"catcher" pokemon

[bluaki]

I guess this is what I'll call it - Pokemon with movesets specifically designed to make it easy to catch wild Pokemon, particularly legendaries and fleeing Pokemon.

To put it short, there are three Pokemon that I'd recommend trying to make into a catcher depending on the situation:
Paras/Parasect - Easy to obtain in HG/SS's Ilex Forest and can make foes sleep with high 100% accuracy (Spore lv16), but has slow speed. Teach it False Swipe with TM54 from Goldenrod Department Store.
Shroomish/Breloom - Harder to obtain and set up than Parasect, but it has higher speed and attack and also can learn Spore and Stun Spore. False Swipe must be bred from a Paras parent and Spore can be learned only if Shroomish reaches lv45 without evolving.
Gallade - Like Breloom, it's a hassle to set up but has better stats than Parasect. Unlike Breloom, it has a lower-accuracy sleep move but can trap fleeing Pokemon. Teach it False Swipe with TM54, don't let it evolve until it learns Hypnosis at lv43 Ralts or lv50 Kirlia, and breed it to learn Mean Look by using a Gastly, Misdreavus, or Duskull parent.

[spoiler=Extended details]The core move to this idea is False Swipe, which leaves the opponent with exactly 1HP left and cannot make them faint. Some other moves that are nice for this purpose include Mean Look/Block, Thunder Wave/Stun Spore, and Hypnosis/Spore/Grasswhistle/Sing. For catching a higher-level or ghost-type wild Pokemon, a normal damaging move would also help because False Swipe is Normal and has a lower base power. Note that False Swipe is an easily-obtainable TM, at least in HG/SS, at Goldenrod Department Store. However, Thunder Wave's TM is a Battle Frontier prize only.

For catching wilds, sleep gives a great bonus to the catch rate and paralysis gives a not-much-worse bonus and has the advantage of not needing to be reused so often. Mean Look or Block prevent a fleeing Pokemon from doing just that.

Considering a desire to have both False Swipe and Mean Look/Block on the same Pokemon, the three options are:
Armaldo - Requires HGSS move tutor to learn Block. Cannot cause any nondamaging status afflictions.
Gallade - Requires breeding to learn Mean Look. It can learn Hypnosis before evolving (lv43 Ralts or lv50 Kirlia) or Thunder Wave from a TM. Even without the TM, it can learn False Swipe at lv45.
Absol - Requires breeding to learn Mean Look. It can learn Thunder Wave via TM

If you don't need Mean Look or Block, some options of Pokemon that can learn False Swipe and a status affliction move are:
Paras - Learns Spore (lv17 100% sleep) and Stun Spore (lv6 75% para) via level-up, very easy to obtain in a place like Ilex Forest. Note that both Paras and Parasect have very low speed (25&30), so you'll often move after even lower-level wilds, but the 100% spore accuracy is better than Gallade with Hypnosis.
Shroomish - Learns Spore (100% sleep, lv45 before evolving only) and Stun Spore (lv9 75% para) via level-up, but requires breeding to learn False Swipe. It has a decent base speed of 70 as a Breloom, so it's probably better than Parasect to use if you have the patience for lv45 Spore and breeding False Swipe. Even its attack stat is higher than Parasect's (130 against 95)
Kricketune - Can learn Sing (lv18 55% sleep) via level-up
Sceptile- Requires breeding to learn Grasswhistle (55% sleep)

If you don't even care about a status affliction, all the other Pokemon that can learn False Swipe are:
Level-up: Farfetch'd (lv45), Cubone (lv27), Scyther (lv13), Nincada (lv25), Zangoose (lv44)
TM54: Beedrill, Krabby/Kingler, Pinsir, Mew, Gligar/Gliscor, Sneasel/Weavile, Corphish/Crawdaunt, Garchomp, Skorupi/Drapion
Breeding: Spearow, Heracross, Seedot, Mawile[/spoiler]

[JrDude]

Though often not smart, you can just false swipe it to (near) death, then change to a status afflicting Poké if that is easier, or vice versa, if you're gonna put them to sleep though, yawn is better, because then it doesn't waste a turn of sleepyness, but it is still not very smart because when they wake up, you'd have to switch back (which is actually fine if you already got it to it's 1hp)

[bluaki]

Though often not smart, you can just false swipe it to (near) death, then change to a status afflicting Poké if that is easier, or vice versa, if you're gonna put them to sleep though, yawn is better, because then it doesn't waste a turn of sleepyness, but it is still not very smart because when they wake up, you'd have to switch back (which is actually fine if you already got it to it's 1hp)

No Pokemon can learn both False Swipe and Yawn. Switching out for status afflictions can work, but not on fleeing wilds and also it requires another party slot. Paralysis can even make that work the other way because it doesn't cure after a couple turns like sleep does, though at the expense of both slightly lower catch rate and being hit more often by the foe.

[So_So_Man]

Personally, I use a thunderwaving Ampharos

[JrDude]

No Pokemon can learn both False Swipe and Yawn. Switching out for status afflictions can work, but not on fleeing wilds and also it requires another party slot. Paralysis can even make that work the other way because it doesn't cure after a couple turns like sleep does, though at the expense of both slightly lower catch rate and being hit more often by the foe.

I know it would work with paralysis too, I didn't mention it because it worked with vice versa alone, while sleep needed a little explaining of why it's not too wise. And I know none can learn both Yawn and False Swipe, that was for the thing I was explaining, if you're gonna switch, use yawn, then switch to a false swiper.

[bluaki]

I haven't dealt with breeding moves much, but will a Paras father knowing Spore be able to pass it on to a Shroomish child? If so, that's much easier/faster than getting a Shroomish to lv45 and I'll modify the post.

[Zero]

Forsight/Odor Sleuth
Mean Look
Yawn/Spore/Hypnosis
False Swipe

These are the moves to use, the first two are in case the pokemon you're trying to catch is a ghost. Not sure why you didn't mention them.

Also, Shroomish does not have Spore listed as an Egg move, so no, it can't learn Spore through breeding to my knowledge. Just give your Parasect a Quick Claw if you're THAT concerned about speed. Or just max out its defenses, because Parasect's defenses aren't terrible and if you max them out he'll probably be able to take a hit or two especially if you're running a Rain Dance team and want Parasect to tank it up thanks to Dry Skin.

[bluaki]

Forsight/Odor Sleuth

Also, Shroomish does not have Spore listed as an Egg move, so no, it can't learn Spore through breeding to my knowledge.

I forgot about Foresight. The only two Pokemon that can both learn False Swipe and Foresight are Sneasel/Weavile and Farfetch'd, both of which require breeding to get Foresight. Odor Sleuth has none. At least there's no fleeing ghost-type legendary, because neither of them can learn Mean Look and they also cannot cause sleep or paralysis without switching out.

Spore is a move that Shroomish learns by level-up, but only if it reaches lv45 without evolving into Breloom. From what I've seen, level-up moves seem to pass to eggs in some way.

Just give your Parasect a Quick Claw if you're THAT concerned about speed. Or just max out its defenses, because Parasect's defenses aren't terrible and if you max them out he'll probably be able to take a hit or two especially if you're running a Rain Dance team and want Parasect to tank it up thanks to Dry Skin.

Running a rain dance team? This isn't competitive battling or anything, this is made for convenience to be able to easily and quickly catch wild Pokemon. Quick Claw has a very low success rate.

Though speed isn't so useful on capturing non-fleeing wilds, it's still a great bonus to have especially if you want to keep a foe from using moves like Roar, Recover, Confuse Ray, etc. by putting it to sleep quickly. More useful than simply tanking, especially if you trained the catcher to a highish level.

[So_So_Man]

instead of false swipe, you could use fear

[Zero]

I forgot about Foresight. The only two Pokemon that can both learn False Swipe and Foresight are Sneasel/Weavile and Farfetch'd, both of which require breeding to get Foresight. Odor Sleuth has none. At least there's no fleeing ghost-type legendary, because neither of them can learn Mean Look and they also cannot cause sleep or paralysis without switching out.

Spore is a move that Shroomish learns by level-up, but only if it reaches lv45 without evolving into Breloom. From what I've seen, level-up moves seem to pass to eggs in some way.Running a rain dance team? This isn't competitive battling or anything, this is made for convenience to be able to easily and quickly catch wild Pokemon. Quick Claw has a very low success rate.

Though speed isn't so useful on capturing non-fleeing wilds, it's still a great bonus to have especially if you want to keep a foe from using moves like Roar, Recover, Confuse Ray, etc. by putting it to sleep quickly. More useful than simply tanking, especially if you trained the catcher to a highish level.

You do realize that you don't need all of these moves on ONE pokemon right? Lower your standards a bit and craft a team designed to catch pokemon because as you've said, not a single pokemon can learn all of these moves at once.

Egg moves are the moves that are passed down from parent to child or that are gained only through breeding(like Volt Tackle). I suppose you could try going to the move deleter and deleting all of Parasect's moves before breeding, that may work/raise the odds. Again, I'm not sure. It's worth a shot.

Quick Claw's success rate may be low, but Parasect's speed is pretty terribad. A better method is to Baton Pass an Agility boost or two to Parasect. A speedy Parasect pretty much guarantees that the wild poke is going to stay asleep and hell you might not even need team support. If the legend is a fleeing poke then just mean look it with a max speed EVd poke that knows it. Baton Pass Agility to Parasect to put it to sleep, false swipe it then catch it. Rinse and repeat if you have to.

Who the intercourse  said this was competitive battling? I suppose I was a little vague. Capturing legendaries can take forever and Parasect won't last long without team support and EV's towards its defenses/speed. The support isn't necessary of course, but it helps. Primarily, it was another option for you to use in terms of Parasect's pretty massive utility.

[bluaki]

Egg moves are the moves that are passed down from parent to child or that are gained only through breeding(like Volt Tackle). I suppose you could try going to the move deleter and deleting all of Parasect's moves before breeding, that may work/raise the odds. Again, I'm not sure. It's worth a shot.

Even if that doesn't work, Shroomish will still have Spore, although it takes longer to get.

If the legend is a fleeing poke then just mean look it with a max speed EVd poke that knows it. Baton Pass Agility to Parasect to put it to sleep, false swipe it then catch it.

Does Mean Look still apply if the user uses Baton Pass?

You do realize that you don't need all of these moves on ONE pokemon right? Lower your standards a bit and craft a team designed to catch pokemon because as you've said, not a single pokemon can learn all of these moves at once.

Eh, I prefer not to waste both battle turns and party slots with switching out, especially considering that a couple party slots are already likely taken up with HM slaves. Even if I use nothing but Gallade (which is lv100), like I currently do, the Hypnosis accuracy is better than wasting a bunch of turns on using buffs and switching out Pokemon or anything like that.

Though I haven't and can't use this Gallade to catch Giratina well, that is only one legendary exception out of all Pokemon games, and I could simply train one Weavile or something like that to reduce its HP to 1.

[JrDude]

I actually use all my Pokémon and give them the HMs, I never did, and probably never will, use HM slaves.

[Ninjamonkeee]

In G/S/C my "dog catcher" was level 40 Rapidash while using Repel...Fire Spin traps, Rapidash always goes first due to how effing fast it is, and any other moves just bring down the dogs...