Technically over, but I'll contribute something anyway as a Palutena main.
This matchup is a bit tricky for us in neutral, simply because Marth, by definition, has better range than we do. His moves are all adept at spacing and he can keep us at bay just by swingin' his sword around, so we have to get creative to approach. You'll seldom see a Palutena rushing in: it's just not safe for us, as we have very little moves that will come out quickly enough or whose reward outweighs its risk. Dash attack is useful when thrown out sparingly, as it does good knockback and has invincibility frames, but the endlag and small range mean we'll only use it when we're confident of it hitting. There's no way we'll challenge your territory with our own moves, so you've got the upper hand when it comes to approaching and setting the stage in neutral.
Our best move is by far our jab, as it opens up a myriad of follow-up opportunities. Its range is pretty poor, though, so we have to get right up to use it effectively. This is where Marth's spacing comes in handy, as there's very little room to maneuver in and jab when there's two feet of steel being waved about in our faces. Palutena will seldom approach normally, we'll usually wait for the opponent to come to us or wait for an opening to strike - so focus on keeping us at arm's length and don't let us get in.
If you get jabbed, you're screwed. It's pretty much a free grab for us, and from there, we can d-throw into f-air (quick execution and can lead into another throw combo), b-air (riskier, but a decent kill move with invincibility frames) or u-air (juggles, kills at high percents). At high percents, we can also follow up a u-smash, which is almost certainly a definite KO. So yeah, I can't stress how imperative it is that you not get jabbed. Most of Palutena's kill combos stem from that jab.
Palutena's smashes are incredibly slow, and this is where you've got the upper hand as well. All of them have immense endlag and are extremely punishable, not to mention they're super-easy to read - just keep an eye out for the wings or the staff and you'll know exactly what's coming. None of them are even remotely safe on shield and you can easily spotdodge or shield-grab if you're in range. A good Palutena will prefer to wait until the opponent is open to strike with their smashes, as they're only really useful for punishment. Covering distance by rolling, for example, is extremely punishable by d-smash, and if you happen to try veering into our space in mid-air, we'll catch you with our u-smash. U-smash is most powerful at the bottom of the beam, and it does immense damage and knockback if it hits from there - so if you want to be anywhere, it's at the top of the beam. Still not a good idea to let Palutena get any opportunities to strike or read any openings, just as a general rule of thumb.
Marth is incredibly fast on his feet, and this is tricky for us. We rely on solid reads and punishing predictable tactics for maximum efficacy, so being able to move freely in and out of our range is a huge advantage for you. We're not totally helpless, though: jab will stop any momentum you have, and d-tilt is also a strong move with decent range and knockback. Autoreticle can pressure you into moving and can stop your approaches, forcing you to try and find another way to approach. We can pretty much stop your entire ground approach with Autoreticle if you let us, and if you're trying to go into the air, we'll challenge you with our aerials or, if we're very lucky indeed, u-smash. So even though Marth has naturally better range and is a good spacer, we'll try to even things out by pressuring you to move and forcing you to play into our hand. Once we've got a read on your tactics and can trace your movements, we've got you in a good position, and we'll try to force you into the position we want you to be in. Be wary of a Palutena who's keeping their cool and zoning you: chances are they know exactly what they're doing and are trying to force you to make a rash move and punish you for it.
Airgame is interesting. Marth, again, has superior range and can dominate if he applies pressure well: Palutena's aerials, with the exception of f-air, are pretty slow and all have pathetic range. Your f-air can really keep us at bay and force us off-stage, and we can't really challenge it at all, and your u-air is a decent juggle in its own right. Our b-air just about beats yours, though, if only because of its invincibility frames and immense knockback. It can be used to get a surprise hit in, particularly if we're being chased down, and can KO at high percents, so be cautious of it. Our n-air is only useful if we can get you in the full cycle, otherwise it's easy to swoop out of and it only does noteworthy knockback on the last hit. We
can spike with d-air, but it only has one frame of damage and it notoriously difficult to sweetspot with. We'll almost never use it unless we're extremely confident or trying to style - and anyway, u-air and b-air are much better kill moves with much less risk. We'll seldom challenge you in the air - unless we can get a u-air or b-air in, in which case we'll fight back hard and fast - and will most often try to escape, such as with Warp to ground or a surprise n-air to get you away from us. Palutena has no real safe options coming down except for Warping to safety, so if you get the chance to jugg;le us, work away - when we're falling, all we want to do is get out of there and get back to
terra firma.
You've got some interesting specials, too. Shield Breaker can space well and can be the bane of any defensive Palutena's existence, and Dancing Blade is fast enough to catch us off-guard and deal some decent damage - if you can space the up-combo especially, it's a powerful move that can put some serious hurt on us. Dolphin Slash's near-instant startup can be useful to get a clean hit in and finish off a combo, but the freefall it puts you in is a pretty big risk to take and doesn't really mitigate not using a safer move. Your Counter is superior to ours in pretty much every way, especially in terms of endlag and knockback: Palutena's Counter is only really useful for negating damage, and we'll seldom if ever use to get a KO. The lack of projectiles means our Reflect is pretty much useless, except for
maybe gimping Dolphin Slash's recovery, but there are so many better options that we'll seldom bother with it.
Your edgeguarding game also beats ours hands down. You can chase off-stage with f-air and n-air and dissuade us from ledgesnapping with d-tilt; and since Palutena will almost invariably try to ledgesnap with Warp to minimise landing risk, this can be a useful technique indeed. By comparison, we can try for a n-air or f-air and hope that Warp will bring us safely back to the ledge, but the majority of our kills are best served on-stage with a smash, u-air, b-air or d-tilt. Our grab beats yours, though, as most of our best kill options are lead into from it. Since you've got the advantage with range and speed anyway, it's hardly worth trying for a grab, unless Palutena is being particularly shield-happy or trying to play a defensive game.
All in all, I'm putting this quite definitively in Marth's favour. Your spacing makes it difficult for us to approach conventionally and you've got some pretty solid kill options in your smashes, which not only out-range ours (with the exception of u-smash), but are also much faster and can tipper for that extra wham factor. We rely heavily on our jab -> grab combos to setup and KO, and since it's difficult to get into your space in the first place, that makes things much more difficult for us. We have to play defensively and try to force you to play into our hand, and we'll do our best to read you and formulate a battle plan to make sure we hit you when the opportunity arises without risking leaving ourselves open. We can definitely kill pretty comfortably at high percents, but actually getting that damage in can be tricky, and you're good at forcing us to play a defensive game and pressure us into moving as you want us to. Your combination of range, speed, strength and versatility makes this a pretty tough matchup overall - not unbeatable, certainly, but definitely one to watch out for.
60 : 40