Reddit mentions of Thunderstone Advance Starter Set

Let me preface this by saying I don't know much about Thunderstone or Thunderstone Advance, I've played Thunderstone Advance only twice.

A big change between Thunderstone and Thunderstone Advance was the change of the starting deck. The Militia was replaced with the Regular, who gets +1 Card when used with a Polearm, such as the Spear, which replaced the Dagger. Thunderstone Shard provides the +2 strength that Iron Rations did, but also gives you bonus experience when you defeat a monster. So perhaps the starting deck changes the game enough to warrant buying Advance.

But you don't have to buy Towers of Ruin, which runs 30-40 bucks, you can instead get the Starter Set for a whole lot cheaper. Combine that with your regular set, and you probably have a pretty good set of cards.

Here's a review for Tower of Ruin explaining the differences between regular and Advanced, and a review of the Starter Set, both by the same guy.

THUNDERSTONE! (thunderstone advance)

Its a deck builder, has a fair amount of theme and fits that time frame. Buy cards from the village to assemble your deck and kill more monsters than your friends, or just kill the bigger ones! Use strategy and a bit of luck to acquire a hand that will knock out large monsters in the dungeon. Gain experience from monsters and then spend that in the village to upgrade heroes and buy them better weapons.


Starter set is ~23 w/ prime and has a decent amount of replayabillity. It will allow you to get a better grasp on what works and doesn't work, and if you are like me will get hooked and soon have a new expansion.