I'm not sure I agree with the poster, but its also possible that they are suggesting that the additional variance (may draw anywhere from 2 to 6 coin) may be of use in a 4 player game
While this is true, it's not something I had considered.
I'm willing to claim that, like many of the cards this community rates poorly, Adventurer is a better card the more players there are in a game.
How do you figure? It only interacts with your own deck, unlike Thief or Moat which interact with what other people have in their decks.
EDIT: Perhaps you are saying the sifting it provides is a better boon the more people are sending you curses?
This is one of the reasons, yes, but it goes beyond that. I'll explain in detail, but bear in mind that a lot of this is theory, since I haven't played that many 3 or 4 player games with Adventurer.
First of all, Adventuer works better in a big money deck than it does in an engine deck. After all, if you're playing an engine deck, you'd generally prefer to draw your engine components (so that you can draw your entire deck) rather than digging past them to get to your Treasures. Lots of engine decks don't need Treasures in general. The more players in a game, the less practical an engine deck becomes because there are more players contending for those engine cards. When big money is more practical, Adventuer becomes more desirable.
It's interesting that you mention Moat, since Adventurer is valuable in multiplayer for many of the same reasons. The two cards are comparable in many ways. They both draw two cards when played, for instance. But beyond that, Adventurer is a sort of defense against many of the game's attacks. Moat is worthwhile in multiplayer games because the more players there are, the higher the likelihood that one of those players is going to play an Attack card while you have a Moat in hand. A similar principle applies to Adventurer. Let's talk about each of the major types of attacks: discarding, mucking, junking, and trashing.
Adventurer is terrible against trashing attacks (Swindler, Saboteur, Thief, Pirate Ship, Noble Brigand), so let's get that out of the way first. Thief, Pirate Ship, and Noble Brigand trash the Treasures that Adventurer needs to function. I'm not confident talking about how Adventurer deals with Swindler and Saboteur, but I'm guessing it doesn't help as much as Gold.
On the flip side, Adventurer is a hard counter against deck-mucking attacks. It pretty much eliminates the damage from Bureaucrat, Rabble, and Fortune Teller. It can severely mitigate the damage from Ghost Ship, Sea Hag, Oracle, and, depending on your deck's Copper content, Spy and Scrying Pool. Even when Adventurer is only pulling $3 on average, it may be a worthy purchase over Gold when it can completely blow past crap that's been left on top of your deck.
If crap hasn't been left on your deck, Adventurer has to have a pretty good chance of pulling at least $4 in order to be a better deal than Gold. I argue that this is more likely to be the case in multiplayer games with heavy discarding and cursing.
Let's look at discard attacks. If Militia is being played against you nearly every turn (which is pretty common in multiplayer), you're going to have a lot of $3 and $4 hands. Often, that equates to a lot of Silver coming into your deck. The problem is, the more Silver that you pump into your deck while you try to get up to $6, the harder it's going to eventually be to put together 3-card hands that can buy a Province. Adventurer puts those Silvers to work for you. A hand of Silver/Silver/Adventurer is easier to pull off than a hand of Silver/Gold/Gold. Now I'll admit that those 7 Coppers you start with can put a severe kink into this plan, but if you can trash enough of them (with, for example, Moneylender), or gain Silver fast enough (with, for example, Bureaucrat), or both (with, for example, Mine), then I'll bet you can make this work.
Finally, let's look at junking attacks. If the attacks are giving you Copper, then Adventurer is a bad purchase. However, if they're giving you Curses, then Adventurer can be useful for many of the same reasons it's useful against discarding attacks. It's even better, though, because in the absence of good Curse-trashing cards, flooding your deck with Silver is often a good idea anyhow (after you've given out your share of Curses, that is).
