Brand is in my opinion one of the strongest AP champions at the moment. His full burst does huge AP damage and is pretty easy to combo.

With these runes you will dominate your lane at the start and should get a kill or two without having to rely on ganks from jungle ect.
Greater mark of insight - Magic Pen is obvious
Greater seal of clarity - Helps laning phase by being able to harass more.
Greater glyph of force - Increasing burst and more likely to get a kill.
greater quintessence of potency - Again increses early game damage.

9-0-21: These are pretty standard masteries to use with AP casters.

Again getting 2 or 3 dorans ringswill help you domanate laning phase, feel free to skip if you have enough gold to get a large rodearly. Rylaisoffers a good slow for when you miss your stun or if its on cooldown, for chasing and escaping. It also offers a decent amount of health for survivability. Void Stafffor obvious reasons. Bansheesis good on anyone in my opinion, can get it earlier if you need MR and your team is losing or if you are getting focused in team fights.

Other viable items:
- Zhonyas Hourglass
- Rod of Ages (If you want this get Catalystearly.)
- Will of the Ancients (I usually like to get this at some point.)

I like to max Q after W for more damage, if you are behind in farm max E after W instead to help farm.

The main combo is:
E>Q>W

For max damage:
E>Q>W>R>Ignite

Brands Ult works great with AOE stuns eg. Amumu, Sona

Flash is a must have summoner, and Ignite justs adds to the burst.

Pros:
- Good burst
- Easy farmer
- AOE damage
- Should domanate lane

Cons:
- Squishy
- Can get unlucky bounces on ult making it usless

As i said i believe Brand to be one of the strongest AP champs at the moment, Great burst, dominates lane and works well in most team comps.