Title. I really need one. Its the opening I hate facing the most. I appreciate if you can suggest me a line and its plans. Thanks.
yeah play the semi slav
personally I find the bogo indian and ...dxc4 lines the most annoying (because they are theoretical and i don't like theory, this may not be true for everyone).
However I would definitely not recommend the semi slav (normal slav setup is better imo) because white can get an advantage with ...Bd6 as follows:
Which is why black usually plays his bishop to e7 (so that when white recaptures on e4, it doesn't come with tempo)
I'm not saying the semi slav isn't a viable option, but white just plays natural moves and black needs to know some stuff to stay in the game, which isn't really ideal.
And even though you have a lot of time otb, if you don't know your stuff you'll burn through a lot of time. I had the second position against a 1700 in the k12 nationals in april - instead of 13...Qc8 he played ...Qc7, and quickly fell into a worse position that lasted the entire game. By move 13, he was also down about 40 minutes on time (time control 120 d/5), which is a lot to be down on when it's move 13.
The Catalan is good and there really isn't anyway to avoid it without completely changing how you play. The KID, Dutch, Grunfeld, Benoni all dodge it (White can still fianchetto but it's different from the Catalan and not mainline except against the Dutch). If you still want the QGD or Nimzo/QID setups you pretty much just need to look at the various ways of meeting the Catalan, whether the 6...dxc4 line which is popular at the top level or a line where you insert an early check on b4.
The only problem with the 4...dxc4/6...dxc4 variations is they are wildly popular so your opponents will have a lot of good ideas there. Check Tiviakov's games for 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Nf3 c6, he covers this in his No Fear of 1.d4 (volume 1) ChessBase DVD. Also check Spassky's games for a closed system with ...Bf8-e7 instead of ...Bf8-b4-e7. One example is vs Petrosian, game 4 1966 https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1106696 . Anyway FizzyBand is correct, you need to look at the different options and pick one that suits you. Catalan is about the middlegame and is very deceptive. Sometimes the opening looks fine for black but suddenly it's not. First step is to learn a line that keeps white's advantage to a minimum. Second step is to learn how to play the arising middlegame. Third step is to come up with your own variation to best reach the middlegame you want. (For example, it can be hard to understand why ...Bf8-b4-e7 is played until you have gained some experience.)