To get the power he needs in a confrontation, Elric needs to call on his Dark God patron, who is slow to arrive, and doesn't always come. Strange can call upon top tier magic more quickly, so he should win.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
I don't know if I would say Strange was able to "hold his own" against the Gauntlet. He resisted one command from a user who was overwhielmed by the gauntlets power and not directly targeting Strange. Not to mention the spell he used to negate the gauntlet's power he and Adam Warlock seemed to have prepared in advance, when Nebula targeted him directly with the gauntlet he had no answer and was left powerless. Strange is good, but I wouldn't put him on par with the IG.
Unless you're refering to an event I missed in which case I apologise.