I forgot for clarification it just savage worlds itself. The deadlands products at the time would have been noir I think and reloaded. The new version is years later from when I last played. But like reloaded is just savage worlds with deadlands specific edges and hindrances. 

As for bennies I'd say it probably was just GM not nearly being as loose with bennies earning especially when it came to fights with wildcard enemies. Despite savage worlds being fast in combat, it definitely drags when you're not able to land a decent blow and are either whiffing or doing chip damage because you're out of bennies to empower your action or you're holding onto the last one in case you do take too much damage on a good hit. 

Maybe there's some changes to the combat in the newer edition tightens up the combat in that regard.  I don't know I haven't read up on the changes from like the Explorer's edition deluxe to adventurer.