Doctor Strange vs Scarlet Witch: who wins in the MCU?

Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch are two of the most powerful Avengers, and two of the most powerful characters in the MCU. If they went head to head, I think Doctor Strange comes out on top. Wanda Maximoff has more raw power, but I think Strange's skill and versatility are enough to overcome it.

When many people think of MCU powerhouses, they think of Thor, Captain Marvel, Hulk, maybe Iron Man, and definitely Thanos. I think these two get unsung, which is a shame. Both of them went up against Thanos, so the question of who wins between them is worth breaking down.

Doctor Strange's mystic arts arsenal in the MCU

Stephen Strange was originally a brilliant neurosurgeon. He suffered a nearly fatal car accident that left his hands crippled. After conventional medicine failed him, he set out on a search that led him to the Ancient One and introduced him to the world of magic. He became her student, mastered the mystic arts, and now serves as one of Earth's protectors against forces that threaten the universe.

In the MCU, his magic is less about casting spells or invoking mystical entities and more about harnessing mystical energy from other dimensions. He can create eldritch weapons such as whips and swords. He can form mystical shields, blocking strikes from Kaecilius and even attacks from Dormammu and Thanos himself.

With his sling ring, Strange can create portals to anywhere in the multiverse instantly. He sent Thor and Loki to Odin's location and created a series of portals for Spider-Man to leap through. He can transmute objects, like turning a black hole from Thanos into a swarm of butterflies. He can project himself into the astral plane and send himself and others into the Mirror Dimension, a parallel plane of existence used to contain threats. He has fired energy blasts and created dozens of clones of himself to fight opponents.

The Cloak of Levitation and the Eye of Agamotto

Strange also has magical artifacts to aid him against otherworldly threats. The Cloak of Levitation lets him fly, but it also protects him from all sorts of attacks. It has prevented him from being stabbed or slashed multiple times, moved him out of the way of objects, and protected him when his back was turned and when he was unconscious. The cloak can even attack others on its own. It went after one of Kaecilius's men, went after Drax, and wrapped itself around Thanos's hand.

The Eye of Agamotto is Strange's most powerful weapon. With it, he can view alternate futures and possible outcomes, freeze time altogether, or create time loops. That is one corner: the master of the mystic arts and Sorcerer Supreme.

Wanda Maximoff's origin and powers as Scarlet Witch

In the other corner is Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch. She is a native of Sokovia who, with her twin brother Pietro, gained superpowers after volunteering for experiments that exposed them to the power of Loki's scepter, the Mind Stone. The twins joined Ultron to take revenge on Tony Stark for creating the weapons that killed their parents, using Wanda's telekinesis and mental manipulation to create discord among the Avengers. When they discovered Ultron's true intentions, they switched sides, fought against him in the battle of Sokovia, and Wanda went on to become a key member of the team.

Her telekinesis is enormous. She has thrown dozens of cars at Iron Man, broken through Ultron's vibranium chest, pushed back a Leviathan, thrown back an oncoming wave of giant Threshers, blocked a downward strike from Thanos, restrained him and lifted him into the air. It is not only raw power, either. She has great technical control over her telekinesis, using it to fly and even to mend Vision's vibranium body.

She also has telepathy, reading the thoughts of both Iron Man and Vision, and she can mentally manipulate people. She commanded a large number of Sokovians to flee the city and took down every Avenger except Hawkeye and Iron Man by messing with their heads. Finally, she can conjure energy in physical form and manipulate it however she wants. She has used it to dismantle Ultron bots, kill Outriders in Thanos's army, and destroy the Mind Stone while holding back Thanos, who had five Infinity Stones at the time.

Why the Time Stone is left out of this fight

I'm not giving Doctor Strange the Time Stone here, because that seems unfair. The Time Stone is arguably the most powerful of all the Infinity Stones. Strange knows how to use it to its utmost potential and is willing to use it at the moment he needs to, and I think it stacks the deck too much in his favor.

That doesn't make this a lopsided fight in Wanda's favor either. As we saw in his fight against Thanos, and in his showings in Avengers: Endgame, Strange can hold his own no matter what.

Scarlet Witch has more raw power than Doctor Strange

On raw, unadulterated power, I think it has to be Scarlet Witch. The things she has done with her telekinesis are remarkable. There are two people in the MCU who have ripped apart vibranium: Thanos and Scarlet Witch. She has casually thrown rubble and large pieces of debris back at Thanos. She blocked a downward strike from Thanos and his sword, a strike with all of his weight and power behind it. That same kind of strike broke apart Captain America's shield, yet Wanda held it back with one hand.

She held and pushed back a Leviathan, which Hulk had to exert a considerable amount of effort to do. She stopped an oncoming wave of Threshers, held them in the air and sent them crashing to the ground. She lifted Thanos into the air and squeezed down on him, forcing him to order an airstrike at the expense of his own troops just to escape her.

Strange has telekinesis feats of his own. He held back a massive vortex of water throughout the entire Endgame battle. I've heard that called just as impressive as Scarlet Witch's feats, but "it's really not, it just isn't." Wanda has consistently shown an extremely high level of power with her telekinesis, and Strange holding back some water doesn't change that.

I've also heard people argue that Strange restraining a four stone Thanos with hundreds of eldritch whips is more impressive than Scarlet Witch restraining him. I don't think that's true. Thanos never looked worried while Strange restrained him. Scarlet Witch had him looking terrified, the same look he had when Thor came at him with Stormbreaker or when Iron Man stole the Infinity Stones. She also restrained Thanos with five stones while destroying the last remaining stone in Vision's forehead. In my mind, that's more impressive.

Wanda's magic is chaotic while Strange's is precise

Here's the thing: Scarlet Witch's powers aren't cosmic or psionic. She is manipulating magic, just like Doctor Strange. Wanda's is a much more chaotic form of magic, because she never received formal training and had to figure out her abilities on her own. That makes her magic much less precise and focused than someone like Strange's.

You can see this on screen. Wanda's powers take the shape of amorphous energy, while Strange, as a master of the mystic arts, puts forth energy in intricate shapes and details. That leads to the crux of the whole argument: raw power versus skill and control. Wanda might have more power, and technically she might have a greater connection to magic as a whole, but Strange has much more skill and control and all the versatility that goes with it.

Doctor Strange's versatility gives him counters Wanda lacks

Strange can form eldritch weapons ranging from swords to staffs to whips. He can create shields capable of blocking attacks from both Dormammu and Thanos. He always has his sling ring, with which he has opened portals wherever he wants, even across the universe all at the same time. In a fight, he has used portals to redirect attacks or remove someone from the battlefield entirely, sending them flying off to who knows where.

He has transmuted attacks from the Space Stone into harmless butterflies. He has used the Mirror Dimension to block blasts from the Power Stone or to trap people inside it. He has thrown out dozens of clones that act simultaneously, fired arcs of red hot energy, and opened dimensional rifts in the earth to drag opponents down before sealing them off forever. Wanda has no counter for this, mainly being dragged into other dimensions with no way to escape.

On the other hand, Strange can counter Wanda's attacks. Her telekinesis and energy blasts are similar to magic, similar to an Infinity Stone, or probably a little of both. Strange has countered all of that before and made it look easy, and I see no reason he can't do the same here.

Scarlet Witch is also never going to get close enough to mentally manipulate Strange, considering she had to get right up on the Avengers to do it, and I'm sure Strange has some level of resistance on top of that. If Wanda does manage to restrain him, the Cloak of Levitation can step in, as it has helped him in situations exactly like that. She isn't fast enough to out react him, since they have roughly equivalent speed. Nor can she outlast him, because they are both glass cannons.

Wanda's emotions fueled her peak against Thanos

Much of Scarlet Witch's strength is tied to her emotions, like when she destroyed all the Ultron bots after realizing her brother had been killed. She has gained a better handle over her powers since then. But when she went up against Thanos, she was furious, understandably, and she was going all out, giving him everything she had. It was the closest we've seen an MCU hero come to bloodlust, except for Thor.

That is clearly the absolute height of her powers, but she won't be able to tap into that same level here. She doesn't have the same history or the same emotions toward Doctor Strange that she has toward Thanos.

Verdict: Doctor Strange beats Scarlet Witch

At the end of the day, Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch are manipulating the same type of energy, and both are using magic in this fight, which they are, because Kevin Feige said so. That means Scarlet Witch's greatest asset is her raw power, and that isn't going to be enough. Strange has the knowledge, versatility, skill and experience needed to counter it. He has fought both Dormammu and Thanos, so Scarlet Witch's power level isn't going to throw him off.

Scarlet Witch might get more training and more skill as she and Strange start teaming up and crossing over in movies and shows. As things stood, though, Strange's skill and versatility were enough to overcome Wanda's raw power. Doctor Strange wins.