BRICK

Brick is one of the few things on the Mason's sheet that only ever moves toward the player. He sells 10 at novice for 1 emerald, and nobody buys it back off you at any tier.

A furnace makes it out of 1 clay ball, and the same Mason buys that ingredient off a player too, which is what makes the two prices worth putting side by side instead of taking either on its own. Nothing about the block itself needs a tool to break; a crafted brick block drops itself regardless of what is swung at it.

A Mason at Novice, his opening tier, sells 10 bricks for 1 emerald. The price is fixed in the trade file rather than rolled inside a range, so a second Mason at the same tier quotes exactly the same.

Brick sells for as little as 1 emerald for 10 at a time, from the Mason at the Novice tier, and nothing else on the list costs less. The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Mason will quote you exactly the same.

The Mason at its novice tier asks 1 emerald for 10 bricks. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

a diamond against 32 sticks for the same 1 emerald, 32 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Fisherman at 37.5 real seconds of shelf, gathering not counted.

Brick sits on the Mason's opening shelf. He needs nothing more than a claimed stonecutter before this row is available, no earlier trades or banked experience required.

The slot sells 10 bricks a time, 16 times before it locks, and a villager restocks at most twice a Minecraft day. Being his cheapest listing does not change that schedule.

16 purchases close the slot, and the wait after that runs 2 real minutes flat no matter how fast the trades themselves go through. Two of those refills fit inside one Minecraft day, itself 20 real minutes long.

Worked that hard, one Mason hands over 320 bricks for 32 emeralds across a single day, though a furnace running the whole time will usually keep pace without spending any emeralds at all.

Clearing the shelf in one visit costs 16 emeralds for 160 bricks, cheaper per trip than most of what the Mason sells, but a furnace and a stock of clay balls gets the same block without spending a single emerald.

Selling the villager clay balls first and buying brick back afterward is not free money: the two prices sit close enough together that the round trip mostly breaks even once both sides of the same Mason are counted.

Also on the Mason's list: stone, chiseled stone bricks, granite, andesite, diorite and polished andesite.

Clay comes out of a riverbed as clay balls, each ball smelts into one brick, and four bricks make one brick block. That is a lot of furnace time for a single decorative block, which is exactly why buying them ready made is worth considering.

The colour has no alternative. Nothing else in the game gives that deep red, so a brick wall is a choice about looks rather than about strength, and the flower pot is the other place bricks show up.

Clay generates under shallow water in rivers, lakes and lush caves, and breaking one block gives four balls. Silk Touch takes the block whole instead, which is worth it if you want the clay block itself as a material.

Mud turns into clay too: a dripstone under a block of mud, with the mud left to drain, gives clay, which is the only renewable route to it in the game.

Brick blocks make stairs, slabs and walls at a stonecutter with no waste, so the fuel cost is paid once and the shapes are free after that.