Can I find sugarcane in Mutated Mesa Forest Plateau biome?

So I was playing on snapshot 18w22c and I created a new world with "buffet" type and chose the modified wooded badland plateau biome type. It was a damn barren landscape! And after few days I got diamond and obsidian, but now I was wondering where can I find sugarcane to craft books, then a enchantment table. Obviously, there's no cane growing naturally on red sand above ground, but I'd like to ask if it's possible to find one underground? Or I can find raw books(not enchanted ones) somewhere else with this map? Hope somebody can help me out, thanks!

(If I can't make an enchantment table... I need to cheat or give up this save I guess :) )

Solution 1:

You don't have to give up.

For questions like these, the Minecraft wiki has a really good structure. Just look at their article about enchanting tables (archive):
There you can see all ways to get an enchanting table. They are:

1. Crafting from obsidian, diamonds and a book

Since obsidian and diamonds don't depend on biomes, your problem is the book. Click on it and you see all ways to get a book:

1. dropped from a bookshelf
2. crafting from paper and leather
3. found in chests in strongholds and 1.13 shipwrecks (no shipwrecks available in your biome)

Now you can explore those ways further:
1. Where/how to get bookshelves?
1.1. libraries in villages (I wasn't able to find a village, so maybe they don't generate in that preset)
1.2. libraries in strongholds
1.3. woodland mansions (not applicable for your biome)
1.4. crafting from planks and books (circular path, not interesting)
1.5. trading (requires village)

2. Leather is not a problem, as long as you have grass, you can get cows. How to get paper?
2.1. chests in strongholds and two types of 1.13 shipwreck chests (no shipwrecks available)
2.2. crafting from sugar cane

3. Strongholds. That's already an option, but not a very nice one. So let's continue the other paths:

1.2.1. For this, you would need to find a stronghold again. But it's more likely to succeed (I haven't seen a stronghold without a library yet).
2.1.1. Strongholds again.
2.2.1. The wiki says that sugarcane only generates near water and can't be obtained any different way, BUT: It doesn't depend on the biome. Since there are water lakes on the surface in that preset, there is a chance of sugarcane. It's low, because most of the ground consists of terracotta, but there are grass blocks next to water sometimes.

I just scanned an area of 100x10000 for sugarcane and there was none, so your best bet would probably be to get ender eyes and find a stronghold that way. It's probably less work than trying to find sugarcane. It's more dangerous, but you're probably not playing Survival on a single biome for an easy game.

Solution 2:

Here are the sugar canes after treading for miles trying to find them, after raiding a couple mineshafts without enchanted books... So, mythbust! There can be canes growing in this alien biome.