SCN Challenge: Brock Purdy Cards Take Center Stage

SCN Challenge reaches the midpoint

The SCN Challenge has reached the halfway point of the regular season, and the standings are still being shaped by a few key card-market swings. The competition brings together 10 content creators from the SCN Media Network in a fantasy-style format built around sports cards, with each participant managing a roster and making waiver wire moves as values rise and fall.

At this stage, the top of the standings has started to separate from the rest of the field. Alex Llanso of Clever Cuban Cards continues to hold a commanding lead after a strong run that included a Tyler Shough sale and a reinvestment into a Josh Allen card. The bottom of the standings has also remained relatively stable, leaving the middle of the table as the area where the most movement could still happen.

For now, the race appears to be narrowing into distinct groups. Alex remains out front, while the rest of the podium picture is still taking shape behind him.

Week 10 standings begin to split the field

Heading into Week 10, the standings showed a clear top tier and a clear bottom tier. The narrator of the update remained in second place, while Jason Otero of The BallCard Show and PTN rounded out the podium positions. Those three have begun to pull away from the pack, creating some distance between themselves and the rest of the field.

At the same time, the lower part of the standings has also started to separate. That leaves fewer teams in the middle and increases the pressure on the competitors who are trying to climb back into contention. With the season now past the midpoint, the teams near the bottom will likely need to make meaningful moves if they want a realistic shot at reaching the podium.

One notable development is the slide by Trent, who had been part of the Hobby Handbook team’s strong run near the top before falling to seventh place after a rough week. The shift underscores how quickly the card market can change the shape of the competition.

Waiver wire activity picks up again

After four weeks without any moves, the waiver wire has suddenly become active again. Week 10 brought back-to-back busy stretches, with Trent and the narrator each making two moves and Doug Plagens also making a move as he looks to get back toward the top of the standings.

The most notable change for the narrator was the decision to move out of a 2020 Optic Joe Burrow Blue Hyper PSA 10 and into a 2022 Optic Brock Purdy Purple Shock PSA 10. The move was made with the idea that Purdy has become one of the hottest quarterbacks in the NFL, and the timing was meant to get ahead of the market before it fully caught up to his rising MVP odds.

Related coverage includes Brock Purdy Cards Gain Momentum as Midseason Fantasy Card League Trading Centers on Quarterbacks.

That decision came with an immediate complication. The card had recently seen sales of $194, $200, and $220, but a confirmed sale of $75 the day after the purchase dramatically affected the Card Ladder value. That kind of drop is a reminder of how volatile the football card market can be, even for cards that have been selling consistently at much higher levels.

The narrator also made a second move, swapping out a 2023 Prizm Jahmyr Gibbs Pandora /400 PSA 10 for a 2020 Mosaic Jordan Love Silver Autograph PSA 10. The move followed a strong sale on the Gibbs card and was framed as a chance to lock in a win while moving into another quarterback with rising market momentum.

Trent and Doug also make quarterback-focused moves

Trent’s moves followed a similar pattern. He moved out of a volatile Tyler Shough Prizm Autograph and into a Joe Burrow card, then shifted out of a running back, even one as strong as Bijan Robinson, and into a Brock Purdy card as well. The result was another sign that the competition is increasingly leaning toward quarterbacks as the safest and most attractive place to park value.

Doug Plagens also adjusted his roster by moving out of Sam Darnold after a bounce-back sale put him in the green. He then moved into a Jordan Love card, continuing the run of quarterback-centric transactions across the league.

The common thread across these moves is clear. Competitors are trying to consolidate around quarterbacks, especially as the market begins to reward strong play and rising expectations. In a format where card values matter as much as fantasy production, the balance between performance and sale price can change quickly.

Brock Purdy becomes the card market focus

Purdy has become one of the central names in the challenge, both because of his on-field profile and because of the way his cards are moving in the market. The narrator’s move into a 2022 Optic Brock Purdy Purple Shock PSA 10 reflects that broader trend, even if the short-term sale data has created some turbulence.

The Purdy card discussion also highlights the challenge of timing in the hobby. A card can look like a smart buy based on recent sales and player momentum, but a single outlier sale can change the valuation picture almost overnight. In this case, the $75 sale after the purchase stands out sharply against the recent $194 to $220 range and has created an uncomfortable gap between expectation and current market value.

That volatility is part of what makes the SCN Challenge compelling. The competitors are not only trying to identify the right players, but also the right versions of those players at the right time. A strong on-field performance can help, but the card market still has the final say on whether a move looks smart in the short term.

Why the five-quarterback strategy keeps growing

Another major development in the challenge has been the growing use of a five-quarterback strategy. Several competitors have moved toward that approach, and after banking wins in non-quarterbacks, even the narrator was pushed into adding a fifth quarterback.

That shift reflects the current state of the market. Quarterbacks remain the most reliable place to find liquidity and upside, especially when compared with other positions that can be harder to move or less consistent in value. Even so, there is still room for players like Jahmyr Gibbs to matter, especially if fantasy football playoff value becomes part of the equation. The challenge, however, is that the cardboard side of the strategy does not always line up neatly with the fantasy side.

The result is a competition where roster construction is becoming more specialized. Instead of spreading value evenly across positions, many of the competitors are concentrating on quarterbacks and hoping that the combination of player performance and market demand will create the best path forward.

What comes next in Week 10

Looking ahead, the narrator will need a strong Brock Purdy performance and a rebound in the Purple Shock market to make the move pay off. The recent sale at $75 has created a difficult short-term backdrop, especially for a card that had been trading much higher just days earlier.

The broader challenge now is whether the top three can continue to separate from the field or whether the rest of the league can make up ground with the right waiver wire decisions. Alex Llanso remains in control, but the competition is far from settled with several weeks still to go in the regular season.

There is also an added layer of intrigue around market behavior. The narrator noted that some competitors have already admitted to market shenanigans in an effort to manipulate sales, which raises the question of whether unusual pricing activity should always be taken at face value. In a format built around real sales data, even a single suspicious transaction can have an outsized impact on the standings.

With the midpoint now in the rearview mirror, the SCN Challenge has settled into a familiar pattern: a few strong leaders, a crowded chase pack, and a waiver wire that can change everything in a matter of days. Brock Purdy, Jordan Love, and Josh Allen are among the names driving the conversation, and the next round of sales will help determine whether those bets were made at the right time.