Azul takes ten minutes to teach and produces tighter tactical decisions than most heavy Euros. Every tile you take denies an opponent; every tile left on the centre constrains your next turn.
The negative scoring track is the genius of the design. Forcing a player to take a row of unwanted tiles is genuinely satisfying — and the threat of it shapes every draft. The whole game is a beautiful little pressure cooker.
Two-player Azul plays measurably differently from four-player. With two, you control supply directly; at four, denial happens by accident as much as by design.