COATL

The moment you realize you can't just grab any body segment because the colors have to match the prophecy cards, that's when it clicks. Building three complete feathered snakes piece by piece feels genuinely tense when the tail you need is already gone. Played it four times the first weekend.

The puzzle of linking head, body, and tail pieces to finish all three Cóatls kept our whole table quiet for a solid hour, which never happens. Took one playthrough to get the prophecy scoring, but by the second game we were all scheming.

The head-body-tail tile placement makes the puzzle feel smart without being frustrating, and turns move fast once everyone knows the prophecy goals. Only gripe is the rulebook, which took us two read-throughs to sort out scoring. Still a solid filler that's staying in the rotation.