I'm sure this one isn't new, but I haven't seen any runners employing this one, so I thought I'd post it here.

You can skip the small hand near the end of the Genie level with a dash jump + sword slash. This may save up to 2.5 seconds depending on the small hand's cycle.

The best thing is, if you see the small hand turn big before you jump, you can go for the regular route on reaction.