Ash was facing a normal Altaria not mega and he was dominating the battle against Misty even before z move.
Again, that Altaria trainer was nothing but just a strange opening where he was somehow compelled to use Ash-Greninja right away. He is seldom seen using the ultimate weapon. And the Misty battle was still serious even if he was "dominating" it. He wasn't about to finish things with just a Thunderbolt against a ME.
Based on the pics that we have I am predicting that this battle will be somewhat similar to their last battle back in DP where I expect Volkner’s first Pokémon will be Electivire just like he started with it in DP and Luxray will be the final battle only difference is that he is using Rotom instead of Jolteon. I believe Pikachu will take on both Electivire and Luxray like he did when he last battled Volkner, so Pikachu was able to beat Electivire thanks to his ability, but was knocked out against Luxray. So I expect it to be somewhat similar but this time Pikachu struggles with Electivire as usual.
Mega evolution or not Ash and Pikachu shown that they can win without z move but Ash still go for it, just like that Ash probably going to use z move against Volkner despite pikachu don't need it unless writers again nerf pikachu alot.
Volkner maybe close to E4 but he isn't using his Raichu who was rival to flint Infernape while Pikachu defeat a champion ace level opponent.
What a silly assumption XD
Given what I said, these two claims do not support each other but rather go against each other.
Volkner is just a gym leader, Ash already defeated a champion
ash is probably motivated to use the Z-movs again on his trip to alola from chapter 76,and who knows maybe in master class we could see his old pokémon in battle
to be totally honest I help ash that iris trusted too much and that ash knows how to plan very well in dangerous situations
Where was this sense 75 and a half episodes ago.
I mean we all know that his "sense" is always determined by whether the writers allow him to actually have half a brain or not. So lets not act like it's a surprise that it took this long for him to start wearing his z-ring around lmao. But ultimately, he's in the hyper class, its about time he starts doing whatever he can to win, something he should have been doing from the beginning.
