You can really blow it here, or you can set the stage for real smoking pleasure. If you introduce a bad taste at the cigar's foot, you'll draw it down the entire length of the filler as you puff on it. To illustrate, in the movie thriller Crimson Tide, premium cigars not only are a visual prop, but star Gene Hackman verbalizes his homage to one. Then, he thumbs the wheel on a Zippo lighter and buries the foot of his puro in a ball of petroleum flame. Never use fluid-type lighters.
Butane is a tasteless, odorless fuel, perfectly suited as a lighter medium.
Wooden matches are acceptable, but the woods they make them from don't burn as cleanly as butane. Wait until the head is consumed totally, because its phosphorus taste can poison a cigar. Paper matches are virtually useless because they don't burn long enough to get the foot going. Every time one goes out, the cigar foot cools down again. Candles don't work, either.