Blender is heavely shortcut based, that means each tool has its own shortcut. You could work an entire model, if you want, without touching the UI. When I switched, after I learnt the shortcuts, my modelling speed increased very much. Instead of clicking Edit Mesh-Extrude then Moove tool then drag the handle, I simply tap E key, G to move where I want or X Y or Z to move along desired axis. In Maya there is a bigger mouse travel and clicking.
If I want to scale, just press S, and then if I want X,Y,Z to scale along desired axis. If I press Shift+X,Y or Z, the scale takes place, but with selected axis excluded.
When I want to make a loop straight, in Maya I need to move individual vertices. In Blender, I just tap S, XYZ then 0 and got it right instantly.
In other words, the heavily key binding based modelling speeds the workflow a lot. Things that I couldn't do in Maya are done in Blender very fast.
Sometimes, in Maya I had issues with normals. In Blender, Ctrl-N magic key solves them all.
Blender also uses modifiers, similar to the ones in 3Ds . also speeds up some things.
When gaining competence, if you're a stdent, you could use educational version of Maya to learn animation and rigging. When you rig or animate for your game, swap to Maya LT and bring your Blender chars in there.