COLORED TERRACOTTA

Every other block on the Mason's list is the same no matter which village he lives in. This one is not: the color of the terracotta a mason hands over depends on the biome around his village, so two masons at expert can sell visibly different blocks for the identical 1 emerald.

It exists purely for decoration; nothing on this site's recipe list uses it as an ingredient further up any chain. Buying it settles the question of hue without a trip to find or make that exact dye yourself.

The Mason alone, once he reaches expert: 1 emerald for 1 block. No other profession sells any form of terracotta.

The emerald cost never changes, but what you actually receive does, since the color is set by the village's biome rather than the trade file. Two masons quoting the same price can still hand over two different colours.

Colored Terracotta sells for as little as 1 emerald, from the Mason at the Expert tier, and 2 of the other 9 cost less. The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Mason will quote you exactly the same.

The Mason at its expert tier asks 1 emerald for colored terracotta. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

a diamond against 30 flint for the same 1 emerald, 30 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Butcher at 37.5 real seconds of shelf, gathering not counted.

A Mason unlocks this trade at expert, level 4 of five, reached at 150 trading experience from the bottom rung. Nothing about the offer differs from any other Mason trade mechanically, same restock rules, same tier system.

What differs is on the output side. Every other trade this Mason offers hands over the exact same block no matter where he lives; this is the one exception, tied to the biome his village sits in rather than to a fixed entry in the trade table.

12 uses drain one slot, then 2 real minutes until the mason can refill it at his stonecutter. Two of those fit inside a 20 minute Minecraft day.

Standing there for both restocks gets you 24 blocks for 24 emeralds, all in one colour, since a single mason only ever offers the shade tied to his own village. A second colour means a second mason, somewhere else.

Check the colour before you commit to a full slot: 12 emeralds buys 12 blocks, all the same shade, of a colour you did not choose.

Need a specific colour instead of whatever this mason happens to offer? A furnace and the matching dye gets there directly. Use this trade when the shade on offer already matches the build, not as a way to order a colour to spec.

The same mason buys 10 clay balls for an emerald, one way to cover the cost.

Also on the Mason's list: glazed terracotta, quartz pillar, quartz block, brick, stone, and chiseled stone bricks.

Coloured terracotta is plain terracotta plus a dye, eight blocks around one, so the dye is divided over the batch rather than spent per block. Compared with wool or concrete it is muted, and that is exactly why builders use it: the colours sit next to each other without fighting.

It is also tougher than it looks. Terracotta takes longer to mine than stone and does not burn, which makes it a reasonable material for something you actually live in rather than something you photograph.

The glazed version is a separate block with a pattern, made by smelting the coloured one, and it does not go back. Smelt a spare, not the wall.