Personally I am a huge E-maxx fan. Not that much due to the performance of these trucks, cause yes, you have to throw quite a lot of $ in them, to perform good and hold up. Anyway I like the endless posibilities of modifying the E-maxx.
If you want to stay at the MT platform, why not convert a Losi LST. It is by far the best performing truck I have had, and I never broke anything when I had it. I have also had a couple of Savage Flux's (which were also great trucks), but nothing beats the LST imo.
I agree with a few things being said here. The maxx is good but not great. LST is the pic of MT but buggies are the toughest hands down. RC8 was the toughest car I had, admittedly I haven't had another buggy but out of the MT's and truggies it came out on top for durability and versatility.