I had the chance to play Guilds last night for the first time. A friend and I opened the box and played through the three Base/Guilds Recommended Sets:
Arts and Crafts: Stonemason, Advisor, Baker, Journeyman, Merchant Guild / Laboratory, Cellar, Workshop, Festival, Moneylender
Clean Living: Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker, Doctor, Soothsayer / Militia, Thief, Moneylender, Gardens, Village
Gilding the Lily: Plaza, Masterpiece, Candlestick Maker, Taxman, Herald / Library, Remodel, Adventurer, Market, Chancellor
Obviously, it's pretty well agreed that Adventurer is one of the weakest cards for it's price in Dominion, but I usually have some faith that cards in the recommended kingdoms are carefully selected to have some interesting interactions and to showcase certain game strategies. However, on seeing the "Gilding the Lily" setup, my friend and I were surprised by Adventurer. In an effort to make it useful, we agreed to recost Adventurer as $5 for that game, to see if lowering the price would make it useful.
Both of us took different strategies and, even at $5, neither of us could find a reason to buy Adventurer. After the game, we discussed it, and still couldn't find any synergy between Adventurer and any of the other cards on the board. You could argue that Taxman/Adventurer could be useful, since Adventurer would pick up the top-decked coin, but in that game, so would Plaza, Herald, Library, Market -- all of which seem more useful all around, especially factoring in their cost. All of which (except Market) also have the value of being non-terminal. And since you need +Actions from Plaza to play Taxman/Adventurer, odds aren't great to get all three into your hand at the same time.
It's also strange to me that Masterpiece is on that board. Since Masterpiece is a copper except when you overpay for it, theoretically, you could flood your hand with silver, and hope that Adventurer would usually draw two Silvers, except that to do that, you would first have to build up a enough economy to overpay for Masterpiece, at which point, if you have that much economy, you probably don't want to be buying Adventurers, especially since there is no fast-trashing to get rid of Coppers.
Any guesses as to why, at this stage in the experience and life-cycle of Dominion, Donald X. would include Adventurer in this recommended setup? As I said, even at $5 cost, neither of us bought Adventurer on this board. I'm just looking for a strategy we missed?