My experience has been that plain old kitchen matches, carried in a waterproof container, work very well when starting a fire in emergency situations. I can recall about ten times when starting a fire was critical for me, and matches worked very well. Most of these occurred in sub-zero or bitter cold, often at fairly high altitude, and the lowly match worked flawlessly.

It is true that matches today are not what they used to be, so my match case today contains matches on steroids, REI Stormproof or the equivalent. I usually employ a mini-Bic for routine firestarting and I have no problems at all, but I have not had to use one in extreme conditions.