Viability of quickly farming ender eyes from pre-1.8 villager trades

Question

Currently in recent-version Any% Random Seed Glitchless Minecraft Java Edition speedruns, the prevailing strategy for getting ender pearls is to unlock them through villager trading.

I was wondering if trading with villagers in an MC 1.7.2 speedrun for ender eyes would be viable. I am already pretty sure that there is no fast way to farm emeralds to trade with pre-1.8 Villagers for ender eyes (at least fast enough for an RSG speedrun). However, the fact that trading for ender eyes eliminates the necessity to visit the nether is an appealing time-save. Therefore, I just was wondering if the strategy is for sure not viable in a 1.7.2 RSG speedrun.

Answer 1

Eyes of Ender cost between 7 and 10 Emeralds each in Minecraft 1.7.2. In a random seed run, you don't know how many eyes you'll need to both find and complete the portal, but for the purposes of the math, the current pre-1.9 any% random seed world record gets 11 Eyes of Ender.

In order to buy 11 Eyes of Ender, you'll need between 77 and 110 Emeralds, all with limited trade possibilities for acquiring emeralds.

This is not viable in a speedrun, let alone not optimal. In 1.7 trades, 77 Emeralds is 1,386 Wheat at 18 each, 1,078 Raw Chicken at 14 each, and similarly high values for all other trade possibilities.

Answer 2

After doing more investigation, the most viable pre-1.8 trading strat is fairly unviable but is as follows.

This strategy requires extreme luck, but involves going to a village with a library and a church; it must have villagers with the written-books-to-emeralds trade, an emeralds-to-eyes trade, and emeralds-to-arrows trade. Mine a bookshelf in the library, craft it with an ink sac and a feather, and then sign the resulting book and quill. The villager should trade this for one emerald. Repeat this process 7-10 times to get your first eye of ender from the priest villager. Then use this eye to triangulate the location of the stronghold (It has to be pretty close). Mine enough bookshelves in the stronghold library for all the written books required. (At least 70 with the best trades; that would require mining 24 bookshelves). On the way to the stronghold and potentially on the way back, kill squids and chickens. By the time you return to the village, you should have materials for at least 70 written books. Make all the books and quills, and then sign all of them. Trade them for eyes of ender and return to the stronghold (You may want to mine a few more books to trade for arrows). Make sure to also get beds on the way there.

As far as I know, this strategy works best for pre-1.4 because there are no trading limits on Villager transactions.