it buffs her poke game a lot when you’re unactivated. Like, if you stick out a sweep and miss you can still protect yourself with qcf+D or caddy or harpoon. Second, because most of her main BnBs become activated ones from being unactivated anyway. While-dashing c.A1 while unactivated is just too good, and really easy to hitconfirm into either her slide into qcf+D or her activated chain. Third, her specials really blow when activated, since Midler is stuck during the whole move, which isn’t that big of a deal for her overhead move but it is a big deal for caddy and to a lesser extent the harpoon. And lastly because getting standbroke on the ground sucks against quite a lot of the cast so I go out of my way to keep the Priestess unactivated outside of combos.
Cadillac super is really just good. No one should be jumping at Midler when she’s stocked unless they have a way to avoid Caddy super, which I don’t think most characters can do. And Caddy super is also really good on anticipation in general since it beats so much shit and she can just run away if it whiffs or they roll. It’s sometimes possible to tech-trap with it too, which is good to remember during those situational times when you use her qcf+D BnB and the opponent happens to be in a bad spot for teching.
Her tandem isn’t really strong, but you can just treat it like a combo extender basically. I don’t really bother with her tandem that much, but I probably would if I felt it was worth the damage.
Mouth super kind of sucks in the sense that it’s hard to actually land it and if you fail it then you’re taking a combo’s worth of damage, but if you do manage to land it the damage is insane, especially with the activated A3 ender. If you find a way to use it then it’s basically half life, ggpo round is yours.
Harpoon super damage blows outside the corner but it’s a pretty fast super. Really though, the damage sucks unless you’re close enough to the corner to add an ender onto it.
On a side note, her activated A2 can be self-chained for 3 hits which builds meter for each hit, so shorthop backwards j.A3 land [A2]x3. I can’t tell if that’s the best way for her to build up stock but it seems to be.
Anyway, a couple sidenotes; can’t roll with stand activated and can’t throw when stand is busy.
In general I just think she’s a fun character.