He prepared for the tournament with various prominent players including Ben Rubin, Gabriel Nassif and Brian Kibler.

[12] Rietzl made his first Pro Tour top eight in Honolulu, losing in the semifinals to eventual winner Kazuya Mitamura.

[14] The Pro Tour was noted for one of the most impressive Sunday rosters in Magic: The Gathering history, which included Kai Budde, Brian Kibler, Guillaume Wafo-Tapa and future Player of the Year Brad Nelson.

[16] Rietzl would defeat Patrick Chapin in the quarterfinals and Vincent Lemoine in the semifinals to face Ben Stark in the finals of the tournament.

Having secured his place in the Top 8 of the Pro Tour, Rietzl took the unusual step of entering the Grand Prix, largely because he believed he would lose quickly in the quarterfinals to Patrick Chapin.

He came close to a fifth top eight later in the season, at Pro Tour Journey into Nyx in Atlanta, but he finished 13th.

He was inducted at Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir in Honolulu, alongside Guillaume Wafo-Tapa and Makihito Mihara.

This was in large part due to consistently solid Pro Tour finishes; he finished 40th, 35th, 27th and 60th respectively at the season's four Pro Tour events, and also put up two Grand Prix top eights, at GP Salt Lake City and GP San Jose.