What's your catch technique?

Serious catching:

At least one open slot on my team, so that whatever I catch is added to the team and I can check its nature and stats right on the spot.

A Synchronize lead.

A catcher - something bulky with a sleep or paralysis move and some combination of weak and/or limited moves. False Swipe is best and Sonic Boom, Seismic Toss, Dragon Rage and those sorts of moves with set damage are pretty good.

Save before I go into the grass/water/sand, or before I face a legendary.

As soon as they become available, I start using Quick Balls, and almost always lead with one. If it works, then I check the pokemon's nature and stats and if they're good, I keep it and if they're not, I reset and try again.

If the Quick Ball doesn't work, then the catcher goes to work. I tend to prefer paralysis over sleep, just because it doesn't wear off, but either one will work. I chip the pokemon down however far seems necessary (all the way to 1 if I've got False Swipe, but just down as far as I think will work if not, since I really hate fainting stuff that I'm trying to catch), then use mostly Ultra Balls, Dusk Balls or Dive Balls, though I do use other balls, particularly if it's a really distinctive pokemon that I think will look especially good with a particular ball. I like to match the ball or the shader to the pokemon - Gardevoir and Reuniclus in a Nest Ball, Cinccino in a Premier Ball, Audino in a Heal Ball, Tentacool in a Great Ball, Pawniard in a Timer Ball, Zubat and pretty much any Ghost in a Dusk Ball - that sort of thing.

At this point, with legendaries, I can't be arsed to fight them and chip them down and throw a bajillion Ultra Balls at them. I only catch them if it's necessary to advance the story, and in that case, I just throw one Quick Ball and if it doesn't work, I reset and do it again. I just keep doing that until I catch it. I never use legendaries anyway, so it really doesn't matter.
 
1. Status
2. Red/False Swipe
3. More status if necessary
4. Toss ball according to catch rate and cost/rarity: dusk -> ultra -> great -> poke
5. Capture!

I don't stock up quick balls :P
 
1. Status
2. Red/False Swipe
3. More status if necessary
4. Toss ball according to catch rate and cost/rarity: dusk -> ultra -> great -> poke
5. Capture!

I don't stock up quick balls :P
 
I usually try to lower their HP as much as possible and/or use sleep/paralyze inducing moves then I use my Pokéballs.
 
Poke ball is my good ol' standby.
And buy them in tens so you get the bonus ball.
Dusk balls work pretty well too.
But the rest from greats to timers I rarely purchased because they don't seem to give much of an advantage.
 
I've held the B button from the Gameboy Color to the DSiXL. It's become a thing ingrained in me. I know that it doesn't increase catch-rate but it's just something that makes me feel more secure when I throw that ball.

My strategy for catching is either A. Early to Mid game; Halve HP (till Yellow) then throw.
Late Game 3/4th their HP (till Red) then throw. or B. Quick Balls for days.
 
Paralyze/Sleep (lately fond of Paralyze), bombard wild Pokémon with Dusk Balls (or another appropriate one), push B at every movement of the ball.
 
When I was a child, I had this habit of pressing B and up when I threw a ball in order to catch a Pokemon. I was about 8 years old, and I caught a Zapdos with one UltraBall using this trick, so I was determined that it worked. I even talked to people in Pokemon forums about it, even though I knew that most people did not believe it (which eventually got me into researching Random Number Generation to see if it was possible... I was a weird kid)

I still have the habit of pressing B and Up. Other people look at me weird when I do it, though. I also do it when I land a super effective/critical hit on someone and am hoping that it will KO them, while watching their HP bar go down (especially with high level Pokemon where you are watching the HP bar go down for 3 seconds or so). I'm really not sure where that habit came from.

As far as actual catching technique goes, I tend to paralyze Pokemon because it's long-term and also reduces the target Pokemon's speed. It also raises the catch rate the most out of the other status effects without possibly KOing the Pokemon. Moves that cause paralysis without doing damage are also quite common. Depending on the Pokemon, I might not use damaging moves at all, for example if the Pokemon knows a self-harming move like double-edge (KYOGRE, I hated that).
 
I just lower their HP as much as possible, then throw a ton of ultra balls. It's how I've caught most of my wild/legendary pokemon.

Funny story though, when I caught Ho-oh, I didn't realize there was only one master ball in the game so i used it without thinking o_o'
 
When I'm up against legendaries, I used to cycle between Poke Balls, Great Balls and Ultra Balls in a desperate attempt to catch it after weakening it (and statusing it if possible), but now I find that ineffective, so now I spam Dusk Balls (at night or in a cave), Timer Balls (after 10+ turns), or Ultra Balls (if none of the above).
 
I always get the Pokémon's health down to as low as I think I can get it without killing it. Then, I use Thunder Wave or a sleep move, and if I can, False Swipe. I then throw Pokéballs in trial and error until I catch it. Usually start off with a Pokéball, and if I don't have a lot of Ultra Balls, I'll use whatever ball is appropriate to the situation and location.
 
First off I have to make sure I have enough 'balls' with me (Pokeballs, Great Balls, Ultra Balls, any other given or found along the way).

I save before legendaries too.

I try to lower HP as low as possible (except for my only shiny - instant master ball)

If its a Pokemon I really want, I'll have my Watchog (or equivalent in other earlier generation games) use Mean Look (another similar move to prevent Pokemon from escaping in earlier generations).

I'll use which ever ball seems most likely to catch the Pokemon if I have one (dusk ball, net ball, etc..) other wise I'll start with Pokeballs for common Pokemon or lower level Pokemon. Great Balls for mid level Pokemon (around 30 to 50), and Ultra Balls for legendary and higher level Pokemon.... I'll use the others too if I run out of a certain ball.

Guess I'm not different from many other trainers.
 
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Before playing Black, I generally throw any PokeBall (mostly Ultra Balls), and mash the D-Pad in random directions with A, B, X, and Y.
 
I just lower their HP as much as possible, toss a ball and hope it's a critical capture. I also like using just plain Poke Balls, I'm not sure why lol. I even caught my Latias in White 2 in a Poke Ball and I'm rather proud of that o: I caught Reshiram in a Premier Ball, too.

As for technique, if it's a legendary I usually get all fancy with the status inducers and False Swipe.​
 
I usually tend to weaken their HP to a decent level, and inflict status conditions like sleep or paralysis if necessary. Also, I usually tend to try different kinds of Poke Balls to see what works, but I also like to take the advantages of balls that have improved catch rates under certain conditions, like Dusk Balls if used at night/in caves or Net Balls on Bug and Water-types, and Timer Balls on those hard-to-catch Legendaries that take up loads of turns to catch.

Sometimes I may also carry a False Swipe user if needed.
 
I used to have a hunter Parasect, it uses Spore + False Swipe combo to help me with my capture.

But since Parasect has terrible Speed and typing, there are some occassion that I'll use Roserade, Bellossom, Vileplume and/or Venusaur's Sleep Powder instead.
 
Not much.
Lower HP, and throw.
Throw until it's no use.
Then... *dawning face*

Timer Ball.
Bouche.
 
I always lower its HP and give it a status condition.
Once I throw a Poke Ball, I press the A Button non-stop, and it turned out good.
I use Ultra Ball for evolved Pokemon and Poke Ball for a weak Pokemon such as Oddish.
 
A quick ball from the start. I caught then success, if not then I'll lower the enemy's HP then catch it with an ultra ball, great ball, and poke ball. Well it depends if it's a legendary or not, usually I use a great ball or poke ball on a normal Pokemon but I use Ultra ball to a Legendary one. If through lowering HP still hesitate to be caught then I'll use status attack like Thunder wave and sleep powder.
 
I'm also one of the people that has gotten the habit of pressing B when catching Pokemon. Before you start ranting about how pressing one button will not alter my chances of catching 100 or so pixels, I just consider it as a good luck charm. Although I did used to think that it increased the chance until I came across an article on it. Generally though, my strategy is to get their HP as low as humanly possible, inflict status and then start chucking Ultra Balls or whatever seems the most fitting. :D
 
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