This is along the lines of what I was going to suggest. I think the Slash platform is an excellent bashing platform, but I don't like the short course wheels & tires. 1/10 scale monster truck tires (i.e. Stampede stuff) make the truck a much more versatile offroad truck. In that same vein, I prefer the standard slash chassis to the LCG chassis that comes on the Platinum. The LCG chassis handles better, but you lose a lot of ground clearance that you really need with that longer wheelbase if you're going to be in grass or in rougher offroad terrain.
My truck started as a Stampede, but I swapped to the longer Slash chassis, and also added 1/8 scale electronics. The truck is a boat load of fun, and extremely durable.
If you're planning on keeping it stock for a while though, I would recommend going with a Stampede 4x4 so that you can have the better ground clearance and the bigger wheels & tires. Swapping over to the Slash chassis later is cheap and easy. The most expensive part of the swap is the new body, but after you tear up the stock body you'll need a new one anyway.
Here's my Stampede that I converted over to a Slash MT: