Puncture resistant tires
From what I can see here:

http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/de/en/continental/bicycle/general/innovation/Protection_en.html

...you are going to have an excellent tire. These tight-fabric protection (kevlar or aramid, I guess) work great (at least are working great in my Marathon XR).

For XC and off-road, I think the tight fabric might be preferred over the thick-inner-rubber protection (a la Schwalbe Marathon Plus) due to performance issues (weight and rigidity, mostly).

Another option would be to use anti-puncture tape (Mr.Tuff, Sttones) between the tire and the tube. On the road, these have served me very well (after I finally gave up being skeptical - suffered so long in vain...). In the other hand, on off-road, where pressures are lower and tire deformation is higher, perhaps the built-in protection is a better choice.

Hope this helps