I think a lot of this discussion has to do with the printing of Snapcaster Mage, obviously. Flashing back a Lightning Bolt right now is almost as a good of a play if you ask me (it really has been winning just as many if not more games in decks running a combination of Bolt/Brainstorm/Mage), so I'm not sold on all the "ban Brainstorm" banter that's going around. Brainstorm is very good, but not quite good enough to warrant a ban on its own merit.

I liken it to what Zilla said: it's really only good as good as your deck (and timing) is.