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[Jack Rudd]

It's Theory's avatar!

Is this the most overpriced card in Dominion?
When would you get this in preference to Gold?
What, other than Tunnel, does it combo with?

[AdrianHealey]

And how would you change it to be worthwhile?

[AdrianHealey]

I guess I *might* buy it when:

(1) There is a strong (copper) trasher, making it more possible I draw gold or better (maybe silver).
(2) I have plenty of actions
(3) I have +buy without virtual coin

am I missing something?

[LastFootnote]

And how would you change it to be worthwhile?

This ain't no Variants forum! Take it outside!

[Awaclus]

I guess I *might* buy it when:

(1) There is a strong (copper) trasher, making it more possible I draw gold or better (maybe silver).
(2) I have plenty of actions
(3) I have +buy without virtual coin

am I missing something?

The only reason I have ever bought Adventurer and not regretted it was when:

4) There is a strong terminal +cards, that pile runs out, there are enough splitters, and you still want more draw for your engine and Adventurer is the next best option

[faust]

I think Adventurer is mostly useless in Big Money. The biggest drawback is terminal-ness, and then it doesn't provide enough coin to make up for that usually. Which is a shame, cause BM is usually when you have lots of Treasures.

To make it happen in an engine, you need a pretty specific environment.

- Treasures need to be part of your strategy, ideally a key part (Horn of Plenty?)
- Copper trashing must be available.
- ideally there is some sifting to ensure that you have enough treasures in your discard.
- Adventurer is usually only worth it if there is no better source of draw.

So if you don't have this, you can usually ignore Adventurer. With one exception: Procession can force you to gain them! And then you should have a plan for what to do with them.

[jsh357]

Copypasted from identical reddit thread:

Aside from Horn of Plenty games I very rarely buy this card. It's not bad for those since you may have passed up on drawing Horns with Warehouse or something and Adventurer can scoop them up at the end, but even then at $6 it's steep for what the card does. Maybe the worst card in the game when considering its price to quality ratio.

Then again, I've lost to people who go for it, so clearly those decks where it's all right exist, but generally you can do something better.

[werothegreat]

This could easily have been and it would still be weak.  Compare to even just Journeyman.  J-man costs less, draws more, still can skip over stuff, and is more likely to actually draw stuff you can actually use this turn without having to trash Copper into oblivion.

[xyz123]

It's main strength is that it allows you to have a small number of good treasure cards in your deck because it is guaranteed to find them. The downside is that such a deck requires a number of other things to be in place and even if they are all present, there is a good chance there is also a better payload option.

I think this can be a trap card for new players. It certainly was for me. When going through the "buy lots of action cards without a coherent plan" phase, I saw Adventurer as a way of ensuring I would have a reasonable amount to spend that turn. For a while this made me think it was a good card, even a must buy at times.

[Marcory]

Adventurer is useful in games with junkers and where you can only trash Coppers (Moneylender/Spice Merchant/Counterfeit/Miser/etc), and in which you were able to buy decent treasures before your deck got junked. (Perhaps you got the Gold from Market Square or Soothsayer).

I could also see a combo with Scrying Pool or Wandering Minstrel, in which you draw all of your actions and then use Adventurer to draw the Golds you discarded.

[Awaclus]

To make it happen in an engine, you need a pretty specific environment.

- Treasures need to be part of your strategy, ideally a key part (Horn of Plenty?)
- Copper trashing must be available.
- ideally there is some sifting to ensure that you have enough treasures in your discard.
- Adventurer is usually only worth it if there is no better source of draw.

I think that Copper trashing not being available is more likely to make Adventurer worth it in an engine. If you can just trash your Coppers, either you're probably going to have enough draw anyway or it's not an engine board at all. When you can't trash them, at least Adventurer can help by removing them from your draw pile (and putting them into your hand instead).

[pacovf]

To make it happen in an engine, you need a pretty specific environment.

- Treasures need to be part of your strategy, ideally a key part (Horn of Plenty?)
- Copper trashing must be available.
- ideally there is some sifting to ensure that you have enough treasures in your discard.
- Adventurer is usually only worth it if there is no better source of draw.

I think that Copper trashing not being available is more likely to make Adventurer worth it in an engine. If you can just trash your Coppers, either you're probably going to have enough draw anyway or it's not an engine board at all. When you can't trash them, at least Adventurer can help by removing them from your draw pile (and putting them into your hand instead).

How is it better than Moat then?

[Beyond Awesome]

This card is awful. Come on guys, let's not pretend otherwise.

Worst card in Dominion, maybe. Pirate Ship and They give this a run for its money.

Essentially, just about every kingdom card is better than this, so the odds of ever getting this are slim, and if you do your probably going to lose. I think maybe I have bought it one or two games and win, but come on, this card is awful.

[Seprix]

This is arguably the worst card in Dominion. I don't know what's worse, Harvest, Adventurer, or Scout.

Worst card in Dominion, maybe. Pirate Ship and They give this a run for its money.

Pirate Ship is way better than this card, and it's not even good.

Worst card in Adventures is probably Miser.

[J Reggie]

The existence of this card shows how much Dominion has changed since the early days. Donald and the playtesters must have thought this card was really powerful, as Big Money strategies were seen as more often being the dominant strategy. It only draws treasure cards; it's really the best thing Big Money could ask for, right? I'm glad there aren't too many of these cards, but this one is cool.

 Thinking about this, I wonder if the fabled "+2 cards +$2" would be considered balanced now at $5, if a little boring? Donald has often said that he considered it too strong with what he knew, or something along those lines. The fact that Adventurer is priced at $6 but is now clearly worth a lot less points to the idea that there may have been BM enablers way back when that were considered too strong but would really have been just fine.

[schadd]

i think it is unproductive to discuss this card except for how it easily communicates that we are discussing base set now, as in  if you skipped to the next productive one and started on bureaucrat cellar then people would be like ehhhh what the devil is goin on eeere

[E.Honda]

This card is just really Bad. Im trying to imagine a scenario where it does anything useful for you but there just doesnt seem to be one. If youve trashed your coppers and want to draw your treasures theres probably another and better source of draw that also lets you draw your Action cards. If you havent trashed your coppers then its even worse.
Also the fact that it is Terminal makes it really weak since there is usually better payload for your engine that competes with it for Terminal space and as noted before in an engine youre gonna draw stuff ( including your treasures) anyway

[SirSlugma]

It's weird how bad this card is, since most other Base cards (even the oft-maligned Chancellor and Thief) have their edge uses.  There's just so few reasons why you ever want this for $6 - the best case I can think of off the top of my head is if you have a Gold gainer and can use this to reach more Golds, in a deck where you have trashed your Coppers?  Maybe in a Good-Stuff kind of deck where you can't just draw everything easily?  I dunno, it would be semi-viable at $5; it's still pretty bad.  But at $6 it's like, hey, let's just buy a Gold instead (or a superior component for an engine).

[J Reggie]

I did actually use this card recently in a campaign game with Market Square, a bunch of trashing, and no other draw. I'm not sure it was the best thing, but it seemed to work well, and I won.

[ConMan]

I agree that a lot of stars need to align for this to be worthwhile. You need good Copper trashing, but for some reason you still want a few Treasures in your deck, but your deck has to be built that you can't just draw them as part of an engine or whatever. But, at the same time, you need a way to hit $6 to actually buy Adventurer (or some other means of gaining it). So, uh, wtf?

Some rough thoughts: It's got a little bit of use in a HoP game, since it both finds the HoP and adds an extra unique card. And it means you don't actually have to hit $6, just 6 unique cards in play.

Does it have synergy with any other special Treasures? Maybe Relic, because then you're increasing your ability to attack on a regular basis. Potion, a little bit, including in Scrying Pool or Familiar games where you either want to get your Treasures out of the way where possible, or where you might have a lot of junk in your deck to dig through. Coin of the Realm? It's kind of like Scheme-ing your Villages, I guess, but it's not that great given you have to use one of those Actions to play it in the first place. Loan kinda sorta maybe but not.

So very broadly, I think that Adventurer is at its strongest when you're using it to find Treasures for purposes other than +Coins, and you lack the means of drawing those Treasures on a regular basis in any other way. Does that sound right? The only other case I could think of is Philosopher's Stone, since you don't reduce the size of your deck like you would by drawing it with lots of +Cards, but when do you ever run a PStone deck by trashing Copper?

EDIT: Also maaaaaaaaaybe in a situation where you use Scheme to top-deck the Adventurer as a proxy for top-decking your Treasures? But then you'd need a reliable way of playing Scheme, like King's Court, and if you've got KC/Scheme on the board then odds are good you've got a better payload than Adventurer.

[JW]

As a $6 Action, Adventurer combos with Procession + $5 cost action  + trash for benefit.

[amoffett11]

Adventurer is a card that I'll never buy when I'm playing online, but it's a card I buy a lot when I'm playing IRL, because mostly my IRL games are with people who don't play Dominion as much as me.  "Hey, Adventurer is on the board, I'll see if I can make it work this game".  Usually it doesn't.  The first time I did this my opponents followed suit and bought Adventurer over Gold, because "hey, he's buying Adventurer, he must know something we don't".  Ya, I do know something you don't:  Adventurer is really bad, and I'm buying it to handicap myself.  The next time I bought it, I would tell everyone "this card sucks, but I'm going to try and make it work".

[Donald X.]

A good example of the power level of Adventurer is the campaign level where you start with it, and your opponent starts with Witch. I had to play this one a lot as it kept being too hard.

I think it's nuts to compare it to Thief etc. The cost makes Adventurer weak; the abilities make Thief weak.

[ConMan]

As a $6 Action, Adventurer combos with Procession + $5 cost action  + trash for benefit.

Possibly as a stepping-stone to King's Court, too.

[Davio]

I think this could cost $5, have +1 Action on it and still be a mere "okay" card.

So yeah, it's really bad, the cost is too steep and it's not gamewarping enough to spend a precious action on.