Can I use Maven with Sencha Cmd instead of Ant, or should it use Ant?

You can create your Sencha ExtJS project using Maven using Sencha CMD. This is pretty easy. Check out my Sencha ExtJS 5 + Sencha Cmd 5 + Maven project example:

https://github.com/dobromyslov/sencha-extjs-maven

Sencha ExtJS 5.0 BETA . Sencha CMD docs .

webapp exec-maven-plugin ExtJS Sencha CMD :

<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.2.1</version>
<executions>
    <execution>
        <id>sencha-compile</id>
        <phase>compile</phase>
        <goals>
            <goal>exec</goal>
        </goals>
        <configuration>
            <!-- Set path to your Sencha Cmd executable-->
            <executable>../Sencha/Cmd/5.0.0.116/sencha</executable>
            <arguments>
                <argument>-sdk</argument>
                <argument>${basedir}/src/main/webapp</argument>
                <argument>app</argument>
                <argument>build</argument>
                <argument>--clean</argument>
                <argument>--environment</argument>
                <argument>${sencha.env}</argument>
                <argument>--destination</argument>
                <argument>${basedir}/src/main/webapp/build</argument>
            </arguments>
        </configuration>
    </execution>
</executions>

WAR, maven-war-plugin , :

<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.4</version>
<configuration>
    <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
    <webResources>
        <resource>
            <directory>src/main/webapp/build/${sencha.env}/MyApp</directory>
            <excludes>
                <exclude>**/Readme.md</exclude>
            </excludes>
        </resource>
    </webResources>
    <packagingExcludes>.sencha/**,app/**,build/**,ext/**,overrides/**,packages/**,sass/**,bootstrap.css,bootstrap.js,bootstrap.json,build.xml,Readme.md</packagingExcludes>
</configuration>