Hello. I am articanus, a melee marth player from GA. Sometimes people know me and sometimes people don't, but regardless I thought I would put that out here.
I would like to start off by saying that DDD makes me the saltiest person when it comes to this game. I swear he has a 5 frame grab and grab range that makes Marth's ***** wet from envy.
Anyway, more on the actual match-up. Before I start going into details I believe the match-up is completely even. 50-50, 5-5, 1-1. However you want to put it. The only reason Marth keeps up with DDD whatsoever is because of his naturally stupid character design, so at least I have that to work with. However, I feel like a more optimized DDD might even have an advantage in the match-up.
Just because I glanced at it, I would like to mention DDDs weakness to anyone with a good DD game. Being a Marth main, I know how to dash dance. Aside from him I use Fox and Falcon; I know how to flick the controller back and forth and I can do it very well. However, I honestly don't see why DDing is a problem to DDD. He has a permanent way to deal with it with his side-b, and it's not like it's so punishable that you can jump over it and hit him(without being in range to just be CCed grabbed) or even react to it and avoid it together. And no, "just hitting it" doesn't work that well either since Marth does have lag, contrary to popular belief. If DDD gets any chance to create space between Marth and himself, some little ****ing waddle dee is going to be in between them in 0.5 seconds. Hell, a character that just DDs and punishes unsafe stuff actually creates the distance so you can get one out. I think DDing is one of the worst things to do against a DDD on even ground with you, making Final Destination my least favorite stage to fight against a DDD. Finally you have a f-tilt; just throw it out if they feel like DDing a lot, I promise you decent results.
On a platform stage maybe this would get better, but imo it doesn't. DDD is a stupid combination of Marth and Ganon when it comes to that, having aerials that come with surprising speed, great power, and finally abusive range. The range I would argue is enough to take advantage of even a Marth, as long as you avoid being directly below him. Yes DDD's dair cannot beat Marth's uair, however you have stupidly fast falling speed and multiple jumps. You can outplay him and if he dedicates himself to a uair you have a safe landing zone. So imo on platform stages DDD can take more advantage, and he doesn't fair badly against marths usually stupid juggle game.
Maybe on the subject of combos, Marth wins. But when did comboing make you a good character? Sure the best characters usually do combo, but what makes DDD so terrifying in this match-up is his untouchable atmosphere around him. I have to really grow a pair and go for something to be able to start momentum before this fatass ****ing penguin, and I never feel like he has to do the same because he can force you onto him between waddles and everything bdhSABDKdsanbfkjASDKDKJFDSK yes I raged while typing.
Just shield grab marth when he aerials your shield. Just do it. It works. Usually marth can do the inner-tipper fair and be relatively safe against shield with a dash afterwards, but against this ******* if you don't do anything outside of the most most perfect outer tipper fair you get grabbed. Always. And DDD throws you offstage and attempts to freely gimp you, or just up and attempts to hit you... well, off stage.
Speaking of off stage, DDD wins there too. DDD is a stupid combination of Jiggs and Samus when it comes to recovering; a Samus that recovers high continuously takes FOREVER to kill. Even if it's easy to knock off stage, it's a continuously effort. And unlike Samus, he can cancel his momentum on reaction to go back to the edge, or just go forward. And there's always the threat of it just hitting you and killing you. Jiggs because double jumps plus aerials; going out to edgeguard jiggs is harsh because if she manages to hit you, she can kill you. DDD does that, with aerials comparable to marth and ganon. Not nice. DDD can also run off the stage to edgeguard marth and if marth trades, then he dies.
tl; dr, DDD is the best character in project M and is a gay ******. Why doesn't everyone use him? idk