Go tubeless! It's not hard to do yourself, even with a floor pump. There are good videos at Stans site that show how it's done. It makes the ride much less jarring, and the tires grip better and puncture sealing is the icing on the cake for sure. I converted 3 wheelsets to tubeless and I will never go back to tubes.

Now I don't have a 29er so so my opinions are from 26" tires. The Nevegals in 26" are heavy plodding slow things and I don't think I rode mine for more than 5 rides before I started looking for something that rolls better. The Specialized Captains are much better there- that's my rear tire choice. Up front I am enamored with the Tioga Psycho Genius. It's not tubeless, but converted in a snap. It rolls like the Nevegals only wish they could and corner very well. Yea, they float over sand, same with the Captains. We have lots of sand pits here in So Cal, stuff that looks like it came from the beach, and this combo is perfect in 26" from hardpack to loose over hard to sand.

You may find tires like the slant 6 or Specialized Fast Trak Tubless work well enough that you don't need a more aggressive tire though. The contact patch on a 29er is bigger.