This week I’ve been experimenting with new teams because my main team (Soothsayer, Valkyrie, 2 Mabs) has not been working properly (Mab’s winter veil trait has not been working on iOS). I feel like I came up with a decent team that consists of Gorgotha, Marilith, Crimson Bat, and Hellcat. But, I’ve struggled against some of the Maw/Mercy teams. They are very prevalent in the meta right now. It seems like more than half of the time Maw gets his devour spell charged with this setup. It’s almost a roll of the dice if the Maw team can be beaten. I know the devs have buffed the impervious trait (also not working properly on iOS), but not many of the impervious troops are very good besides Behemoth. I feel that Maw is a pretty broken troop at the moment. I’ve made a team in which I switched Hellcat out with Spirit Fox to counter Mercy. So, what do you guys like to use to counter the Maw/Mercy combo? Does the team have to include a Spirit Fox? Thanks for any insight given. It is appreciated.
This is something that has been talked about at length, but I will try to chime in.
Devour can be countered by impervious currently in the current version of the game on pc but not on mobile. This is a big counter to maw. Either leading with behemoth or carnex would work to counter maw. Indigestible is also a great trait to counter maw as well so using rock troll as a lead can give you a tank that can handle maw.and stun him making him unable to use traits.
If you wish to counter mercy then you can go for either spirit fox (empower vs empower) or go for spider queen (web is really good against certain teams.) There is another empowered troop on the way that might mana drain so who knows.
Rock troll***, Rakshanin***, spirit fox***, sylvasi***. Green/yellow banner. This team can not be devoured and can do huge damage to maw or any other troops.with huge health. It also has the ability to counter mercy as well with spirit fox but with a lineup like this it is not necessary. Hopefully the team is self explanatory for countering maw/mercy.
Thanks. I’ll try it out.
Edit: That does look like it would be a great team to counter Maw. I’ll have to work on their traits.
I have 2 teams I use against Maw/Mercy teams now, one that is 100% win and the other is 95+% win, but the second team is faster. So first one is just Carnex/Behemoth/Behemoth/Dwarven Slayer. I use this one against all of them except ones with IK, cause he can ressurect. Just kill maw with skulls and behemoth, and save dwarven slayer for their skull generator (once he’s weak enough to 1 shot from getting hit by behemoth). They all have impervious, so letting maw get a bunch of mana means nothing. B.Drag can be dangerous against this group, but he usually goes down after 1 or 2 behemoth casts + dwarven slayer. Carnex hits hard and takes a bit less damage, plus is a great mana generator for the 2 behemoths, who in turn make mana for him and dwarven slayer.
Second team is more like giving them a taste of their own medicine. Rock Troll / Maw / B.Drag (or IK) / Mercy. Basically I don’t care if Maw takes skulls really, and there’s no chance of a mercy first turning me because I can do the first turn mercy. The only reason it really loses is because they get a cascade, and maw eats my maw, and then their skull generator works their way through my team. Mercy keeps Rock Troll alive, and rock troll will give mana to both maw and B.Drag. B.Drag kills enemies armor and Rock troll still hits for 22 (I think) per match so he still wipes out 1 troop per cast. Rock Troll also has stone skin, so he’s quite resilient. He also has the stun ability, which makes him ideal for taking out IK (stopping his ressurection). 4 B.Drag casts and it’s over.
First deck runs Abyssal Banner (+2purple/+1red/-1yellow) and second one runs brown/yellow.
I’ve asked the same question, and landed on the best counter being my own Maw/Mercy team. It’s boring, but it’s what works right now for attacking, on iOS. The odds of the defending Maw/Mercy team getting an “oops, I win” board vs you going first and playing better are incredibly slim.
I’ve had the AI Maw devour an IK that just respawned, instead of my Maw that was about to fire. Thanks for the extra stats!
Basically this. Either that or, at least, something with Mercy. The primary objective is to disrupt their Mercy before it can instantly ruin your day by charging Maw. Using your own Mercy is the easiest way, although Soothsayer can do a decent job as well (and obviously so can Spirit Fox, I just dislike that troop because it is literally an anti-Mercy troop).
The secondary objective is to kill Maw ASAP before it charges some other way and makes the game take four times as long and/or be lost. And of course, the easiest way to do that is with your own Maw, particularly since you’ve got Mercy there already.
I avoid these teams since any effective counter has to act within a turn or two (at best) or you lose a troop to being devoured. I will fight a relatively weak Maw without a traited Mercy occasionally. I did one with my Listintira account and got a troop devoured. I still won but it was a nasty fight that took about 15 minutes.
The idea of the traited Spirit Fox to neutralized Mercy is intriguing.
IK???
Infernal king
When Mab’s third trait is working (as noted above, it’s not on iOS right now), Maw, Valkryie, Mab, Mercy works really well. Without it, Maw, IK, Sheggra, Mercy is my alternative. I have seen teams with Alchemist in place of Sheggra, but I prefer the damage dealer.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I’m 3 arcane stones shy of unlocking Mercy’s third trait. I had plenty of glory when she was released. I didn’t think she looked that good. I’m terrible at judging what makes a good card. I’m getting better at it though. I’m also beginning to actually make some decent teams on my own. I struggle with the strategy of this game sometimes. But, it doesn’t keep me from playing.
Personally, I think Spirit fox misses the mark. Does it do what it is marked to do turn 1, sure. It can drain mercy or whatever so you can slow the roll… however, top tier players have a lot of bonus to surge and double yellow banner means maw is going to charge up unless you can keep your spirit fox(es?) charged more often than they can build up, and then what kind of a damage dealing team do you really have? Most maw teams have multiple threats… maw, infernal king, sheggra come to mind… or bone dragon… a single spirit fox isn’t going to lock down. For me, it just requires too much for too little in the end. So, I would look at countering Maw a different way… something like this:
Behemoth
Behemoth
Plague
Carnex
→ It’s a 100% impervious team, Maw cannot eat anything if full traited. Behemoths tank and get big, charging team, carnex charges team… plague ruins the enemy’s day.
If you want to change that up a bit and risk first slot getting eaten:
Gorgotha
Behemoth
Plague
Carnex
It becomes a cyclic team as Gorgotha is a more effective charger but concept is the same… you are just blowing everything up, reducing the enemy to useless stats while behemoth does board damage.
The main problem with the current meta is that the best counter for Maw is Maw. Just devour him before he devours you.
And that is why 70-80% of high level PVP features at least one Maw in every defense team, which is why PVP is quite boring at the moment… 
Point is well made.
For the most point, I even agree with you.
It seemed like Queen Mab teams were indeed a good counter for Maw teams… yet, they took some big steps to nerf Mab from what I feel is too many angles… and now, Maw is running wild. It’s not because Maw is too powerful, but because there are not enough equally powerful combos to be used against it.
I really don’t like ‘defense only’ measures either… as that just leads to a terribly weak offense in general. I prefer cards and combos that deal with Maw and the alike in an equally powerful fashion.
There are a number of really strong Maw contendor teams, but they require sooo many arcane trait stones, that the teams are near unattainable for many.
I have a buddy who runs Gorgotha, War, Famine, War - all are fully traited mythics… and he has around half of the kingdoms at level 5… so he’s getting a ton of boost out of the stats. He really almost doesn’t lose. Maw or whatever is on the other team, its just super rare that his team (on offense) gets beat. We gamed from 12-8 in our saturday internet cafe setup at his place. I sat side by side with him and litterally, all day he ate mab, maw, whatever for lunch. If memory serves, he litterally lost one game all day playing PVP always taking the team on the right.
Sister seems to hold his own each week, and his def hasn’t changed… granted, talking about a lv 1K player with - everything… but a key component to his Def is an item that sadly is scarce… Yasmine’s Chalice. I hate special event only items in games. It means you have to be lucky enough to ever see it and had no way to earn it… ulgh, hate that design… but anyway, like fire and ice and the like, it is a powerful weapon that makes heros worth while in some builds Sister runs it like this:
Gorgotha (charger / defender)
Yasmine’s Chalice on an Archer build for 50% mana start and armor boosts
Rowanne for the magic + armor damage
Carnex (charger / defender)
If you look at the leaders in the top 20 spots, there are a number of high end defenses and it’s true that Maw is quite common on defense from what I can see… however, I think it’s probably for a number of reasons… of course, hunger - picking one foe out and chomping them is huge… not to mention chances to keep devouring with combos and well thought out teams… but not indefensible or unbeatable by any means! I quite like Maw the way he is. That said, there are plenty of teams that can consistently beat it - if you can find all cards and trait them up… that’s part of the rub too. OFFENSIVELY, his counters are commonly end game.
Maw has been relatively easy to come by and get and get traited, and the larger fact that most do not have fully traited Impervious team which is brand new. Stun is just out and that too will counter Maw… list keeps going.
A full ‘decent’ impervious team that can also win consistently is a fully traited behemoth, behemoth, plague, carnex… or switch the first behemoth with a gorgotha full trait.
Though Queen Mab teams were one of the can consistently counter Maw teams that were really quite thought provoking and fun to play, they nerfed her recently. Frankly, it what seems like a too far and knee jerk fashion when you consider all of the other changes made at the same time… and since! Her extra turn moved from 10 to 13, in hindsight, just doesn’t even seem necessary. It seems like a step backwards and also - only makes the Great Maw shine even more now in comparison, as Maw over Mab is a no brainer (now…), it wasn’t before.
I hope they reverse that Mab change in fact. I’ve said it before, Impervious is good and working, but as mab teams on defense were also common and worked well enough with the AI… and we need more sound strong OFFENSES against Maw, not just a bunch of defensive and counter measures.
Here’s hoping @Sirrian is listening. There’s a number of threads like this, and I’ve tagged him in the various responses.
Rage quitting
Thanks for your input. You’ve made some good points. Unfortunately for me, I play mainly on iOS, where the impervious trait isn’t working and neither is Mab’s third trait. I’ve gone with the old mentality of “if you can’t beat em, join em”. I’m now mainly running Maw, Infernal King, Mercy, Alchemist. It works pretty well, but I still lose to some Maw teams.
The iOS update went out today so if you download it, Impervious should be working correctly.
Awesome! Thank you for the heads up.