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Assembly seems to have lots of tricks.
xor reg, reg)push/pop ecx)OR reg -1)Is there a list/book/resource anywhere of these kinds of Assembly idiosyncrasies?
There is no manual for what you call 'tricks' (personally, I prefer the term 'idioms'). Most of the idioms you are citing are used by compilers to perform a precise task in a more efficient manner than what you can see in the manuals.
The best way to learn about it is to read compiler generated assembly code and/or shellcodes. They are a great source of assembly idioms.
Here is a list of good readings or links to investigate all these idioms:
The microarchitecture of Intel, AMD and VIA CPUs An optimization guide for assembly programmers and compiler makers by Agner Fog, Technical University of Denmark
Not for the fainthearted but probably the most detailed document on the subject.
xor-ingregister to get a zero? It's just math/logic.